Find out some of the best email subject lines and learn how to use them to increase your email open rates. If you’re sending an email to any kind of audience, a good subject line is crucial! The purpose of an email subject line is simple enough, it’s meant to get people to read your message whether they are on their phones or computers. But one of the biggest mistakes that marketers make is not taking the time to craft a compelling subject line.
Email marketing can be an incredibly effective tool for growing your business, but it’s useless if people don’t open your emails. For example, what if you had the most compelling offer in history, and the best email content of all time? If nobody opens your email, then it doesn’t matter what’s inside—you’ve missed an opportunity to make a sale. That’s why having a strong subject line is so important.
Subject line: [First name], your COVID-19 risk for this week
A good subject line should:
- Be specific. The more specific you can be, the better. The recipient should know exactly what they’re going to get by opening your email.
- Include the recipient’s name. This makes it feel like you’re actually speaking directly to them, which is always a good thing!
- Be short and concise. The shorter your subject line, the higher chance that people will open it—and click through for more information if necessary (or interesting). You want them reading what you have to say as soon as possible!
- Be relevant and about COVID-19 risk for this week (or whatever current topic is getting lots of attention).
Subject line: Congrats! You won a free year of [product/service]
If you’re offering a free trial, consider this subject line. It’s short, simple, and gets right to the point: “Congrats! You won a free year of [product/service].”
This is both enticing and informative. People who aren’t sure if they want to sign up will be intrigued by the offer. Those who are already on board with your brand will be delighted to know that they’ve been selected as one of the lucky winners!
The best part about this subject line? It offers proof of value from something that people enjoy: winning competitions! If you have even one person who signs up for your product or service because of this email headline, it’s worth sending out the message in its entirety.
Subject line: Your most important weekly task
Your most important weekly task
Every week you should spend time on your most important task, the one that will have the biggest impact on your business and life. For example, if you run a blog and you want to grow your email list, then this could be growing traffic to your website or putting together a lead magnet. If you’re trying to get more clients for your business as a freelance designer, it could be reaching out to potential clients who’d benefit from what you do through cold outreach emails. Whatever it is for you, make sure that every week begins by asking yourself “What’s my most important task this week?”
Subject line: [Name], your healthy habit tracker is here
You’re probably familiar with the concept of a healthy habit tracker. It’s a tool that allows you to track your progress toward long-term goals, like weight loss or getting fit. These tools can be found online, in print publications and even on smart-phone apps. If you’re interested in using one but don’t know where to start, here are some options:
- Your Health Coach (https://yourhealthcoach.com/)
- The Health Habit Tracker (http://www.thehealthhabittracker.com/)
- Fitocracy (https://www.fitocracy.com/)
Subject line: It’s not too late to take action
Subject lines are a call to action. Call to action (CTA) is an internet marketing phrase that refers to the words or phrases in an email’s subject line or elsewhere on an advertisement encouraging readers to take some form of immediate action by clicking on a link, taking advantage of a special offer, buying something, etc. A strong CTA will get people opening your email because they want what you’re offering—and they’ll do it right now!
Here are some examples of CTAs:
- “Buy now!”
- “Get your free report today”
- “Open now!”
If you use more than one CTA in your subject line then only one will work at a time. Pick the strongest option and stick with it.
Subject line: We’ve got you covered – ways to stay safe during coronavirus
- Tell people you have information about the topic.
- Keep it short and simple.
- Be clear about what you are offering.
- Be specific about what information you are providing.
- Avoid symbols in the subject line, especially asterisks (*), exclamation points (!), or question marks (?). These can cause email clients to interpret your email as spam and automatically send it to junk mail folders without even opening them! If you want to add emphasis, underline or boldface words instead of using symbols for this purpose.
- Disable “word wrap” for your subject lines so that they take up as much space as possible (especially if they contain long strings of letters and numbers). Some email clients will still wrap these lines if they exceed a certain length, but most won’t—and they look better when full-width anyway! The best way to do this is by adding HTML code {w} right before the closing bracket }:{w}We’ve got you covered – ways to stay safe during coronavirus outbreak{w}.
