Writing Effective Email Subject Lines

Email subject lines are the, well, subject of some heated debates among email marketers. For such a small amount of text, email subject lines carry a lot of weight when it comes to how effective your marketing emails will be. One of the main struggles marketers face is getting people to actually open their emails in the first place and the email subject line can make all the difference.

Here are some current best practices to make sure your email subject lines are effective.

Keep Email Subject Lines Short

While not the most original advice, you’ll hear this tip over and over again when looking for ways to improve your email open rates. You want your recipients to see as much of your subject as possible — at least the portion of it that is the most attention-grabbing.

With more users viewing their email on mobile, keeping your subject lines concise is more important than ever. Aim for 50 characters or fewer in your subject lines, and you’ll increase your chances of recipients opening your emails.

Just Be Honest

The temptation to make your subject lines as enticing as possible is very real. But you can’t forget about what’s in the content of your email while doing this. If you make a promise in your subject line that isn’t followed through in the actual message, your emails will only be met with frustration. Email subject lines that contradict the email content or make false promises result in recipients ignoring further emails or unsubscribing altogether.

On the other hand, if you do have something really great to tell your email recipient, make it as clear as day right from the start. For example, if a lead viewed a specific leather backpack you sell and it’s now on sale, your subject line should read something like, “Our leather backpacks are now on sale!”

Make Them Attention-Grabbing

Now we’ve established some limits, it’s important to emphasize they should still be written to grab people’s attention. There is no single way to do this with your email subject lines, but if you have a compelling business model, compelling subject lines won’t be impossible to write.

One way is to build a sense of urgency. If what you have to offer in your email is time-sensitive or if you simply want users to start their process in the sales funnel right away, communicate that clearly in your email subject line.

It also helps to pose some subjects as questions that create curiosity. If you send out newsletters or blogs, you can pose an essential takeaway as a question that the readers will find the answer to when they open the email.

Chill Out

When you come up with a brilliantly written, concise email subject line for your email, don’t go overboard with caps and exclamation points. These types of subject lines can make an already cluttered inbox look more cluttered, and it’s a good way to end up in the spam folder. Write your subject line out as a short sentence with a vivid message that speaks for itself.

By keeping things concise, staying true to your message as a business, and keeping your writing organic, your email subject lines will help make your email marketing efforts a success.