In an electronic age email marketing has not just become the norm; it is also the most effective methods of reaching many customers. Your email list should be made up of people who have agreed to be on it and have at least a passing interest in your product or service. Unfortunately most of us receive hundreds of emails every day and many of them remain unopened or simply deleted. In more common terms, we like to refer to these emails as spam. When was the last time you opened an email that started with “Get Free Money…”
The secret to making sure your customers open your emails is to make sure they have a great title. The best email in the world will still be left unread if the title does not grab a reader’s attention. The following types of titles are one which should be avoided:
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Titles that are always the same will quickly be ignored
This is particularly true if you send a daily, weekly or monthly email to the same customers. Those who receive the email will assume that it is the same content as the one before and discard it. To get people’s attention, spice things up and always search for attractive titles. Make your audience curious and they won’t ignore your emails anymore.
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Vague titles will not help people connect to your email
Everyone has busy lives and a non-essential email will only be opened if the content looks interesting. For this to be the case, the title needs to tell the reader what they will get from the message. Be specific and get straight to the point. Don’t start an email with “The Secret to All Your Questions Are In This Email” or “Open Me for More Information”. Of course you will never open such an email that screams SPAM from a very long distance.
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Email titles should always be restricted to 55 characters
Anymore than this and it is likely that the email program will cut the end off. The title needs to be short and catchy so that it is read quickly and an interest is taken in the contents. Receivers want to see titles when they get emails, not stories; and titles that are too long are boring. Nobody has that much time available.
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Titles should never be written all in caps or with excessive punctuation
Typing in caps is seen in the digital world as akin to shouting and not likely to win any friends. Excessive punctuation, such as exclamation marks can make the email seem too frivolous. It’s incredibly annoying to receive emails with titles like “You’ve Won $1M!!!!!!!” or “CONGRATULATIONS!!! YOU’RE THE 100TH WINNER OF AN AMAZING PRIZE”. Seriously, do people still open these kinds of emails?
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The title must be relevant
Your customers have signed up to receive information about a given subject and if you send them information about something completely different they will ignore the email. In addition, it is highly likely they will remove themselves from your emailing list.
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Spamy titles
Starting an email with “Check this out” or “Here’s something you’ll like” reeks of spam and even the most devout customer will probably discard the email immediately. Write in the title exactly what your subscribers want to hear. “50% off for summer shoes”, “New article: top 10 tips to …” Don’t beat around the bush and you’ll have loyal readers for a very long time into the future.
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Selling titles are guaranteed to put any reader off
No one wants to open an email that they believe will make them buy something that they do not need. The purpose of your email may well be to sell the reader something, but you need to give them something first. That something is an interesting blog style article with a call to action for the sale, a coupon, discount or even a contest.
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Wrong words used in the title
Specialists agree that the following seven words are the worst ones you can use in an email subject line: confirm, join, assistance, speaker, press, social and invite. Avoid these and try to use one of the following, which are said to be the best words: apply, opportunity, demo, connect, payments, conference and cancellation.
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Emails without a verb in the subject line
A verb should be included in the call to action. Tell your reader what you want them to do, the easier you make it to do something the more likely it is that they will do it. Emails will titles like “Awesome Job Offer. $500 in 1 hour” is more than suspicious. Smart people won’t click on that, and not because they don’t believe someone can’t make $500 per hour, but because the email doesn’t say anything useful. Ok, so there’s a job that pays that much. So what? How does that help me?
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Emails with spam-trigger words
There are many words which will trigger a spam filter and result in your email being placed either in a spam box or simply deleted before it reaches the intended recipient. There are lists available on line of known spam words and it is advisable to avoid using these. “Buy”, “Order”, “Meet singles”, “Earn $”, “Double your income” and numerous others are all spam-trigger words that must be avoided by marketers and business owners who want their emails to be read by subscribers.
Many of the rules relevant to writing email titles which will get noticed for the right reasons are simply common sense – if you wouldn’t open it why would your customers? Business emails should be short and concise. They should express exactly what the email is about, and not fool the receiver. It’s already difficult enough to keep SPAM emails in SPAM that we certainly don’t want our Primary Inbox to be flooded with pointless messages. Even if what you offer might interest the receiver, if the title is not catchy enough, they won’t open it.
