You Have Two Seconds: Email Subject Lines that Work

Do your email messages command attention in a crowded inbox? Or are subscribers deleting your message without a second thought?

You can better your email campaign results almost immediately by carefully crafting your subject lines - an often rushed but critical factor in successful email marketing.

Create Urgency
If you're like most people, being told that something is ending soon or limited is usually enough to motivate you to take action more quickly.

With email as in life, creating this need is likely to generate higher open and click rates.

One tactic to experiment with is time urgency – “today only” for example, or “until the end of August.” Your email recipients are scanning their inboxes, and need a reason to pay attention now instead of later (or perhaps, never).

Scarcity too is action-inducing, so another tactic to employ is the “limited“ approach. “Only 10 spots remaining” or “coupon limited to first 25 subscribers” compels people to open the email and do something if it peaks their interest.

Personalize
Personalization within the subject line has proven to be very influential in getting the subscriber to stop and pay attention, yet few email marketers bother using it.

Beyond just using their first name - which is still quite effective - you can try other techniques, like mentioning their purchase history. Say they recently bought a tent from your outdoors store; an email with the subject line “Camping stoves on sale today” may inspire them to buy more gear.

A similar technique is to use the time lapse since the subscriber’s last purchase. This works especially well for inactive subscribers, who have not completed any actions in some time.

Noting the amount of time that has passed since their last purchase - “It’s been awhile! Come back and enjoy special savings” - shows subscribers that you’re aware they have been inactive, and want their business back.

By personalizing email messages, and creating a sense of urgency within the subject line, you're likely to increase your open and click rates in an extremely cost and time-effective way!