Email Subject Line Writing Tips

14 Email Subject Line Writing Tips for Optimal Delivery

The subject line of your email determines if your recipient will open your invitation, announcement or greeting. Writing an enticing and personal subject line is key to successful delivery. Subject line content is also a major component in the algorithm of many ISP and recipient-level spam filters. A poorly written subject line could determine if your email even gets to your recipient.

Tips to writing your subject line:

Entice – Say something timely and valuable. For example, “If you don’t open and read this email, you will miss out on something of real value.” Your recipient will be thinking: “What’s In it for me?”.
Not TOO much information – Do not give the recipient TOO much information, or they will not click on the link to open your event. Do not say “My party is on Saturday at 6:00 at my house.”
Personalize – Make the subject line hit a personal note – “Football Lovers Only Party & BBQ Contest”
Brand – Brand your subject line – “Joe’s Taco Shop’s Taco Extravaganza .”
Test It – Send a sample event to yourself and your friends or colleugues to see if your subject line seems enticing to them and you.
Be Aware – Be aware of what others subject lines come into your inbox. See what works on you. Get ideas from what works and what does not.
Less is More – Subject lines with less than 50 characters achieve higher open rates than those of 50 or more characters. Keep it short and simple.
! – Avoid explanation points. Rarely do you see personal emails that need that kind of “noise” to grab your attention. Subject lines with explanation points have the potential to be filtered to spam.
? – Do use question marks, if doing so makes sense. Questions are much more engaging than statements. Wouldn’t you agree?
Think Catchy & Creative – Avoid the Boring – Put yourself in the mind of the recipient – what would they like to hear?
Do not use the word – ‘Invitation’. Subject lines with this word have the potential to be filtered to spam.
Do not use – words in ALL CAPS. Subject lines using all caps have the potential to be filtered to spam.
Test, Test, Test – Test sending your subject lines in different accounts, AOL, Hotmail and others to see how they display and get through spam filters.