Regardless of how stimulating or well-timed our email is, one thing has to happen for us to have success … our prospect has to open it. There are two major factors considered by a reader that determine whether an email gets opened or not: the sender and the subject line. Assuming your prospects don’t know you that well, the subject line becomes pretty darn important.
In our world of trying to reach security, IT, facilities, and general management personnel, we’ve got to grab their attention in a credible manner. Below are some best practices for developing email subject lines that will compel your prospects to open their emails …
- Use less than 40 characters including spaces (btw, this line has 82 characters).
- Use numbers. People tend to appreciate something like “Decrease IT costs by 30%” over “Dramatically decrease IT costs”.
- Make the subject time sensitive. For example, “In Brooklyn on Wednesday before 11:00” is better than “In Brooklyn next week”.
- Google “email subject lines” every few months. These best practices listed above may be irrelevant in a year. The art of email success evolves constantly, and not many change as rapidly as email subject lines.
What’s the best subject line you’ve used?
