Any tips for creating a killer subject line for e-mail marketing?

Hi John,

A good subject line should be, relevant to your lists purpose, and spark a social trigger, some work better than others. For example, practically everyone uses curiosity as a trigger in their subject lines, although that trigger works it can also back fire. There are many social triggers you could tap in to.

A really good way of creating and brainstorming subject lines is to open your email account and see what pops out at you. A lot of times, what pops out at you will also pop out for someone else as well, but you could test it.

Writing good headlines isn't a science, there are certain key points that make up better headlines than others, like touching a social trigger, and being relevant, but it's always best to test what your doing on a small group (not sure how many people are on your list), but test out a small group of your list with a headline, if it gets you good results, run with it and send out to the rest of your list. If it doesn't, swap it out with another headline and send out to another small group from your list.

Email marketing is like any other advertising. You won't know what works well until you test it out. When you do find something that works well, take note of what you did and what elements made up the subject line.

One of the things you said was that your message goes to SPAM folder, that's bad, not even like a little bad, but really bad. Because that actually means, possibly members of your list are not getting your message at all. Not even having it sent to SPAM.

What happens when you send out an email that hits some SPAM boxes is that there are other addresses on your list that SPAM filters totally refused to even send. You won't even get a bounce back, so your autoresponder doesn't know what happened to it, it thinks it went to the inbox, but in reality, it never made it passed the ISP's spam filter, never even hit a SPAM or bulk folder.

I would check and see if your email address is blacklisted. If it is, then you need to take corrective actions to fix it and could be very strenuous and laborous task.

Your email sending address is like anything else online with regards to marketing, you need to be in good standing and have a prestine reputation. Any smudge in your reputation could be a major dent in your business.

Hope that helps.

Go to a forum and look for repeat questions. For example, article directories here. This is the headline: What article directories should you submit to? Here they are:

If it's information your list is actively searching for, they'll click every time. No gimmicks, no 'wrong link' or 'invoice from', just be honest and deliver.

Just to add...A subject line should communicate the very key information to your readers at a glance. I like to break mine into 3 pieces – the action, the topic, and the deadline (if any) at the same time make it compelling or interesting

Personally I think something interesting, relevant and where possible an element of curiosity. It will always depend on your list (your market) and it's something you have to test.

Remind yourself that your list are real people and remember to always focus on their needs.

I've also started to pay more attention to the spam assassin score in aweber. Something as simple as an exclamation mark in the subject line will set it off.

The subject line must be relevant to your service or product you provide. It must not use very complex and unknown words. It must generate curiosity to read and must be interesting.

Write your product or service offer any of these two statements
1. This offer is exclusively for you Name
2. Name You can save #$ now

Try these if doesn't work reply me

Here's what I like to do...write your email FIRST, then go back and insert your subject line. What you want to do is go through the email and find a short statement, phrase, etc that "jumps off" the page. Something that's different, intriguing or grabs your attention. Then toss it into the subject line and mold and shape to fit. Because if it jumped out to you, what do you think it will do to your list?

Also, phrasing subject lines as questions seems to help my opens. People tend to want to answer questions--whether verbally or mentally--so posing a question can naturally lead to an open.

Lately I've observed many marketers using "RE:" in the beginning of the subject.
It gives feeling to the reader that probably he had sent a mail and now getting the Reply.
I've seen that all the mails that I got with RE: in the beginning always ended up opened now or later.

One big tip: Use the word "this"

I've found that "this" is one of the most powerful
words you can use in an email subject line. Try
it and you'll see.

-Ray Edwards

This is something I always wonder about, some of my emails have a great open rate, some terrible and I can't put my finger on why. Good tips above though, I've thought about trying the re: but not sure if this was a little deceptive....perhaps not!

Shorter subjects (under 40 characters) get opened twice as often. There are exceptions of course- but when in doubt, go short.
Jeremy
Commercial Writer

From my experience (being a list member who opens lot of emails)

I will open an email IF

1. The subject line makes me curious
2. The subject has some sort of buzzing news
3. Reply to my message/email
4. Promises to provide information

I will NOT open an email IF

1. it has $$$ mentioned in it, any figure
2. Too much shiny subject
3. has words NOW, instant etc
4. Looks suspicious and has tricky subject lines

I hope this helps someone or everyone

Thank you

One of the above tips posted by rajni26 is quite good as it reflects the idea of personalization.
After going through some case studies, I came to know that one can get better response rates using personalized emails in their email marketing campaign.

OK,

Copywriting tips are great, but rather than focusing on "what's the best title I can create to get a click," why not start off with this -

How Can I Help You?

Write an honest email saying you want to provide your list with content they really need, and tell them to reply and tell you what they need help with.

Emails that answer their actual needs will outperform copyright tricks on off-topic subjects.

Combine both, and you're turning water into wine.

Hope that helps

Hey John,

this isn't so much relevant to creating a killer subject line, but more to the issue you mentioned of your emails getting sent straight to the spam box...

I've found if I change my send from name up, i get a better delivery rate and less spam complains.. So instead of sending from "Mark Jones", I send from names that are related to my email.

Mark

More email marketing solution you can check: iKode newsletter server

More info you can check: iKode newsletter server

curiosity is one the strongest human emotions

spark someones curiosity and you will be half there ie getting a good open rate

once someone opens your email, your email marketing then takes over from there

and no im not talking about subject likes such as "Make $2734.63 per day with 20 mins work"

anyone that sends me emails using subject lines like this i will just intantly un-subscribe

its pathetic

paul

Hello john1818. I personally review email subject lines listed with my affiliate network offer campaigns, tweak, and apply them to my email campaigns.

A lot of what I would have said have already been stated. However a small note that I think could help you out here!

When you're thinking about what Subject to put, consider what motivates you to click
on an email where you are getting similar emails from "autoresponder"! Personally I think that if you make it more personal, but in a more generic way then chances are your open mails will improve!

I hope this helps you out!

Quite a lot of good information ITT.
Thanks.

I generally get better open rates when I refer to the niche in the subject - for example:
(the niche is in bold type for clarity - not in actual email subject)
This beagle is a genius!
A three-string guitar?
My hang-gliding disaster!

Obviously, these should relate to the context of the message sent. But people who are passionate about their interests will usually be intrigued enough to open the email out of curiosity. They don't call it "piquing their interest" for nuthin'!

Hope that helps!