The subject of your email is that one text that determines if the email will be opened or dumped into the trash, which is why it needs to be impactful for email marketing. We have listed 5 things that usually need to be added to subject lines.
In this busy world, everybody receives tons of emails daily. It’s a chore to keep up with all those emails. Subject lines are important because, through them, the subscriber can decide whether the email is of any use to him/her. If you’re using email marketing but are not sure why your open rates are so low, then there is a chance that you may have been writing the wrong subject lines. Here are 5 missing things that you should be careful about in writing a subject line.
- Keep The Subject Lines Short:
It is a known fact that people view their emails on various devices. A good percentage of these use their mobile devices to read emails. There is a difference in the number of characters shown on a cellphone and on a PC screen.
Drawing from insights presented in a study by Beamery, crafting a subject line requires precision to ensure candidates quickly grasp the essence of your message. It’s crucial to succinctly convey the reason they should open the email. Using fewer, more impactful words can prevent the subject line from becoming overly lengthy, reducing the chance of recipients overlooking vital information.
Usually, it is recommended to keep your subject line within 50 characters as this is suitable for both devices. The subject lines should be short and clear. You should get to the point with the very first word. A good habit is to practice writing short subject lines so that the reader can get the sum-up of the details inside.
An example of this is an email we usually get from Instagram: “ABC and 3 others liked your post” this clearly states the objective and gives us the names and timings inside the email.
It is also beneficial to keep the subject lines short because of too much text as the subject seems annoying, and no one would take the extra time out to go through that text.
- Avoid Click Baiting:
Grabbing your reader’s attention is an important characteristic of a successful subject line. However, delivering what your readers expect is also important. Temporarily getting the attention of your customers is possible by using clickbait. It may be a false discount or promised info that is not there.
However, if you are not delivering your words, it can get you blocked. This impacts both your contact list statistics and customer trust badly. Click baiting simply creates a negative impact on the subscriber, and they can feel betrayed. Therefore, you should not make up what you can deliver and instead be honest with your services.
The subscribers get annoyed when they are promised 50% off and what they get is 20% with tax. Therefore, avoid lying or twisting the truth to get higher open rates. Doing so will build trust. When the readers get what they have asked for, they will naturally read your emails more often.
- Personalization:
Personalization promotes a healthy relationship between you and your recipient. Usually, readers are able to receive a message more on a deeper level when it directly concerns them.
According to research findings in the study by Active Campaign, relying on templates and sending bulk messages isn’t the most effective approach to making a candidate feel uniquely valued. Your subject line serves as the initial chance to distinguish yourself from competitors and demonstrate a sincere interest in engaging with candidates. Incorporating the recipient’s name into the subject line not only captures their attention but also establishes a sense of familiarity.
Using the recipient’s name in the subject line would not only gain their interest but would also give you a sense of familiarity. For example, “Hi Jane! You cannot miss this wonderful product”. This also allows your email to stand out from the rest as an anonymous email has higher chances of getting ignored.
Now, personalization can be of many types, it could be the name of the customer, or it can even be a location. The key is to target a potential customer. However, if you do not yet have such information, then this might not work as well as using the name, but it can surely create a sense of urgency.
For example, “NYC gets its biggest sale this year.” This can catch the reader’s attention by attributing your product or service to a place they’re familiar with.
- Avoid Getting Thrown in Spam:
What’s the worst thing one can go through? It’s when you put your heart and soul into writing an email and still get thrown into the spam section. Being in the spam section means that your email will not be even seen by the person you directed it to. This means that not only are you losing potential readers, but the emails also are not even being counted as professional. Usually, this is a content problem where the message is correct, but the placing is wrong. Spam filters are designed to automatically remove emails that are constantly trying to sell something and also have other built-in triggers.
Now, to prevent this, you must avoid the following:
- Using the exclamation mark (!) too often. It can create a negative impact, and secondly, it will lead you to the spam box.
- Selling your product with exaggeration and twisting the truth. Using ALL CAPS like, “SALE SALE SALE!! 50% of on ALL Products”.
These mistakes can ruin your efforts, so avoid them at all costs!
- Urgency:
This is the best strategy played by email marketers to get subscribers’ attention. Usually, this involves having an attractive deal within a limited time frame or limited products on a “first come, first serve” basis.
As indicated in research conducted by Constant Contact, humans tend to procrastinate unless they perceive a potential opportunity they don’t want to miss. To prompt candidates to take swift action, it’s essential to utilize your subject line to instill a similar sense of urgency. Individuals should feel as though they could be missing out on a unique and valuable opportunity, motivating them to engage promptly.
Big fishes like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, etc. make frequent use of this tactic to create hype about their products. You can also use these events to your advantage. However, for this, you may need to prepare for such annual events beforehand.
For example, “60% off on all Products Till Mid-Night” would inculcate a sense of urgency in the reader and would persuade him/her to definitely open your email to get more information. This automatically increases the click rate, and eventually, some of this also turns into the clicks-to-conversion rate.
The limited product strategy also works in a similar way; however, instead of time, you provide the service to the first few users. For example, a new product launch mentioning that “first 100 users will get a free complete guide or a gift product” is bound to grab more attention.
