Email Marketing Subject Lines That Will Get Your Email Opened

One of the best ways to stay engaged with your past, present and future clients is through email marketing. It’s surprising how many small businesses feel that email marketing isn’t effective or isn’t worth spending money on. Nothing can be further from the truth! The challenge is, many great emails never get opened because their subject lines are ineffective, boring, or stale. Businesses will never benefit from their email marketing efforts if their emails are never opened, so take the time to understand the importance of email marketing, the power of a subject line, and learn the email marketing subject lines that will get your email opened.

Yes, email marketing still works

Before we get to subject lines, let’s settle this debate once and for all:  email marketing still works. Inc. did a great article entitled, “Here are 5 Reasons Why Email Marketing Still Works”. It’s spot on. Here are the 5 reasons below:

1. Email is an easy way to reach mobile customers and prospects
2. It’s a great way to keep customers informed and up to date on your company, product, service or industry
3. Email coupons drive online and in-store sales
4. Email is easy to integrate with other marketing tactics to make them more effective
5. Email marketing is inexpensive

These are five solid truths!  Read the full article to learn more.

Why email subject lines are so important

Did you know that 33% of email recipients decide whether or not to open an email based on subject line alone? You can see why it’s so important to create subject lines that are compelling enough to get people to click through. Typically, the subject line is often left until the last minute, a complete afterthought, and little effort is put into it. Using an engaging, attention-grabbing subject line is always one of the best ways to achieve high email engagement levels, so take some time to think about what you want to say.

Many businesses receive hundreds of emails a day, and most go unnoticed, ignored, or deleted if they don’t appear important or relevant. The subject line is one of the first things a recipient will see, so it’s essential that yours is the one that stands out and catches their attention.

Use one of these email subject lines to get a better open rate

The following are examples of powerful subject lines that help get your email opened. Of course, feel free to customize it to your service, product or company, but follow the basic format to see results. Each of these will speak to one of 8 motivators for a recipient to open your email:

1. Self-interest
2. Curiosity
3. Offer
4. Urgency/Scarcity (Fear of missing out)
5. Humanity
6. News
7. Social proof
8. Story

Here is a comprehensive list of email marketing subject lines to help get the creative juices flowing:

• “Your subscription is expiring”
• “You’re missing out on points.”
• “You’ve got ONE DAY to take advantage of this offer”
• “Get this NOW before we run out”
• “Today only! Take advantage of this deal!”
• “A surprise offer just for you!
• “Top 5 ways to get more customers”
• “Do THIS if you want to double your business”
• “Avoid these 12 marketing pitfalls”
• “Stop doing social media the wrong way!”
• “Here’s how to increase your client retention rate”
• “Why small business owners shouldn’t blog”
• “What small business owners learned from their LinkedIn mistakes”
• “Proof that email marketing works”
• “Are you the only business not on Twitter?”
• “You, a published author?”
• “Imagine getting new business just by blogging”
• “5 little-known ways to grow your email list”
• “12 hacks to come up with blog topics fast”
• “Strategic Marketing Services’ President Patty Hughes acknowledged for her public service”
• “Company announces 5 new team members to serve our clients”
• “How an unknown podcaster generated 100,525 organic downloads”

Every one of the above fall into one of the 8 motivators listed above. Of course, only use subject lines that accurately represent your brand. Don’t use humor if that’s not how you’re comfortable communicating. Mix your sense of urgency with both positive and negative factors.

Measure to see what works

After you’ve been trying out a few of these new subject lines, have your marketing manager see what’s working and what’s not. Many email programs such as Constant Contact allow you to look at email statistics, open rate, click through rate and much more. Take advantage of these tools! Over time, you’ll be able to determine which email marketing subject lines that will get your email opened.

Need help with your email marketing needs?  Contact Strategic Marketing Services to manage your email marketing efforts for you!