How To Write Email Subject Lines

In today’s digital world, your email subject line will often determine whether or not a person will click onto your email. On average, professionals have more than 200 emails in their inbox and receive 120 new ones each day but respond to only 25% of them. Not only that, 47% of marketers say they test different email subject lines to optimize their emails’ performance.

All that goes to show, people do judge your emails by their subject line, therefore, it is crucial you have catchy ones. In this blog post, we’re giving away our top email subject lines tips to ensure your emails are to the point, personalized, and most importantly get clicked on.

Always Write A Subject Line

Even if you’re having massive writer’s block, you need a subject line. Not including one is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. An email subject line often determines whether an email is opened and how the recipient responds. An email with a blank subject line can easily get deleted or lost in people’s inboxes. 

Keep It Short

Most inboxes reveals 60 characters of an email’s subject line, while mobile devices show about 25 to 30 characters. According to HubSpot, 46% of all emails are opened on mobile devices. As such, you want to get right to the point in about six to eight words. 

Remember people scan their inboxes quickly so keep the wording clear and concise and avoid flowery language. And don’t use the word “newsletter” in the subject line. Some studies have found the word ‘newsletter’ can decrease the email open rate.

Place The Most Important Words At The Beginning

About 77% of emails are opened on mobile phones. Since you don’t know how much of the subject line will be viewable from a smartphone, it’s necessary you put the most important information at the beginning.

Highlight Your Value

Whether you’re presenting a webinar, about to have a sale, or have an insightful new article, you want to make the value of your offer is clear in the subject line. People love new things and experiences  especially when they’re free or at a discount.

Create Urgency

One of the most effective ways to grab people’s attention is to consider a deadline in your email subject line. Some potential phrases to use are “respond now,” “register today,” and “limited space available.” We should note you should not create urgency all the time. Only use these phrases when there is an immediate action.

Pique People’s Curiosity

To pique people’s curiosity, make your email subject lines a bit enigmatic.  But don’t make the subject line too obscure or the email could be interrupted as spam.

Be Personable

Everyone loves seeing their own name. You can really cater emails to individuals by addressing the email with their name. Research has shown that emails that included the first name of the recipient in the subject line had a higher click-through rates than emails that did not.

Ask A Question

What better way to draw users in with a question? A  study by Mailchimp found that subject lines phrased as questions performed better than similar subject lines that were phrased as statements. When going with this approach, be sure to ask a question that is relevant to the recipients’ buyer persona.

Don’t Use All Caps Or Excessive Exclamation Points

Lastly, don’t do this. Emails like this will just be ignored. People don’t like to be yelled at and they can also give people the suspicion they’re spammy. 

We hope you enjoyed today’s blog post. To learn more about email marketing, check out our post, How To Grow Your Email Marketing List.