With email marketing the subject line is of vital importance. It provides a one time opportunity to interest recipients enough for them to open the email, rather than immediately delete it. The subject line is to emails as a headline is to a newspaper. No matter how well written the email is, if the subject line is ineffective, the email will likely never get the chance to do its job. This article contains three points to consider for writing an effective subject line:

Spam filters

The first hurdle is that of the spam filters. Any subject line that doesn\’t get past these will be sent straight to the recipient\’s junk folder. It\’s therefore a good idea to investigate which words are likely to set off spam filters and run some tests. Words such as \’free\’ and \’percent off\’ will often trigger a filter and so may need to be avoided. Subject titles that are capitalised or that contain exclamation marks are also in danger of being delivered directly to the junk folder.

Content and length of subject line

Effective subject lines will be brief and to the point. They should not be longer than 50 characters and even shorter than that if possible. The subject line needs to give an idea as to what the email is about, while also leaving a sense of intrigue, so that the reader cannot resist opening the email. It needs to give a punch line and then a type of cliffhanger ending, a hint that the email contains important, not to be missed information. A sense of urgency is often useful in convincing recipients to immediately open the email, so as not to miss out on a special deal. Word order should be carefully structured to ensure that priority words come first.

Evaluating the success of subject lines

In considering how to write effective subject lines, it\’s necessary to be clear as to what constitutes success. A subject line could have a high opening rate and yet still be unsuccessful. If the information contained in the subject line is not an accurate representation of what the email contains, then the email will likely be sent straight to the junk folder once opened. The recipient will also probably feel deceived and will be less likely to open emails from that sender in the future.

It\’s important to bear in mind who the email is targeting. For example an email that is targeting 30 year old football fans could be deemed to have a successful subject title if a high rate of people in that category open the email.

Since many marketing emails will be emails that the recipient has signed up for, it\’s important to have some idea about who these people are and why they signed up to receive these emails. The subject title should then remind recipients of whatever it was that aroused their original interest in the topic. With the market continuously changing, it\’s necessary to regularly test the criteria for a successful subject line. Success involves moving with the times.

Trevor Richards writes for Extravision (www.extravision.com), a leading UK supplier of email marketing services.

Trevor Richards writes for Extravision (http://www.extravision.com), a leading UK supplier of email marketing services.

Author Bio: Trevor Richards writes for Extravision (www.extravision.com), a leading UK supplier of email marketing services.

Category: Marketing
Keywords: email marketing, email campaign, ecommerce, internet marketing, e-commerce, sales, business, b2b