Library of Congress via Flickr
An email subject line is like the headline in an ad. It’s the first thing you notice – and the most important part of the entire message. It’s even more critical with email than with an ad.
If someone sees your ad, they may miss or ignore the headline, but be attracted by a photo or a sub-head.
With email, everything else is largely hidden.
If the subject line doesn’t say “open me!,” you’re sunk.
A writing tip from David Ogilvy
Whether in print or online, spend most of your time on your headline. To quote David Ogilvy (who never saw an email but knew a few things about headlines):
On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar. -David Ogilvy
Good, Bad, and Ugly Subject Lines
Here are some sample email subject lines:
Spark Business with Webinars, Podcasts, and Online Video
Looks like the email is about different ways to market your business. All good tactics. The trouble isn’t with the content. The trouble is that they’ve told the entire story in the subject line. There’s really no need to read further. OK, I can use these tools to promote myself, one, two, three, check. Done.
What if we changed this a bit. Make the headline say something like,
How to Spark More Business
With that headline, you won’t know what the tools are unless you open the email.
Here’s another one:
5 Ways to Break the Rules of Email Marketing
There’s no way to tell if the rules are foolish, or legitimate. Nor is there any way to tell what I’ll gain by breaking them. What if, instead, it made a promise about how I can be more successful by breaking the rules. Say, something like
Profit From Breaking Email Marketing Rules – 100% Legal!
Makes you wonder what the rules are, how you can make money, and reassures you that it’s legal (you’re not spamming anyone). The contradiction gets your attention.
Got a headline you’re not sure of? Want some advice? Ask in the comments.
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