Subject Line Do’s And Don’ts
If you have read any courses on email marketing before then you will have probably seen them state that the subject line is the most important part of any email. This is based on the premise that a subject line alone will get your emails opened. While it is agreed that the subject line is important, it is not as critical as these courses will have you believe.
It’s All About Quality Content
If you warmed your subscribers up with a quality welcome email that painted the picture for the subsequent emails that they will receive, then people will be more likely to open your emails anyway. With each email that you send you should add a “cliff hanger” at the end which gets them excited about the next email.
Providing value is the number one aim here. You want to create a scenario where your subscribers like and trust you and actually look forward to your next email. This does not mean that you shouldn’t make offers of course. But whether the subscriber takes you up on the offer or not, they should feel that they have learned something and can solve similar problems in their own lives.
Building up this kind of trust is not difficult to do, but it is very powerful. As soon as people see an email from you they will want to open it, and will probably not pay too much attention to the subject line.
Write The Subject Line After The Content
A lot of people will concentrate all of their efforts into writing the subject line first, because they believe it to be all important. It is essential that the subject line describes as accurately as possible what is in the email, so the recommendation here is to write it afterwards.
It is still possible to write a catchy subject line doing it this way. In fact it could even be easier. You have just spent time writing your quality email content and this will be fresh in your mind. The benefits of the email should be easier to recall. So if this very article was the email, a good subject line could be “Why subject lines are not as important as you think” or “Get your emails opened with these subject lines”.
What Not To Do
If you use some of the tactics mentioned in this section then be prepared for a lot of unsubscribes, and the remaining subscribers not opening your emails. These are deceptive tactics and you only have to use them one time to doom your email list.
The Command Subject Line
Gentle calls to action in the email itself are fine. But issuing commands in the subject line are something to avoid. Here is a classic “Open This Immediately”. People have been bombarded with these kinds of messages over the years, and only the most naive of people are going to respond to this. Other bad examples are “You Must See This” and “Check This Out Now”.
Insulting Subject Lines
One of the latest tactics is to use a subject line where you say that you are “shocked” or “disappointed” with the subscriber. The idea here is that you tell them that you are shocked that they haven’t checked out the product that you recommended in the last email you sent. These will offend and will lead to unsubscribes for sure.
Deceptive Subject Lines
These are the worst of the worst. Things like “Your Application Has Been Accepted”, “Your Download Is Ready”, “Your Verification Is Complete”, “Re: Your Support Question” and so it goes on.
If your subscriber were to open any of these (which is unlikely), and then they find that the email has absolutely nothing to do with the subject line (which most of them don’t), then they are unlikely to open any of your emails again and very likely to unsubscribe. Just don’t do it.