If you believe you’ve mastered the craft of writing SEO-rich headlines, congratulations are in order. But if you’re trying to write email subject lines that get your emails opened, that’s another animal. Unlike SEO, you’re not trying to get to the top of any rankings, but you still want to be engaging and personal. Here are three subject line tips to increase your email marketing open rate:
- What’s the big secret? Actually, “secrets” is one of the most-clicked, most lead-generating subject line words you can use, according to HubSpot. Other great words to use include “sale,” “free delivery” or “% off.” Interesting to note, the word “save” has a low open rate, as does “monthly.” But “weekly” and “daily” are good, hinting that people like their information delivered quickly. Warning: Don’t ever overuse a word in your subject lines or you’ll turn your reader off—especially if you don’t deliver what’s promised.
- Get personal. Statistics also show that email subject lines with the consumer’s name or company name are opened more often than subject lines that don’t use either. Pay attention to the email address—it will signal if the person is receiving your email at their work address or personal address. Once the person opens your email, make sure you continue the personalization in the body of the email, or your recipient will be disappointed and ignore your email the next time.
- Be useful and helpful. People will open your email if you’re going to be informative and relevant to their lives. Since recent subscribers are more likely to open your emails, make sure you grab them from the beginning with subject lines and content they need. The information you received from them upon signup should be studied carefully so you’re not sending anything they didn’t sign up for. If they want gift ideas, for instance, make sure you’re sending email about new products.
Finally, since Tuesday has the highest rate of people unsubscribing to email lists, make sure you send your email on another day so you don’t lose a potential customer before you even have a chance to prove yourself.