Your email subject line is arguably the most important thing in your email marketing campaign. It’s the first thing readers see. What they read in the email subject line and pre-header line will make them decide whether to open or to delete your email.
The beauty of the email subject line is that reading it is involuntary – it’s like a newspaper headline. If you look at the newspaper, you automatically read the headline. Same thing with an email subject line.
But if you don’t use the email subject line well, you loose that opportunity to say anything else to that customer.
Many online marketing gurus want you to buy their e-book or take their webinar to learn the ‘secrets’ of email subject lines that sell. But like anything else in this world, there’s a key 20% of the information that will get you 80% of the results. You can get a lot of results with some simple re-engineering of your email subject lines.
First some general rules for email subject lines
Keep it short and sweet: This study by email marketing agency MailerMailer, found that longer email subject lines had lower open rate and click rates.
One reason is because the reader can’t see the whole thing. Readers are likely to trash an email with the subject line “Your final reminder for the 1+1 deal to attend the concert show in Phillies stadium,” before they’ve read enough to find out what they’re getting reminded of. An email subject line, “Your 1+1 is almost gone,” gets right to the point that they’re about to miss out on something they’re interested in.
Compose in tweets. Crafting a tweet is a painstaking job, and we spend a lot of time maximizing the information in those 144 characters, and choosing hashtags and links. But we rarely do this kind of work on email subject lines. Combined with the pre-header, your subject line functions in exactly the same way as a tweet.
Use the pre-header. This is sometimes called “preview text” and it gives you an opportunity to provide more information in the email subject line to give readers extra information about the message. In the image below, you can see the amount of information that’s communicated in the visible pre-header:
Use the rule of 3: The centrality of the number three to organizing information was first written down by Aristotle. No one has improved on that since. There are the three bears, the three blind mice, and the three Musketeers. The world’s most famous quotes have three ideas: “Veni, Vidi, Vici,” “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” and “Liberté, égalité, fraternité.” And of course, our metaphor for simplicity: “easy as 1,2,3.” That rule organizes an mail subject line to make similarly memorable:
There are 3 ways to characterize email subject lines:
- Offering a benefit
- Preventing missed opportunity
- Giving information that’s of interest or stimulating curiosity
Here’s how each can be effectively used.
Offering a benefit
Emphasize what the customer gets: The reader should immediately grasp from the subject line “what’s in it for me?” In order to translate a feature to a benefit, ask: “So what?” Example: “Increase your conversion rates by 50 percent today” offers a more specific benefit than “how to increase conversion rates.” You can frame your news as a benefit; for example, “Nautica in North Carolina opens soon!” This Estee Lauder promotion brings to mind glamorous holiday parties — the email subject line is “Hot for Holiday.”
Be specific. If a shopper signed up and was promised a discount, then let them know in the email subject line they’re receiving it: “Your discount inside” or “Your discount awaits.”
Be personal but don’t pretend to be a friend: Customers want to feel that they’re important to you. Offer them something special, “For our best customers only.” If a shopper looked at a product, let them know that it’s on sale right now.
At the same time, remember that there’s a fine line between personalization and looking like a stalker, and you want to stay on the right side of it. Don’t make shoppers feel like you’re spying on them. In your email subject line don’t say: “We saw you checked this item a few times and wanted to give you a discount.” Do say: “This is the perfect workday-to-evening dress and we have a special 20% discount just for you.” This tells shoppers you’re paying attention to them and their tastes and interests – appropriately.
Some experts favor using the recipient’s name in the email subject line — it can increase open rate.. But use this carefully, and in a way that it doesn’t look like spam. A 2012 study by MailerMailer found that using the recipient’s name in the email subject line decreased open and click rates.
