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Subject Line Best Practices 1
Up Next- Chapter 1
Subject Line
Best Practices
(Mis)use them at your own risk
CHAPTER 1
Subject Line Best Practices 3
Awesome!
Except for the information overload that’ll inevitably follow reading through all of
those posts and trying to figure out how they apply to your brand and your
audience.
Subject Line Best Practices 4
Here’s a table that unpacks the pros and cons of following generic
best practices:
readers
Questions that your readers are dying Questions that they kind of don’t care
to see answered
about
Funny email subject lines that make Funny email subject lines that fall flat or
your readers snort coffee through worse come across as offensive or
their nose and love you forever
tone-deaf
Subject Line Best Practices 7
I don’t think any of them are wrong. But I think there isn’t enough
emphasis on testing and conducting analysis. Every list is different.
Some best practices don’t work well on certain audiences. Best
practices are a starting point.
Kristi Durham
Avoiding “clickbait” subject lines. Nothing will get ignored more than
TL;DRs. It’s never clickbait if you deliver on your promise in the body
copy.
Cain Smith
Conversion Copywriter
Subject Line Best Practices 8
“The only point of a subject line is to get an open.” This best practice
is very misleading and wrong. The main objective of an email should
be for the recipient to take action — whether that is visiting your
website, downloading an eBook, watching a product demo, etc.
People take the suggestion, “The only point of a subject line is to get
an open” and write subject lines that hardly relate to the content inside
the email. Your recipients will immediately get frustrated if their
expectations for opening the email are not met — not a great feeling to
have associated with your brand.
Emily Carroll
“Ask yourself what would cause you to open this email. What value can
FRESH
you provide to the recipient that will encourage them to open the
email? Then, place that value front and center in the subject line.
Prioritize the recipient. Yes, you are the one writing and sending the
email, but it should be all about the recipient — not you. This is an
important pillar of all good copywriting. Emphasize the customer, user,
or recipient — whichever is applicable to your business. What are they
struggling with? What are they feeling? And how can you help them?
Address those points in your subject line every time."
Alex Lindley
“The question that doesn’t get asked often enough is “What’s in it for
FRESH
my reader?”
Ekaterina Howard
Email Copywriter
“I would start by brainstorming the main points of your email. What are
FRESH
you trying to get across? What are your goals? What are the benefits
of reading the email? What are the objections you expect the recipient
to have? After you have a list of points, you can start to write your
subject line. I would try to make it as specific as possible. For example,
"Email subject: How to write an email subject line" is a lot more
specific than "Email subject: Email subject line."
Krittin Kalra
Founder, Writecream
Subject Line Best Practices 10
“There are multiple ways to start when writing an email subject line.
FRESH
Firstly, think about what's in the email for your target audience. This is
a great place to start when writing a subject line. Another way is to put
yourself in the shoes of your audience when writing a subject line.
Would you be interested in opening the email if it had the subject line
that you are writing?
Chirayu Akotiya
“There are a few different email subject line formats that marketers
FRESH
can experiment with to see what works best for their audience. One
format that often works well for us is to include the recipient's name in
the subject line. This personalizes the message and can increase open
rates.
Rajesh Namase
Co-Founder, TechRT
Subject Line Best Practices 11
“I start by using the first name or personalising the subject line which
FRESH
makes it very catchy and the chances of opening the email increases.
Using emojis in subject lines helped us get better open rates, but this
is a long shot and depends on what kind of email campaign are you
sending.”
Saurabh Wani
“When writing an email subject line, you should A/B test around three
FRESH
subject lines that vary depending on the content they mention. This
way, your email platform will divide the subject line among a
percentage of your audience (20% is the ideal), and then the most
popular one goes out to the rest of your audience, ensuring a higher
open rate. When writing the subject lines, don’t be afraid to try
something new, like adding an emoji, and make one broad and very
specific to see what your audience is more receptive to. If you learn
that broad ones never get clicked, do all of them specifically focus on
one aspect of your newsletter content next time. Without A/B testing,
you are just guessing what will work with no data to confirm or deny
your theories.
