Subject headings. The power of them is completely underestimated. How many emails do you receive a day? 20, 50, maybe even over 100?
The truth of it is, without a decent, actionable subject heading your hopes and dreams of scoring high open rates with email marketing may well be shattered, let alone the click-through rates!
gSo how can you encourage someone to open your email in a saturated inbox? Good news. Barely anyone is doing it right – leaving that window right open for you to start leading the way. Here are 3 simple, powerful ways you can improve your email marketing just by altering the subject heading:
1. It’s now or never
People are lazy. They need pressure, a reason to get up and go. If you’re sending an email that doesn’t subtly scream “OPEN ME NOW OR FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEACE” the chances are they’ll hold that peace. Give them a reason to open it. But be sure to do carefully, avoid those SPAMMY words we all hate like ‘Act now!’ and ‘Limited time!’ – they’ve heard it all before, so guess what? They don’t believe it. It's an art - tread on the path of curiosity. Capture their interest, make them wonder what’s inside – we humans are nosy buggers!
2. People like people
Who likes to feel loved? Understood? I know I do 🙋 It’s the little things that make the difference, like using their name or showing you understand what they like. Be helpful. Be relevant. Plus, sending an email from a real person’s email address can be a serious game-changer. It might seem like the easier solution to send from a generic ‘no-reply’ email addresses, but these will probably get you just that. It doesn’t need to be hard, all of the top email marketing platforms like HubSpot (link), and MailChimp can send from these personal addresses.
3. Avoid war and peace
You might be writing and scheduling your emails on a desktop but remember, almost no-ones reading them on the same device. They’re on their mobiles, with a smaller screen and smaller font. So, avoid the war and piece format and keep it short. A subject heading of 50 characters or less is your sweet spot.
4. Test until you're bored of testing
Honestly, no-one's ever mastered this in one go. You need to test, test, test and test some more. But you'll soon fall in love with witnessing just how very bizarre we humans are. The smallest changes can make the biggest differences, like changing a single word, or the order of the sentence, or using a completely irrelevant emoji to sky-rocket click-through rates. It's madness, but it works. Test everything you can to find your sweet spot subject line.
BONUS 4th tip....
5. A picture says a thousand words ✅
Oh - go on then, have a fourth. This is an easy one. Emojis - they’re your friend. Didn't the sub-title of this bonus tip capture your eye more than the rest? That's because they help to break up text, add personality and even replace words. People know where they stand with emojis. They recognise them. They use them. It’s a stepping stone to a more relatable and informal relationship whilst helping to inject a little personality into your brand. Remember, people like people.