It’s all in your subject line; it really is. You can craft the most wonderful email but the reality is that if you don’t have a killer subject line (that’s the part that your reader will see BEFORE they open your mail) then it is likely that you won’t get opened.
Oh and don’t be fooled, this isn’t just about business. It doesn’t matter if you are sending to a friend, a colleague, a prospect, a client, a reporter, or anyone else, your subject line represents the most important word choices you will make in any communication. It is the gate to your gold.
Here are some quick tests to apply to see if your subject line is going to be effective:
- Is it personal? (Using my name gets my attention faster.)
- Is it engaging? (Are you friendly in your approach.)
- Does it create curiosity? (example: How your success depends on what you ate for dinner . . . HUH?)
- Is it outrageous? (example: Get 3K subscribers in just 3 days, guaranteed)
- Is it provocative? (example: What’s love got to do with your success?)
- Does it ask a question? (We humans are compelled to know the answer so will open to find out.)
- Is it short? (We are used to longer ones so short grabs our attention many times.)
One of my favorites showed up this week. It was ridiculously simple and for that reason I assumed it was personal (it wasn’t but I opened and read it). It was just “hey.” That’s it, no name or anything. Would it have worked for you?
If you wanna get lucky with turning your prospects into clients, you must pay close attention and invest some real time in your subject lines. I’ve been known to spend more time creating a subject line than the actual email!
And in preparation for this post, I have to confess that I spent some time skimming my email box, my junk file and more and was stunned to find so few mails that provided any compelling reason to open them. In fact the best one’s were those I’d sent to someone else and had come back to me with no change in the subject line. LOL.
Whether you are sending to a brand new prospect and want to get opened or your well seasoned list, your subject line will be the deciding factor. You set the tone for your entire email. Is it relief? Is it anticipation? Is it excitement? Is it warm fuzzy feelings? How do you want your reader to feel, set them up for that in your subject line.
On that note, here is one knockout PRODUCTIVITY TIP: leverage your subject lines as a way to find important and relevant emails later and keep track of specific conversations. When you change a thread, change the subject line. This will make searching your email (hey we all do it) that much faster.
