When you are writing an email it’s vital that you have the attention of the reader. The last thing you want is to take the time to write an email that somebody is just going to delete when they receive it. You want someone to take a look at the subject line of the email and feel instantly intrigued and compelled to open it. A strong subject line can help you to do that because it will get the recipient’s attention and encourage them to open the email and actually take the information that you have written. Creating a positive first impression is super important whether they’re a new customer, an old customer, or a potential client. They’ll be more likely to engage with your writing if you have a subject line that can effectively communicate what you are trying to say.
Why is an effective email subject line important?
It’s important that you write a strong email subject line because that can increase the success of your email communication. Nobody wants to take the time to craft an email that’s just going to be deleted before it gets opened. There is a reason that clickbait culture exists, and it’s to entice people to read things that they may not usually have read. The subject line is the hook, and this is something that you need to remember when it comes to writing your emails.
You are trying to hook people in to read what you have to say and appreciate what you have to say at the same time. They might decide whether they want to open the email and engage with you based on that subject line so if it’s not strong enough you could be losing a lot of people. Your subject line should be easy to read, quick to read, and something that people can just dive into. It needs to be enticing and it needs to be short and snappy. Take a look at our tips for how to write an email subject below.
- Don’t make it too long. When you’re right in the subject line of an email you shouldn’t make it too long because people will lose interest. It should be interesting enough that people want to open the email, and it should be short enough that it can be seen on a mobile device. User experience and readability are both boring and things to consider.
- Be vague. You don’t want to give away the whole email on the subject line because there will be no point in people clicking otherwise. Being a little bit vague with your subject line is click bait, yes but it’s the kind of click bait that you want for your customers. You want to get your recipient’s attention with vague subject lines that make them wonder what information is important.
- Be direct. You can be vague and direct, so if you are advertising a product, you could start with asking people to ‘click and read about…’, or just saying ‘new products enclosed’. It is still vague Because it doesn’t explain what the products are, but it directly explains that the email refers to products.
- send it to yourself first. If you are testing out a new email, send it over to yourself first so that you can see the subject line how it appears to your customers. It’s always smart to have a test email but be mindful of the preview length. Some email servers only show a certain amount of texts which means that you need to look at how many characters you are using and make sure that each character is used in a way that makes them valuable.
- Leave out the emojis and symbols. It’s long been known that emojis and symbols are a hint to spam emails. Many spam emails out there will include emojis because they think it’s a good way to entice customers, but you can insert your customers by avoiding emojis and ensure that they know that what you are sending is not spam. Emojis can help to improve open rates but it will depend on how they are used. If your business has used emojis from the very beginning then that’s fine, but if not don’t start now.
- Keep an eye out for email performance. Regardless of how you write your subject lines you should keep an eye on how it’s performing. This will help you to craft better subject lines in the future because you will know what people are opening and what people are ignoring. This is important if you want to ensure that your emails are seen in the correct light.
