How do you gauge the impact of your email marketing campaigns?
Chances are, you measure standard KPIs like email open rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate, and bounce rate, among others.
Analyzing the right metrics for your marketing campaigns is essential, especially considering that email marketing accounts for a 3800% increase in ROI, i.e., you get $38 for every $1 invested.
But before you can start generating revenue from email, prospects have to actually open your messages. The first step is having an engaging subject line.
The fact is, poor open rates have always plagued digital marketers. A CampaignMonitor survey revealed that average open rates across industries is a meager 17.92%.
This brings us face to face with a stark reality; more than 82% of consumers don’t open your emails.
While that may seem like a giant obstacle to navigate, there’s a simple solution: taking the time to write good email subject lines that get opened.
Based on the ROI calculation we discussed earlier, it is clear that every additional email they read means more potential revenue. Even a tiny increase in your open rates can make a massive difference for your business!
The subject lines of your emails can either make or break your email campaigns. So that’s why, in this post, we’ll cover the types of subject lines that get high open rates and how to craft them.
According to data by Invesp, as many as 47% of recipients click on an email based on the subject line. At the same time, 69% of subscribers judge an email to be spam based on, you guessed it, the subject line.
And this brings us to the most critical part – crafting the best email subject lines for open rates.
The simplest way to compose excellent and engaging subject lines is to capitalize on natural human principles and psychological tendencies.
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and ask what you might be compelled to open, and voila, you are one step closer to achieving that mammoth ROI.
So, without further ado, here are the best types of subject lines for open rates, based on the customer’s position in the journey, their perception of your brand, and their general state of mind.
The fear of missing out on something (aka “FOMO”) is a real fear your audience can have. It’s a human emotion we all share and 60% of millennial customers will react to it within 24 hours, making impulse purchases.
Just create a sense of urgency or a bit of scarcity in your subject lines. Try “expiring,” “urgent,” and “act fast,” to tap into this psychological phenomenon.
Here are a few examples:
Personalization is the email marketing tactic of today. In fact, by just personalizing your email subject line, you can boost your average open rate by 7.4% and achieve six times higher transaction rates.
Personalize your subject lines by including the name of your subscribers in your subject lines. You can also use colloquial language (if your subscriber base uses it), offer location-specific deals, and capitalize on interest targeting to make your subject lines more personal. Let’s take a look:
Composing open-ended subject lines can invoke intrigue and prompt your subscribers to engage with you. Brands that utilize interactive content have seen 70% higher conversion rates.
To induce an element of curiosity in your email subject lines, offer them tantalizing deals, ask captivating questions, and even tell them what (not) to do. For example:
If your subject line can amuse your subscribers, you can rest assured that they will open it.
As the process of telling good jokes goes, begin by knowing your audience first. Segment your subscriber list and augment your open rate by using subject lines laced with humor, such as:
The vibes have to be right with this one. We love subject lines that bring positivity and fun. Try a soft compliment or aspirational message to give your customers the feels (in a good way).
Here are some ideas to try:
Providing incentives through emails can inordinately improve your open rates, as seen in a survey where 80% of respondents claimed that they would purchase from a new brand if they received an offer or a discount code.
Use incentives to your benefit by highlighting your email’s benefits to your subscribers. Let them know what opening the email has for them and see your open rates increase:
Retargeting emails have one purpose; to nudge subscribers to complete an action they were meant to take but stopped midway.
If you can capitalize on this segment of customers, you can increase 30 percent conversion rate and push conversion rates by as much as 30%, on average. To do so, craft subject lines that revolve around better offers, overcoming rejections, or even bringing a sweeter deal to their notice.
We have just established how tough it can be to pass up great deals. That’s why leveraging greed as a motivating factor can work well for your open rates.
Given below are a few excellent subject line ideas for using “greed” as a hook:
If you have a good grip on your ideal buyer persona, you can compose your subject lines around their pain points. Using pain points in your subject lines will serve two purposes: invoke the reader’s curiosity and gain their trust (after they open the email) by solving their problem for them.
While these subject lines aren’t exactly as creative as the others in the above categories, they are very lucrative.
The trick to making these subject lines work, though, is to provide good content consistently. You can only bank upon them to deliver the open rates you desire.
Doing this will create a space in the reader’s subconscious, and they will always feel tempted to open your emails. In fact, following this tactic has led these ‘bland’ subject lines to attain unreal interest rates, sometimes ranging between 60-87%.
Let’s take a look at them here:
Getting seasonal with your marketing is smart. Consumers are trained to expect sexy discounts this time of year, so let’s tap right into that magic with subject lines that speak to trends in pop culture, reference the time of year and double down on a sense of urgency.
Have a look at these diamonds:
You don’t have to lose momentum on the back of the holiday shopping season either. January is also a very, very popular shopping month as consumers look to reinvent themselves, spend their Christmas gift cards and get the year off to a banging start. Much like with Black Friday subject lines, you want to keep everything referential, time-sensitive and value-focused.
Here are some heavy-hitting subject lines:
Irrespective of which of the tactics mentioned above you use, ensure that your subject line is optimized for mobile.
Of course, it’s not a given that any of these random subject lines will work for you. It depends entirely on what you are selling and when. In any case, use these subject lines as a reference point and keep trying variations within email subject lines that have proven successful for you repeatedly.