The proper subject line is actually one of the most important parts of successful e-mail message. In the matter of fact, the subject line determines whether the e-mail message will be opened or deleted without any reading by the receiver. Here are some of the criteria of a successful subject line: personalization, Length, Proper text
What Words to Use in the Subject Line
Basing on the ICM Consulting reviews the authors analyzed over 300 million of e-mails to find out that the best words for a high open rate are “bonus”, “invite”, “new”, “price”, “sale”, and “webinar”. Furthermore, more than a quarter of all the users open the e-mails which contain bonuses and special offers. So it means that if you have something interesting for your subscribers, send e-mails with sales, bonuses, and offers at least once a month.
At the same time experts advise to forget about the words “news” and “digest”. In the matter of fact, your company’s news is absolutely not so interesting to the subscribers. The emails analyzed with “news” and “digest” in the subject lines were simply deleted without reading. Another important fact – forget about foreign words and slang. According to the research, words like “free” or “gift” are also mostly not read by the people as well as “new”.
Subject Line’s Length
As a rule, most subject lines are limited to 30-50 symbols. But according to the experts review, the length of the subject does not influence the general open rate. This is why they advise to use limited subject lines, as various browsers can display long subject lines in different ways.
Preheaders
Preheader is the text which is displayed right after the subject line of the e-mail. The preheader is usually some kind of a logic continuation of the subject line of the e-mail letter in order to interest the reader. You can always add some links with the social media buttons or special offers to it. Experts say that preheaders raise the average open rate for 1-2%.
E-mail Message Personalization
Investigation proved that if you writing the reader’s name in the subject line it will raise your open rate for 1-2% higher than average. But according to ICM Consulting it is highly advised to use the first name of a person; or at least a combination of the first and second names.
Conclusions
With no doubt, you can always use all the research tips listed above in your own practice, but you need to always remember that any piece of advice should always (!) be adjusted to your personal needs and features of your audience. Here is the list of main factors that can influence your open rate:
Absence of mistakes in the e-mails (spelling, grammar, etc.)
Relevance of the Content
Specific features of your e-mailing list (they must be legal!)
If you still have some doubts about the e-mail marketing system of your own company, you may always contact specialists to receive a complex audit of all your e-mails and learn some useful hints.