- [Instructor] How many emails do you actually read
in your inbox?
Maybe 10%?
Most of the 100 billion emails that get sent every day
and never get opened.
So what kinds of things will make you open an email?
If you said the subject line, you wouldn't be alone.
The subject line of your emails
is a very important part of your message.
It's small, but it's the first thing that your readers see,
and they do judge your message by the subject line.
First, you have to avoid the subject line no-nos,
and these have the potential to land your email
directly in the spam folder.
If you use more than two punctuation marks,
and exclamation points are a particular problem.
Subject lines with all caps.
Subject lines that are super long,
like more than 50 characters.
And if you've packed keywords or spam words
into your subject line,
that's not going to work for you either.
In the resources list in the assets folder
for this course,
you'll find a link to a useful blog post
with the ultimate list of spam trigger words
that you want to avoid in your subject lines.
Now, here's some of the tried and true practices
for writing good subject lines.
You want to create a sense of urgency,
or, spark curiosity.
You want to personalize your subject line if you can.
You want to be relevant and timely,
and you can tell a story.
Communicating a sense of urgency or scarcity
in an email subject line can compel readers to act
when it's used strategically.
You don't want to use this too often.
Only when the occasion calls for action.
Sometimes subject lines work
because of their ability to intrigue or pique
the recipient's curiosity.
Because they require opening the email
to get more information, these can result
in a higher open rate.
Here are some of the subject lines
that I felt compelled to click recently.
Personalization is a big deal.
People want to feel seen and recognized.
If you're sending emails with recognizable details
about your recipients,
those are more likely to get opened and read.
But personalization is about more
than just sticking their name in the subject line.
It's relevant to your product
and how your audience is interacting with your brand.
Personalization is all about your customer and not you.
When we subscribe to email lists,
it's usually because we want to learn more
about a particular topic,
or we want to be kept informed.
Crafting email subject lines
that incorporate relevant topics or timeliness
can help establish your brand as a thought leader.
Here are some examples that were timely
and relevant to me lately.
People universally love stories.
By front-loading your email subject line
with a compelling hint at the story inside,
it can entice your readers to want to know more.
Again, make sure your story is relevant to your brand,
so you don't confuse your readers.
Here are some stories that I pulled
from my email inbox lately.
If you want to practice writing good subject lines,
you can try a subject line tester.
I put the link to this particular testing tool
in the resources list.
I typed in a sample subject line,
and as you can see,
the tool rates it and gives me some hints to improve it.