Short subject lines grab attention, tease the subscriber and increase open rates
Like a good headline, a good email subject line is succinct. It gets to the point without giving too much away, but with enough information to interest the email subscriber. For well-branded companies, they may get away with simply using a “[Insert Brand Here]’s Daily Digest for June 29th, 2011” type of headline, but most of us need a little more pull.
Short subject lines give us the ability to pull the reader in with a question or a statement. These teaser-like subject lines do a great job at producing open rates and here are three other reasons why we like short subject lines:
- You don’t know what email client a subscriber is using, so this subject line forces you to adhere to make it short and sweet, packing the punch in the beginning of your emails. Some email clients such as AOL and Hotmail truncate the email subject line if it is longer than 45-51 characters. Other email clients permit up to 80+ characters.
- Generally, shorter email subject lines produce higher open and click-through rates.
- Lengthy and imaginative subject lines don’t work as effectively now as they used to. Subject lines like “Save $50.00 – Merry Christmas” are proven to perform better than “Save $50.00 on Christmas Stockings This Week”.
Question subject lines are great examples of short subject lines and they generally pull well because they entice the reader to find out the answer. In many cases, the reader already thinks they know the answer, and your headline is merely feeding their need for affirmation.
Is your email subject line sufficiently intriguing to prompt the recipient to open your email newsletter or sales letter? Or do you “give away” the entire message in the email subject line, diminishing the subscriber’s incentive to read any further? Read The Three Keys to Writing Short Email Subject Lines to get a jump start.
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