May 19, 2016 | 3 minute read Increase Email Campaign Effectiveness with These Subject Line Tweaks
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By: Carrie Miller
You’ve been working with your marketing team to develop the perfect email marketing campaign using Visual Visitor’s Identify ANYONE and you’re just about ready to deploy. Do you have the subject line that will stand out in today’s overstuffed inboxes?
Every morning when I get in, there are so many emails ready for my attention; shipping, welcome, sales, etc., it can be quite daunting. And like most, there is a quick scan and the DELETE button gets fired up. As I was going through some of those emails, I started thinking about what features make the DELETE button get called on and what features make me pause…
Know what You’re Writing About
Before you can get too bogged down in subject lines, you first have to make sure that you understand exactly what type of email you are working on:
Emails Meant to Educate or Inform.
These are not teacher only emails, but they should be providing some sort of nugget of knowledge that the recipient did not currently have. Types of emails that would be things like newsletters or updated blog sites.
Sales.
These are just what they sound like. Emails that you get from previously shopped at stores to let you know that a sale is coming.
Transactional.
These are action based emails – you either signed up for a new service, you ordered something online, your product has shipped, etc. These are usually welcome emails that the recipient wants to receive and are looking for.
Match Subject Line Styles with Email Types
Now that we have touched on a few of the major email types, we can move on to what subject lines work best with each one. Oh, just to really spice things up a little, some can cross into multiple categories.
Call-To-Action.
This is pretty self explanatory. You are trying to get someone to take some type of action.
- Join us for tomorrow’s session
- 2 Days Left to Shop 3 Great Sales!
- Tell us what you think.
Direct.
There is no question with this straightforward subject line.
- Enjoy 20% off swim wear today.
Curiosity Encouraging.
This is an effective, but sometimes hard to implement subject line type. Too much or too little can get that DELETE button pressed. You have to really make the recipient want to click. You will find a lot of these types of titles or lead ins on Facebook.
- Yes! It’s finally here.
Personalized.
These are those emails that pop up after you visit a site like Amazon or other online retailers. You know, all of a sudden, that car you were just looking at online, is now pictured in your inbox!
- Welcome back, Carrie! Have you checked out these hot deals?
Understanding your audience and your email type is key to setting up the perfect email campaign. In addition to that, flexibility is also an asset. You want to bring in the curiosity encouraging bit and maybe a pinch of personalized.
Ask a Question.
Using a question for a subject line is a great way to get your recipient’s attention. Using a relevant question will engage the reader and make them want to open the email to read more.
Keep it Short and Simple.
Subject lines are teasers to get the recipient to open and read the full email. If your subject line is cut short due to having too many characters, it will be very ineffective. Also, your recipients will read through their inboxes quickly, making split second decisions to open and read or to delete. Solution? Keep it under 50ish characters or about 5 to 7 words.
Avoid Spam-ish Words.
There is really not much you can do to get your email deleted quicker than using spam words in the subject. That is, if they even make it to an actual inbox. Things to avoid: punctuation like all caps (yelling), multiple exclamation points!!!, overly used promotional words “BUY NOW!!!”.
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