Email Subject Line: The Most Important Thing You'll Write Today

Email subject lines are about 10 words long. Those 10 words can make the hours of work you spent building an email list a complete waste of time, or those 10 words can increase your open rates and give you a better chance of generating a profit from your list. After all, email marketing doesn't work if no one is reading your emails.

Those 10 or so words are therefore the most important that you will write today.

According to MailChimp, most industries achieve open rates somewhere between 15 and 25 percent. This is a good baseline for you to work from. If you are not getting that or better, you should review your strategy.

When thinking about the subject lines you write, think first about your own email inbox. How do you use it? What annoys and frustrates you? What do you prioritize? What do you think is probably worth having a look at but you never actually go back to it? Have you ever missed emails before-why? What marketing emails do you like, and why do you like them?

The answers to these questions will help form your own strategy-one that actually gets people to open your emails. You still have a long way to go from that point to get a conversion, but it is another hurdle cleared.

Here are crucial tips for every subject line you write.

1. Personalize with name or location

Adding a person's name to the subject line is a great way to increase open rates. Some research shows that including a location has a similar-and sometimes better-effect.

2. Always write fresh subject lines

This is often a problem if you send out newsletters. Many businesses use subject lines like "[Company Name] Newsletter July 2016," "[Company Name] Newsletter August 2016," etc. If you do this, you will likely see your open rates decline rather than improve. Always write fresh subject lines for every email you send.

3. Keep them short

Keep your subject line to 50 characters or less. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the user will not see much more than this. Just look at your own inbox-the viewable part of the subject is about 50 characters. If you go over this, the content is cut, which can result in vital information being removed.

Also, short subject lines can be read instantly, so they are more likely to generate a positive response.

4. Get to the point, and be clear

Sometimes creativity, mystery, and flowery language work in email subject lines, but in most cases, the best approach is to keep it simple by getting straight to the point and describing exactly what the reader will get when they click to open.

5. Use something that gets attention

One of the challenges you have when writing email subject lines is getting attention. After all, you are competing in the inbox with the subscriber's boss, colleagues, and friends as well as their other interests. One way to make your emails stand out is to use humor or make them controversial or shocking. You must exercise care with this approach however, and it is essential you understand your audience.

6. Make it stand out visually

Another, less risky way to make your subject line stand out is to make it visually jump off the page. You can do this by including numbers or symbols. Single word subject lines are also effective as it is likely yours will be the only single-word subject line in the inbox.

7. Ask a question

Asking a question can also capture attention and make the email stand out from the rest in the list.

8. Create urgency

Creating urgency can make your email stand out too, but the main purpose of this is to get the person to click now. If they think your email might be interesting and they will come back to it, you've probably lost them. You can create urgency by making something time limited or stock limited.

9. Write for the audience

You should always write for your audience. This includes tone, style of language, level of jargon, etc.

10. Write in a personal (but professional) way

Nobody likes reading formal, stuffy, or robotic content, so add some personality and flair to your emails. Just make sure it matches your audience and has a suitable level of professionalism.

11. Be honest

Never promise something that your email and/or landing pages don't directly deliver. Doing this might get you a click this time, but it is unlikely to convert, and you reduce your chances of getting future emails opened.

12. Think about benefit

When crafting your subject line, think about how the content inside will benefit the reader. Come at this from the reader's viewpoint.

13. Use the word "you"

This is the most important word you will use in your subject line, so make sure it (or the variation "your") is included.

14. Don't overuse exclamation marks, and never include all-capped words

This looks like spam and is off-putting to readers. If you have to use an exclamation mark, use just one, and write with normal punctuation.

15. Don't use spam trigger words

This includes "free," "buy now," "make money," and other variations. You will have to avoid them, even if they are suitable. Come up with a different way to present the same message.

16. Write multiple variations

This is a crucial step and one the many people skip. It involves writing out multiple versions of your subject line-as many as 10. Once you have them written, read over them again, and pick the best one.

17. Use a real person as the sender address

This one is not directly about the subject line, but it is connected. Always use a real person's name in the from field. Don't use noreply@ or info@ or another generic address.

18. Test

Finally, test and measure everything.

That may seem like a lot of things to remember for 10 words that often don't even constitute a proper sentence, but your income will benefit from the extra time spent on it.