How To Create Catchy Email Subject Lines
Open rates are a number that you would want your email analytics to be good at. And catchy email subject lines would be your best allies in getting those emails opened. While you may not be able to get every one of these into every email subject line, aim for as many as possible where suitable.
1. Create urgency
Adding a bit of urgency into the subject line can propel action, especially if your email contains something that is time sensitive, restricted or in some way liable to sell out. The old ‘act now!’ might not be the right approach but you can add a sense of urgency without sounding like an old TV advert.
2. Pique their curiosity
You can make people curious to open your email in lots of ways but always make sure you deliver on the promise. A little mystery, a hint of what’s inside can work wondered – just avoid clickbait. ‘Exclusive new offer’ shouldn’t be the normal price on your website, for example.
3. Tell them there’s an offer
If you have a special deal for them, a new offer or a freebie to deliver, don’t be afraid to add it to the email subject line. The old (+ Freebie) after your main subject line is great – just ensure you actually do have a new freebie in there!
Tips on Creating Catchy Email Subject Lines
Once you have some ideas about how to create urgency, curiosity and how to let them know what you are offering, there are some other considerations to help you write the perfect newsletter email subject line.Watch the length
We live in a mobile world and we pretty much live on our smartphones. This has an impact on the length of the subject line we can see – 50 characters are about the average.Yet we routinely create subject lines that are too long and the 77% of people that use mobile cannot view entirely. Wasted effort! If you need to go longer, make sure the most important stuff is in the first 50 characters.
Get to the point
This ties in with the above point – make sure you immediately show why you are emailing and why they want to read it. We scan, it is inevitable so make sure you stop that scan with something interesting, eye-catching or even funny. They can all work (well, they have on me anyway!)Use action orientated words
Using action orientated verbs in your email subject lines can inspire people to act. Words like try, register, important, go, celebrate – these prompt people to do something that we are directing them towards (and open the email, of course)Make sure your sender name is familiar
Spam email is a pain and we all want to avoid it. We subconsciously decide about an email first by looking at the sender’s name. So make sure your name, business or blog name or other identifying information in the sender’s name to inspire confidence.Add some relevant personalization
Personalization, done well, can make a difference and most subscription companies make this easy.This is good for a greeting and the occasional bit of emphasis.
Go overboard in a good way
With newsletter email subject lines, you almost need to go a bit overboard to attract attention, pique curiosity and get the open.- Use a little punctuation but don’t go over the top and the same goes for using all caps.
- One word for emphasis but not the whole thing!
- Use emojis for emphasis not to try and write the whole subject line because not everyone speaks emoji
- Talk to people like they are real people in your subject lines as this will get a better response – so you can be a bit over the top like you would when you excitedly emailed your friend about something, just not too much
- CoSchedule have both some great examples on their post on the topic and also have an email subject generator that is like their headline writing tool.
- Some of their examples include:
- The best (audience you are talking about) are using this (tactic or idea) to (get this benefit)
- The best Instagram influencers are using this number of hashtags to grow their account (bit long but you get the idea)
- Save (%) on (your product or service) before (negative consequences)
- Save 15% on my Pinterest management service before all the slots go (number)
- secrets the best (audience you are talking about) use to (benefit)
- 10 secrets the best bloggers use to grow their traffic with Pinterest
Don’t forget A/B testing
Once your list reaches around 100 people, you can start doing a bit of A/B testing and much of the top software out there help with this.With Maropost, I can send a sample of my different email subject lines. It then sees which one gets the most opens and sends the email with this subject line to the rest of the list. Try not to make them too different so you can see what works clearly.