8 Surefire Tips For Successful Email Subject Lines

One of the most important aspects of any email advertising campaign is the email’s subject line. If your subject line does not entice the reader to open the email, your advertising campaign will likely have a low open rate which means people won’t be reading what you have to offer.

Here are some surefire tips for creating successful email subject lines that will boost the number of people who open and read your emails.

1./ Personalize the subject line

Most email advertising companies and mailing platforms offer you the ability to personalize your email campaign’s subject line and body with the recipient’s name. This technology allows you to personalize each email that goes out with the recipient’s first name and creates a personal feel for anyone receiving the email. Whenever possible, you should utilize personalization in the subject line to make the emails feel one of a kind. Personalization boosts the open rate of email campaigns and creates a personal connection between you and the recipient.

2./ The “Must-Read” Test For Readers

Your subject line should be written in a manner that causes the reader to feel either irresistibly curious or give them the feeling they are missing out on something if they don’t click and open your email. Create exciting subject lines that entice people to open the email. A famous subject line from a food company read, “You won’t believe the irresistible discovery we just made.” The subject line immediately makes the reader curious, and they will want to open the email to learn more. Your recipients don’t want to feel left out; create a subject line that plays on their curiosity and fear of missing out.

3./ Read The Newspaper Or Promotional Emails For Copy Ideas

If you open a newspaper, you will see how the editors have written article headlines that are short and catchy. The same basic concepts also apply to email subject lines. Make your subject lines short and enticing and entice your readers to read more. Your email subject line should clearly state what the contents of your email include, what’s in it for the reader, or what they should expect to receive by reading your email.

If you don’t have access to a newspaper, you can look at the emails you might already be receiving from companies you’ve done business with. Subscribe to some large company newsletters in your industry and see what type of subject lines they are using in their promotions. Many large companies employ professional copywriters to optimize subject lines and email sales copy.

4./ Test, Test, Test

The most crucial tip to improving your email subject line results is to continuously test your subject lines for effectiveness. Making small changes or tweaks to the wording can dramatically increase your open rates and outcomes. Most marketers’ biggest mistake in their email campaigns is rushing through creating their subject lines. It should be the exact opposite; you should start by creating compelling subject lines and then use them as the foundation for the rest of your email campaign.

Testing multiple subject lines and measuring open and click rates will help you optimize your email marketing efforts fully. Some email marketing platforms allow you to split test different subject lines. If you always try to improve your copywriting and subject lines, you will likely see increased sales and better metrics for your email marketing.

5./ Focus on customer “pain points.”

What problems or causes of “pain” do your customers have? Focus on acknowledging what they need and how your product or service can alleviate those pain points. For example, here is a headline that addresses a customer problem and immediately alleviates the problem with “Subject: Website visitors not converting? We improve website conversions.”‘

Brainstorming a list of problems your typical customers have is the first step towards writing good copy and subject lines. Describing solutions to those problems in the same subject line can make the copy even more compelling.

6./ Using persuasive writing to get more emails opened

Persuasive writing is a skill developed by some of the world’s top copywriters. The art of persuasion is a skill that will help you across all aspects of a business. Learning how to write persuasively can open the doors to higher conversion rates, better customer emails, and even sales calls. Several great online resources can teach you how to write persuasively. We recommend this excellent article for examples and help with persuasive writing.

Use persuasive writing in your email subject headlines, and you will start seeing higher open rates and click rates from your campaigns.

7./ Make the subject line “value based” for the reader

To increase open rates a subject line should be value based for the reader. For example; “Our product is on sale – buy today” is an obvious sales headline and might yield a low open rate. However a subject line that offers value might yield a better response rate. Example: “Top 3 Ways Our Product Can Change Your Life” provides value and makes the reader curious to open the email and read more.


8./ Dont sell from the subject line

An all too common email subject line mistake is trying to sell a customer from the subject line. The goal of the subject line should be to peak the readers interest and entice them to open your email. The goal here is to get the email opened and increase your email open rate. Most readers will skip or delete email subject lines that look like sales pitches.