Subject Lines for E-mail Marketing
- Oct 10, 2013 2:48 PM
What are some "subject lines" you've used that get the most "opens" in your E-mail marketing campaigns?
6 Answers
- Oct 21, 2013 9:33 AM
Hi James, I've found the best subject lines are targeted to the specific challenge, problem or offer you are making in the email. Rather than asking what will get them to open the email, ask instead, what do I want them to do when they DO open it? Questions like -- What would if something did/did not happen? usually pull well as do provacative ones. If you have content to provide, like an ebook, then the how to subject line -- The 10 Biggest Webinar Mistakes and How to Avoid Them work well. Hope this helps! Here's another great resource for you from our toolbox https://www.demandmetric.com/content/effective-email-marketing-campaigns. Clare
- Jan 29, 2014 12:42 PM
That is an age old question. You don't want to look like spam, but you don't to be passed over. Today with all the noise in the market and everyone screaming the samething "we are faster, better, cheaper" everyone looks grey to the consumer.
So in your subject line you need to get their attention, stop them in their tracks and say something so compelling, so origional, so bold they have to click.
Here is an example of two newspapers covering the sam fire.
"Early morning fire on First Street burns a house to ground"
or
"Mother of three standing in the frozen street with her children and no where to go"
Clearly the second one is more compelling. Always look for the angle that "Just th facts" type reporting will not deliver.
Hope this helps.
Be Bold
- Mar 18, 2014 11:57 AM
I don't claim to be an 'expert' but I'm going to pipe in anyway. :-)
So, how do you compel someone to click with only your subject to compel them. That is the question. As Clare kind of points out, your subject should relate to the content. Intentiallly mislead, just to get the open and you run a higher risk of getting an unsubscribe right after.
Now, rather than give you 5 subject lines that work, I'll follow the demandmetric methodology and give you a methodology.
Write a headline that is compelling, but not misleading. If you can intrigue your prospect, you can get them to click. Try writing a headline that makes them ask themselves a question like, "what is that" or "what does that mean?"
For Ed's story above, how about "Burning Down the House." (what the Talking Heads song?)
As a follow up email, how about, "Did you..." (did I what?)
You can start with 'tame' benefit driven subjects in your sequence, like " .... to increase sales" , ".... to increase your ROI", ".... Get more Traffice" etc.
If prospects continue to not open, you can always get more agressive, possibly employing scarcity tactices like "Last Chance" (what am I going to miss?)
Hope that gives you some ideas.
- May 23, 2014 8:10 PM
Hi James,
How easily our mails get 'opened' by the receiver depends upon the following three things. In that order:
1. Company Brand. Trust they have put on the brand and the originality and sincerety of their content. I am sure you are not just looking at sending ONE email and then have them open just that one. You will have a series of it, and the content will decide if the recepient will open your email the second and the third time. So focus most on the content, not the subject line. Plan for a long term, sincere and credible sequence of emails that the target audience can appreciate. If not, I'd recommend you NOT to send any mails to begin with. It might just hurt your brand reputation!
2. Area of Interest. I might be a regular subscriber to an Anti-virus software for years, but I might not be interested in knowing what viruses are hitting the market anew. However, I will be interested if there is something I could 'do' to make my PC/mobile/tablet experience more secure. When I get emails from the Antivirus company, but its about regular updates that I think is none of my concern and I trust my company to take care of it on a regular basis, I will tune my brain to ignore all emails from this company there forth. I will not open an email from a company until I believe it will have content I would want to read.
3. Subject Line. All above being said, there is always a 'first time' someone would open an email from a new source. Subject line, sender's NAME in the mail (FROM:???) are both equally judged by the receipent and if it is this 'first time' experience you are trying to capitalize on, work on both with equal importance. It could be the company's name, the value you believe the target audience will prioritize, or something else. Its your customer, you would know better! Both of these could be 'Attention Drivers". But the subject should be used to drive customer Interest as well. Lines that worked for me for a bank's communication were:
"Why earn only 3% on your money, when you can easily earn 6%?" - This worked for a limited period term deposit offer.
"Are you travelling outside your country?" - this worked for our VISA Travel Card sales.
"What's your priority? Wealth Protection or Wealth Maximization?" - it worked everytime I wanted to pitch to a new deposit customer - especially High Networth Individuals.
For a commuter bike company, the most successful email catcher for unsolicited receipients was, "How far can you reach with just a liter of Petrol?" - this hit pretty well on the bike's Mileage value and thus reflected on replies, sales and inquiries as well.
- May 30, 2014 6:25 AM
Hello Everyone,
Yesterday I came across a really interesting article on this topic;
It concluded that Emails with no subject line were opened 8% more of the time, versus emails that had a subject line in some tests run by Hubspot.
I would agree with their opinion. It would be ineffective for getting someone to initially open something when they don’t know you. - But once you have a connection, their point is that a subject line becomes unnecessary.
Just thought it was an interesting article to add to the discussion.
Dan
