Why You Need A Catchy Subject Line?
As everyone knows email marketing plays a crucial role in generating leads with high ROI. A catchy subject line is the heart of the emails for this email marketing.
Subject lines are the deciding factor in whether the reader will or will not open the email. Recipients will always judge the email by the subject line.
Imagine this, you are putting a lot of effort into drafting the email body and paid for all subscriptions related to email marketing.
What if your subject lines are not attractive? What if the recipient doesn’t open your email?
All your efforts and money will go into veins. It is always important to have an attractive email that convinces readers to open your email.
According to HubSpot, 47% of marketers say they test different email subject lines to optimize their emails’ performance.
7 Tips for Writing “Catchy Subject Lines” in Email Campaigns
1. Create a sense of urgency – FOMO subject lines
Why a sense of urgency?
It is strikingly an effective way to nudge the subscribers. It helps to boost the open rate and the sales exponentially. It is a way to make people take action immediately.
A subject line with urgency can be created for the following reasons.
- Special offers or discounts
- A webinar or any free event.
- Tips or news on a current situation/ event.
- A limited number of items are available for sale.
- A product or training program is available only for a limited time.
Urgency is only effective when the email has a relevant reason. So craft your powerful email subject line that provokes the reader to open the email.
“Your discounts EXPIRE SOON.”
“Season Pass Savings Disappear Friday”
“[First Name] You’ve got ONE DAY to watch this…”
2. Evoke curiosity
Curiosity is as natural as breathing for humans. It is the emotion that drives the human to the discoveries and every advancement in every field like in science, technology, human development, industry, etc. Make sure that you not tricking your reader into opening the email to get the higher open rate. If the content inside the email is not relevant, it can backfire on you since the readers might move your email into the spam folder.
“Is this the most exciting career in marketing?”
“Start using this new LinkedIn ad type”
“How to Sleep. Why 8 Hrs a Night Isn’t Enough”
3. Be controversial
Controversial subject lines are the best way to grab the reader’s attention. But this strategy needs more care to make this workout. If any mistake happens here, your email reputation will be crashed.
It is a great weapon if you have the balance between controversy and information. This strategy is like a gamble. Always keep this in mind, lead the reader genuinely into the controversial things. Not as a trick to get more open rates.
“There is nothing more to lose. [First Name]”
“Why does it makes you a bad boss?”
4. Get personal
“Readers are 26% more likely to open emails with personalized subject lines.”
The person receiving emails always wants to be treated as individuals, not as numbers. Personalized subject lines amazingly resonate with readers. There are different ideas to personalize the email campaign. Research and take your time to derive personalized emails.
Image source: campaignmonitor.com
5. Subject line with the pain point
As a marketer, it is mandatory to know about the customer and the challenges they face. Including the pain point or the challenges faced by the prospects in the subject line is one of the powerful ways to convince them to read your email. This makes them correlate and gives them a one-on-one feeling. Make sure that the pain point you are mentioning in the subject line should be one of the major issues faced by customers.
“Hi [First Name], Are you struggling with [Pain Point]?”
“[Paint Point] solution for [Company]”
“Can we help with [Paint Point]?”
“How do you handle [Pain Point]?”
6. A/B test the subject lines
There are many facts that decide the performance of email campaigns. Yet, the subject line makes the biggest impact on the performance. So it is important to do A/B testing for the subject line and have to pick the one that works best for you.
But how to do that?
- You can send an email with subject line A to up to 50% of your selected contacts, and a second email with subject line B to an equal number of them.
- Following a specified period of time, the subject line with the most open rate wins.
- The winning catchy subject line is automatically sent out to the remaining contacts who weren’t included in the A/B test.
You can use A/B testing to find out what your contacts find catchy by taking the guesswork out of it!
7. Avoid spammy words in the subject line
In order to stay away from spam triggers, you have to be very careful with the words you use in the subject line. Being creative & impressive is the fundamental requirement to increase the open rate. Try to share useful information with your audience instead of promoting with too salesy messages.
Here are some words to avoid on the email subject line and email body:
- “FREE”
- “OFFER”
- “$$$”
- “GIVEAWAY”
- “Guaranteed”
- “CASH”
- T e x t w i t h g a p s
- “Act now!”
Types of Catchy Subject Lines with Examples
The following types are more catchy subject lines. It helps you to increase your email open rate and email deliverability.
