How important is your Subject to getting your email opened and read? Research shows that 64% of people say that they open emails because of the subject line. In this post we look at 3 things you can do immediately to get your emails opened and responded to more often.
1. Use between 6 and 10 words in the Subject Line
A survey by Retention Science found that email subject lines kept at 6-10 words result in the best open rates.
A major contributing factor for this is that up to 65% of emails now get opened on mobile devices.
Since mobile devices are only able to show five or six words of the subject, it makes sense to be as brief and concise as possible.
2. Make the Subject relevant to the content of your email
Even the most effective subject line in the world merely gets your email opened. Your job is to then address the issues that the recipient is interested in.
Don’t use subject lines that get opens and then have content that is unrelated!
Don’t try and trick the reader into opening your email!
You’ll only end up training the reader to avoid your emails in the future.
3. Personalise the Subject Line (it doesn’t have to be with their name)
Personalized subject lines increase open rates by 22%.
Including personal and relevant information in the Subject Line can have a major impact on both open and response rates.
How should you personalise the Subject line?
Again use information relevant to the content.
For example:
If you are a real estate agent who has sold property to someone in (say) Christchurch, the Subject could be “Important update for Christchurch home owners”
If your business sells cars, and you sold someone a Toyota Camry, the Subject could be “Safety features in the new Toyota Camry”
You could also just use the person’s first name in the Subject.
You can these 3 tweaks on individual emails or your sales/marketing mailouts to prospects and customers.
Tip! If you are sending out sales/marketing emails using Outlook, then we recommend using Email Merge for Outlook.
