Creating Effective Email Subject Lines To Drive Clicks

Email subject lines are such a vital part of email marketing, as a bad subject line will leave your email unopened or marked as junk mail. Rather than wasting good time on creating a well-crafted email campaign then having it go to waste, read on to find out about what subject lines are the most effective in getting people to click through and stay.

1. Stimulate curiosity:

In order to get your readers or customers to click through, you need to give them something to be interested about. If your goal is to get them to click through to the blog, think about what questions a reader might have that they want answered. The subject line should give insight into what the email or a further click through will be about, but not enough that it leaves them with the answer, and you with an unopened email.

An example might be a blog about workplace productivity.

A title that could generate interest might be: "One Mistake You Make Every Day Impacting Your Workplace Productivity".

This can lure the reader into reading as it's personable with the 'one mistake you make', and a topic that might interest them, 'impacting your workplace productivity'.

In comparison, a subject that won't drive curiosity is one that gives away the answer straight away, for example: "When You're On Facebook, It Will Negatively Impact Your Workplace Productivity".

2. Communicating Urgency or Scarcity:

You can generate up to 22% higher open rates through a subject line that communicates urgency. By giving your readers a deadline to do something or communicating that it's a limited offer will make them more likely to take action.

You want to appeal to their fear of missing out (FOMO), by indicating that 'if you don't do this now, you're going to miss out'.

A good example is the poster below: 

There are two characteristics of the poster that we'd like to point out:

'Final Hours' specifies a time limit – gives a bit of a call to a customer's impulses, as they need to 'act now or miss out'.

'Last chance for our lowest price of the year' gives an offer of interest that is ultimately an 'unmissable deal'.

It was also found that subject lines containing the word 'tomorrow' had a 10% increase in open rates. The key is to create a message that is important and urgent to drive an action.

Another good example are counters - for example, 3 seats remaining, or 2 items remaining, 5 minutes left. This makes customers not want to miss out on a purchase, causing them to act more impulsively.

3. Subjects that include free offers:

Keep your customers happy and give them a reason to click through to your email.

Many businesses hesitate with adding the word 'FREE' into their subject lines in fear of being put into a spam folder. However, studies suggest that that is not often the case.

According to studies, every dollar spent in an email marketing campaign generate $44 revenue. So don't be afraid to give away free stuff. The most you can lose is the cost of a few freebies, and the most you can gain is a loyal customer and potentially the people they tell about you. 

4. Personalisation:
Be personal with your customers where you can, as this is the best way to build trust and establish a long-term relationship. A personalised email can do two very important things:

• ​Increase click through rates by 14%
  
• Increase conversion by 10%
  

For example, location may be handy if you're wanting to sell winter coats to those in Melbourne during winter, whereas those in the more tropical parts of Queensland don't have a need for clothing that is as thick. 

5. Social proof:

When you highlight how much of the community is involved in supporting your business, reading your articles, etc. - in a way, you're validating the importance of your business.

Another way to create social proof is by getting a popular celebrity, brand or even a blogger to validate your business. This might be presenting a popular athlete wearing your fitness gear – and creating the perception that if it's fit for an athlete, it's a quality brand/product.

This can be applied to your email campaign if you use a well-known name with your product (but only if it's true!) – giving readers a teaser of what they might see if they click through, as well as making the reader draw a relationship between the celebrity and your product.

6. Subjects with a story tease:

Similar to 'stimulating curiosity', a story that interests your users will have them ready to open your email so they can read more. Again, a similar concept to stimulating curiosity, the subject line shouldn't give too much away.

For example, 'How I achieved XXX for XXX in 30 days'. It is likely that if this is a topic of interest, that the reader too wants to learn how to achieve the so-called thing in 30 days. This will lead them to click through.

7. Subjects with re-targeting campaigns:

A lot of ecommerce platforms or analytics sites are able to tell you the rate of people who 'abandoned carts' and so on.

By finding out who abandoned the carts, you can re-target them, reminding them of what they were about to purchase, and perhaps offer them an incentive to make the purchase.

For example, one of the key reasons why people abandon carts is due to unexpected shipping or tax costs. If you know this, you can send an email that offers an incentive of free shipping to get the customer to complete the purchase.

There are several more ways that you can increase the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns. The subject line is a huge part of it, but the second step is the email content that will hopefully encourage them to go to the website, and potentially purchase a product or a service from your business.

Webplanners is a digital marketing and SEO Company in Melbourne that provides SEO Services all around Australia. If you're looking for ways to increase your conversions and grow your business, contact Webplanners today.