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A subject line is the first single-line text subscribers see after the sender’s name when they receive an email from you.
When you receive an email in your inbox, the three things you see in the email preview before you click open are the sender’s name, the subject line, and the preview text.
Each of these three elements has its purpose, but the email subject line plays the most significant role, especially for small businesses trying to build their customer base.
The email subject line creates a first (and often lasting) impression of your brand to prospects. It determines whether or not your email gets opened.
If your email subject line fails to hit the mark with recipients, you risk being tagged as spam. On the flip side, if your email subject line resonates with subscribers, they’ll click to read more.
Notice how Shaw Academy kept its subject line under 50 words. On mobile, the message is clear. The “95% off” benefit is visible for any recipient to see right in their inbox, without first clicking to read more.
Choosing conciseness over ambiguity can boost a company’s open rates and give subscribers a solid reason to read the whole email before making up their minds.
The subject line, “What you need to know about references during a job search,” shows a typical job seeker what to expect from this email.
While crafting a subject line, it’s important to think of what would be valuable to an email segment and lead with that. Be clear and specific on the problem and its solution, then craft a subject line to reflect these. That’s how to grab a typical subscriber’s attention.
The problem with this subject line is the excessive emphasis on the offer and the time limit placed on it. While the example above shows some sense of urgency, the email uses emojis and emphatic FOMO words excessively.
It’s important to focus on the value of your offer and emphasize deadlines without overemphasizing them. Ensure you send an email first that informs your subscribers about the offer before you send a follow-up email emphasizing the deadline. This will help you build trust with email providers and subscribers.
For more best practices to avoid your email ending up as spam, you can read this article.
A subject line like this can inspire curiosity, especially for business people who subscribe to Quora’s digest and those interested in Elon Musk as a topic. Such a question can potentially encourage more opens and drive people to the website to read the full post.
Of course, you can craft questions that are related to the message you’re trying to pass, and perform an A/B test to see if it resonates with your audience. You want to invest your energy in crafting subject lines that work for your readers, and if a question does that, then ask away.
If your email open rates are low, you might want to start troubleshooting with A/B tests.
An A/B test is a series of experiments where you create different subject lines and send them out to a split set of your subscribers to see which subject line resonates best. Doing this will help you tell which subject line your reader would prefer.
Here’s an example of an A/B subject line test Teleflora carried out:
They found that the first email subject line, “Liz, Your Blooms are Waiting,” performed 3X better because the recipient’s first name was included.
You can A/B test your subject line by choosing an audience segment with a sample size that can be split equally, crafting email copy and two variations of your subject line, and sending them out. Based on the open rates, you’ll learn which subject line your audience responds to better.
Remember what we said about first impressions?
A good way to set the tone for your relationship with new and existing subscribers is to personalize your email. Email is the channel that lets you nurture your relationship with prospects, and what better way to do this than to show them you know them?
There are several ways you can do this. Here are a few to help you get started:
You can also make recipients feel valued by celebrating special days in their lives, such as birthdays and anniversaries. That will make you feel like a trusted source and, ultimately, strengthen your bond with them.
An underrated way to personalize your subject lines is to use a sender name your recipients are familiar with.
Here’s an example from Copyblogger:
Instead of using a generic name like “Copyblogger”, they decided to humanize the brand.
You can also leverage this technique to connect more with subscribers and boost your chances of getting more opens.
If you want to learn more about crafting compelling email subject lines that will boost your open rates, you can check out this article with more great tips.
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