Article Contributed by Nicole Stansley
Your headline to email subject will determine the fate of the message recipient, potential business partner or clients will decide whether to open your email depending on your email headline. Although it is a very small part of your email, the headlines must be powerful enough to lure your end receiver to read your message.
Your email headline is the first impression of you, your business and what you stand for – it needs to be non-crappy. If you are reaching out to someone through email for business purposes, your email headlines must be strong enough to get their attention.
Having crappy headlines will only hurt your own business reputation, and have more people unsubscribing from your mailing list than you would want. It’s ultimately detrimental to the brand itself.
Here are 3 tricks you could do to make your email headline non-crappy:
- Keep the receiver’s interest in mind
Too often email marketers take this for granted and just talk about their business; readers want to know ‘what’s in it for me?’ before they even open your email. When emails first started it was almost a feeling of exhilaration to receive emails, but now? Most people dread going to their inbox hoping it’s not another spam mail to bother them and waste their time.
For example, if your website is now going through an overhaul and you want to communicate that to your emailing list; so instead of saying ‘Our new website is coming soon!’ – Which by the way, would not interest anyone, you’ll need to say something that will be of an interest to the receiver. Say, something on the lines of how your new website will have many new offers for the reader – this will save you money, this will get you money or save time…
- Keep your integrity
Misleading your readers or making them open the email under false premises is one of the worst things you could do. Don’t irk your audience by saying something in your email headline and leading them to a totally different message.
For example, again, if your website will be under construction, don’t mislead the reader by claiming your website is shutting down! Adding FWD or RE: before your headline is also misleading. If you really want to, you can always use ‘urgency’ as a trick to make your headlines stand out – offer today only or giveaway; just 24hours are great ways to entice our reader into reading your mails. But, misleading them is a big No-no!
- Let your message reflect your brand
No matter how much the pressure is to be bold, or to be clever, it is important to remember your message reflects your brand. You need to keep the sentiments and emotions of the reader in mind while you design your headline and your message.
If you do anything like being vague, unclear or have a spelling mistake, type racist or sexist propaganda, it’s going to reflect on the perception the reader has on your brand.
Before wrapping-up, here is some useful best practices for writing an email subject line:
- Always write several subject lines (and then choose the best option).
- Try A/B testing for your subject lines and find out, what works best for your audience.
- Avoid using too much CAPS.
- Avoid these words in your subject lines: final, reminder, sale, tempting, specials, help, donation, exciting, discount, unique, partner, preview.
- Put the most important words in the first part of the line.
- Keep it short – less than 50 characters (many smartphones show only 25-30, by the way).
- Don’t forget a call to action.
- Preview before sending and pay attention on what text follows the subject line.
Finally, take a look at your own mailbox. Which emals go straight to trash? Which ones you open and why? Don’t be afraid to “borrow” from great mailers and create your own on a fruitfull base.
About Author:
Nicole Stansley is a digital strategist for Write My Essay, and a content creator. Nicole is also an expert in online marketing, as well as business writing.