Killer Email Subject & Opening Line Ideas

[alextsui]

Hello everyone,

I'm not sure if this has been done previously, but I thought I'd start a thread for everyone to post their favorite (or great) email subject and opening lines. You know the kind where you see the subject and you exclaim to yourself, "What?!" and "Click" (you click to read the rest of the email).

To get the ball rolling, here's my first one in the next post -->

[alextsui]

... to tell you about this great product/ service/ promotion!

[alextsui]

How would you like to check your email box and see lots of emails with that subject?

[Colin Theriot]

It's funny you brought this up, because I'm actually working on a blog post about this. Having been a list marketer and email writer for a long time now, I've found that the subject line succeeds or fails based on expectation. And that has very little to do with the content of one subject line or other. Maximum open rates are achieved through setting up expectations and meeting them. Conditioning is the next most important thing. This begins at the VERY FIRST point of contact, when you get the sub in the first place.

If you're doing it right, you should be able to have NO subject line and people still open your emails BECAUSE they're from you.

That being said, the most effective ones I've used are:

"I know you might be interested in this"

and

"Bad news"

Both of those only work really well if the person you're mailing knows who you are and has gotten email from you before. Which you should be striving for anyway.

[Paul Myers]

For years, the most effective subject line I had used, in terms of reader response, was "THUD!"

Just that. No quotes. People expected it would be one of my famous rants. As Colin pointed out, it was a matter of expectations.

That subject was later supplanted by an email with the subject "What the HELL do you want?"

Yes, I really sent that out. Several people tried to copy what they thought was the "strategy" behind the email, and got burned. That was a whole different lesson: Don't play with dynamite unless you have very steady hands.

Be careful of copying people who have different skills and styles than you. Especially if you don't quite grok what they're doing, and try to copy in bits and pieces...


Paul

[KenThompson]

Originally Posted by Paul Myers

For years, the most effective subject line I had used, in terms of reader response, was "THUD!"

Just that. No quotes. People expected it would be one of my famous rants. As Colin pointed out, it was a matter of expectations.

That subject was later supplanted by an email with the subject "What the HELL do you want?"

Yes, I really sent that out. Several people tried to copy what they thought was the "strategy" behind the email, and got burned. That was a whole different lesson: Don't play with dynamite unless you have very steady hands.

Be careful of copying people who have different skills and styles than you. Especially if you don't quite grok what they're doing, and try to copy in bits and pieces...


Paul

Seems to me those two, like 'bad news', would be the most effective with
people who know you well. Then the next consideration would be to make
those headlines connect really well with the email copy.

Am I on track with my assumptions?

[Paul Myers]

Ken,

The first was more effective with long-term readers.

The second got responses from a lot more first-time commenters, especially new subscribers. That was the intended effect, obviously.

You can exercise a lot more focus in your response than most people stop to consider. The way to do that is to keep a single person in mind, and talk to just that person.

And yeah. You need to tie those kinds of subject lines in with the email content pretty tightly.


Paul

[Kate Davies]

I don't know.

I recently got an email from an IMer who emails me regularly, with the subject 'Bad News' and I just thought ... yeah yeah, you're obviously going to tell me I missed the boat on some amazing offer and I don't really care. So I hit the delete button immediately.

[Colin Theriot]

Originally Posted by KenThompson

Seems to me those two, like 'bad news', would be the most effective with
people who know you well. Then the next consideration would be to make
those headlines connect really well with the email copy.

Am I on track with my assumptions?

The next consideration really should be making your first paragraph in the email connect with the READER. It certainly doesn't immediately have to connect with the headline. In fact, this is often a prime opportunity to create some anticipation by delaying a payoff on the promise of the headline until after you've done some engagement.

The easiest way I know to engage a reader is to verify some observation or perception they have, and then validate the way they feel about it. Then segue into talking about whatever your headline was about.

This subtle method (verify/validate) really does immediately put you inside people's heads and creates an easy vantage point for introducing your own info. It might sound weird and esoteric, but this is actually the formula for practically every late night talk show monologue joke. Do the same thing, except for instead of making a joke, talk about your own thing.

As for effectiveness being related to the audience knowing you well, of course it's a HUGE factor. But not in the way you would think. What it's really about is context. It's about knowing what your prospect's email box looks like, and positioning your message properly in there.

You want to stand out from all the other emails. One easy way to do that is by writing good enough emails so that whom it's FROM is actually enough to make it stand out. When you're not familiar to them, what you want to know is what other kind of email do they get?

If they're in a niche that has a lot of newsletters and marketing, assume they get them all. Get them yourself. What does your inbox look like? What would it take for you to stand out in that?

This is why transplanting someone else's "killer" subject line won't always work for you. It sometimes does, if you're talking strictly about cold traffic. Then it's a matter of statistics.

But if you think the "magic" in those one-line guru affiliate emails that make them hundreds of sales is inherent in the CONTENT of that sentence, you're wrong. You won't ever copy their success by copying that sentence. What you need to copy is how they have gone about creating a context for their prospects where opening and responding to a one line email is the expectation.

This is actually very *easy* but it takes TIME. It's worth it.

Originally Posted by digileaf

I don't know.

I recently got an email from an IMer who emails me regularly, with the subject 'Bad News' and I just thought ... yeah yeah, you're obviously going to tell me I missed the boat on some amazing offer and I don't really care. So I hit the delete button immediately.

See? Context. That subject line is blasted in the IM field. Primarily because when I was at StomperNet, we told everyone that was an effective subject line and people copied it without context. It was effective because we did it in the middle of a launch sequence to a pre-warmed and responsive, FRESH list. They were EXPECTING another email from us with GOOD news.

Which is why it was so effective. Remove the context and identity, and the meaning is gone. It becomes just words. And as you said, you've SEEN it before. You ASSUMED what it contained without opening it. That's part of context too. Imagine if it said:

Subject: Bad News (No lame offers inside, but this WILL hurt)

"Are you tired of getting that same old "Bad News" headline over and over, just pushing some lame offer you "just missed" except for how you can RIGHT NOW "sneak in" at the last minute?

"I hate that too. It's B.S. and cheap and easy.

"And I've just gotten news today that it's going to get EVEN WORSE. But you can do something about it. Here's where to start, so you NEVER have to read a lame headline again..."

That's just an example to show what I mean, obviously. When I know your context, I can get right into your head.