Why Is Your Email's Subject Line the Most Important Part? The average person receives and sends 100 to 150 emails every day. That's a lot of emails to keep track of, especially when they're rolling in at all hours of the day and night. The first thing potential subscribers review when they get an email from you is the subject line. It can make or break the message itself.
In fact, research shows that people read their emails on mobile devices (especially their phones) with poor visibility of some elements, such as small text sizes and limited screen space. According to Microsoft, people read email on average of 250 times before deleting it. That's a large amount of exposure for any message to get.
The subject line is also the only part of the email people see before opening it. This means it's important to write captivating subject lines that catch people's attention and compel them to open your email. Otherwise, they may just delete it without reading it!
Of course, not all subject lines are created equal. Some grab attention better than others. In fact, according to research conducted by ClearVoice, these are the six types of subject lines that most effectively get opened: enticing, informative, imploring, lamenting, congratulatory, and supportive.
Each type of subject line attracts readers with different factors.
The most effective subject lines convey the promise of value. To put it another way, your subject line must persuade the recipient that the email includes information or content that will benefit their lives and/or enterprises. At its most basic, this means that the subject line must be short and to the point.
In addition to being informative, subject lines should also be relevant and interesting to readers. This means they need to catch the reader's attention so that he or she clicks open the email. It also means not using spam words in the subject line such as "bonus" or "free". Spam filters are very common these days, so including those words in the subject line will cause you to be deleted from many people's inboxes without them even reading the body of the message.
Finally, subject lines should be written with clarity and simplicity. If someone needs to read your message several times before responding, you've used text messaging rather than an email subject line. The same goes for messages that are overly long or full of jargon. A clear subject line is essential for successful email marketing because it allows recipients to decide if they want to read your message. If they can't understand it, they won't bother clicking through to read the rest of the email.
The best way to create a great subject line is by thinking like a reader.
The subject line of your email is one of the most critical few words in the whole message. It is the recipient's initial impression, your slogan, and the reason they will or will not open it. The subject line's goal is to get the individual reading it to utter three simple words: "Tell me more."
If you catch someone's attention with a good subject line, they are much more likely to read the rest of your email. After all, who wants to read through a long letter when there are many other things they could be doing?
In order for the recipient to be interested in what you have to say, you need to give them a good reason to care. This means that your subject line should reflect the content of your message. If you want to encourage someone to buy from you, for example, you shouldn't simply write "Buy now!" You should also think about how much information you can provide in just a few words. Would "Free shipping on orders over $100" catch your reader's eye? Maybe not, but it gives you room to talk about other aspects of their experience while letting them know you have something worth buying.
Your subject line should also be relevant to the recipient. This means it should include some information about them - such as their name or company name - along with any other data you may have about them.
The entire objective of a subject line is to provide a compelling cause for the receiver to open and read the email. If the subject line is blank, the receiver will have no incentive to open the email and may just delete it or forward it to spam. If you can't think of any reason why someone would want to read your email, don't worry about writing a subject line - they're not required by law.
There are two main types of subject lines: descriptive and persuasive. Descriptive subject lines give readers information they need to decide whether to open your email. For example, if you were to send an email to a group of friends with the subject line "New movie coming out this weekend - I found it at the video store," then your email would be considered descriptive because the subject line gives your friends clues about what's inside the email. Persuasive subject lines use language that appeals to people's emotions to get them to click through to view the content of the email.
For example, if you sent an email to your boss with the subject line "I quit!" then it would be considered persuasive because it uses strong language that makes your boss want to read further to find out what happened. Persuasive subject lines often work better than descriptive ones because they grab attention and encourage readers to want to know more.
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