Email Subject Line Best Practices
Within the chaos that is the mailbox looms a plethora of promotions, personal emails, newsletters, documents, airline tickets, etc. It’s no secret that we scan our inbox looking for the most important headlines that stand out while filtering out the rest to be ignored or sent to the trash.
This is why you need to follow the email subject line best practices before you send out your communications to your list and possibly hinder your results.
“When it comes to email marketing, the best subject lines say what’s inside, and the worst subject lines sell what’s inside.”
We should not judge a book by its cover, but unfortunately, that’s what users who receive our commercial emails do.
In a world in which people can receive tens or hundreds of emails a day (without forgetting notifications of social networks, mobile messages, and other applications), there is a need for people to filter the emails and decide if they are worth opening or not, and this is usually done by looking quickly at the subject of the emails we receive.
Most people know their spam emails perfectly, so it is important to avoid words like: free, help, percentage, discount, etc.
Usually, the subject lines written as ads activate the spam filter. Do not create false expectations for your subscribers and try to always explain what is inside your email.
That’s why the subject line is very important. It is the barometer by which the relevance of our email is judged, whether it is read or deleted. And if you make a crucial mistake, your message will always be relegated to the purgatory of commercial emails: the trash can.
Email Subject Line Best Practices: Getting Started
Don’t Be Boring
This is the reality of sales: If you were able to identify a buyer that seems perfect for your business, other commercial representatives could also do so.
If you could also identify a customer who is going to buy, that person probably receives millions of messages from other commercial representatives on a daily basis, in addition to all the communications that they additionally receive.
Therefore, using a very generic subject just means that your subject line will be skimmed over and forgotten forever.
Relate to The Customer
The key to the success of a good object is to know your customers.
- What are they looking for?
- What do they expect?
- How can you help them achieve these goals?
- And, even more importantly, how can you summarize in 10 words (those of the subject line) everything?
First, always try to be direct. For example, if you offer a business card printing service at prices lower than those of your competitors, mention this benefit in the subject line of the email:
“Did you know our business cards are 30% cheaper?”.
On the other hand, if you provide accounting services to entrepreneurs who are probably overwhelmed by the amount of work and tasks, they can save time and money by outsourcing this part of their daily life:
“Outsource your business accounting to get your time back”.
Time is incredibly valuable, and entrepreneurs and business people know this very well.
Reference The Sale
A good reference to the sale is gold, and mentioning a known matter is to give a hint of the content of the email. So it is important to mention this reference as prominent as possible in the inbox.
Although the email does not have the main intention to generate profit, highlighting an aspect with which the client is familiar will favor the opening of the email, its reading, and the response to the message.
If the email you’re sending is related to a purchase they made, be sure that the recipient is aware of this.
Be Truthful
Why send an email about something when the subject line has nothing to do with the content of it? You must summarize perfectly what the user will extract when reading the email.
Don’t try to trick your potential customers into opening the email by using a line that is not consistent with the actual content of the email.
If we see an email with the subject “Re:” we will think that we have already spoken with the sender of the email and probably we will open it to avoid losing a potentially important message.
If later we realize that the message was the first contact and came masquerading as a response, the most common feeling is that it bothers us. Even if they do not immediately hit “delete” and the message is interesting, it may leave a bad taste in their mouth.
Tell the truth in your email subject lines. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it can also work in your favor.
For example, a subject line that says ” How to reduce personnel costs by 50% ” should be linked back to a message that actually tells company owners how they can cut personnel costs in half.
However, if potential customers open this email only to find a generic message about your outsourcing service in front of them, it’s possible that they will never open your email again.
In this instance, they wanted to receive amazing information about how they can actually do this. Such as a well-written blog post. Instead, you have just directly pushed your service upon them without providing any value.
Bonus Email Subject Line Best Practices
Who is it for?
Before developing a newsletter you must be aware of the type of users to which it is addressed. The same tone will not be used when sending an email to first-time parents than to another whose recipients are specialized doctors.
Limit the use of CAPITAL LETTERS
The use of capital letters in emails means that… YOU ARE SHOUTING! Do you like being shouted at?
This can be done tastefully in certain instances, but it is generally something to avoid.
Personalization Helps
Having the recipients first name in the email can help to boost your open rate. You can capture the name of the recipient with your email sign up form and your email service provider such as GetResponse will store it so that it can appear automatically with a simple function.
Someone is definitely going to take more notice of an email if it contains their name as opposed to a subject line that they skim over while filtering their inbox.
Spam words
There are a series of words that antispam filters use to determine if an email should be sent to the span or junk folders. These are some of the most common words:
– 100% satisfied
– Free
– Earn money
– Additional income
– Total refund
– Save up to
Using these words doesn’t mean that it will happen to you, as the context of the email contributes to this as well.
Obviously with eCommerce stores using words such as save, refund, and money could be quite common. It’s when you get into mass emails with lists that haven’t been properly verified that this could lead to problems.
Always configure your email service provider settings so that your subscribers have to double opt-in. This means they get two confirmation emails when subscribing which is seen as a greater sign of trust that you have legitimately obtained your email list.
This will be a crucial part of your email marketing strategy, so be sure that your list has been properly attained.