Put the reader in the story with an action verb: Rather a passive email subject line about a meetup where some interesting speakers will give a talk, use the email subject line to help readers see themselves actively taking part in the event. For instance: Instead of: “UX world speaker will share his secret lessons,” say: “Learn the secrets from UX world speaker” or “Meet the UX world speaker.” ‘Discover’ is a powerful action verb – personal and adventurous – and a perfect metaphor for Hotel Chocolat’s luxe confections: “Win,” “become,” and “save” are also powerful action verbs.
Preventing missed opportunity
Encourage readers to act fast. Don’t let them put it off until later, when it’s going to drop in priority for them. Online retailer ASOS combines the email subject line call to “act now” with the pleasure of treating yourself to something special on payday – after all, you’ve worked for it.
Make “today only” mean only today. Another subject line idea is to offer a deal for “today only” and mean it, so customers will be more alert to your emails. And choose the right time to send it – for example, an email on Thursday 4 p.m. about a fashion look for a Friday happy hour. Here’s an example from ART.com, promoting a 40 percent discount for ‘today only’ in the email subject line. I opened the email a few days later and the discount images were dynamically replaced with “Offer Ended” banners.
This StudentUniverse email offers a $100 discount on flights to New Zealand, but only for the first 150 people to take the deal. People tend to purchase sooner if they don’t know how long the deal will be available.
Emphasize scarcity: Too much choice and too much time to make a decision actually demotivates shoppers, as researchers Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper found in a 2000 study. So limit that universe of choice in your email subject line by highlighting that there are only so many left, or the deal will only be given to a fixed number of shoppers. If an item is trendy or being shopped a lot, notify shoppers that they may miss out: “In two days, 22 other shoppers have bought the TV you’ve left in your cart.”
Combine action verbs with timeliness: “Meet the UX World speaker this Thursday, and learn 5 expert techniques for …” This adds urgency to the email subject line.
Giving information and stimulating curiosity
Use different motivators: No matter how effective a marketing tactic is, if it’s repeated too much and becomes predictable, people stop paying attention. People’s interests and needs are dynamic. The surest way to keep their attention is reflecting those changes in your email subject line. Here are some examples from cosmetics company Lancôme:
Note the variety of reasons that readers get for opening the email –giving a donation, receiving a gift, taking a mental trip to Paris.
Don’t always “tell” – ask sometimes: This is one more way you can stay connected with customers without always pushing merchandise on them. “Are you making these fashion mistakes?” “Are you paying too much for your Internet service?” “What’s your dream adventure?”
Use numbers. According to this Nielsen study of eye-tracking data, numerals are better at engaging reader interest. For examples:
- 3 keys …
- 8 examples …
- 7 tactics …
- 5 predictions …
- 6 ways …
Readers respond to numerals in email subject lines because numbers represent facts – size, cost, duration. But even when numbers aren’t being used to convey factual information, numbers stand out. They increase the “scan-ability” of digital text – telling the readers that they’re not going to confront a wall of text. However, there’s a point at which numerical discounts can fatigue shoppers fatigue. So use it with the right balance.
Don’t be a cliché: Don’t use “FW,” “RE,” “Hi, or “You won’t believe this…” in an email subject line. You’re not a personal friend. Avoid promotional words such as phrases in all capital letters or exclamation marks as well. Besides being “noisy” and promotional, they’re difficult to read. All of these are classic spam email subject lines and will reduce the chances of your email being opened.
Finally: Test, test and test some more
Don’t just blindly follow other people’s rules – including mine. Test your email subject lines. See which people on your email list respond to which subject lines.
Marketing Experiments found that the email subject line “Holiday shopping, historic tours, Pops orchestra concerts and more Boston traditions” got 9 percent more opens and 23 percent more click-throughs than the email subject line “Book now and save up to 30% on hotel stays this December in Boston.” That’s because the first one tells readers why they want to be in Boston in December – it’s tangible, it first tells readers what they get. Once people want to take the trip, that’s when the hotel discount is important.
Share your experiences. What email subject lines have gotten good responses for you? Which ones surprised you?
