6 Tips for Writing Effective Email Subject Lines

Jun. 14, 2010

Email Marketing The subject line of an email may be the shortest piece of content that you write for your email campaigns, but that doesn't mean it isn't important. In fact, email subject lines are one of the most important elements of your emails, and they are often the deciding factor on whether or not emails are opened and read by your recipients. Unfortunately, they are often also one of the most difficult aspects of your email copy to write. The challenge when it comes to subject lines, is to create interest in your email’s topic and convey the purpose and content of your email, all in 50 characters or less (all the space that you have in a typical subject line).

We know this is difficult, we all face the same hurdles when coming up with interesting subject lines as much as the next marketers. To help make your lives a little less difficult, here are our tried and true tips for creating effective, gotta-open-it subject lines for your email campaigns:

Know your audience and what they’re looking for. You know your target audience better than anyone else, so use that information to create targeted email subjects for your recipients. You know if your audience is more interested in informative, educational emails, e-newsletters or promotions (and if you don't, it's probably time to do some research). Utilize this information to give your audience what they're looking for and they will be more likely to open your emails.
Create a sense of urgency to drive action. People are much more likely to open your emails if you leave them feeling like they will miss out on a valuable opportunity if they don't open your email right away.
Be your own guinea pig. We all get hundreds of emails a day, many of which we don't bother to open and often barely even glance at. However, once in a while a email comes along and its subject line really grabs your attention and you feel a strong desire to open it. Keep track of what has worked on you in the past, and you can probably get a good idea of what works in general.
Be personal. Subject lines are an easy aspect of your email to personalize. You can target your subject line based on product or content preferences of your recipient, or on past interests, clickthroughs, purchases or actions on your website.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Keep track of what types of email subject lines have worked for you in the past and stick with them. Email subject lines that have had success in the past are probably on the right track and are likely to continue to be successful in the future.
Be concise and get your point across. When it comes to email campaigns, you only have one opportunity to make an impression on your recipient and you generally, according to size requirements of most email providers, only have 50 characters or less to do so. If you're email subject lines are too long, or the relevant information is at the end of the line, there is a chance that it will get cut off and your message won't be communicated properly.