Week 3: E-Mail Subject Lines

This week my department launched an email campaign to our customers.  I had to decide upon three subject lines to use for this email campaign that would attract customers to open the email.  I thought that this may be an interesting topic to talk about this week.  How do you properly write an email subject line?  There are a lot of obstacles that you face when you develop any email subject line.  The first obstacle is that you only have seconds to capture the reader's attention, and then you have to try and convince them to open your email rather than deleting it.  Another obstacle, is that you want to avoid getting your email caught in spam filters.  From my experience, and from what I have been taught, there are a few tips to follow when developing a proper email subject line.  These tips are listed below:
1)  Do not write the subject line in all capital letters.  This can actually turn the reader away, and it can increase your risk of the email getting caught in a spam filter.
2)  Many readers may not actually open a solicitation email - even if they are interested in whatever product or service that you are soliciting.  It is important, therefore, to try and put the actual offer within the subject line.
3)  In addition to listing the offer within the subject line, it is important to put a sense of urgency in the email.  Phrases like "limited time only" or "immediate response" tends to encourage reader's to open the email because they want to how great this offer is that it is going to expire so soon.
4)  Another tip to follow is to keep the subject line brief.  You really only have room for about 60 characters in most default setting inboxes.  It is important to make sure that your subject line does not get cut off.
5)  Finally, try to avoid using too many symbols within the email subject line.  An exclamation or question mark or period is fine, but the more symbols you use in an email subject line the less of a chance you have that it could be taken seriously. 

I did some reading online to see if I could gather more tips on email subject line marketing.  Five Ways Not to Squander the Email Subject Line supports many of the tips that I have listed above.  In addition to these tips, this article explains some helpful ways to go about writing a subject line.  First, you can read the newspaper to see how the headlines are written in there.  This practice can  help you to get an idea of how to develop a subject line in your email.  Another extra tip not mentioned in the 5 above is to use personalization.  If you have the ability to personalize an email, it can help to get the reader's attention.

These are all helpful tips when developing subject lines for emails.