How to Write Irresistible Email Subject Lines

As digital marketers, one of our primary challenges is making sure our content gets read.

However, with so many marketing emails flying around (some 319 billion are sent daily) a LOT of them remain unopened. People simply don’t have time to look through them all.

Knowing how to write an effective subject line that entices people to read your message is a vital skill. The success of your email marketing campaign literally depends on it.

Why Good Email Subject Lines Are Important

Email marketing is a powerful element of B2B digital marketing strategy. It allows you to bypass search, social media, and PPC to directly communicate with your audience. This is why email is such an important distribution channel for content marketing.

Moreover, it has a massive return on investment. According to the DMA, you can expect an average return of £42, for every £1 invested.

However, inbox competition is fierce.

The average business professional receives around 126 emails per day. According to the Harvard Business Review, it takes up roughly 28% of the workday to process all these messages.

No wonder people are getting more aggressive about blocking, deleting, and unsubscribing from unwanted emails. Across all industries, the average open rate is only 17.8%.

Simply put, no matter how great the content, your email has a pretty high chance of being ignored. This is unless it sports a powerful title to get people’s attention.

Email Titles That Grab Attention

One of the first steps in crafting a winning subject line is picking the right style for your objective. You’ll find that most B2B email marketing subject lines use one of the following tactics.

Urgency

Using time-sensitive words (such as deadline) to create a sense of urgency is a tried and true method. People have an inherent fear of being left behind that marketers can use to their advantage.

Strategically communicating urgency and scarcity in a subject line can help compel email subscribers to act. The fear of missing out means people often respond more strongly to the threat of losing something over the promise of gaining something.

However, it’s important to use scarcity/urgency sparingly, for when the occasion genuinely calls for immediate action. Otherwise, people will start dismissing your messages as false alarms, rendering this tactic ineffective.

Curiosity

It’s human nature for people to be curious. This is why you can increase engagement by creating a sense of mystery with your subject line. For instance, hinting at sneak peeks in your title without giving away all the information.

For this to work, you need to be intriguing while still aligning with your brand. However, if your subject line is too obscure or enigmatic people might dismiss it as spam.

Controversy is another curiosity-focus method to generate interest – but tread lightly using this tactic. You must be confident in your understanding of your audience’s tastes and perceptions, creating a balance between controversy and information. This strategy requires great care to pull off, but the increase open rate can be worth it.

Notification

An email subject line study conducted by MailChimp found that a succinct approach is most applicable to notification emails. Time is an asset for B2B readers, so help them out by placing pertinent information up front in your subject lines. For instance, clearly indicate that your email is an update, status order, transactional information, requires a response, etc.

Proof

A lot of subject lines are vague claims, so providing some evidence can be a great way to stand out. For instance, including some data or stats right in the subject line to demonstrate your value (and tantalise the reader’s curiosity).

Name recognition is another way to establish social proof in your subject line – provided it’s relevant to your email content. Just throwing out a big name for the sake of recognition will not work.

Storytelling

People love sharing and listening to stories. It’s a vital part of how we communicate and connect. This is why including a story teaser in your subject line can result in a higher open rate. The promise of a relevant story can persuade subscribers to read the body of the email to learn more.

Trending topics

When we subscribe to an email list, its often to keep informed about something – such as industry events, business developments, etc. Crafting email subject lines around trending topics or breaking industry news can help you establish your brand as an authority. If your audience trusts to you send relevant, important news, they are more likely to read (and share) your email content.

Amusement

A clever or catchy subject line can stand out among the scores of dull, unimaginative ones around it. Beyond getting attention, a well-placed joke can increase your open rates and create a sense of connection with your audience. Humour is tough, though, and you have to take care not to alienate people who aren’t on your wavelength.

Promotional

When considering products or services, who doesn’t like a good deal? So, it makes sense to put an incentive in your email subject line. If your offer is legitimate and relevant to the people you’re targeting, you can expect to increase your click-through rates.

Follow up

Not everyone who starts your purchase journey will immediately follow through to the end. For example, someone might abandon their cart before checkout for one reason or another. A retargeting email subject line can serve to bring these people back to your sales process. Take advantage of reciprocity – the tendency to respond to a positive action with another positive action – and invite potential buyers to complete their purchase.

Personalisation Is Critical

Writing a good email subject line depends on understanding and catering to your audience. Doing so entails using behavioural tracking, analytics, and automation to learn about a subscriber's job, interests and mannerisms. By creating a unique experience, you’ll generate solid email open rates for your campaign.

To help you out, here are some great ideas for ways to personalise your email subject lines.

