Subject lines are the intro and the one opportunity you have to get your email messages opened by your customers.
So, how are subject lines like fishing?This summer my family rented a house on a lake with a dock and fishing area. We enjoyed the swimming in the crystal clear waters and after some kayaking and relaxing, we wanted to fish. We were challenged by the fact that many families on the lake were very successful fisherman. When we tried our hand at it, the fish saw our hook/bait and ignored us. So we began to question if it was our fishing tools or the noisy little brother causing too much ruckus on the dock? My teenager was determined to catch the first family fish. She wanted bragging rights so we needed to take action! After some troubleshooting, we decided to change our bait and purchased "real" worms from the bait shop. At first, she fed a lot of delicious worms to the fish! We watched the fish take the worms right off the line. Then we changed something.... the type of fish hook.
Ah ha - Success! Within minutes of changing the size of the fish hook, she began pulling out fish after fish!
Your subject lines are a bit like fishing. Before you send your message out to your customers, ask yourself:
Does my subject line bait my reader? Does my subject line have the right "hook" to get my newsletter opened?
Here are some best practices I check before I send out a client email message. Here is a quick checklist:
- Do you limit your subject lines to 5 words or 44 characters or less? Longer lines won't show all the text characters in the subject box.
- Does your subject line hook or intrigue your contact to open it? For example, Mother natures surprise! / A banking freebie that's on Fire
- Have you ever tried asking a question in your subject line? For example, Are you a perfectionist? / Does your husband annoy you?
- Is there a sense of urgency in your subject? For example, Special promotion ends next week! /
Last minute Fall decor
- Use a spam checker to assure your message will make it through the ISP spam check. This will help you clean up big SPAM words like FREE, Giveaway, Sale, While supplies last, etc. Click here to review a PDF document that lists "SPAMMY" words to avoid in subject lines.
Remember, good subject lines are important to get your email message open but make sure the subject matter matches the subject line and contains good content and an equal balance of images and text.
Click here to dig further into "The Trust about Subject Lines" and review this Constant Contact blog post.
