Subject line style over the years has trended from long to short and from generalized to content-specific.
As we head into prime season for retail, the increase of email volume to everyone’s inbox means that recipients will have more email and less time to review each message. Some recipients, skim their inbox daily and will only open a mailing if the subject line is compelling.
So what drives customers to open emails?
Trusted From Display Name. Ok, not the subject line, but given that it resides to the near left or directly on top and in bold (in the case of some smart phones), it is vitally important that the From Display Name is a) consistent from mailing to mailing and b) recognizable to the recipient as a trusted sender, meaning it matches the brand, subscription or name on the sign-up page.
Do not include the From Display Name in the subject line. It’s repetitious and hogs valuable real estate.
Craft a concise message. Shorter subject lines work better for a number of reasons both practical and stylistical. In the latter half of 2011, benchmarks are trending to over 15% of email viewership on smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices. The small screen viewer favors brevity in subject lines where the message is not cut off.
By being concise the marketer presents the most compelling content ideas in the subject line.
How short is too short, how long is too long? From a display perspective, 20 to 30 characters with spaces is the sweet spot. There are exceptions of course. Important account information, or a subject line for an email that presents a number of ideas will demand something longer. Be judicious with letters and words, then test, test, test.
Informative and compelling statements. The subject line is precious real estate so make every word count. This does not mean concatenate your ideas to the point that recipients need a codebook to decipher; but there are some fundamentals to guide you to the perfect subject line.
- Don’t include personalization because you can. A recipient’s first name in the subject line has become a tool of the Spammer.
- Do include the last four digits of an account, an order, or a ticket number if the mailing is specific to that record.
- Don’t use conjunctions, apply punctuation. Use a comma instead of ‘and’; a semi-colon will separate ideas.
- Include the offer along with %, $ or PROMOCODE if your mailing is presenting a savings, new low price or promotion. These symbols are eye-catching. And yes, PROMOCODEs are the one, maybe only, time to use all caps in the subject line. Perform a spam check on subject lines before mailing to test whether a campaign with symbols or CAPS will be triggered to bulk.
- Use imperatives. As a grammatical mood, imperatives are fitting as they set a tone of urgency without resorting to exclamation points. They are also concise by nature and they craft less accusatory statements that may appeal to a wider audience. “You don’t want to miss …” becomes “Don’t miss …”
- Be judicious with exclamation points and periods. Is your idea that urgent or final – really?! Periods do not belong in subject lines, period.
- Change it up. If a marketing program’s subject line does not change to suit the content of the campaign, the recipient may be less inclined over time to open the email, or stay subscribed.
Subject lines are like news headlines. As in journalism, the art of the headline is the domain of editors with a talent for word crafting. If you want to get better at writing subject lines, skim the newspaper (or its online counterpart) for headlines.
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