How Important is an Email Subject Line?

Statistics show that an average office worker gets over one hundred emails on a daily basis. From official emails from work to subscribed newsletters and spammy promotional emails, most of us can agree that email inboxes today are very cluttered. Therefore, it is no surprise that the majority of emails are never opened, and some are deleted or reported as spam. According to Sender, in 2020 the average email open rate was just over 24%.

So what is the deciding factor for most people regarding whether they read and further engage with an email or ignore or delete it? Almost 50% of people today judge and decide whether or not to open an email based on the subject line alone, so it is clear to see just how important this factor of your email marketing is.

Email Subject Line – Important Things to Consider

Writing an effective, interesting and attention-grabbing subject line is crucial for getting your emails noticed for the right reasons. However, it is essential to understand that there is no perfect formula for a subject line that guarantees all your recipients will want to open the email. However, there are a few tips that can be kept in mind to increase the chance of your subject line getting the email opened.

1 – Make the Email Subject Line a Priority

Most marketers put a huge amount of time into focusing on and strategizing the content within the email, while the subject line is pretty much an afterthought. However, while it is crucial to focus on good content, as after all, it is going to be the main thing that leads to conversions, in the end, it is also important to bear in mind that no matter how great your email content is, it will never get the results you want if nobody ever opens the email.

Therefore, it’s hugely important to ensure that you make the subject line a priority and give it as much focus as you do with the email content itself.

2 – Test Email Subject Lines Beforehand

What might work well for one business might be a complete failure for another, and vice versa. When it comes to email subject lines, there is no formula to follow to create the perfect one, as the success rate will vary based on lots of different factors.

You may want to spend some time before sending your campaign making slight changes to your subject line and testing them on different segments of your audience. For example, you might want to use different wording, add an emoji, or make it a different length. Send two different subject lines to a set of people and determine which one is more useful to send to the rest of your mailing list.

3 – Engaging Email Subject Lines Are Short and to the Point

When writing your email subject line, try to avoid writing too much or making it look like a story – or even a complete sentence. The best subject lines are short, concise, and to the point. The main aim is to provide your audience with an idea of what they can expect when they open the email message itself and read the content inside. Experts suggest that when writing your subject line, you should stick with a maximum of sixty characters across no more than nine words.

4 – A Good Subject Line for Email Isn’t Misleading

It can be tempting to go a bit over the top with your subject lines to grab the attention of your recipients and draw them in to find out more. However, while there is nothing wrong with getting attention, it has to be for the right reasons. You are only going to lead people to mistrust your brand if you promise things in email subject lines that the email messages themselves simply do not deliver on.

Always be honest in your subject lines – misleading your readers or having them feel like they have been let down or worse, lied to when they open your emails is always a much worse situation than a low open rate.

5 – A Good Email Subject Line Promises Value

To open an email, most people need to feel like there will be something in it for them. Most people do not enjoy getting random promotional emails and will not open them unless they are bored, in which case they are highly unlikely actually to engage with the message.

When writing email subject lines, bear in mind that people usually like getting marketing emails from brands when they feel like they are going to directly benefit from it. Because of this, the subject line that you write should be designed to excite the reader to the point where they want to open the email and find out more. In other words, give them the incentive to take action.

6 – A Good Subject Line Reflects Urgency

Since today’s email inboxes are often bombarded with hundreds of emails, it is not uncommon for lots of people to procrastinate and put off going through their inboxes. However, if your subject line instils a sense of urgency or fear of missing out in your recipient, then they are more likely to open and read the email as soon as they see it.

For example, using your subject line to let readers know that opening the email today will allow them to access a time-limited discount on their next purchase, will grab the attention of recipients who are considering making a purchase, and encourage them to open the email as soon as possible.

7 – Effective Subject Lines Use Emojis

More and more companies are now using emojis in their email subject lines, and it is becoming an increasingly popular, positive and successful way to grab the attention of customers and subscribers. That being said, if you want to use emojis in your subject lines, there are a few things to think about first. Mainly, your industry – are emojis going to be appropriate for your audience? There can be a lot of benefits of using emojis for a fashion company, web design company, or a pet food store, for example, but if you’re selling medical devices or offering legal services, emojis in subject lines might go down like a lead balloon.

If you decide that emojis are appropriate for your audience and are likely to work well in getting their attention in their inboxes, then spend some time thinking about the best ones to use. Do not just use any old emoji – ensure that the emotion conveyed with the one you choose is relevant to the content.

8 – Highlight Action Words for Email Subject Lines

Action words are a good addition to subject lines to let the readers know what they can get or what they will be able to do when they open the email and engage with it. Along with this, you can also highlight other words that are helpful for letting the reader know more about the value that opening your email will bring to them.

Ultimately, you can highlight in bold or even capitalise any words that are important and that you want to stand out in your email subject lines. However, it’s also important to get the balance right because if used too much, it can look like you are shouting or, even worse, being spammy. Capitals for one word to grab attention can work well, but studies have found that subject lines that are all in uppercase are opened 30% less often.

9 – Use Personalised Email Subject Lines

Finally, personalisation is not just essential for the email content – it can also make a huge difference to your success when it is used in the email subject line. A personalised email subject line can be something as simple as addressing the recipient by their first name. When somebody sees their name on the subject line of an email, it feels much less generic and like the message was designed and sent just for them.

Personalisation is a simple yet hugely effective way to get more emails opened. No matter how many other emails sit unopened in your inbox, chances are that the ones that have your name in the subject line stand out more, which increases the chance of them being engaged with.

While the email content is crucial, the subject line is also extremely important to focus on, as it is the first thing the recipient reads in their inbox.