O’ Effective Email Subject Line, Where Art Thou?

Steps Toward a More Rewarding Subject Line

Be specific and straightforward.

The first step of writing an email is being sure that your recipient knows what you’re about to send them. Be descriptive in the title so they know exactly why they should read your email, but don’t be too specific so it doesn’t limit where else your content could spread online. For example, if I was sending out an email about web design using MailChimp, my subject line wouldn’t just say “website” because then other people who are not browsing for that topic wouldn’t be interested in the email. My subject line might say “Get $10 off your first order of $75 or more on Fiverr” so it’s both for people looking to get a website and those who are just browsing for general jobs. It tells them exactly what they will get because there is no way I could fit all the details in the title.

Text formatting should be done properly.

Spacing around text can change how readers perceive an email and can make it seem like you’re trying to hide something (which you probably aren’t but that’s not the point). For example, if my email has paragraph breaks with spaces before and after each sentence instead of using <be> tags, then it makes our newsletter seem like it’s spam because more effort is needed to go through the email and read it. I need to make sure that my text formatting is easy on the eyes if I want someone to actually read my email and take action (i.e. click a link, call our office, etc).

Concisely summarize your email in two sentences or less.

If people aren’t willing to read far into your email then you need to get straight to the point, don’t write up some long-winded story as an attention grabber for why they should read further. Make sure at least one of those sentences gives them a reason as to why they should click on your link or open your attachment so they can understand how this entire email will benefit them.

Don’t space out your subject line with emojis.

This might be a bit of an unpopular opinion among people who love to spice up their words with emoji, but I find that they throw off the balance of email titles and make it look cluttered. If you want to add some fun into your email title there are other ways to do so (for example adding characters or quotes at the beginning or end of your sentence/subject line). Otherwise just stick to using punctuation marks like commas and periods, capitalizing letters, etc.

Keep it short!

There’s nothing worse than trying to read an email that has one word on each line because then you have no choice but to stare at this text for however long it takes to read. If the email you’re sending is way too long then split it up into multiple emails, but if not then make sure to keep your sentences short and concise so readers don’t get tired of reading it all at once.

Be consistent.

If you use one form of title punctuation (like an exclamation point) throughout your email’s subject line, don’t mix in another (i.e a question mark). It looks messy when you have different types of sentence endings being used for no apparent reason, just stick to whatever format you earlier decided on and go with it!

Summarize the main points again in your opening paragraph.

After writing your email’s subject line you want to condense its contents down even further so it isn’t just an overload of information. The point of your subject line is to get people interested in reading more, so you need to give them a quick synopsis of what they can expect in this email without giving everything away.

Don’t use link bait.

Nothing annoys me more than when I’m shopping online or browsing through Instagram and someone has tagged their post with the generic “link in our bio” description because it means that either way I click on their site I’ll be bombarded with ads for products unrelated to what I want/need at the moment. When writing an email’s subject line you should tell people exactly what they will get if they open your email, don’t tease them into opening up by promising one thing only to bombard them with another (it’ll make you look like a liar and nobody wants that).

Use an emotional hook.

This tactic is less about catching attention for the sake of gaining visitors to your site, and more about getting people to open up your emails by emotionally connecting them to its contents. You can do this by including a call-to-action in the subject line such as “Be inspired” or “Don’t lose out on this opportunity”. If you don’t want to come off as overly aggressive then try using text editing tools to add some subtle underlining so it doesn’t catch their eye right away but still has the same effect once they scroll over it. Leave room for imagination and don’t be too specific so readers picture themselves in the email’s contents instead of you.

See, It’s Not That Difficult, Right?

Research has shown that over half of email recipients open up emails based on their subject line alone, so it is important that you are able to catch your reader’s attention with just a few words! Remember all these tips as you’re writing your next email title and soon enough people will start opening up all your emails just by glancing through the subject line!