1. Informational
These engaging subject lines are usually short, to the point, and provide the main information so the user opens the email to learn more.
“Invitation to [Company] on [Date]”
“New store is opening near you [Place]”
“Summer collections are here”
2. How-to
The reader usually gains specific benefits from how-to articles. As long as the subject line of the how-to email is relevant and valuable to the audience, it can increase open rates.
“How to effectively personalize email?”
“How do you get rid of [Challenge]?”
3. Short and sweet
According to Adobe, 85% of users use smartphones to access email. So, craft the subject line that fits the mobile device. The desirable characters are between 25 to 30.
“Welcome, [First Name]!”
“The perfect app!”
“Cool colors for spring”
4. Lists
Numerical information is naturally drawn to our brains. It is, for this reason, that subject lines with lists are common. In addition, lists are a great way to get people’s attention.
“10 best practices of email marketing”
“5 must-have metrics for cold email outreach”
5. Statistics
Nowadays, everything is about numbers, especially in the age of digital media and the internet. Statistics in email subject lines provide a proven, objective piece of information that naturally piques the interest of recipients.
“You could increase the 60% email open rate”
“The latest trends in digital currencies”
6. Questions
Subject lines with questions can engage users immediately and create a dialogue. It is best to keep them open-ended so that the reader cannot simply answer “no” and move on.
“What are next-gen computers?”
“What is the best way to solve [Challenge]?”
Best Practices for Catchy Subject Lines
- Personalize as much as possible.
- Keep it shorter.
- Avoid false promises
- Avoid words and symbols that trigger a spam alert
- Avoid no-reply emails.
- Always test your subject lines.
- Do segmentations
- Use genuine sender name.
- Use power words.
- Think twice before using emojis.
Email Subject line statistics
Image source: www.business2community.com
Top Catchy Subject Lines from Few Influencers In The Marketing Industry
1. Neil Patel
Neil Patel is a New York Times Bestselling author. The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web, Forbes says he is one of the top 10 marketers, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies.
- “Here’s What You Need to Outrank Your Competition”
- “How to Score a Perfect 100% on Google PageSpeed Insights”
- “Here’s a Customized List of Keywords You Can Rank For Today”
- “9 Vital (And Free) WordPress Plugins Every Website Needs”
- “6 Clever Ways to (Ethically) Boost Ecommerce Store Sales”
2. Product Hunt
Product Hunt is an American website to share and discover new products. It was founded by Ryan Hoover in November 2013. Users submit products, which are listed in a linear format by day. The site includes a comments system and a voting system similar to Hacker News or Reddit
- “Notifications that don’t suck”
- “This is game-changing”
- “Stick the finger to free trials”
- Us vs. the Machines
3. CopyBlogger
Copyblogger is the world’s most influential content marketing blog. Rainmaker Digital, the company’s parent company, serves more than 200,000 unique customers across its three brands and earns more than $12 million in revenue annually. But just like every company, it started small.
- “The Most Powerful Way to Persuade”
- “Time is Running Out to Join The Showrunner Podcasting Course”
- “Check out the 2015 Small Business Content Marketing Report”
- “SEO Defined in 60 Seconds [Animated Video]”
- “Ask Yourself These 3 Simple Questions to Craft Better Headlines”
4. Appsumo
Appsumo is a digital product launch marketplace where people can buy digital marketing apps (mostly SaaS tools) for a one-time fee or a lifetime discount. Many startups were featured in Appsumo earlier, and hence Appsumo has become the go-to place for many professionals to buy access to premium marketing assets.
- “Get excited—Sumo Day is coming!”
- “The best deal just got better”
- You have great taste
5. PropellerAds
PropellerAds is an AdTech company, providing powerful performance marketing solutions on a global scale. Founded in 2011, the company rapidly became the leading popunder traffic network, and then expanded into the native advertising world, growing into the most high-end Adtech platform.
- “Can You Feel It? This Summertime Sadness?”
- “First campaign, huh? Well, get a bonus for a good start”
- “Will Popunder face its end in 2021?”
- “Waiting for a sign to start? This is it!”
Wrapping Up
Though subject line is nothing but an single text it holds the core strength in the whole email marketing. Now it’s your time to craft a catchy subject line that yields you an increased open rate and conversion rate. I hope this email will help you to create a subject that makes you stand out from the crowd. Still not confident enough to start an email campaign, try our Mastery course which reveals all secrets hidden in email marketing.
