*Short, punchy, and sweet. Giving extra thought to your email subject lines goes a long way as it can make or break your open rates. If your audience isn't intrigued by the subject line, they may never bother to open the email.
Luckily today, we have Emilie Steinmann, the founder and CEO of Buoyant, sharing her subject line expertise.
Here's Emilie on how to write good email subject lines:*
There are three main rules to creating email subject lines that convert. One, keep it clear. Two, keep it concise. And three, keep it cool.
Rule 1: Content must match
When it comes to keeping things clear, the number one rule with any copywriting, especially with email copywriting, is if you write a subject line and somebody clicks on it, the content within the email must match what's in the subject line. It has to be clear, or people will instantly lose trust in what you are offering. You want to make sure that that subject line at the top matches exactly what you are offering in that body copy.
Rule 2: Keep it concise
The next one is to keep it concise. Make sure that you are front-loading the content with your power words. Anything that will hook in your reader, get them excited, and make them feel like they're part of a significant transformation. Put those words at the very beginning of your email subject lines, not at the end. With certain email clients, they're not going to see more than a certain number of characters. So, if you put the important stuff at the end, it could get cut off, and then nobody's going to want to click on your email because your subject line is boring in the beginning. Make sure all the exciting stuff is right at the beginning.
Check the existing emails you get from your favorite stores, your favorite service providers, and see what they do. What seems to attract you and make you want to click? Maybe it's an emoji sale emoji or something like that. You see, wow, limited time only sale, and then they give you more details about what that sale includes. It's that high-action, high-impact words right at the beginning that will help you a lot.
Lastly, when it comes to keeping it concise, I think you don't have to use complete sentences. We're not in a college English class or a high school English class, so we don't have to worry about specific grammar rules. Make sure that you have a cohesive thought, but you don't need a complete sentence.
Rule 3: Keep it cool
The last thing we're going to want to talk about is how to keep it cool in your email subject lines. Now you could go into all sorts of subject line templates out there, and there are a billion. There are so many. I offer some as an opt-in, and I know that many other copywriters do as well. Templates are helpful, but when it comes to keeping it cool, this is where I want you to inject all your personality.
Think about how you like to communicate with your clients and how they like to share with you. Make sure that you are mirroring the voice of your customer. Think about the words, the phrases, and the things that are important to them in their everyday speech. Then think about how do those things feel like the way that you speak and write naturally? Then highlight the things that are overlapping and utilize those. If you all say the same type of phrases, those are the ones to use the most in your copy. You're bridging a communication gap, and that is key to conversions.
The next thing with keeping it cool is to keep in mind what is trending. What is happening in the world today? What is super popular in your industry specifically? Talk about it. Those are the things that you want to understand, keep up on, and make mention. Maybe put a slight nod to something that's happening right now that people are hooked on and excited about and put that in your email subject lines. Just a little taste to get them interested. Hook them in so that they can read all that great stuff in your body copy of your emails.
The last thing I want to say about keeping it cool is feel free to use emojis however you'd like. Little bits here and there can do wonders. The statistics on this are constantly changing, but it is true that when you add a couple of emojis here and there, it can make you feel a lot more or approachable, and your emails just feel a lot more casual and friendly.
Bonus tip: Use data
The last thing I want to tell you with good email subject lines is don't be afraid to sprinkle in some numbers and data. You might see some subject line templates that say, "Grow your blank by X percent in X amount of days." This type of concept is attractive for a lot of people. Depending on the kind of person in your email list, you might have somebody who does not care about numbers at all, and they're there more for the qualitative experience. They convert better with word of mouth and testimonials. If you work with a partnership, if you work in B2B, have two owners, or work with, say, couples and have two different people. One person might be one personality, and the other might be another personality. You might be able to get the support of the data-driven person by having a few emails here and there in your email sequences that include numbers and data. That will draw them in and make them want to click your emails and open and consume the great content you're offering.
So once again, I am happy that you joined me here today at Flodesk University. I'm Emilie Steinmann, and we just learned all about how to create click-worthy email subject lines.
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