A successful email marketing campaign needs an eye-catching, succinct and relevant subject line to grab the attention of recipients and encourage them to open the email to learn more. Professional email subject lines are often descriptive and personal, rather than generic and lackluster, which do little in compelling subscribers to open the email.
Email Subject Line Best Practices
Ensure your email marketing campaigns get off to a flying start by observing the following 14 email subject line best practices.
Make It Personalized
Rather than using generic terms such as “customer” or “client” in a subject line, opt for a more personalized approach that states the name of the recipient.
As MailChimp advises, personalize subject lines with each recipient’s name or location. Personalization is particularly effective when used in conjunction with targeted emails, such as birthdays deals and is proven to increase open rates.
Include Social Media Handles in the Subject Line
Another effective way to personalize professional email subject lines is to include the recipient’s social media handle, which helps the email stand out from the hordes of other emails that land in subscribers’ inboxes every day.
Twitter regularly sends emails with the recipient’s Twitter handle in the subject line, recognizing the positive affect it has on open rates.
Be Descriptive Rather than Boring and Bland
Another email subject line best practice is to be descriptive and interesting rather than bland and boring. Lines like “Sizzling summer deals you can’t miss out on”, would be more persuasive and striking than the likes of “Best deals for the summer”.
Keep It Short and Sweet
Make your subject lines too lengthy and they won’t have the same punchy impact as shorter, more concise professional email subject lines. That said, avoid making the subject line too vague and short. A general rule of thumb is to make a subject line between 30 – 50 characters.
Avoid Misleading Recipients
You want your recipients to be engaged with the email subject line, so they feel compelled to open the email. However, you don’t want to deliberately mislead subscribers, as using false promises can lead to recipients unsubscribing from your list. Or, worse still, making a complaint.
Use Localization
Like personalization, localization tailors an email so its relevant to a subscriber’s location. As Add This notes: “One way to improve your email open rates and target a specific audience is with localization.”
Test the Best Keywords for Subject Line
One of the most effective email subject line practices is to test keywords and phrases to see which garner the most response from your audience.
Create a Sense of Urgency
Email subject lines are most effective when they create a sense of urgency. For example, “Don’t Miss Out on Our Christmas Promotion,” compels a customer to open an email during the seasonal period before it’s too late.
Create a Sense of Curiosity
As well as creating a sense of urgency, create a sense of curiosity that will coerce your recipients into wanting to learn more about the content of the email. That said, avoid making the subject line too ambiguous that is barely complies with your brand and products or services.
As Hub Spot warns: “Make sure the subject line, while enigmatic, still aligns with your brand. Too obscure, and it could end up being seen as spam.”
Ditch the Spam Words
Certain words that are considered spammy can decrease open rates and should be avoided at all costs. For example, email subject lines that start with “Introducing,” “Investment” or “Junk”, can be seen as spammy and discourage a recipient to open the email.
Write Subject Lines in Title Case
YesWare analyzed 115 million email subject lines and found that those in title case, where the first letter of every word is capitalized, were the most effective in increase open rates and replies.
Make Email Subject Lines Relevant and Timely
Another email subject line best practice is to ensure the subject lines are timely and relevant. For example, if your business is involved in a high-profile event or campaign, inform recipients about your involvement in this relevant and timely event in the subject line of the email.
Use Emotional Words
CoSchedule advises using three or more emotional words in a subject line to help improve open rates. Emotional words are words that act as triggers to get recipients to open an email to learn more about its content and to take action on the email. Words such as “brand new” and “breaking”, can be considered emotional words that help convince subscribers into opening an email.
Use Emojis Sparingly
Emojis can add color, vibrancy and pizazz into subject lines. According to Experian, 56% of brands that use emojis in subject lines see an increase in open rates.
However, while adding the likes of smiley faces, thumbs up and other relevant emojis to subject lines can prove an effective way to increase brand awareness and encourage subscribers to open an email, going overboard with emojis can be seen as spammy, immature and unprofessional.
Photo via Shutterstock
My advice, Get to the benefits! Give people a reason to open the email instead of deleting or archiving.
Robert: Do you have some examples of subject lines with words talking about benefits?
Thanks for the list. We could all use some ideas in email headlines.