Avoid Email Subject Line Disasters
By Stuart Ayling, Solutions Found                                                                   

It is now well established that your subject line is a huge factor in the overall success of your email campaigns.

After all, the subject line is like the headline in an advertisement. If people don’t pay attention to that it is unlikely they will read any further.

You may not realise it, but the number of characters in your subject line may be detrimental to your success.

How long should your subject line be?

A recent study from direct marketing agency Epsilon has highlighted two key factors to consider when crafting your subject lines.

1) Keep your subject line under 50 characters.

Around 57% of all email programs only display the first 38-47 characters from the subject line. Check out your own email program and see what you get.

Due to the flood of email people are looking to scan subject lines and determine importance and priorities. If they cant read your message, they may just skip it.

2) Get your important words up front.

Ensure you place the most important words at the front of your subject line. This can be a difficult decision, and sometimes you need to play with a variety of word combinations to see what will work best for you.

If you are sending a regular newsletter it is best practice to put your newsletter name at the beginning – so you will use valuable character spaces for that. As an alternative, maybe you can set up the From address to show newsletter name, leaving the subject line totally available.

As always, it is a good idea to test different word combinations to see which one triggers the best response. Be wary of using sensational words such as free and discount unless it is absolutely necessary – as it can be treated at spam by email filters, and may affect the perception of your brand.

Also, personalising the email by using the recipients name or other known information (such as their location) always produces better response rates and presents your business in a good light.
 
 
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