Just because somebody has subscribed to your mailing list does not automatically mean they will open and read your emails. Often a person has subscribed to many email marketing lists and simply do not have the time to open and read them all so they only click on the ones where the subject line gets their attention. People will usually read the subject line before they read your message, so it is important they get noticed. Here are some simple, but powerful tips to get your or messages noticed.
The use of text symbols in your subject line is a simple but effective way of making your email stand out You could use them between words or start and end start and end your subject line with symbols. ( *, $, >,{,], £,).
Combining upper and lower case letters together with the creative use of white space is another easy way to get your email noticed but be CaRe >FuL * nOt % TO OveruSe these methods. You must be creative and not merely throw a random mix of confusing spaces, symbols and upper and lower case letters into the mix otherwise your text will look stupid and you will lose credibility.
White space is a powerful tool. Use extra white space creatively in your subject line. You can add extra blank spaces between your words or letters.
“STOP!”, “WARNING”, CAUTION”, are just some of the many forms high impact words may take. People are conditioned to stop what they are doing and pay attention when they see one of these words which is why including one in the subject line will get their attention. Other ATTENTION! grabbing words are “AmaZing”, “Surprising”, “ShocKing”, and so on.
People will almost always assume any question is directly aimed (and therefore relevant) at themselves and will usually answer it in their mind stimulating themselves into giving more attention to the text. Obviously if you are emailing to your own targeted list you should ask only questions pertinent to you readers.
The general public are, on the whole, a greedy bunch. Almost everybody wants something for nothing so using the words “FREE”, “Bonus”, “Special”, “Surprise”, “Gift” etc. in your subject line will get most peoples attention. Like your questions your offer should be attractive to your target audience.
Whenever possible personalise your emails subject line with the recipients name, or at least their geographical location. Using somebody’s name is a compliment in itself but if you can also couple that with a compliment for example ( [NAME] Your opinion is highly regarded) the effect is explosive to your mail opening rates.
We hope you find these ideas helpful in improving your mail opening rates and will be publishing more articles soon to help you get the most impact from your email marketing campaigns.
Remember you must test your campaigns, many methods are generic but some work better on certain audiences than others. Your autoresponder should let you track the effectiveness of each subject line you experiment with.