35% of email recipients open emails based on the subject line alone. (Convince & Convert)

As a result, it is crucial to any successful marketing team, to perfect your subject line strategy. Subject lines, like many things, are influenced by trends. Trends in the industry, trends in consumer engagement and trends in pop culture. While all these things need to be taken into account when creating a strong subject line, there are a few basic rules you should keep in mind.

The number one thing that will help your subject lines stand out is the expected value that your message will bring to your audience. Grabbing your customers’ attention through offers, urgency or curiosity all suggests some sort of benefit for your customer. You want to make your reader feel as though opening this email will provide them with something they are currently missing out on. That being said, you do not want to over promise and under deliver, leaving your audience feeling tricked and upset. This can cause high unsubscribe rates or worse, a bad association with your brand.

The next way to increase open rates (OR) is through relevance. As previously stated, keeping up to date on popular trends is important for creating intriguing subject lines. Other ways to increase the relevancy is through timely topics and personalized copy.

Personalized subject lines have a 27% higher open rate on average (Experian Marketing Services).

Personalized subject lines don’t necessarily mean the recipients’ name though. They can include data points from a multitude of areas such as geographic location, job, company name, interests and more! Consumers are eager to know what is going on in the world, their role, and how they can somehow be involved. Connecting with your client and providing them a way to be part of current culture is an incredibly useful tactic.

After you have decided on the topic of your subject line, be sure to keep the copy short and sweet. If your subject lines are too long, you risk the losing the attention of your viewers.

Hubspot recommends that subject lines be no longer than 50 characters.

A great way to tighten up your subject lines is to remove any unnecessary words or punctuation. Newsletter, for example, is a great word to leave out. Invespcro, found that open rates decrease by over 18% when just the word newsletter in the subject line, while adding the word ‘thanks’ increased transaction rates by 2.5x! Simple changes like this can make your subject line more direct while also maximizing open rates.

Subject lines seem so mundane, but in actuality they are your customers’ first glimpse into your message.

About 69% of emails will be reported as spam based solely on subject line alone (invespcro), so it is critical that they are perfected.

You want your audience to continue to read more and therefore you need to know how to capture their attention and draw them in. There are many useful tools, like SubjectLine.com and Test Subject to make sure you are on the right track! With these tips, and those tools, you’ll be sure to see your open rates soar!

For more information on email marketing and for help developing a successful strategy give us a call today at 415-351-2227 or contact us here!