Four Tips to Writing Better Email Subject Lines

Subject lines are like first impressions or hooks that grab your readers’ attention. It’s often thought that since subject lines or titles are short, that they shouldn’t take valuable time to develop, but this could not be further from the truth.

You need subject lines and titles to be highly clickable and make your readers interested to click and read your content. If they don’t read your emails, then it doesn’t matter how big your list is. They won’t convert into paying customers or achieving other marketing goals if they don’t open them.

Here are four tips to writing better email subject lines to increase your email open rate and other conversions:

Tell Them What’s Inside

Be simple and straight to the point. If there is valuable content or a discount code inside, let them know. For example, “Don’t forget to download your free guide” or “Your 20% discount is waiting for you” are great examples. Be sure to execute on that promise too. If the title says there is a discount, make it obvious and don’t be misleading. For example, if it’s 20% in the title, it must be 20% in the copy, or your click-through rate and reputation will be affected.

Be Minimalistic Yet Unique and Personable

Titles should be scannable, meaning they shouldn’t be any longer than fifty characters. Otherwise, they will be cut off, and readers will be too caught off guard by all the information. Finally, there are mere seconds to impress your audience. Researchers have stated that you have anywhere from seven to forty seconds to grab their attention.

Include Deadlines and a Sense of Urgency

Use the power of urgency or the fear of missing out to your advantage. However, again, be sure not to mislead or take advantage of your readers. Urgency and fear of missing out include short deadlines on discounts. It’s not using poor language to make your audience feel bad that they don’t participate.

Create More Than One and Test Them

Most email marketers craft more than one title and test it on different readers for a few hours or days to see which one creates the most results. This is a great way to ensure you communicate and understand your audience the best way you can. When you test titles, try different terms, languages, and styles. Then use the results to craft even better titles in the future as you see which tones and styles work better on your audience.

As you can see, your email’s subject line or title is important to improving your open rates. Sometimes it’s about timing, but it’s mostly about the content and how you relate and understand your audience.