[9] Tips To Writing A Killer Email Subject Line

You just got done writing the killer email, and you’re just about ready to send it off to your thousands of subscribers. There’s only one thing left to do, write the headline. While it’s the shortest bit of the email it’s probably the most important; and therefore deserves some serious thought. The fact is, no matter how good or important your email copy is, if the headline stinks no one is going to open it to find out. With that in mind, we put together this list of 10 tips to write a killer email headline. With these in your back pocket you’ll be writing killer headlines in no time, and getting click rates you could only dream of before!

First, a quick note before we jump into these tips. It’s important to keep in mind that there’s a time and place for all of these, and not every email warrants using each of these tips. We’ll touch on some of the specifics for each point, but keep this mind. It’s also important to use them liberally. You don’t want to jam all of them into a single headline as it will have the opposite effect of getting more clicks. In many cases, 1-2 will do the trick depending on the context of your email.

Another important thing is to always be working on the relationship you have with your reader. The more your readers “like” you and your content the more likely they will be to open your emails on name alone. Some of these tips also rely on having that relationship to work effectively so don’t neglect building it!

1. Create Urgency

Perhaps the oldest sales trick in the book is to create urgency. Nothing gets people’s attention quite like the fear of missing out does, and this trick works for emails too. You’ll see this often with phrases like “Today only”, or “Act Fast”, but there’s more subtle ways to do this too.

The key here is to balance this out with other types of email headers. If every email you send is always trying to create this urgency it will lose the effect fast. Your viewers will be desensitized to it, and eventually no longer feel that urge to click they would have before. It’s one the most powerful tools you have, but use it sparingly or your risk burning out your readers.

You also want to make sure that there is something worth the agency. I’m sure you’ve all see the store that advertise a big sale with specific dates, only to see them with a similar sale a week later. A store does this enough and the “sale” is no longer something exciting to the customers. Make sure if you're giving agency to an email then it warrants it. If you’re not then your readers will begin to ignore the urgency created by your email which is the opposite effect you want.

2. Make The Reader Curious

With this idea, make the email header something that drives the reader to open by making them curious on what the rest of the email is about. This can be a bit tricky to pull off, and is largely going to rely on the relationship you’ve built with your reader.

I’ve personally seen emails such as “The Most Important Thing I did Today” that enticed me to open. It’s also important to understand that an email like that is only interesting to me if I know who is sending the email, and I actually care what that important thing is. If you’re sending a headline like that to a fresh subscriber there’s a good chance they simply don’t care enough about you yet and pass it up. I really don’t care what the average Joe did today, but I do care what someone who successfully runs multiple companies did. That’s why it’s critical to build a relationship with your readers as it naturally makes them more interested in you.

3. A Good Offer

This is a very situational tip, but a powerful if you have something unique to offer. For example, if you’re giving away a free PDF then mention it. Explicitly saying it’s free, in your subject line; people love free things! It doesn’t have to be free though, a steep discount, a unique opportunity, and others work just as well.

Like the urgency, you don’t want to overuse this one too much. If every email is about the next “Great Offer” eventually your readers will get offer fatigue and start to tune you out. Use this one sparingly enough that you don’t overdo it for your users. You also want to make sure they have time to digest the past deal you sent them.

Another thing to keep in mind, this works hand in hand with urgency. For example, maybe that free PDF is only available for the next 24 hours! Have a great offer for a short amount of time is what makes the best sales in stores, and makes great headlines for emails.

4. Personalization

Another great way to get more opens is to personalize the email subject. With the huge range of data available in email marketing platforms these days there’s a large variety of ways you can personalize the email.

The most obvious one is probably just to include the name of the recipient in the email. I’m sure you’ve seen emails that do this, and the results can be good when done correctly. You also might have access to things like location, or info about their interests based on why they’re on your list. These options provide further ways to add some personalization and connect with the reader.

Personalization also includes making sure the send email is consistent and something a bit more descriptive than noreply@email.com. This helps not only build a relationship with your reader, but also help prevent your email getting marked as spam. If a reader consistently sees the same name in their inbox, and the content is good, they’ll eventually begin to naturally read your emails.

