How To Write Email Subject Lines To Increase Open Rates

You’ve put a lot of thought and time into designing your marketing emails, but your efforts are meaningless if your emails don’t get opened. The biggest mistake you can make is spending time creating a perfect email and then skipping the crucial step of crafting an effective subject line. The reality is, most of the time, your subject line will be the deciding factor whether your email campaign succeeds or not.

To increase your email open rates, you need be able to write catchy subject lines that will grab the attention and won’t end up in the spam folder.

To help you, here are the top tips for writing effective subject lines that will boost your email open rates.

1. Make it personal

Your open rates will go up if you’re able to add personalization to your subject lines. Personalization can make a huge impact on the success of your email campaign. Personalization will not only boost your open rates, but also result in increased engagement, less unsubscribes, greater customer satisfaction, and more sales.

To personalize a subject line, include your customer’s name, location, birthday, or a reference to the previous interaction. If you’re worried about using too much personal information, start with their first name and see the outcome. Then use A/B testing and figure out what works and how much personalization you should include.

Take a look at interesting email personalization facts and see for yourself why it’s important to personalize.

2. Use urgency and scarcity

People don’t like to feel like they’re missing out. By creating a sense of urgency and including a limited time offer, you’re more likely to get higher open rates. To start, offer a sale with an expiration date. This will create a sense of urgency and hopefully encourage them to act.

Another strategy you can try to use with your marketing is the scarcity principle. By letting users know that supplies are limited and might soon run out you’re more likely to convince them to open your email and take action.

3. Cover trending news and topics

If there’s some major event happening or something that can be linked to your business, you can be the first one to announce it. For example if you’re a store and there’s a major snowstorm approaching, you can include this information in your subject line to grab the attention. Then inside your email, you can include offers for products related to this upcoming event (hats, gloves, shovels, etc.). If you include keywords related to trending topics or breaking news in your subject lines, your open rates are more likely to increase.

4. Incorporate storytelling

People love to hear stories that they can relate to or that are entertaining. You should master storytelling in your emails to captivate your readers and find a way to include a relevant call to action in your email story content. In these cases, you should use your subject line as a teaser for your story to get your readers to find out more.

5. Appeal to their curiosity

Curiosity is part of our DNA. This is why storytelling is so effective, and why a subject line hinting at a good story will increase open rates. Regardless of what’s inside your email, your subject line should appeal to the curiosity of your subscribers. Email subject lines should be clear, but they should also create a sense of mystery that will be revealed only after users open and read the email. For example, instead of saying “enjoy a 10% discount on your next shoe purchase,” try to be less direct. By mentioning the fact that there is a big discount waiting for them, you will pique readers curiosity and encourage them to open the email to find out. By including all the information in the subject line, you’re taking away the reason for them to open the email.

6. Keep it short

It’s important that your subject line is short, regardless of the content. Don’t use overly long sentences or characters that aren’t required. Try writing different drafts of one subject line so you can craft the best one for you. Studies have shown that the best open rates are for subject lines that are 41 characters–or 7 words long. You also don’t want to use the long subject lines because they get cut off, especially on mobile devices.

7. Don’t forget the free stuff

You don’t need to give away your popular products to gain attention. But including a free gift with regular purchase can be a great incentive. Everyone likes freebies. Free offers can increase sales, generate more traffic, and attract new leads. So don’t hesitate to use email marketing to promote a giveaway or a free offer. Be sure to include the word ‘Free’ in your subject line to increase the open rates.

Follow these tips for writing effective email subject lines and you will increase the engagement of your subscribers, improve email open rates and get better results when sending emails.

Aimee Laurence, a tech lead at Academic Writing Service and Paper Fellows, shares her experience and knowledge about digital marketing and social media marketing. She enjoys helping individuals and start-up companies expand through different marketing strategies. In her free time, she provides freelance HR services for Custom Paper Writing.