Email subject lines are the first thing your recipients will see. It can make or break a campaign’s success. Research shows that 47% of people open emails due to intriguing subject lines, making it the single most important factor for open rates.
So, to help you optimize your open rates, below are plenty of proven tips and examples for crafting subject lines that subscribers simply can’y resist.
The Psychology Behind Irresistible Subject Lines
The decision to open an email depends on a range of psychological factors. This is what you should be focusing on:
- Curiosity: Use phrases or words that tease or offer something intriguing, such as a question or a sneak peek.
- Urgency: Time-sensitive language, such as “limited time offer” or “today only” builds a sense of urgency and pushes recipients to open your email.
- Relevance: Personalizing the subject line with the recipient’s name or using language that speaks to their interests or needs will boost you open rate.
Ingredients of a Great Subject Line
Along with hitting the psychological factors above, a great subject line should have several other key components to increase engagement, such as:
Clarity and Relevance
Your subject line should clearly and accurately represent the content of the email. Being concise is essential, as subscribers often skim their inboxes and quickly decide which emails to open based on the subject line.
Personalization
Personalizing your subject lines by including the subscriber’s name, interests, or preferences improves engagement and boosts the open rate. According to research, personalized subject lines increase CTR and have up to 50% higher open rate.
Curiosity and Urgency
Build readers’ curiosity to encourage them to open your email. For that, you can use questions or intriguing statements that pique their interest. Always aim to avoid click-baity subject lines, though.
Emojis and Symbols
Emojis and symbols can make subject lines stand out in a crowded inbox. However, they should also be consistent with the brand’s tone and image, and shouldn’t be overused.
Avoiding Common Subject Line Mistakes
Knowing what makes a great subject line is one thing. But it’s also essential to be aware of common subject line mistakes to avoid.
- Overselling or making false promises: Miscommitting, lying, or overpromising can cause disappointment and reduce brand credibility and trust.
- Using excessive capitalization, punctuation, or emojis: While capital letters, punctuation, and emojis can make your subject line stand out, it’s essential to use them in moderation.
- Triggering spam filters with spammy words or phrases: Spammy words or phrases like “free” or “buy now” can trigger spam filters and harm your deliverability rates. Avoid these kinds of words and phrases or use them sparingly.
More Email Subject Line Tips
Ideal Length
The ideal subject line length is 30-50 characters, with approximately40 being optimal, as shorter lines grab attention and avoid mobile truncation.
Optimizing Subject Lines For Mobile
- Use clear and concise language
- Avoid special characters and symbols
- Use actionable language
- Personalize the subject line when possible
Testing and Optimizing Email Subject Lines
A/B testing in email marketing is sending two or more variations of an email to a small segment of your subscriber list and analyzing which variation performed best. This helps you identify the one that resonates with your audience the most, thereby driving higher open rates.
You can use your learnings for future email campaigns to increase the likelihood of success.
Subject Line Inspiration and Examples
Compelling subject line examples could include:
- Personalization: Hey [subscriber name], we have a surprise for you!
- Curiosity: You won’t believe what we just discovered…
- Urgency: Last chance to save 50% on your purchase!
- Relevance: Get beach-ready with our summer sale.
- Social proof: Join our 1 million satisfied customers today.
- Exclusivity: VIP access to our exclusive event.
- How-to: How to make the perfect cup of coffee.
To alter these examples to fit specific niches, incorporate industry-specific language, relevant keywords, and personalization that speaks to your audience’s unique interests and preferences.
For example, a fitness brand could use subject lines like “Get fit and feel great in just 30-days” or “Transform your body with our new program.”
Final Thoughts
Crafting irresistible subject lines is critical to email marketing success, and is a skill all email marketers should develop. After all, your subject line is the first impression that your campaign makes.
Be creative and experiment with various techniques to create a compelling subject line. You can use humor or a question to capture your readers’ attention. But keep it short and sweet! With a bit of experimentation and some careful tweaking, you can create subject lines that are truly irresistible.
If you’re struggling to come up with truly compelling email subject lines, start to keep a record of all the subject lines you just had to open, and try to figure out what made them stand out. You can even ask AI tools like ChatGPT to provide compelling variations of a subject line you’ve put together yourself, so you can get some extra inspiration.