5. Action Words

Call to actions are a staple in marketing and are also effective in email headlines. The key to remember is that your email headline is in itself a call to action; with that action being opening the email. By using the right verbiage, you can encourage the user to click through. That doesn’t mean that all your action words need to be associated with opening the email though, and you might want to encourage further action as well.

For example, if you’ve just release a new video you might title your email “Watch our new video…”, and then continue from there. “Watch” is an action word directing exactly what you want the reader to do. There’s a lot of research done on this, and it’s shown that using call to actions like this make it more likely for the user to actually do so. That’s why you see it used so much on other forms of marketing, and why email shouldn’t be the exception.

6. Use Numbers Or Stats

An old staple, using stats or numbers in your email headline are a great way to get it noticed. The opposite of being vague, using numbers gives your readers something concrete to focus on and being straightforward with what you’re offering.

There’s a wide range of use for numbers; anything from an offer being “75% off” to teasing “The 10 best ways…”. The great thing about numbers is they fit pretty easily into almost any other technique without making it too bloated. You can easily create a bit of mystery while stuffing in some numbers/stats and it’s very easy to see how they can be used with a special offer to generate more interest. “75% off today only” sounds a lot more enticing than “Our Best Deal Today Only”.

7. Don’t Overuse Punctuation Or Caps

Nothing screams “Marketing Email” like too much punctuation or all the letters capitalized. They just look spammy, so don’t be surprised if these type of emails get junked. This also applies to overused emojis as well which carry a bit of a spammy vibe in many cases.

Caps also gives the impression of yelling, and how many people do you know that like being yelled at? A little punctuation or caps for emphasis is fine, but use it liberally. Default to lowercase, and only use this when needed. This is a pretty simple tip, but one many beginner marketers get wrong.

8. Make The Reader Feel Important

This is a powerful psychological trick that you can use with your headlines to get more email opens. By making the reader feel important, they’re more likely to want to open your email and be curious about it.

Some examples of this might be using words like “Only For You” or “To My Treasured Clients”; verbiage that gives the reader a sense of importance. This obviously depends a lot on your relationship with your audience, and different words will work better or worse depending on the situation and the type of audience you have.

It also works quite well with other techniques, with an offer for example. “To My Valued Client – Our Best Deal Of The Year”, is a simple example of both making the reader feel important while presenting them with an exclusive offer.

As mentioned for a few of the other points, it’s important not to overdue this. You want the praise to feel genuine, and if every email has the same feel it’s quickly going to lose its effect. Make sure to use this one sparingly for the best results.

9. Don’t Neglect The Preview Text

Last up, we have have something not directly related to the headline but just as important. In most email programs you’ll not only see the email, but also a brief snippet of text before actually opening the email. This sentence or two is going to be just as important in getting a reader to click as the headline itself is.

The best piece of advice here is to simply make sure that the preview text matches what the headline text presents. You don’t the headline to say one thing, and then have the preview text not line up with that. This just serves the confuse the reader and makes them less likely to click.

What you want to do is have the preview text build off of and enhance the message of the headlines. If for example you mentioned an exclusive offer in headline, back that up with the preview text starting off by mentioning the offer again and its exclusivity.

10. BONUS – Always Be Testing

Last up we have a bit of a tip that isn’t directly about writing headlines, but is just as important. That tip is to always be testing and improving. If you really want to get the best results you need to measure, change, and test to figure out what works best.

There’s a lot of great information out there about testing emails and email headlines, so I won’t get super deep into it here as that isn’t the point of this article. I did still want to bring it up here though as it is an important thing to always keep in mind.

NOTE: We’re currently writing our guide to A/B testing emails, we’ll link here so check back soon for that!

Practice Makes Perfect

While it’s great to read and learn all these great tips we’d be doing you an injustice if we said the learning stops there. The only real way to get better, like all things in life, is to do it and do it a lot. So get out there and start writing headlines and seeing how they do. Don’t worry about messing something up or trying something new, just keep going and always measure your results and you’ll get better! Get out there, and get writing!