Emails are hard to write. You want your users to open your emails and get them to convert. On the other hand, you don’t want them to unsubscribe.
Because good emails are tough to acquire.
So how do you get users to open your emails and look at the content? Better yet, how do you continue increasing the open rates of your emails?
One of these ways is creating great email subject lines.
Subject lines are the window to the content of your email. It lets users get a glimpse of what’s inside the email before they open it.
When written well and on point, email subject lines will get users to open your emails. Conversely, poorly-written and offensive subject lines will get the pass and the dreaded unsubscribe.
So what do you do? How do you get people to open your emails? Here are a few tips to get you started:
1. Start by being you
Your voice – your brand – is important. It sets the tone for everything that you communicate online and offline.
More or less, your brand identity and perception is seen through your communication. Whether you’re comical or classy, technical or dorky, let your brand flow in your message.
The next trick is being consistent in that communication.
By being you and consistently you, you can stand out from the sea of other emails that are vying for your users’ attention.
2. Know your customers
Think personalization, segmentation and targeting is only found in the body of the email? Think again.
This is where all of that really starts.
Personalizing email subject lines, such as the user’s first name, works well with a lot of customers, and that impacts open rates in a profound way.
When you partner that personalization with a specific behavior (like purchasing a product) and a segmented category (maybe their location), you’ve already provided a focused email that is catered for that user – and that’s without the body content!
3. Use the K.I.S.S. method (make things simple)
Simplicity is also a great way to write email subject lines.
Simplicity can mean using one-word liners like TGIF!. It can also mean simple actionable statements like “We need your help.”
Another take on keeping it simple, which is the most important take, is to make your email subject lines easy to understand, simple to grasp, and easy to skim.
It make users work less to understand what you’re trying to show them, and empowers them more to act.
4. Don’t be afraid to get emotional
When you write your emails, don’t be afraid to use emotions to empathize, sympathize, relate or get under their skin.
You see, every communication we send, emails or not, will elicit a positive or negative response, large or small. This is because we are wired that way.
The language, tone of voice and choice of words are variables that you can use to spice your subject lines. When you do this, you can make even the passive users open your emails.
Just know that there are caveats as well, such as the nature of the email and your audience and their behaviors.
5. Make it compelling
Sometimes, to make your subject lines more compelling, you’ll need to create a sense of urgency for your users to act.
Creating that sense of urgency is based on time, savings and/or product amount.
For example, phrases like “50% OFF Sale Tonight Only!” or “Last chance: Save 30% on XXX product” would create a sense of urgency for users to do something during a particular period of time.
In retail or ecommerce, these types of subject lines do work, but their degree of effectiveness depends on the content of the email and the targeting and segmentation of the user.
6. List it out
Using lists in the subject line also can positively impact on your open rates.
Why, do you ask? Lists appeal to the intellectual and analytical side of our brains. It helps us to process what we need to do to achieve whatever goals we have – in business and in our personal lives.
If you are looking for ways to enhance your Instagram account, and me as a marketer sends you an email with 5 tips on how to rock your Instagram account, chances are, you would be interested enough to open the email and see what I have to say.
On the high level, that’s called targeting and segmenting your audience.
Think of it this way: if the lists that we provide in our emails are in line with what we send out to our customers, it’s almost a guarantee that those emails will be opened.
7. Keep testing your email subject lines
Part of marketing is the psychological factors in how we market to our audience. In doing that, we have to constantly test what works and what doesn’t, and how we can make it better
What does testing look like? A/B testing is one method, and the other is called multivariate (MV) testing.
An example of A/B testing is where you have 2 emails going to the same list, and the only difference between those emails is a change in the content. In this example, it’s the subject line.
One subject line uses an emotional line, and the other uses a list (both have to tie into the content).
So when you send it out, you measure which emails were opened the most based on the subject lines, which links inside the emails were clicked on the most based on the opens, and which emails produced more converts or conversions based on the test.
When you get this data, you get a better sense of your customers and their behaviors.
Then you rinse and repeat 🙂
Final thoughts
I hope you enjoyed these quick tips. As always, feel free to send me an email or connect with me on LinkedIn.
