It doesn’t matter how brilliant the content of your email marketing is if nobody ever opens them and actually reads what you have to say.

Whether someone opens your emails will depend on the following:

If it reaches their inbox (as opposed to spam or “other” folder) (click here for my guidance with that)
The sender - your name, your brand name or a combo of the two (I’ll talk more about this in another blog)
The subject (the bit in bold) and preview text (the first line of text underneath the bold subject) in their inboxes.

This blog will focus on amazing subject headers and preview texts that give your emails the best chance of being opened.

What works for your audience

Firstly, what gets 17 year old lads into gaming and 65 year old women into gardening to open their emails is not necessarily the same. So test things out and find what works for your audience. My daughter asked me to order some make-up for her from Morphe, whose email subjects include words like “Babe” / “Yasssss” etc. Doesn’t work for me. Wouldn’t work for a teenage boy. Wouldn’t work for a 35 year old male triathlete. Wouldn’t work for a 65 year old gardening enthusiast. Did work for a 12 year old girl.

Keep your Subject and preview texts short and sweet

It doesn’t matter how good your subject header is if it’s too long and the recipient can’t see it in their inbox.

As a general rule, subject headers for phones need to be shorter because you have less width to play with. Equally, some email clients e.g. yahoo have the subject and preheader side by side meaning you need to keep them short. On the other hand, Outlook for desktops has them in two separate lines giving you a bit more room to play with.

So know your audience and what devices they’re likely to use.

Make your Subject and Preview texts work together

Think about the two boxes as a single entity. Getting them to work together means you can make best use of the available space.

If you don’t write anything in the preview text box at all, the recipient will see either the first wording in the email itself which is a) a wasted opportunity and b) might not even make sense. Here’s a good and bad example of each:

Examples:

Invitation I hope you can come?
Tomorrow in Sevenoaks How to take better photos on your iphone
Welcome to Strava Here’s how to use it
Here’s your 15% off code Valid until tomorrow
How to grow the tallest sunflower 5 tips to make yours a winner

Avoid spammy subjects

Spam filters (and people) generally don’t like things like BUY NOW, lots of exclamation marks or lots of emojis. So use sparingly. You can read a lot more about avoiding spam in another of my blogs.

Personalise your subject

By adding the wording *|FNAME|* in your subject (in Mailchimp), it will automatically insert that person’s first name it’s place (assuming you collect them and they’re formatted properly of course!). For example:

Hello Claire - it’s lovely to “meet” you
Claire, here’s your 15% discount code
Welcome Claire
Happy birthday Claire
Thank you Claire

Now apparently including a first name in the subject increases open rates, but I suspect this is a cultural thing (perhaps more so in the US?). My feeling is that there is a time and a place for them to prevent you coming across like a stalker. They definitely have their uses but sometimes make me a little bit shuddery, perhaps because culturally we don’t tend to use first names in conversation when actually speaking to people in the UK.

Add emojis

Depending on your age and taste the very idea of including an emoji might appall you, but hear me out on this…

When I say “emoji”, I’m not necessarily talking smiley faces and poos here. Mailchimp offers heaps of different little pictures, from faces and animals, plants, seasonal pumpkins and christmas trees, to cameras and tools of trade, through to arrows, stars and simple circles etc.

Within a very wordy inbox, a tiny picture acts as a visual “jerk” - it catches the eye and makes your email stand out. So include one in your subject or preview text. For example:

Add time limits and deadlines

Over 10 years of email marketing, probably my highest open rates are when there is an imminent expiry or deadline. The fact is people are busy. They might see your email in their inbox but something else is going on right then. So they plan to open and read it later, but later never quite happens. But if the deadline is imminent your email becomes more of a priority to them. For example:

Tomorrow’s meet-up - last chance to book
Tomorrow - have you booked?
15% off ends at noon
Last chance to order for Father’s Day
Goodbye Claire

Include a question

Again, it depends on the context and your audience, but clearly inviting a response can increase the open rate and make your email more like to be read. Personally I am not a fan of “faux-intrigue” and would only use them and open emails with a genuine question, but different folks-different strokes and all that.

Wednesday - Can you come?
Which one do you prefer?
Are you interested in losing weight?
Did you see my last email?
Did you hear the news?
Please can you give us some feedback?

Start with Re:

So I admit it’s a bit cheeky and I would recommend using it with caution because if you do it regularly they’ll suss you out. But if used once in a while, starting your email subject with “Re:” can result in a lot more opens. The reader just assumes they’ve already been exchanging emails with you. For example:

Re: Wednesday
Re: Which one do you prefer?
Re: Are you interested in losing weight?
Re: Did you see my last email?
Re: Did you hear the news?
Re: Please can you give us some feedback?

Promo Codes

Probably an obvious one but I’ll include it anyway. If someone subscribes to get a promo code of some description, then obviously make it clear in the subject heading, together with the other suggestions in this blog, e.g “Claire - your 20% discount ends tonight”.

And finally

If you have any questions or would like some help in optimising your email marketing or business strategy generally then don’t hesitate to get in touch. I offer a free 15 minute discovery call and am very happy to have a chat.

Claire

Effective email subject lines to get your emails opened - 2020