How to Write Effective Subject Lines That Get Your Email Opened

With billions of emails sent daily, how can you stand out in the crowd and not get clicked into the trash? The email subject line is by far the most important factor in a successful email campaign. It’s what determines whether people open and read the rest of your email or not. Here’s how you can make sure yours will get opened and read:   

1. Current Events

Newsworthy events can be a great resource to finding your next awesome subject line and boost engagement and open rates. Also, with so many random holidays “Happy National Cupcake Day” you can have fun integrating it into the subject line, as well as your content. I would caution to stay away from anything too controversial or political and use best practices to avoid alienating your audience or offending them.

2. Humor

Puns and fun play on words can prove to increase your open rate. If you can get someone to laugh, that’s memorable and curiosity will take over. This will help you stand out when people are scrolling through their inbox and guaranteed to brighten their day.

3. Super Short

The ideal subject line is 30-50 characters, but if everyone is using this as the rule, try keeping it very short. Example: “FYI” – using an acronym or shorter words has proven to be attention grabbing and escalate open rates.

4. Teaser

Using words that tease content and give a preview on what’s inside is an effective strategy to increase your open rate. Example: “And the winner is…”

5. Numbers

Putting a number with a list of the content inside an email is an oldie, but goodie. Example: “Top 10 Hot Destinations for Summer Travel” provides enough information to peak the recipient's interest and worthy of reading more.

6. Question

Posing a question in the subject line can be extremely successful. Example: “Want Twitter Hacks?” – if you do, you’re going to open and find out, right?

7. Personalize

Putting the recipients name in the subject line, can feel more intimate and help with engagement and are more than 20% more likely to get opened.

8. Multimedia

With Simplero, you can use video within email broadcasting to visually communicate with your audience. By informing the receiver of a video in the subject line it will boost your open rate by 19%.

9. No Subject Line

I wouldn’t recommend using this trick all the time, but emails with no words in the subject line are opened 8% more than emails with a subject line.

10. Reverse Psychology

Tell someone not to do something and what do they do? They want to do it. Same with email subject lines.

Another great reference to use when trying to craft an email subject line is from Alex Williams, the Creative Director & Strategy Director at Trendline Interactive “the C.U.R.V.E. formula”

• Curiosity

• Urgency

• Relevancy

• Value

• Emotion

Optimize your email subject lines by using at least two of the five C.U.R.V.E elements and see your open rates soar! (use the link above to read more about the C.U.R.V.E methodology)

*Statistics provided by Hubspot