These days, people get floods of emails daily. It is not easy to grab the eyes of your subscribers on your emails.
Subject line is one of the most important determinants of email open rate. That is why, it is very important to choose your subject line wisely.
If you want to improve the open rate of your email marketing campaign, following mentioned tips are worth keeping in mind.
#1. Keep Subject Lines Short
You must consider the length of the subject lines while writing them. Anything you write beyond 4-7 words will get truncated and eventually becomes worthless.
According to a research, 40% people open an email on mobile first and most of the mobile screens shows 4-7 words of subject line in the inbox.
#2. Include Localization
If you are targeting a particular local area in your local email marketing campaign then don’t forget to include the name of that area in your subject line.
By doing this you will be able to grab the attention of people who relate themselves with that area.
#3. Use Different Subject Lines
If you are using the same subject line for every email you send, you are forcing your subscribers to mark your emails as spam.
#4. Personalize Your Subject Lines
I’m pretty sure that if you see your name somewhere, you will definitely notice that. Same goes with the email inboxes. Try adding your subscriber’s name in your inboxes to grab their attention.
According to Adestra report 2012, personalized emails get 22.2% more open rate.
#5. Don’t Avoid From Name
Will you open an email came from fhfhu or abc or xyz? All these are looking spammy right? It is very important to include a real name or your company’s name in the from section to improve the email open rate.
#6. Preview the Subject Lines Before Sending
Precautions are always better than cure. Never shoot any email before previewing your email’s subject line.
Use the subject line checking tools like Litmus Subject Line Checker and Mail Chimp’s Subject Line Suggestor to know how your subject line looks your subscriber’s’ mailbox. If it is getting truncated you must consider to change it.
#7. Be Uncomplicated
Someone said truly that ‘Greatest beauty always lies in greatest clarity’. The purpose of subject line is to precisely tell users what your email contains. Nobody will click on your email, if you won’t make your subject lines clear and precise.
#8. Never Make False Promises
Being humans, we all hate fake promises. Then why do we do fake commitments in our subject lines when we know that we can not fulfill those words. If you will still make poor commitments, you are only motivating your subscribers to trigger ‘mark as spam’ button.
#9. A/B Testing
It is always recommended to do split testing with your subject lines to ensure what grabs your reader’s attention. Without A/B testing, it is relatively impossible to know which subject line works better for your email marketing campaign.
#10. Use Number in The Subject Lines
Many marketers found in their A/B testing that the subject line with numbers gets higher open rate than those without number. So, next time, try including number in the subject of your email for better performance.
#11. Use the Information Provided by Your Customers
You get a lot of information from the forms filled by your customers. Through that information, you can get an idea of what they are looking for, from which industry they are and much more.
Consider including that information in your email’s subjects, to get better open rate.
#12. Always Keep-up with your Subscribers Interest
Your email campaign will definitely get better open rate if you always keep pace with your subscriber’s interest.
#13. Never Over Capitalize
Always keep your subject lines in the title-case. If you over capitalize it, it will look spammy and many of your subscribers will mark that as spam.
#14. Try You if You Can’t Personalize it
There are many cases in which personalizing is not possible. If you are also unable to insert the name or city of your subscribers. Consider inserting you in your subject line to make them feel personal.
#15. Show Urgency
There are more chances your mail get opened if you show urgency. Studies show, subject lines with phrases like ‘last chance’, ‘3 days left’ and only ‘few hours left’ gets better open rate.
#16. Surprise Your Consumers
Studies show, human brains love surprises. Your email will definitely grab your subscriber’s eyeballs if they include the unexpected offers for them.
#17. Offer Discount
Who don’t like to save money? If you offer the discounts on your product or services and mention about the same in your emails. You will surely get the better open rate.
#18. Add Free Word (if possible):
If you are offering any freebie then make sure to mention that in the subject line. But remember, as I mentioned earlier, NEVER make the fake promises. Mention about the free offer only if you are actually providing that.
#19. Show Benefits of Subscribers
Nothing is free of cost in this cruel world. People are more likely to open those emails first which show their benefits..
#20. Ask Questions
It is human nature, if you are providing something to someone he will definitely give you something in return. There are more chances people will open your emails if you ask for help or any other question related to their niche.
#21. Ask for help
There is a rule in social psychology called ‘Reciprocity’. Reciprocity says that if we get something from someone, we repay whatever we receive from that person.
#22. Deal with People’s Fear
Yes you read right. If you learn how to deal with people’s fear you will be able to run successful email marketing campaign. Just use negative keywords in your subject line and see the impact on the open rate.
Derek Halpern noticed 35% more open rate just by using one negative keyword in his subject line.
If you also want to run your email marketing campaign more effectively then follow the above mentioned tips and let me know the results via comments.
I hope you enjoyed the post. Let me know your thoughts in comments.
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