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Best Types of Email Subject Lines that'll Guarantee a Click

While they may be only a tiny part of your message, email subject lines are arguably the most vital component of your email. After all, alongside the preheader, they are the only other thing recipients see in their inbox when they receive your email. Therefore, they determine if your email is opened and read or sent straight to the trash, or worse, spam.

What's more, if you're sending a cold email, the subject line is one of the first impressions a potential customer will get of your brand, meaning that a subject line greatly influences your open rates and, in turn, conversion rates.

Remember, you can dedicate hours of work and meticulously craft sophisticated content for your email campaigns, but that all goes down the drain if your target audience doesn't open the email. 

So, want to stand out in a crowded inbox and increase your email open rates?

Then let's dive into some of the types of email subject lines that will skyrocket your clicks and open rates.

Curiosity-Provoking Email Marketing Subject Lines

There’s no better way to generate more clicks than by piquing the recipient’s curiosity. After all, we humans are curious beings, so it’ll benefit you to maintain some sense of mystery and rouse the recipient’s natural interest in the subject line. 

These subject lines require opening the email to receive the information and therefore result in a higher open rate. For example: 

  • Men vs. Women: Who is more active online?
  • Want to discover your audience’s major pain points? 
  • If you have a website, you NEED this tool.
  • Bizarre money habits making millennials rich
  • Here's the reason no one comments on your blog posts:

Open-ended questions, teasers, and exciting language are the key to these types of subject lines. 

Urgent Digital Marketing Email Subject Lines 

Did you know that last-chance email subject lines that instill a sense of urgency can generate a 22% higher open rate? It makes sense if you consider the fact that 56% of people have a fear of missing out (FOMO). 

So, why not turn FOMO to your benefit? You can do this by setting deadlines and using words that generate more clicks. For example: 

  • Final Hours! Up to 40% Off Merchandise
  • 80% Off Sale Ends Tomorrow! Don’t miss out
  • ONLY 1 DAY LEFT to Secure Your Dates

These types of email marketing subject lines remind people of their limited time left and encourage them to act ASAP. Therefore, generating more clicks and traffic for your company. 

Some impactful words to consider that inject urgency into your subject lines are: 

Limited Time, Last Chance, Still Time, Quick, Fast, and Now. Essentially, words that naturally express urgency are usually a good way to go. 

Subject Lines that Offer Value 

Email Marketing

One of the key elements of a successful email marketing campaign is your ability to understand your audience inside and out. Essentially this means understanding their needs, desires, and most importantly, pain points. 

And to do this, you must develop detailed buyer personas. With these in hand, you’ll not only be able to appeal to your recipient's emotions when crafting your subject lines but also take the opportunity to compel them to open your email by presenting them with a solution to their problem. For example: 

  • Feed your guests without breaking the bank
  • Wasting too many resources? Learn to save with us.
  • Since we can’t all win the lottery, here are some budgeting tips!
  • Why I gave up thousands of blog readers and started over
  • Your issues solved. 

TL;DR: ensure that your email subject line tugs at a core desire, pique their interest, and tease a solution. 

Personalized Subject Lines

By now, we all understand how crucial personalization is to the business world - especially if you wish to beat the competition. In fact, personalized emails have 29% higher unique open rates and 41% more click-through rates. 

So, if you’re already taking the time to collect data on your potential customers to build buyer personas, why not take it a step further and use that data to personalize your email subject lines? It’ll demonstrate to your recipients that you've taken the time to understand their personal pain points and needs, catch their eye, and make them feel valued.  

Here are some examples: 

  • Mary, check out these hand-picked items for you
  • Happy Birthday, Paul. Open me to receive 10% off!
  • John, thank you for being a loyal customer
  • Hannah, are you free tomorrow to join our SEO webinar?
  • Jenny, why not try another one of our soothing teas
  • 50% off your first purchase at our [LOCATION] branch 

Always remember that personalization takes many forms: you can use the recipient’s first name, include an interest, use transaction history to offer other relevant products and services, take the extra step by remembering their birthday, and even use their location to target audiences based on what's happening around them.

There are countless other ways to personalize a subject line and make it valuable to the reader. Remember, the key is to make it relevant to the reader and motivate them to open. 

Anything else to consider? 

Digital Marketing email subject line

  • Optimize for mobile. As 56% of emails are now being read on mobile devices, it’s important to ensure that the recipient can read the entire subject line, and you can do this by sticking to 40 characters.
  • Ensure your email subject line falls in line with your branding. After all, the subject line is one of the first impressions the recipient gets of your brand, especially if you’re sending a cold email. So, you wouldn’t want to be sharing something that doesn’t match that.
  • A/B testing. Always remember that your email marketing campaigns are only as good as your data. Consider testing out different subject lines to determine which resonate best with your recipients and which generate the most clicks. 
  • Marketing Automation. Once you’ve nailed down your buyer personas, messaging, type of subject line, and content, it’s time to consider automating. Running email marketing campaigns will open the door to greater efficiency, cost reduction, and enhanced customer experience. 

Bonus Tip 1: Keywords to Include in Email Subject Lines

According to various studies conducted by Alchemy Worx, Adestr, and Smart Insights, which analyzed billions of emails, some of the most effective keywords to use in subject lines are:

  • Upgrade
  • Available
  • Just 
  • Go 
  • Wonderful
  • Thank you
  • Congratulations 
  • Order today
  • Celebrate
  • Buy
  • Get your
  • What…?
  • Won’t…?
  • Do…?
  • Can…?
  • May…?
  • Great deals
  • Brand new
  • Latest 
  • Special
  • Sale starts

To keep it concise, we've only added a few keywords mentioned in these reports. There are many other great keywords that you can utilize in your emails to boost open rates. To find them, why not conduct keyword research or general research to discover trending or relevant topics? Perform this on Google Trends, Google Keyword Planner, Buzzsumo, Ahrefs, and other tools of the sort.

Bonus Tip 2: What NOT to Do

We’ve talked about great ways to nail the subject line, so now, let’s mention a few things to avoid - as just like there are plenty of great ways to boost your click rates, there are plenty of mistakes you can make too. 

These mistakes can greatly impact your campaign results and lead to your brand becoming marked as spam. 

  • Avoid spammy words. Many words can trigger spam flags, even the most innocent and random of words. If you’re worried about your emails being marked as spam, then you can run a spam check. 
  • AVOID USING ALL CAPS. Naturally, you want the recipient’s first encounter with your brand to be a good experience. So, avoid using caps, as it comes across as shouting and often triggers spam filters.
  • Avoid using too much punctuation. For example: Get 40% off your next purchase RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!! Once again, this can come across as aggressive and will most likely be marked as spam. Special characters such as * % & # ^ also have been known to trigger spam filters. So be sure to use them sparingly. 
  • Avoid not including a subject line. A bad subject line is always better than nothing. Just think about it an email with a blank subject line will get deleted or lost. But if you're going to take the time to write a subject line, why not put in the extra effort to make it count?   

We've only just touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the types of email subject lines that can be utilized in your email marketing campaigns. Want to know more?

Contact us today to speak to one of our representatives about optimizing your campaigns, writing irresistible subject lines, and receiving other great digital marketing tips

Topics: Email Marketing