The first thing you need to do as a copywriter is ensure that people actually open and engage with your
emails.
This comes down to writing a great subject line.
The two key things that you want to get across with pretty much any subject line is curiosity and urgency.
So you want people to wonder what's inside the email through your subject line, and then also have
some sorts of sort of urgency that tells them they have to open this right now.
You don't want it to be archived or skipped or just waited on because the chance that someone will actually
take action with a purchase or a call to action, whatever you're asking for in an email is more likely
if that person has a sense of urgency and wants to open it right now.
So let's look at some best practices for better subject lines.
On the left hand side, you have the tip and then on the right hand side we have an example.
So the first one is short and sweet and you can't do all of these with every single subject line.
These are just a bunch of different ideas that you should try out.
So the first thing is short and sweet, and this is a good best practice in general.
You want your subject lines to be shorter, not run over the extra limit amount where you can't see
it on mobile and things like that.
So shorter is better, but something just as simple as like, hey, you dot, dot, dot is something
that if you got that from a non friend, you might want to open it more so than just a generic promotional
type headline or subject line because this is something that is more personal, more it's sort of builds
that curiosity of like OC what are they going to say next?
The next is ask a question.
Did you know, did you know?
Simply is like, okay, well, what don't I know?
And I'm already curious to know what is in this email I want.
There's something in me that wants to prove that.
Yes, I do know.
And so I'm going to open that email to see what's in there.
And obviously, I don't want you to just copy these subject lines.
It's figuring out for your brand, for your product, for your voice, your tone and everything.
What types of questions might you ask for your audience?
If you are doing more of a promotional announcement or sequence, something like including a deadline
can often help increase open rates something like 4 hours left to dot, dot, dot, or you can actually
include what it is.
But I think leaving some information out builds that curiosity.
So if it's 4 hours left to blank, you kind of are wondering what it is compared to 4 hours left to
get this amazing discount or sign up for the class or whatever it is.
So it really depends and you've got to test it out and see what's works.
But including a deadline can really help a command.
So an example of this is like you have to watch this or go do this right now or open this and read it,
read this, email things that just tell people to do something.
It's more likely to make them do it than just saying something like, Here's a cool video or This is
a video we made about our whatever.
Or Here's a video about blah, blah, blah, whatever it is.
If it's a command, it most likely will increase your open rate.
So all of these examples that I've shared so far don't really include much information about what's
inside the email.
You can combine it with information, but this next one is a good idea.
Hint at what's inside.
So my grandma's secret recipe.
Hmm.
Interesting, right?
We're getting a little bit of information about what might be inside that email, but we don't really
know what it is.
And instead of just saying.
My grandma's secret recipe for marble cake or I don't know what that was the first thing that came to
my mind, my grandma's secret chili recipe.
You're leaving a little bit of the information out, so it entices someone to click.
And if you say my grandma's secret pizza recipe or pasta recipe or whatever it is, a person who doesn't
isn't interested in that type of food is not going to open that email.
Right?
And so leaving a little bit out is a good idea.
And then my last tip is using numbers and emojis.
So the thing about numbers and emojis is it sort of breaks up the visual ness of the text with numbers
lists.
We know listicles do really well online.
Seven best things.
Number three is going to really wow you.
These are proven to actually do really well and get people to click on them.
So just using a list or a number is going to get people clicking or opening those emails and then emojis
is another example.
I used to be completely opposed to using emojis.
I thought it was super tacky, but both for email and social media, there is a proper and a good way
to use them, and mostly because it helps visually make your email look and stand out.
And we're going to look at examples of that in just a second.
Another key point is to test, test, test, if possible, use your email software's AB testing capabilities
to try out different subject lines.
I'm not sure how it works or if it's available for other all the other email marketing apps out there.
But with ConvertKit, which I use, you can set it up to test out two subject lines.
It sends out the email split evenly to 15% of your subscribers.
And then based on the open rate, it will send the following 85%.
The subject, the email with the subject line that had the higher open rate.
So this is a really cool built in feature.
If you don't have a feature like that, you could still a B test, you could set up different groups
of people in your email list or just over time play around with the different things that types of subject
lines that we went through, short and sweet questions, deadlines, commands, hinting at what's inside,
using numbers and emojis, and just compare and contrast.
Now it's a little bit harder and it's not true.
A B testing.
If you're sending out emails about different things or if the subject line is about a completely different
topic.
But over time, hopefully you can get a sense for what's going to work with your audience and what doesn't.
But testing and analyzing what's working is so, so important.
Hopefully these tips help you write out better subject lines, put them into practice, let me know
what works for you, what doesn't hit me up, and share with me on social media or wherever, and let
me know if any of these have increased your open rates.