So you’ve had your website up and running for a few months, and you’ve been working hard to build a list of email subscribers, just like all the big name marketing gurus say you should. You’ve already got more names on that list than you thought you’d ever get. It’s amazing how many people actually signed up and asked to hear more from you.
So, almost religiously, you started sending out emails. You’re not spamming anybody. These are full-on newsletters, chock full of good information, time and money savers, problem solvers and good will.
There’s just one problem. Nothing is happening. You could get a higher response rate if you just wrote your message on a piece of a paper, slipped it into a bottle and threw it in the ocean. How could it be that all these people actually requested to get more information from you, and now your newsletter is seemingly barreling across the Internet straight into a black hole?
It’s simple. It’s the first thing people see when they get your email. It’s the subject line. If you’re not a close friend or family member, and your subject line doesn’t make them want to open the message, they’re not going to open it. Some people might even tell you the subject line is more important than the message. Afterall, if they don’t read it, the message doesn’t exist.
So how do you get more people to actually open your emails and read your messages? It’s not as hard as you might think. In fact, you’ve probably overcomplicated it already and made the problem worse. Here are some quick and easy tips to creating the best possible subject lines to improve your email marketing open rates.
Be Straight With Your Readers
Popular email marketing service MailChimp went through more than 40 million emails to determine which subject lines garnered the highest (and lowest) open rates. The results showed overwhelmingly that straight-forward subject lines did much better, like 85% vs 2% better, than flashy and ambiguous titles.
Be Honest About The Message
If the subject line states something, the message should confirm it. Putting something misleading, or worse, blatantly false, in the subject line will backfire. You will lose the trust of your subscribers and find yourself relegated to the spam folder.
For example, have you ever gotten an email with a subject line saying you get something free, only to find within the message that your freebie only comes after you spend money on something else? Did you ever read another email from that company?
Keep It Short, But Not Too Short
Another study, which looked at over 260 million emails came to the conclusion that emails with subject lines between 6 and 10 words had a 21% open rate, while subjects with 11 or more words were only opened 14% of the time. Those with 5 words or less ranked in the middle, with a 16% open rate. Your ideal word count should be 6 to 10 words, no more, no less.
Take Advantage Of Segmentation
Segmentation means moving people from one email list to another based on their current status within your marketing scheme. For example, you might have three or four different email segments such as:
- New Subscribers
- Recent Responders
- Warm Leads
- Confirmed Clients
By breaking subscribers down into more targeted lists, you can be sure the subject lines on your messages (and the messages themselves) will be more relevant to the readers. For example, a confirmed client probably isn’t going to be interested in the bulk of the information you send to new subscribers, they already know what you’re all about and will respond better to content that encourages repeat sales.
How are you doing with your email marketing? Do you need help crafting your newsletters or even building your list of subscribers? We can help you design the perfect email marketing campaign for your business. Get in touch today!