Personalise names

There are several industries where the use of the recipient's first name has a positive impact (note: the legal industry is not one of them). Even if you don’t use someone's first name, it is still best practice to speak directly and comfortably with readers, using “you” and “your” wording.

Segment your lists

When sending an email, segment your subscriber lists so that you only send blasts that are relevant to each specific audience. Letting people self-select what type of email content they want to receive is a great way to do this. It means that your carefully crafted subject lines will be directed towards receptive readers. You can learn more in our blog post “Audience segmentation with marketing automation”.

The right timing

The right subject line and the right time can dramatically increase your email open and click-through rate. For example, a subject line like “Best local happy hours” sent late Friday afternoon. Warby Parker is a master at subject line timing. For instance, they anticipate their customers’ needs and send emails around important insurance industry events.

Personal connection

Thanks to spam, phishing, and other types of suspicious email, most people hesitate to open messages from unfamiliar senders. Therefore, if you've already met the person, identify yourself as the sender. Likewise, if someone referred you, be sure to use their name in the subject line. Sparking their memory of this existing connection in the subject line will increase the likelihood of your email getting opened.

The “From” field

As mentioned above, email recipients want to see that you are a legitimate and trusted source. When setting up your sender name, never use "noreply@company.com." You want to be as human and approachable as possible.

Instead, use a professional and consistent format like maddy@company.com. Not only does it look more personable, but it also helps people add your email to their address book.

Local relevance

Try using location-specific language in your subject lines. Many readers open these types of emails just to see what is happening in their area.

Email Subject Lines Best Practices

As an email marketer, you’ll inevitably run into spam filter issues with your campaigns. According to a 2018 report by ReturnPath, roughly 15% of legitimate marketing emails end up blocked or diverted to spam folders.

One reason your emails might get filtered out is that the headline contains potential spam wording – such as “amazing,” “click here,” “dear friend,” “cancel at any time,” “winner,” “guarantee,” “order now,” “special promotion,” etc.

Another reason is that the idea of spam now encompasses any unwanted emails – even from known senders who have permission. In a survey by Litmus, 57% of respondents said that getting too many, or irrelevant, emails from a sender caused them to mark the content as spam.

It’s all about figuring out what works best for your specific audience. Here are some best practices for how to be clickable while staying out of the spam folder.

A/B test your subject lines

Where you've got the audience size to getting meaningful results, you should A/B test your email headlines and tweak the wording according to the results. Using an automation platform like Sharpspring makes this easy to do so you can optimise your email campaigns.

Use engaging preview text

Preview text comes immediately after the subject line and provides readers with a peek at the email’s content. If you don’t set up the preview text, the email client will autogenerate a preview snippet. Beyond looking messy, this is also a wasted opportunity to engage your audience.

Don't make false promises

Your email subject line is making a promise to your reader about your content. Follow through on that commitment. Never try to bait and switch with your subject lines. Doing so will upset your audience, destroy their trust in your brand, and get your account penalised under the GDPA. Always follow permission-based, trust-focused email practices.

DON'T USE ALL CAPS???!!!

According to one study, over 85% of respondents prefer an all-lowercase subject line to one written in all caps. Typing in all caps is equivalent to yelling and is therefore not an appropriate tone for a professional email. Also, avoid using multiple exclamation points or other forms of exaggerated punctuation. These types of disruptive tactics will get your message filtered out as spam.

Keep it simple and focused

Users open over 61% of emails on mobile devices. Considering this, brevity is critical, least your subject line get awkwardly cut off. The length of your subject line will depend on several factors, but we recommend keeping it between 40-70 characters. Doing so ensures it will show correctly on a wide variety of devices.

Another route is using numbers or going minimalist with one-word subject lines. From a design perspective, these types of email titles stand out from other messages because they are visually jarring.

Make people feel special

Exclusivity is powerful stuff. The right phrasing can make your recipients feel like they are part of something special. Thanking people and making them feel like they belong helps create brand loyalty. Review common spam terms to avoid words that will get your message flagged.

Start with action-oriented verbs

Adding a strong verb at the start of your subject line makes it actionable. Inviting active participation creates a sense of excitement and makes the subject line more enticing – like a strong call to action.

Get Started With Effective Email Marketing

Effective subject lines are personalised for the recipient. In general, they either play on curiosity, giving readers a compelling reason to open the email. Or they demonstrate a clear value proposition, to reassure the recipient that the message is worth their time.

Experimenting with these different styles, best practices and personalisation tactics will make your email subject lines stand out for all of the right reasons.

To learn more about email marketing strategy, contact the experts at 1827 marketing today.