When it comes to Email Marketing, having a great list is important but if no one opens or reads your emails, it doesn’t matter how many people you have on your list. The key to getting them to open your emails is compelling subject lines.

5 Tips For Crafting Compelling Subject Lines

It’s easy to spend a lot of time crafting a great message and then just slap a subject line on it at the end. Spend some time writing compelling subject lines and you will start to see what type of headline gets you good open rates. Here are five tips to get you started.

Keep It Short

You want your readers to see the entire subject line before they click it. You also want to make it easy for people to scan through their emails. Try to get your point across in 50 characters or less. Pay attention to how your subject lines look on your own devices.

Another great idea is to keep a swipe file of subject lines that grabbed your attention. Even if the emails are on a very different topic, you can adapt them for your own needs. What’s a swipe file? It’s just a file on your computer that you add to regularly and keep on hand for when you need it. In this case, when a subject line makes you open up, copy the subject into a document on your computer. Keep a running list to go back to when it’s your time to write a subject line.

Avoid “Spammy” Words

Stay away from using any words we all associate with spam emails. Words like “sale”, “discount”, “coupon”, “free”, “limited time offer” and even “reminder” are over used and even if they don’t trigger a spam filter and actually make it to your reader’s inbox, chances are high they’ll get ignored.

Instead, start by using the emails you’re saving in your swipe file and then go back and see what subject lines got the best open rates. Try to analyze why they worked well for your market. Not everything will work well in every niche. Find the types of subject lines that get your readers to open your emails and tweak from there.

Personalize It

While personalizing emails with someone’s first name has been overused in some markets, it still works well for many of us. Give it try and see if it works for you. Don’t overdo it, but use it when you really need them to open the email.

Depending on what data you collect when your readers sign up, you can personalize other things like their location for example. Seeing the name of your state or even city in an email subject line is sure to get your attention.

Pique Their Curiosity

We are all nosy and it’s hard to ignore subject lines that sound intriguing or only tell part of the story. Using “…” at the end of your subject line will also work.

The idea here is simple. You want them to click and open the email to find out what the heck you’re talking about or how the story ends.

Frankly the best tip when it comes to crafting compelling subject lines is to keep a swipe file of examples that got you to open the email. Even if you don’t create a swipe file, pay close attention to what makes you click.

I hope these ideas get you started writing compelling subject lines.