Your subject line is the very first thing that determines your email open-rate. So, if your subject line is not on point, your email marketing campaign will suffer.
1. Keep it personal
Your subject line must speak to the individual directly. There are two important rules to this:
-If you can, personalise your subject line to address the contact by name
-Never use a noreply@company.com type email in your from line. Most people already know that the email is a promotional email sent in bulk- there is no need to emphasise that they cannot reply.
2. Reveal what’s inside clearly
Your subject line is not intended to create suspense or curiosity, like a movie trailer. Your subject line is there so that your readers can quickly decide whether opening your email is worth their time or not. Your first free guide will work a lot better than Your surprise is inside.
Make your call-to-action in the email clear and prominent. If your subject line is introducing a competition, make the enter competition link stand out early in the email and so forth.
3. Count your characters
Remember that over 40% of your contacts open their email from their cell phones, so make sure that your subject line is short enough to be compatible with portable devices. It doesn’t help you have a catchy subject line and your reader can’t see the whole thing!
For example, instead of saying Our half price special ends tomorrow say 50% off over soon.
4. Don’t ignore the short preview
Even though your subject line will stand out first, your preview text is what will lure your readers in further to open your mail. You must consider your choice and order of words carefully; especially since you must keep your character length in consideration too (you have much fewer characters to work with).
Don’t repeat the gist of your subject line here, as it is a waste of space. Make your preview text as conversational as possible, even if there is not enough space to fill a whole sentence out.
5. Double check all your spelling and punctuation!
With so little text, it’s very easy for readers to pick up silly mistakes. Make sure that your capitalisation and punctuation is consistent and correct, and make sure that there are absolutely no spelling or grammar errors.
