The Importance of the Email Subject Line. Discover Some of Our Top Tips Today.

Email subject lines and why they are important….

Email inbox’s can be a crowded place for advertisers which makes the importance of standing out key to their success. At esb we know this more than anyone with 100’s of advertisers using our service to send targeted emails out across our extensive UK email database. So where does it all start? The Subject Line.

Consumers will judge emails on their subject lines and with a small window to catch their eye and drive your email content to be opened then the subject line needs to be compelling and engaging. This can be the difference between a successful email campaign or not and why it’s important to get it right using some tried and tested solution aimed at making the right first impression and standing out to drive that initial open.

So, what makes a good email subject line? I’ve put some of my top tips below for you with some examples of our top performing subject lines.

1.      Urgency

By creating a sense of urgency in your subject line it helps drive people to act and the first action required is to open the email. People often react when they feel they might miss out on something so by increasing the level of urgency open rates often rise.

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2.      Keep it short

We found that keeping your subject lines short and sweet has increased benefits of seeing your email opened. With over 40% of emails now opened on mobile we recommend using subject lines using less than 40 characters, this will help people see the full email message and giving the best chance of engagement.

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3.      Offers

Whether it’s engaging with a customer for the first time or on multiple occasions, providing an offer or incentive drives responses. So, if you have an offer running why not include it? We always encourage our brands to include their offers, whether these be on-site or an exclusive. Please note where discounts with % off work really well, offers including value add, enhanced delivery options or free guides also see engagement increase. Anything that adds value to your customer!

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4.      CTAs

Leaning back to the level of urgency, including call to actions in your subject lines creates the need to complete the action there and then. If your email has a direct instruction like encouraging them to enter a competition, then let your subject line reflect that.

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5.      Ask a Question

Adding a question to your subject line can help provide intrigue with people stopping to consider the question before opening the email to find out more. Aim to keep your questions open ended so your reader will want to discover the email content.

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6.      Familiarity

People interact with familiarity whether that be the brand itself or the products or services being offered. It’s important to use this to your advantage and include in your subject line. When targeting a cold audience including the brand name within the subject line has shown to have a strong impact on open rates.

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7.      Timing

Getting the timing right on your emails can be key to interacting with your customer, this includes time of the day, day of the week or key event in the month such as payday, bank holiday or upcoming events such as Mother’s Day or Easter. Studies have shown timing is one of the main factors in seeing customers engage with brands emails.

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8.      Test

With all the above tips to find the best subject line and the one to give you the best engagement among you send base testing is key. Take the time to A/B test, compare, and analyse to find the best performing.

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Remember that the goal is always to try and entice the customer to open your email and hopefully these tips will help you when writing your next sends seeing your open rates start to go up!

I hope you found this useful, if you would like to discuss your email marketing activity please get in touch, we would love to help.

Happy emailing!