Imagine receiving an email from a retailer you like with a bland subject line about their newsletter. Chances are you’re going to save it to read for later, most likely deleting the message before you ever read it. On the other hand, writing a compelling subject line that appeals to a potential reader’s interest through sales, special announcements, or exclusive offers. These features can help you truly maximize the chances of readership.
Not only does a good subject line increase your open rate, but also prime potential customer to convert through sales, signups or coupons. Whether you want to generate online to offline sales or want to directly convert readers through your offers online, a mail campaigns begin with a high quality subject line.
When writing a subject line, it’s important to take into account best practices. These include ensuring your message doesn’t get caught in spam filters and is also appealing to readers. It’s important to avoid trigger words for spam such as Free, Medical and related terms. At the same time you don’t want to use words used in commonly ignored emails such as “Reminder”, “Hello” and other generic terms. By contrast, you want to make the email subject relevant, personalized and as local as possible. Finding the right balance between interest and relevant can ensure your newsletter has a consistent, appealing theme.
Readers make an initial impression of your email based upon its sender, subject line and their own personal preferences. Understanding the interplay of these factors can help you create subject lines that not only increase short run open rates but improve conversion rates over time.
Building a Strong Email Brand through Subject Lines
To get users to open your emails, try to stick with a brief, appealing subject line less than 45 characters. While you may be tempted to get wordy on the subjects, readers tend to have little patience with their inbox. At the same time, avoid using techniques that overly emphasize your offer such as caps lock, exclamation points or textual graphics. To effectively compete with other messages in a user’s inbox, build up trust. You can accomplish this by writing creative, relevant subject lines that appeal to a broad segment of the audience.
Think about your own personal decision process for opening, saving or deleting email. Most people ask “what is the benefit of opening this email for me?” Providing timely, personalized and relevant information can deliver value for your readers, as well as ensuring accuracy of the overall offer. Adding terms related to a user’s location, the season or time of year can help. Also consider adding personalized subjects for list segmentation can further open the chances of success for your campaign.
Over time, you create brand equity for your newsletters by writing accurate, creative subject lines. When users start to trust in your messages, they are more likely to become involved with your company. Therefore, the selection of words when writing a subject line should be viewed in terms of long-run open rates by earning trust and loyalty of your subscribers.
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