Focused Subject Lines Open More Doors

Do you ever wonder if sending emails, whether to subscribers or prospective customers, really does any good at all? It can be frustrating when you put so much effort into an email campaign and get little results.

Maybe your knock at the door is either too salesy, too bland, or too off the radar to capture your readers’ attention. How much brainpower goes into the creation of your email subject lines?  After all, that is what opens the door to get people to read your email content.

The subject line of your email is the starting point. If it’s inviting, intriguing, or otherwise interesting enough to get the reader to open it, then step two is quality, informative, instructive, or otherwise useful content.

My favorite way of constructing great email subject lines is to think of it being read by a real person, someone I know. It could also be a mental image of a person in your target audience. The point is your subject line will be more personal and human-centric; not a sterile hard sell. It also makes it easier to jump into creating your content with better conversation and relevance. On occasion, you may want to create your subject line after you write your content. You’ll figure that out intuitively.

What is a link-bait subject line?

I would suggest using these sparingly, but they can be compelling to read or share. An example might be, “3 Easy Steps to …”; or “How to … in 10 days.”  If you go this route, be sure you are delivering on your promises.

Readers tend to love bullet points in email content where reading is quick and the message is easy to use and share. Remember, the quality of your content will either hold your readers’ interest or send them away. Good content that motivates the reader to take an action will always outweigh clever, tricky subject lines.