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We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. Email marketing isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. It’s proven time and time that it is a proven part of digital marketing.

But how can we make your email marketing better? By making sure you’ve got the best subject line possible. So let’s look at some email subject line best practices that can help your open rate.

 

Keep it Personal

Nothing makes you feel less special than seeing an email pop up and being greeted with “Hello, customer”. It might as well be greeting you by calling you a walking wallet. If you are going to address your reader, make sure that you are personalizing your email. 

This can be as easy as using tools to insert the recipient’s name into the subject line, but you can get pretty nuanced if you have the right tools. 

Some tracking tools and cookies can allow you to include things like interests and hobbies in your email to make it extra personal. To some, this might seem intrusive, so unless you know your audience will be ok with that extra level of personalization, keep it to their name and not call them a walking wallet. 

 

Don’t Go On, and on, and on, and on, and on….

Short. Sweet. And to the point. That’s what your email subject line should be. 

Email clients will only show a set number of characters before cutting off the rest of the text; you don’t want to do that. But above all, you must put yourself in your subscribers’ shoes. The average office worker gets 121 emails daily; that’s a lot of subject lines to read.

So, don’t compound the issue by writing something too wordy. A study by Marketo saw that subject lines with 41 characters, or seven words performed the best with recipients.

 

Avoid Using “Spammy” Words

• Buy

• $$

• Extra income

• Bargain

• Cash

• Get paid

• Passwords

• Open

• Opt-in

You’re going to want to avoid these words for two reasons. The first of which is that they will almost always rub the reader the wrong way. Looking at these words, it gives the feeling that someone is trying to trick you into opening an email.

The second, and realistically most important, reason is that these words will most likely send your email to a spam or junk folder.

 

Make the Reader Feel Special

You may have heard of the psychology of exclusivity. It’s extremely important when it comes to sales. The most successful email marketers use it to get the highest ROI from each email to prospects. In addition, making the email recipients feel amazing and valued will nurture loyalty and trust.

How, exactly, do you make the reader feel special though? Try using the phrases “Just for you”, “You’re Invited”, “For Our Most Loyal Customers”, etc. 

You can even go the extra mile during holidays since those are, by nature, timely events. For example, Valentine’s Day wasn’t too long ago, so you could have gone with an email subject line like “What’s This? A Letter From Your Secret Admirer?”, “Will You Be Our Valentine, (insert name here)?”. 

This is just a taste of what you can do to help improve your email marketing performance, but if you need more help, don’t hesitate to reach out to us for a free consultation. In the meantime, let us know what other tips you’d like us to cover for email marketing!

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