Why Writing Compelling Email Subject Lines Still Matter

Saffron Edge

Jun 11, 2018

3 min read

It’s been more than 40 years since emails saw the light of day being used as a proper marketing channel. Still, it has managed to stay at the top of all other marketing channels for a long, long time when it comes to driving the most engagement and conversions. Though social media may have the spotlight right now when it comes to engaging your audience and building connections, email has always been the king of the game called marketing and is still very popular amongst professionals for retaining and interacting with consumers, 80% of them agree. Unlike popular belief, email is still very much alive. According to a Radicati report, nearly half of the world’s population will be using emails by 2020. The report also suggested that people will spend close to 250 billion emails every day in 2019 for carrying out both business and personal communications. That’s a LOT of emails sent in a day! Standing out from the crowd is something email open rates thrive on and writing compelling subject lines that get clicked as crazy will always be at the heart of it. Most people quickly scan the subject lines in their inboxes before deciding which messages are worth their time and attention. So, with so much pressure on the subject line to entice the potential reader, it makes sense to put your best foot forward and leave an impact on your subscriber list by writing compelling subject lines that urge them to click through. If you haven’t been able to make your CTR tick when it comes to deploying emails that convert, here are some tips that might help you do so -

1. Be as direct as you can

sumo Source: Sumo

Offering a discount? Have something special to offer? Have an important announcement to make? Be upfront and clear about it. Don’t think you’ll trigger spam filters just because you have the word ‘discount’ or ‘off’ in your email subject line. In fact, people love discounts, and having the word ‘discount’ in your email subject line is proven to improve your click rates drastically.

2. Personalization rocks

getvero Source: GetVero

Personalization adds a special touch to your emails and portrays to the receiver that the email is written specifically for them. Add a first name, last name, full name or email ID in your email subject lines to add that personal touch. This would require you to choose an email marketing client that provides the functionality of putting dynamic content in them or you can take help from an experienced email marketing agency, like us, that can easily do this for you.

3. Don’t get too creative

sumo Source: Sumo

It’s easy for subject lines to lose their meaning and context in the pursuit of making it more creative and ‘catchy’. Studies suggest that getting overly creative with your email subject lines, pop-ups and opt-in forms can have more of a negative effect on your users than a positive one. Emphasizing on the first tip, just keep your email subject lines simple and focus on highlighting the exact value it provides.

4. End it with a question mark?

sumo1 Source: Sumo

Ending your email subject lines with a question mark tends to increase its click rates by 23%. Question marks add the element of curiosity which urges the reader to click, pair it with a relevant topic that your audience might be interested in and your CTR will go through the roof!

5. A/B test

No email marketing campaign is complete without A/B testing. For email marketers, A/B testing has always been an essential component in figuring out what works and what doesn’t. With the help of a little A/B testing, you can easily focus on what’s working for your target audience and quickly scrap what’s not. This not only leads to cost reduction, but you’ll also save yourself a lot of time that would have had spent on figuring out why your email marketing campaigns aren’t delivering like you expected them to be. In my opinion, email is still king when it comes to having personal interactions and building meaningful relationships with your users and it’s not going anywhere soon. Do you indulge in sending emails to interact with your audience? How do you make them click? Share your unique subject line writing ideas and tips in the comments.