Here are some tips for crafting the best email marketing subject lines:
Entice curiosity, but don’t be too clever. You want to make them curious enough to open and click, but without being so cryptic that the subscriber hasn’t a clue as to what you’re talking about.
Include numbers. There is something about numbers that draw the eye.
Use a friendly and conversational tone.
Speak in the language and style that your subscribers use themselves, especially when talking with their friends.
For some great subject line examples, we’ve written a whole post on the best converting email subject lines.
When you draft your subject line and message content, it’s natural to think of the thousands of people who are about to receive it.
However, it’s far more effective to write as if speaking to an individual person, with a personal subject line and a personalized message.
To write this way, you’ll have to really know your buyer persona. You need to understand their problems, their desires, their values, their likes, and their dislikes.
If you are having trouble with this, send out an email asking for a quick five-minute chat. On the call, you can ask questions that will help you understand what your subscribers’ needs are, and how they think.
Spending a day or two talking with your subscribers will be time well spent because it will help you so much: not only with your messaging but also with creating or improving your products and services.
When writing your emails, put your corporate hat to the side and write like a friend. This is the only way to really appeal to your subscribers and get them to open and click your emails.
For example, a corporate phrase like, “We’re offering savings to our customers!” comes off as distant and stuffy.
A more friendly alternative could be something like, “you’ve gotta check out this deal…”
That makes the email seem a whole lot more personal and makes it less likely that your recipients will simply delete your message and move on.
Remember: in this age of information, everyone is looking for a reason to ignore your emails. They aren’t looking for a reason to read them. But if you appeal to them on a personal level, you’ll stand a better chance of getting that email opened.
Write Amazing Content, Every Time
You may be thinking that when a subscriber opens your email, you’ve essentially won the battle. However, the actual content of your email also plays an important role in your open rate.
Here’s why: if your subscribers are happy with your content, they are more likely to open your emails in the future. They may even begin to eagerly anticipate your emails. Conversely, if a subscriber is displeased with what they got in your email, they probably aren’t going to open your emails again, and they may even unsubscribe.
Social Media Marketing FreelanceSo how do you make sure your subscribers are happy with your email content? Simple: make it awesome.
Link to incredibly valuable resources, like a free eBook, an epic blog post, or a webinar.
The key is to make sure that you aren’t sending emails just to send emails. Every single time you email your list, you need to deliver something of real value. The higher the value of every email you write, the more loyal your subscribers will become, and your open rates will increase.
Humor has a way of making a strong, instant connection with people. It’s personal, entertaining, and sticks out in peoples’ minds.
But what if you aren’t a very funny person? It’s not always easy to be clever or humorous, and trying to fit your attempt into the narrow constraints of an email subject line? That can be super tricky.
Thankfully, you don’t have to be a comedian in order to pull off a humorous email. It’s more important to really know your recipients and what they’ll respond to. If you know their likes and dislikes, it will be so much easier to pull off a joke or make a tongue-in-cheek comment.
Here’s an example of a funny email that gets sent to subscribers who have been inactive for a while. Hey [first name], I tried to contact you regarding [value proposition] and haven’t heard back. Let me know if:
You’re all set and I should stop bothering you. You’re interested but just haven’t responded yet. I should follow up in three months. You’re being chased by a hippo and need me to call Animal Control. chased_by_hippo You can also insert funny animated GIFs into your emails, or a funny video. Again, you don’t need to be a comedian to add humor and personality into your emails, you just need to think outside the box.
Mobile email accounts for 67% of all email opens, depending on your target audience, product, and email type.
You simply can’t afford to ignore your mobile users, you have to appeal to them through mobile optimization best practices.
Make sure your email is responsive and includes easily loadable media. Also consider the fact that mobile screens are smaller, so long subject lines may get cut off on mobile devices.
Here are some more best email marketing tips for appealing to mobile users:
Keep the formatting simple (single-column), under 600px wide. Use a larger font. Small fonts are difficult to read on mobile. Don’t assume images are being displayed (Android turns images off by default). Make sure it looks good without them. Use smaller images to reduce load time. Use a large call-to-action button. Larger buttons are easier to tap with a thumb. Don’t place two links next to, or on top of one another. That way, the user won’t tap the wrong one by accident. All of these marketing tips can help any campaign get better open rates, but don’t get discouraged if you don’t see a turnaround right away.
Email marketing is an art and science, so give yourself some wiggle room to experiment and find what tactics work best for your business and your subscribers.
If you need more help with increasing your email open rates, check out our tricks for writing better emails.
Automating Your Email Marketing with Autoresponders