You need to focus on what you want your audience to know. If you are
trying to drum up excitement for an upcoming event, put that in your
subject line. Priorities change with each newsletter, so don’t be afraid
to shake it up. Look at the data of what your audience has responded
well to in the past and use that to inform future decisions.”
Jordan Figueredo
of the window?
Up Next- Chapter 2
9
CHAPTER 2
Our Subject Line Experiment 14
Based on the context, some of the best practices were ruled out
Humor (especially of the “Ceci n’est pas une email subject line” variety): In this
case, we don’t have an established relationship with the audience and need to
get to the point in the subject line
FOMO: “Don’t miss out on filling out a survey” just doesn’t have the same level of
desirability
Short and snappy subject lines: Even though there are ways to make short and
snappy work, this would not have given us enough space to differentiate
headlines
Emojis: Definitely out for this test, given that we don’t know the audience
makeup, and that emojis are not an integral part of Mailmodo’s brand voice
Freebies and offers: Not an e-commerce email, and we’re actually asking for
information, so this best practice is not applicable here.
What are digital Ready to share your Share your biggest email
marketers’ biggest biggest email subject subject line pet peeves!
subject line pet peeves? line pet peeves?
Share yours!
Our Subject Line Experiment 17
Share your biggest What are digital Ready to share your biggest
email subject line pet marketers’ biggest email subject line pet
peeves! subject line pet peeves?
peeves? Share yours!
4 reasons:
I was expecting this email. So I'd say the timing was perfect.
It came at the right time. This is the time I wrap my day and check
my email.
The subject is intriguing. I'd have not clicked if it said, "please
suggest a good email subject"
It came from a human-looking email (Zeeshan) and not
sales/support/cs
Sandeepan Jindal
Founder, Bidfortune
Our Subject Line Experiment 19
And, we can see what respondents liked (or not) about the subject lines:
“What are digital marketers’ biggest subject line pet peeves? Share yours!”
Pros CONs
“I loved the fact that you used the idea of “The word “share” can bring up
pet peeves people always want to read connotations of other social platforms
about different kinds of pet peeves. Also, (looking at you Facebook). This could cue
I liked the fact that you had a an “auto-ignorance”, putting your email into
call-to-action that included the word the background of everybody’s
"yours."
Latiff
“Mentioning a "pet peeve" really stood “This subject line was a little long. I tend to
out. Everyone likes to discuss things that keep my email tab open at 50% size, and many
bother them or make their lives more subject lines are still visible. Yours was cut off
difficult.”
Yuvi Alpert
Abby Ha,
ProS
CONs
“It was relevant to the work our “Not so good was that it didn't reference
agency offers and the goals we are emails, which was the reason we
trying to achieve. Reach is nice, but responded to this query in the first place.
relevance is key. The content and Digital marketing is a much broader
CTA were also clear without even sphere, so I didn't realize at first that this
opening the email.”
was what it was related to”
Michael Steele
Michael Steele
Miranda Yan
Founder, VinPit
Our Subject Line Experiment 21
Pros CONs
“First reason: I was expecting this “It does feel a little bit spammy and I'm not
email. So I'd say the timing was sure I would have opened it if I wasn't
perfect.
used to answering questions like this in my
Second: It came at the right time. This email. I did like the words "pet peeve" as
is the time I wrap my day and check that made it feel charming and fun to
my email.
open, rather than a chore.”
Sandeepan Jindal
Founder, Bidfortune
“One of the things that stood out “I think the fact that it is a call to
about this subject line is its very warm action/question is good. On the other
tone. I personally like subject lines but hand, it definitely reads as an
I'd say that it does come with its risks. "advertisement".”
a good grasp of who you're sending it Marketing Manager, Mid Florida Material
to and how they'll perceive it once Handling
they open it.”
Simon Elkjær
The least popular email subject line had the highest open rate — and the highest
response rate (click rate for our embedded survey).
Finally, the ugly but functional email subject line (“Ready to share your
biggest…”) worked the best because it gives the reader a sense of autonomy
by asking a question that connects the intent to the content and creates a
pre-commitment to filling out the survey (“Am I ready? Yes!”).
All the best practices in the world will only take you so far.
Without learning about your audience and what they care about or practicing the
art and science of finding subject lines that work for your audience, you’ll be
staying in the safe lane.
