I’ve been working on email marketing for a bit and I learned very early on that sending out an email that people will open is not easy. The only thing you have are your words in the subject line to entice recipients to open the email. Imagine reading a subject line that get cut off or doesn’t relate to you. Do you even bother opening the email?

I’ve laid out a few tips and best practices I follow when developing the subject line for an email:

Figure out the objective of the email. The objective should be expressed in the subject line a nd typically acknowledges the 5 Ws: who, what, where, when, why, and sometimes, how. Having answers to those questions will help with the approach and positioning of the email.

Who: the target audience that will be reading the email

What: the message and content of the email

Where: the location of your audience

When: the best time and date that you should be sending the email

Why: the reason the audience should care about the email

How: how the audience are reading their email

According to various research and articles, there are a few best practices that every email marketer should follow to maximize KPIs like open rate, click-through-rate, etc. I’ve aggregated some of the top tips that I found helpful when I create emails.

1. The space for the email subject line is limited and dependent on the operating system, app, and device. The optimal character count in the email subject line is between 28 to 39. The maximum count is 50 characters.
2. You don’t appreciate getting click-baited and neither does your audience. Draw attention, but make sure it’s relevant to the content.
3. Use action words in the subject line.

This part of the email is frequently overlooked and forgotten by other email marketers. Don’t be like them! The preview text is just as important as the email subject.  

1. Did you know? You have more character count (35 to 140) in the preview line than in the subject line. Make it work for you.
2. Use appropriate action words. It is important to note, however, that phrases like “learn more” and “click here” is a waste of space. It may sound a bit extreme, but think about it – when you tell someone to “click here”, but don’t take the audience to the appropriate page, it adds an extra layer of action for the audience. It basically diminishes the reason for the term “click here”. Instead, use something that relates to the email to persuade the open
3. Double check how the preview text shows when you run test emails. If you don’t have preview text enabled in your email service provider settings, now would be a good time to have it.
4. When checking emails look out for: alt-text, placeholder text, code, typos, and special characters that are not supported by email service providers. Most importantly, the preview text should always be related to the subject line and context of the email.

And there you have it! Basics and tips to maximize open rates before your audiences even open the email. Share your thoughts with me via the comment section!