Subject line: Here’s what’s been going on in the world (of ours)
A great subject line will get the attention of your reader, but there’s a fine line between that and spam. You want them to know what they are getting into based on the subject line, but you don’t want them to be confused into thinking this is spam or something else.
For example: “Get 50% off now!” might be too much information in an email subject line. The reader might think that it is an advertisement for a sale at another company and ignore your email entirely because it looks like spam. It could also make people believe that you are only offering 50% off your products when you have more going on than just sales; maybe there are other important updates or discounts coming up soon? Opting for something more generic like “Here’s what’s been going on in our world” gives readers enough information so they know what kind of content they can expect but doesn’t give away too much info about sales/promotions etc., which could cause confusion about whether this is just an ad for another company’s product or something else entirely (like an update).
Subject line: Enjoy $5 off your next meal
- Be specific on what the discount is for. “Enjoy $5 off your next meal” is more enticing than, say, “Get a great deal.”
- Make sure the offer is relevant to the recipient. If you’re sending an email about a sale at one of your restaurants, it makes sense to include that restaurant’s name in your subject line so that people can easily identify their interest in receiving information about it: “Offer: Get $5 off your next meal at [restaurant].”
- Be clear on how long this offer will be valid for. You don’t want someone who is interested in getting an email from you every week or two months thinking that they have missed out on this opportunity if they don’t act within 24 hours or whatever time frame works best for you! Give them enough time to respond while still making sure they know this special deal won’t last forever—and make sure those dates and times are easy-to-read (i.e., avoid using any abbreviations).
- Make sure each subject line contains less than 50 characters so it doesn’t get cut off by spam filters before anyone sees what’s inside!
These tips should help ensure that all recipients see exactly what kind of content awaits them when opening up their inboxes; once readers have decided whether or not something interests them enough to open up an email from you (or delete without even reading), then there’s no changing their minds unless they receive another message with similar subject lines later down the road.”
Subject line: Hey [name], your personal weekly recap is here.
The best subject lines for email marketing include:
- Re-engage subscribers. This is a good subject line to use when you want to re-engage a subscriber who hasn’t opened your emails in a while. You can also use it as an opt-in prompt that gives them an incentive to open the email, like “Here’s how I got back on track” or “The 5 most important things I learned from my 100 days of meditation.”
- Be brief and personal. Get straight to the point with this one—it’s a great way for your subscribers to know exactly what they’re getting into before they even click through. If you have multiple products, this allows them to quickly decide which ones are worth their time and attention (and money).
Subject line: David, here are last month’s reports on [topic]
- Keep it short. A subject line that’s too long will make your email look unprofessional and invite the reader to scroll past it without reading.
- Make it relevant. The content of your email should be related to the subject line in some way, so use this as an opportunity to let people know what they can expect from what you sent them.
- Personalize it for each person! This might seem obvious, but sometimes we get into a “formula” mode where we send out emails with standardized subject lines that are addressed only to “Dear [Name].” If you can remember who actually receives these emails (and if they don’t want their name shared), then personalize by addressing them directly or referencing something specific about them (like their name). This helps improve engagement rates significantly!
These subject lines will help you get more opens.
Use a friendly tone.
Make the subject line personal, by using the reader’s name and by writing in a friendly voice. For example, use phrases like “Hi John,” “Hey Jenna,” or “Hello Michael.” This will make your email more personal and likely to be opened.
Use lists of numbers.
People are often drawn to lists of five or ten things because they can be easily memorized (think of children’s songs). A list will also give your email a sense of urgency—something that people respond to on social media as well as in other areas of their lives. For example: “5 things you need to know before investing in Facebook stock.” You could even include an image with it (like an infographic) if you want it to stand out even more!
Ask questions or have some kind of hook that catches people’s attention right away when they open your message!
Conclusion
A good email marketing campaign is an art form that you can fine tune for your product or service, for your audience and for the proper use of subject lines. Superior subject lines resonate with the recipient, are easy to understand and get them to open your emails. The best method for choosing subject lines is testing; test several options to see what resonates best with your audience.