One could argue the email marketing subject line is the most important part of an email marketing campaign. That being said, it’s pretty amazing how little time most senders spend creating and testing them. The subject line is one of only two things (along with from name) a recipient will see that help them determine if they want to interact with a message or not. So how do we construct the perfect subject line? Let’s give it a shot.
- Who Are You? – First and foremost, you should identify yourself. A recipient should at a single glance know who the message is from.
- What’s the Purpose of the Message? – A great subject line should tell me what the email is about before I open it up.
- Anticipation – A subject line should truthfully tease the recipient.
- Keywords – Not unlike blogging, the subject line should contain relevant keywords just like a title.
- Length – I like to see subject lines under 60 characters. There’s no reason to go longer and risk losing an important part of your message.
The reward for a great subject line is increased open and click rates. Increased open and click rates mean increased engagement. Increased engagement means better deliverability. Better deliverability means more revenue. The best thing is that you can very confidently test the results.
