Remington BeggFar from being “dead,” email marketing still has one of the highest engagement rates and returns on investment of any inbound marketing component. In fact, some estimates say it returns over $44 dollars for every $1 you spend! While even the best-crafted email subject lines can’t guarantee 100% open rates, there’s plenty you can do to help your chances. Here’s a few of the best Dos and Don’ts to keep your open rates high and your ROI even higher:
Do Use Questions
A recent survey from MailChimp found that subject lines phrased as questions performed better than just standards, even when the essential message was the same. This is something that you can easily put into action.
Do Reference Location
Using a little bit of personalization goes a long way towards getting your intended recipient to open your email. One great way to do this is to include their location, so they know your email isn’t completely generic. Try something like “Great News for our Fort Myers Friends.” Adding this small detail will make them feel like the email is target to them and more relevant.
Do Convey A Sense of Urgency
Creating a sense of urgency is a great practice across all marketing channels, and email subject lines are no different. Convey a sense of timeliness for your recipients. The shorter the amount of time that recipients have to act, the more compelled they will feel to do so.
Do Be Specific
When they read your subject lines, it should be obvious what your message is and why it’s specifically relevant to them. Leaving your recipients guessing will only serve to cause frustration and lead them to ignore or delete your email. Vague and uninteresting subject lines will land you in the SPAM folder more often than not.
Don’t Include SPAM words
Your email may trigger SPAM filters for a variety of reasons, causing your carefully crafted message to skip recipients' inboxes altogether and land straight in their SPAM box- never to be seen. Any of these SPAM words are a death sentence for your email marketing, so do everything you can to steer clear.
Don’t Use All Capital Letters
Just like specific verbiage that triggers the feeling of SPAM, writing your subject line in all capitalized letters comes off as too salesy as well. Anything that is pushy like this will not be well received. There’s really no need to shout your message at your email recipients. If they like your message, they’ll click in to read more.
Don’t Go Too Long
Keep it short! The same MailChimp study found that longer subject lines performed worse than briefer ones. If possible, keep your subject line under 50 characters. In fact, a 2012 study found that short subject lines, specifically with fifteen characters or fewer, had the highest open rates.
Don’t Try To Personalize Too Much
A simple usage of their location goes a long way, but trying to over-personalize will likely scare them in the other direction. Using their full name and other personal information in the subject line is too much, save your Smart Content for inside the email, and even then- keep it minimal.
There are plenty of mistakes companies make when sending out emails that can drop open rates substantially, so don’t let a simple mistake reduce your inbound marketing ROI. You want your emails to be opened, read, and clicked, and Impulse Creative can help. Email marketing campaigns are a large piece of the inbound marketing pie, and one you can easily master. Download our free eBook The Beginner’s Guide to Inbound Marketing on the best ways to go about setting up your emailing marketing strategy.
