Subject Line Success

Everyone knows that the subject line in an email is critical in motivating the recipient to open it. Being descriptive, provocative, witty or mysterious are all ways to catch someone’s attention.

Now comes word that shorter is better.

Most email readers limit subject lines to 45 characters. But a recent study by MailerMailer shows that subject lines that are 35 characters or less have a click-through rate of 3.8 percent.

By comparison, e-mails with subject lines over 35 characters have an average CRT of only 2.1 percent.

Source: Catalog Success, June 8, page 37.

A few more tips :
Act like a headline writer: newspapers know how to catch readers’ attention with snappy headlines. Do the same.

Personalize: talk directly to your recipient.

Create a Sense of Urgency: give the recipient a reason to open the email now rather than later.

Avoid Spamese: all caps and lots of exclamation points are bad ideas. Use a content checker to identify phrases that might get caught in a spam filer.

Be Honest: you can be creative but don’t be misleading. You know the old saying “Fool me once…”

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