In the next chapter, we’ll walk you through a decision tree that’ll help you decide
which approach to take, and show how to use a worksheet to brainstorm your next
subject line.
You’ll also get tips from email marketing experts on how to set up your subject line
optimization process.
Up Next- Chapter 3
9
How to Craft a
Winning Subject
Line
Framework, Pre-send Checklist and Tips
from Experts
CHAPTER 3
How to Craft a Winning Subject Line 25
YES
Lead with the urgency
Worksheet to generate
email subject line
variations
Curiosity Ask a
Use a call to
context here
-driven question action
Outcomes
Emotions
Humor
Urgency
Our Subject Line Experiment 28
Emotions
There are W hat are Ready to share hare your
S
Urgenc y
4 days notice S hare your W ant to see Reply by
(Focus on or deadlin e
tips today — your quote June 5th and
urgency )
see your published be featured
quote ne t wee
x k?
in our
published definitive
ne t wee
x k
email subject
lines report
Our Subject Line Experiment 29
Pre-send checklist
To whittle down your list of email subject lines, run them through this checklist:
Does it provide enough context for the subject line to make sense?
Does the subject line work within the context of your audience?
Does the subject line follow the character length best practices?
If you decide to make the subject line longer than the recommended character
length, does it break in a potentially cringe-y way (this has been known to
happen)?
1. Focus on the purpose of your email (what is the main thing you
want your audience to do? Just read? Share? Buy? Click
Through? Remember your brand?)
2. Think about your audience (who are they, what are they likely
to want, what need are you filling)
Andrew Taylor
Net Lawman
Be very detailed in what you want from the person reading your email.
It's hard to be unique and enticing in a few words, so longer form
subject lines are more persuasive in my experience.
Then I take one last look at it and ask myself if I can say the same
thing in fewer words so that I don't get cut off in people's
inboxes. I also double-check for any words that may trigger spam
filters.”
Corina Leslie
PR Manager, ZeroBounce
I write the subject line after writing the content of the email.
Sometimes you start out with one idea but as your content is
taking on its transformation, that idea can morph into something
else. I write at least 3-5 subject lines to get the creativity flowing
and pick the best from that. Finally, I ask myself: Would I open
this email? If I probably would scroll past it, then I give it another
try.
Amilia Stehman
MORE RESULTS,
LESS OVERWHELM
Key lessons to implement for crafting
email subject lines
CHAPTER 4
Getting more out of less 34
If there’s anything our small-scale testing experiment taught us, is that even for
email subject lines, sometimes less is more. Best practices are a starting point.
Up Next- Chapter 5
29
Email PreHEADERS
FOR THE WIN
CHAPTER 5
How to Increase Open Rates with Email Preheaders
36
Build suspense
Strike a balance between offering new information and building upon what
the reader already knows. Perhaps you've written a holiday-themed subject
line. Rather than using predictable language like "Up to 50% off" or "Discounts
end this Friday", get your readers' minds wandering. Options like "Save the
date" or "Don't miss out" are just subtle enough to give readers a fear of
missing out, and this alone could encourage more clicks.
Make it relevant
The preheader text should be relevant to the email's subject line and content.
This will help pique the reader's interest and encourage them to open the
email.
Be creative
Strike a balance between offering new information and building upon what
the reader already knows. Perhaps you've written a holiday-themed subject
line. Rather than using predictable language like "Up to 50% off" or
"Discounts end this Friday", get your readers' minds wandering. Options like
"Save the date" or "Don't miss out" are just subtle enough to give readers a
fear of missing out, and this alone could encourage more clicks.
Don’t make your preheader text too specific; instead, make it generic
to engage with your audience in a way that differs from the subject
line. Great things to include are ICYMI, Have You Heard?, Click for the
Latest, and things of that nature.
Andrew Gonzales
BusinessLoans
Despite the fact that subject lines and preheaders are usually written as
afterthoughts, they are more crucial than the email body itself. The best
email in the world is useless if it is never opened, after all.
Happy emailing!
Yours,
Team Mailmodo
Our Contributors 39
ebook possible
EKATERINA HOWARD
Conversion Copywriter
MAILMODO
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