Lately, I’ve received many opt-in emails from companies that I have never heard of.  I opened and looked at a few of them.  The ones that get my attention usually have good email subject lines. Some even got me to click on the link in the emails just to see what they’re about.

The email subject line is one of the most important elements of your email campaign. It can make or break your campaign. If you don’t have a compelling subject line, the chance of your email even getting opened is slim.

Take a look of the email subject lines that are in my Deleted mail folder. Do you see a pattern below on why they got deleted (company names are changed)?

• Free Evaluation of ABC Encrypted Portable Drive
• Data Company Adds Cascaded Replication to DR Infrastructure
• EFG Company: Request for Meeting
• Meeting Request: Introducing our new product
• XYZ data centers: High-density colocation & Managed Server / Storage Solutions

Marketers have to realize the importance of email subject line. To give you an idea on how you should write your subject lines so that more recipients will open your emails, let’s take a look at the elements that make most of us open and read the emails.

Personalization
If you have details about your recipients then use them in your subject line to get their attention. If you see your company name or even your first name in the subject line, you’ll likely feel that the email is specifically sent to you. There is a good chance that you’ll open and read the email.

Relevancy
Similarly, people will open the email if the subject line contains the topic of their interests. By using relevant events in an organization, you can create a subject line that can relate to what’s going on in that business and provide solutions to the challenges they are having.

Curiosity
When the email subject contains relevant interest, adding curiosity wording can entice people to open and read the contents of your email. Many times it will also improve your click through and conversion rates.

Non-spammy words
Certain words in the subject lines would be flagged as spam by filters or even the recipient. Try to avoid words like “free”, “offer”, “cheap”, “stock”, “earn”, “$$$”, etc. As soon as I see email subject containing these words (if they bypass my auto spam filter), I usually move to the delete button.

The email subject line is one of the most important elements of your email campaign. It can make or break your campaign. If you don’t have a compelling subject line, the chance of your email even getting opened is slim.