7 Tips to Create Engaging Subjects for Your Emails

You can spend hours crafting the perfect copy for your email, but the real success all boils down to one thing, your subject lines.

Subject lines are the gatekeepers of your emails. They can either invite sales and customer conversions or block and plummet them.

Your subject line is the first thing your customers see before they open the email. If it isn’t relevant or interesting, they’re not going to make an effort to open it. Give your readers a preview of what you’re offering, and why they should become repeat customers.

Today I’ll be showing you seven tips to create engaging subjects for your emails.

Email Subject Line Tip #1: Know Your Audience

Before you start typing away, take a step back and ask yourself, “who exactly are you writing for?”

An email subject line with the best copy, written for the wrong audience you won’t get any conversions or clicks. Once you understand how important knowing your audience is, you’ll be able to effortlessly grab the attention of your potential readers.

One of the best ways to know who your target audience is would be to create a buyer persona, a character list about the type of person you’re selling to. Be as detailed as possible; even go as far as writing down when they take their coffee break or lunch. Does this person work for a company or are they a freelancer?

As you get to know your audience better, you can make changes to your list and easily imagine the person expecting your email.

Email Subject Line Tip #2: Personalize Your email copy

Personalizing your subject lines increases the chance of greater conversions. There’s no going around it. Hubspot reported a 42% improvement in their conversion rate with personalized CTAs leading them to only send segmented and relevant content to readers.

Personalized subject lines are tailored to the readers with the help of combining their data and needs. It can be as simple as adding {First Name} or as advanced as showing items they previously browsed online in a shopping cart abandonment email.

Another way of adding personalization to your email can be using second-person pronouns like ‘you’, ‘your’ or ‘yours’ which can make readers feel like you’re talking directly to them rather than a crowd of people.

If you’re ready to take email personalization to the next level, you can use tools like Wishpond Email Automation .

Email Subject Line Tip #3: Use Actionable Language

Don’t beat around the bush; you only have a few seconds to change your readers into buyers. Using actionable words or language is one way to skyrocket your email conversions. You can use actionable words like “download,” “book a spot,” “buy” so that readers know exactly what you want them to do in the email.

Actionable language should be treated just like CTA’s (Call-to-actions) they should be front row and visible so that your readers know what and where to click. It’s also best to keep your actionable phrases to the point. Try not to go over 5-7 words so that you don’t bore your reader because they do get bored quickly.

CTA’s play a crucial part in your emails, preferably in the subject line. Most people seem to either leave these out or make them so small that readers don’t even notice them. CTA’s help your readers to take action and get your conversions started; without them, your email will just be left open.

Email Subject Line Tip #4: Ensure Your Subject line and Email Match-Up

It’s crucial that your subject line aligns with the email copy or your email can be perceived as spam, misleading or unprofessional. If the subject line has nothing to with the email, it can confuse readers and drastically affect your conversion rate.

Make sure that your subject line delivers on your email’s promise, not just because it’s professional, but it prevents your emails from looking like spam which can turn off a lot of readers from clicking on any future emails.

Email Subject Line Tip #5: Write Your Preview Text

This little line is always taken for granted when it comes to email marketing, but it can be your hidden gem to growing conversions. It’s best to limit your preview text to 120 words.

Preview texts give readers a peek into what your email is all about. Yes, you have a subject line, but preview text is like a pre-email that readers quickly scan and use to decide if your email is worth opening or not.

If your target audience is mainly using mobile, then putting a preview text is more important than you think. Take a look at what preview text looks like on a mobile phone.

Email Subject Line Tip #6: Test Your Email Subject Lines

You can start by A/B Testing, your email subject lines. A/B Testing is simply a testing strategy where two versions, A and B (the control and the treatment) are tested against each other. At the end of the test, you’ll be able to see which version (A or B) provides the best results.

At Wishpond, we offer A/B testing tools, and your test continues until one variation is clearly more successful than the next, backed by a 95% confidence level.

Be sure to test if your email subject lines are mobile-friendly. Since 53% of emails are opened on mobile devices, it’s important to make changes as soon as possible.

Email Subject Line Tip #7: Use a Headline/Idea Generator

Sometimes a little help goes a long way. That’s where headline and idea generators come in handy. If you’re still struggling to come up with great subject lines, you can use these tools to help you.

I would still recommend testing your emails and subject lines even if you get a high score with these tools; it doesn’t mean that subject line or email topic will work best with your target audience. So keep in mind it’s still trial and error.

Here are four of the best headline, idea and topic generator for emails:

##Summary

Email marketing has an average return rate of $38 for every $1 spent. Now that all sounds good, but the truth is unless you know how to send and create a solid email marketing strategy for your brand, you won’t experience these successful results.

Here’s a quick recap of these amazing email subject lines times:

Know Your Audience
Personalize Your email copy
Use Actionable Language
Ensure Your Subject line and Email Match-Up
Write Your Preview Text
Test Your Email Subject Lines
Use a Headline/Idea Generator

Spending time to craft and master your email marketing plays off in the long run. If you need to, you can either take a course or hire a professional to increase your email ROI and sales.

Author Bio

Victoria is a Content Marketer at Wishpond specializing in all things digital and social media marketing. In love with blogging and Taco Tuesdays. Follow her on Instagram @vitalvines.co