Why Email?

Why is email marketing so important? 91% of Americans want to receive promotional emails. They sign up for them. Every email subscriber is worth, on average, a dollar per month. Emails convert 3 times more than social media. Social media is important and it’s great for getting people to your emails, but email has a higher conversion rate hands down. Including a call to action, instead of a link, can increase conversion rates by 28%. 70% of email readers will open from a brand based on an offer, deal, or discount, also known as the subject line.

As you can see, email is an important tool in your business toolkit, but an email is only effective if it actually gets opened and read. A huge determining factor is whether your email is read or not is the subject line. The ability to craft a great subject line will make all the difference in your email marketing efforts. Your subject line needs to make your end-user want to open the email. The content needs to be engaging, so let’s explore what makes a subject line that works. 

Ask a Question

“Is now the best time to buy a house?” “Does Pinterest sell?” “Is this a problem you’ve had?” “What do you think about…?” Ask a question about whatever affects your end-user the most. Questions are one of the best ways to generate interest in the contents of your email. 

Create a Sense of Urgency

This is a tried and true method for getting your emails opened. Phrases such as “spaces are limited”, “offer ending soon”, and “act now” are the kind of subject lines that make people want to click open on emails. When a reader sees that there’s only one seat left or they only have until midnight to score a deal, it creates a sense of urgency that often leads them to open your email and see what they may be missing out on. 

Get Their Attention

Grab their attention with secrets, lists, mistakes, or cheat sheets. Who doesn’t want to know the “5 Secrets to Get Better Engagement on Facebook” or “5 Mistakes that are Killing Your Business”? This is a very effective strategy for creating engaging subject lines.

Solve a Problem

Again, cheat sheets and checklists are great. Think about the information your end-user needs and is already looking for and offer it to them. A subject line that states “What You Need to Bring to Closing: A Checklist” will get opened by a prospective homebuyer because it is giving them valuable information they already want. When you’re solving someone’s problem they’re more likely to engage with you.

Get Personal

To get personal, create a sense of empathy so you can relate to your end-user. Combining this tactic with a question works really well. “Are you tired of househunting with people who don’t care?” “Are you disappointed in the growth of your social media following?” These subject lines speak not only to the problem but the emotion behind it. This immediately creates a sense of empathy in your subject line. 

Tell the Truth

Own the truth. People love real. Subject lines such as “This is the worst mistake I’ve made in my business” and “I can’t believe I forgot to do this” are effective because they are genuine. It’s ok to speak to your end-users like they’re real people because that’s exactly what they are. When you own your mistakes it makes you much more relatable as a person and it establishes a trust factor with your reader. 

Talk Directly To Your Reader

Lead with subject lines like “I wrote this just for you” or “I wrote this with you in mind”, and mean it. None of this works unless you are truly engaged and sincerely want to benefit your client. None of these subject lines are meant to trick or lure. They’re meant to be an honest example of what to expect within your email. If you really want to help your readers, it will come across in your content.

Bonus Tip

If you mention video in your subject line, it’s 40% more likely to be opened. Also, people love the word FREE.

Improve Your Open Rate

As you can see, many of these strategies overlap. If you can integrate more than one into a subject line that’s great. When they work together, they have the potential to benefit you even more. 

Begin implementing these strategies today and get your emails opened. Email is such an important marketing tool. As stated earlier, social media is great, but if Facebook shut down tomorrow it wouldn’t matter how many followers you had if you didn’t capture those email addresses. Make sure you have the option to sign up for emails on your Facebook page and your website. Don’t waste the opportunity to capture that information. It’s a big deal. Make email marketing work for you.