Part of building a profitable email list is keeping the list subscribers happy. The truth is, getting someone to sign up for your list is not the hard part. Maintaining an active email list that is responsive is the challenge that you really have when it comes to getting and keeping your first 1000 or next 1000 subscribers. One way to ensure your subscribers open your email messages is to optimize your email subject lines.
- Make Them Short – You’ll want to test out different lengths to find out what it looks like in the subject line area when your audience receives their email. In general, a subject line for an email should be no more than 60 characters long.
- Use Your Real Name or At Least a Familiar Name in The Return Email Name If your name is known among your audience, use that name. This is not the time to be anonymous.
- Do Not Use No Reply Email Addresses – Just like you don’t want to use a fake name or an unknown name in the return field, you also don’t want to use a no-reply email that goes nowhere. Email your audience only from real addresses that they can reply to easily.
- Use Smart Personalization – Each autoresponder has different capabilities, but you’ll want to use all the personalization you can based on your audience and the information you’ve collected. The worst thing that could happen is you add personalization for info you did not collect.
- Make Honest Promises – It should go without saying that a promise should be true but let’s be clear. When you make a promise to your audience, it should be something you know is true and can really happen.
- Don’t Blow Smoke – While some will tell you that it’s normal to blow smoke or use hyperbole in business, the truth is, people are sick of it. Just be truthful and straightforward about the benefits of your offers.
- Tell Them Why They Need to Open the Email – Try to let your audience know why they need to open that email with the subject line. The words you use there should answer that why question for them clearly.
- Send Your Emails at The Right Time and Day – Each audience is different, but you can start with the stats your autoresponder offers regarding the best times to send your messages to your audience.
- Elicit the Right Emotions – You want them to be curious and want to open the email based on the subject line urgently. That might seem like a lot for a few words, but with practice, you’ll soon see the results of your efforts when you make them feel something.
- Use Numbers and Lists – The human brain loves lists; this is why when you publish chunky content (like this post), it’s more digestible to your audience. People read online in an F format, scanning down then to the right. Lists are easy to absorb.
- Ask a Compelling Question – A great way to create a compelling subject line is to ask a compelling question. The question itself can persuade them to open to see the answers and learn more.
- Puns Are Fine but Don’t Be Too Clever – While some audiences are more conducive to humor than others, be careful about trying to be too clever because it can cause confusion. Best to be straightforward.
- Don’t Use All Caps – In fact, your titles should use the appropriate case for titles, which is either upper case on the correct words or lower case on all but the first word to make it more readable to your audience.
- Test More Than One Idea – You have such amazing technology at your fingertips that you can efficiently conduct A B testing using your autoresponder system, and you should do it because that’s what’s going to help you determine what works best with your audience.
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While you want to start with best practices, use testing to double-check what works and what doesn’t work. Do more of what shows the results you desire and less of what doesn’t, and you will start to see that your subject lines are working better to get more opens. The more your audience opens your email messages, the stronger your email list will become.