Are you someone struck with the dilemma of choosing a good subject line, something that would reach out to your targeted individual and drive them to action? If so, do you need to put yourself in their shoes and think about how you react to certain subject lines? What particular sentence could pique your interest enough to take an impromptu action?
While brainstorming, keep in mind the kind of response you seek from your readers and, most importantly, know the demographics of your audience. By understanding their needs, you can craft terrific subject lines that will reach out to your audience and have them open your emails and take action.
Since none of us are strangers to the amount of exposure unread emails get, shaping subject lines to be interactive and appealing to the receivers is essential but absolutely essential for the senders and their intentions. People receive dozens and dozens of emails every day, which they are used to ignoring. Let alone others, how many of us don’t have inboxes filled with stacks of unread and ignored promotional emails, which we just delete in the end to clear out space. So in such a situation, making your emails stand out will take some effort and understanding.So while you do your homework here is our take on a few tips that will help you out in writing better lines.
Be straight-forward and frank with your subject line.
According to MailChimp’s email subject line study, short and expressive subject lines work much better than overrated and cheesy traps. So it is better you stay frank with your users and clearly deliver your subject line, informing them of your brand and all. This approach works better with notification as a user then already has a connection with you and your brand, but if used properly, they will prove fruitful to other types as well.
Some examples can be
Using “New” in your subject line strategy.
You can implement this eye-catching strategy in the following way…
“NEW: How Kit manages an online traffic of 20K each month!”
Simply add “‘ new” before some really impressive news to appeal to your users and let them do the rest.
Making the mind-blowing results known.
Let them know about the fantastic results you have been producing. You can display those in the following manner.
For Example- How we grew our Youtube page from 0 to 30K subscribers in 6 months!
Demonstrate the case studies.
Prove your worth by describing some winner case studies to earn the trust of your users
Example – [Case Study] Fresher’s campaign earns him 25K dollars within 24 hours.
Humorous email subject lines to win the hearts of many.
Like a horse in a field of sheep, funny stuff tends to stand out from the dry one. Likewise adding a bit of humour in your subject line will most certainly make it stand out and appeal to your users like nothing else.
So if you think you know your readers well and are about to target your emails, then a well placed, relevant joke can get your email the much desired ‘read’ status and help you earn major reputational points among the people in your circle.
Some examples of funny subject lines are..
- UCB Comedy presents: The Best Damn Stand-up
- How to Live Forever
- Monetizing Mommy
- Not Your Mommy’s Blog: The Evolution of Dad Blogs
- Please Touch Me! Enterprise Delight via Multitouch
The “touch me” line and ‘monetizing mommy’ is a joke most users will laugh at, the ‘how to live longer’ is a lighthearted scam that could well…. scam one and all the male parent will surely appreciate the “The daddy blog” given the little parental competition, existent to gain the child’s love and attention. And I am sure many wouldn’t mind the occasional pop up recommending a good stand-up. I mean, who doesn’t love that!
Note: The excellent email subject lines mentioned above are borrowed from this ClickZ article which is full of many great examples.
Shocking subject lines fueling controversy and causing panic
Most people don’t know this, but most of the human population lives or atleast is intrigued by controversy. Why else would different brands be selling it to get ahead of their competitors? Using shock, controversial lines and the ultimate all-rounder, panic you can get crazy amounts of opens, but you will have to tread very carefully. While this is a for sure successful trick, it requires your utmost understanding of your audience and preferences. Take a look at the following examples.
Gays Everywhere: Social Media As Social Action
Why Your 6-Year-Old Is More Digital Than You
Your Marketing Technique Sucks: Why You Need to Think Local
As for panic, it’s a single word, but emotionally, it means a lot. Things like ‘What’s happening?’ Am I going through an existential crisis? Emotionally-hogging words like these make big impressions. You can use them as..
THE URGENCY
For this line, utilize the word ‘Now’ to press on the urgency of matters.
Example: Read this right now
THE FINAL CALL
Give an ultimatum or sort of a deadline for this one.
Example: Final call: Tops offer ends in 2 hours.
THE DON’T DO THIS BEFORE YOU.
Done exactly as stated in the heading, just write, don’t before a particular action and until before what you want them to do. Pretty simple.
Example: Don’t get the Netflix account until you read this
Personalize your email subject line to make them user friendly.
Incorporating techniques such as email personalization may require some effort, but it will bear fruit in the long run. This means you start with your homework to understand and research your audience and to craft relevant subject lines. This in no way means you start putting your targeted user’s name for this trend has become so old that people now ignore it, assuming it to be spam. Instead, provide location-specific offers or try targeting language or interest.
For Example- Don’t miss out- 90 minutes of private yoga class for two.
This subject line mentioned above combines the effect of personalization (via remarketing) with a rare chance of something to create a successful email subject line. Perfect, I say!
Be Mysterious.
As Nancy Drew or any other Scooby-Doo episode tells us, people like having a small element of mystery in their lives. After all, giving them a taste of something unique will have them wanting more.
Try something like this,
Example: It’s all going to end on December 5th Or bring up controversy like
“So what is really under Bermuda…..?”
Just be sure to stay relevant and exciting to elicit a good response.
Final thought.
When writing good subject lines, stay close to the tips given above and stimulate your left brain to see the magic. After all, the ones on the receiving end are people like you and me. Take them as such and tailor the subject in a way you yourself would like receiving. In the end, don’t stress the odds and give your best shot. People love creativity and innovation, so stay true to that. Good luck!
