Putting together an e-newsletter is a lot of work.
Even if most of the content just reflects what you’ve put up on your site recently, you still have to format it, write an introduction, and make sure that it’s error-free.
Because of all that, it can be incredibly disappointing when only a small percentage of recipients open it. After all, you can’t get them to your site and convert them if they’re not even reading.
That’s why it’s so important to write a subject line that entices people to click on the email. But how do you do that?
Make it timely.
Too often, people see emails from businesses and mentally file them into a “to be read later” pile, which often ends up meaning “to be read never.”
Avoid this fate by using subjects that encourage urgency or reflect an event that’s happening soon.
Phrases like “limited time,” “RSVP,” and “today only” tell people that they’re going to miss out if they don’t act now. And mentioning holidays is always effective, especially if you’ve got the content to back it up – which you should!
Keep focus.
Many newsletters touch on a bunch of different topics. But your subject needs to pick the most important one (i.e. the one you think will encourage the most customers to click) and focus on it.
You’ve only got about two seconds to capture someone’s attention, so dividing their attention doesn’t help anyone.
Start strong and use the Ws.
Continuing with the idea of catching attention quickly, the first few words of your subject are the most important, and you can greatly improve your open rate by using the five Ws.
You remember those from school, right? Who, what, when, where, and why.
For your purposes, when and what are probably the most important, such as “Sale Today Only” or “Donation Deadline is Tonight.”
Include digits.
Lots of platforms, like smartphones, show only a limited amount of subject characters, so you’ve got to get to the point quickly.
Digits help you to this by taking up less space. Moreover, they tend to catch people’s attention in a sea of words. And they have been shown to greatly improve open rates if used to support the content and call to action.
Follow these rules, and you’re sure to see an uptick!
