Tips For Crafting Compelling Subject Lines

Business Tip Tuesdays continues with understanding and crafting compelling subject lines.

The first thing you need to get right when it comes to email marketing is the subject line. If you can’t get your subscribers to open your emails, it really doesn’t matter how good the actual email content is. 

It’s easy to spend a lot of time crafting a great message and then just slap a subject line on it at the end. We rush to meet a deadline and too often the subject line suffers. Think about your own overflowing inbox, what makes you open one email over another? Be mindful of what emails you choose to open, what caught your attention or made you excited? What motived you to open one sales email vs another? Also spend some time writing out your own subject lines and see what type of headline gets you good open rates. Feeling overwhelmed just thinking about all the variables? I have compiled a few tips to inspire you, keep reading to learn more.


Keep It Short 
You want your readers to see the entire subject line before they click it. You also want to make it easy for people to scan through their emails. Try to get your point across in 50 characters or less. Pay attention to how your subject lines look on your own devices. 

Another great idea is to keep a swipe file of subject lines that grabbed your attention. Even if the emails are on a very different topic, you can adapt them for your own needs. 


Avoid “Spammy” Words 
Stay away from using any words we all associate with spam emails. Words like “sale”, “discount”, “coupon”, “free”, “limited time offer” and even “reminder” are over used and even if they don’t trigger a spam filter and actually make it to your reader’s inbox, chances are high they’ll get ignored. 

Instead, start by using the emails you’re saving in your swipe file and then go back and see what subject lines got the best open rates. Try to analyze why they worked well for your market. Not everything will work well in every niche. Find the types of subject lines that get your readers to open your emails and tweak from there. 

Personalize It 
While personalizing emails with someone’s first name has been overused in some markets, it still works well for many of us. Give it try and see if it works for you. Don’t overdo it, but use it when you really need them to open the email. 

Depending on what data you collect when your readers sign up, you can personalize other things like their location for example. Seeing the name of your state or even city in an email subject line is sure to get your attention. 

Pique Their Curiosity 
We are all curious by nature, and it’s hard to ignore subject lines that sound intriguing or only tell part of the story. Using “…” at the end of your subject line will also work. 

The idea here is simple. You want them to click and open the email to find out what the heck you’re talking about or how the story ends. 

The best way to see what works with your customer base and niche is by experimenting and tracking your results. But by implanting these few tips you should see a larger open rate as you experiment.

Good luck and I’d like to see your results. What works for your niche? What failed miserably?
Leave me a comment below.

Speak soon,
Sarah