Whilst shopping online for a new bag this month I signed up to email marketing from Dorothy Perkins – lured in by the offer of free delivery if I did so – and their subsequent marketing emails have got me thinking. They wasted no time in utilising my data, sending me no less than 6 emails in the last 2 weeks, but what really got me fascinated was the attention grabbing subject lines they used.

The importance of an effective subject line in email marketing is believed to potentially make or break a campaign, but the question of just how you achieve it has been pondered by marketing managers since the introduction of email, and with an increasingly crowded inbox, a great subject line has never been so important (Gardner, 2013, Popick, 2014, Marr, 2014 and Ratcliff, 2014).

So just how do you ensure your customers open your email?

Well first lets take a look at a selection of the marketing emails I’ve received in the past week, including some of the ones from Dorothy Perkins.

There are a few different opinions on what creates the best subject line out there, but below is summary of the fundementals of attracting that all important open:

• CAPITILISATION! – not neccessarily for the whole subject line, but can help the important words stand out in the right way! And whilst we’re at it, a good use of exclamation points can help!! (Gardner, 2013). Dorothy Perkins email subjects use capitalization strategically to create urgency (Popick, 2014), increasing the chance the receiver will open the email.
•  Include a call-to-action (CTA) – CTAs encourage the reader to do something, therefore inticing them to open the email (Popick, 2014 and Marr, 2014)
• Personalisation – As seen above in the emails from Amazon and CMI, use of the recipients name in the subject line can grab attention, however Popick (2014) and Ratcliff (2014) also suggest using personalisation within the email body too so that it feels more natural to the reader. Likewise its a must to make sure your data is right! Getting an email to Rachel when your name is Jane is going to be mighty irritating (Ratcliff, 2014)
• Pay attention to the types of words you use, terms such as ‘sale’ or ‘free’ can be great for attracting the bargain hunters out there, but can also trigger SPAM filters, so a balance is needed (Clapham, 2011). You also want to try mixing it up with different email subjects, content and offers to stop your customer becoming bored (Ratcliff, 2014) – Dorothy Perkins need to be careful they don’t over do the ‘reminders’ for the same offer as this could get annoying very quickly!
• Think about length. There’s inconclusive opinions on whether the amount of characters in a subject line affects the open rates, Ratcliff (2014) recommends keeping it down to 50 characters or less, whereas Alchemy (2013) says that’s a myth, and that using over 70 characters actually increases click through rates. So don’t be tied to keeping your subject lines within character limits, keep a balance, and maybe experiment to see what works best for your customers

Finally, I spotted another interesting tactic from Brighton and Hove Buses in my inbox, with the email headed ‘Win 2 tickets to the opening night of Saturday Night Fever’. The email was their newsletter, containing the usual information and updates about their services, but the competition was also part of that newsletter. Email subject lines should be honest in telling the reader what the email contains (Gardner, 2013) but in this case the company wasn’t lying, and it worked! I opened the email, entered the competition, and had a quick scan of the rest of the content. Clever little tactic there!

If you want more on ways to improve your subject lines, then check out 45 words to avoid in your email marketing subject lines

References

Alchemy Worx (2013) Debunking the 7 myths of email marketing – infographic. Alchemy Worx, 24^th October 2013 [Online] <http://www.alchemyworx.com/emailworx/2013/strategy/subject-lines/debunking-the-7-myths-of-email-marketing-%E2%80%93-infographic> [Accessed 28^th February 2015]

Clapham, P. (2011) Email Marketing, The Optician. Vol. 241, p32

Gardner, O. (2013) How to write the perfect email subject line. Unbounce, 23^rd January 2013 [Online] <http://unbounce.com/email-marketing/perfect-subject-line/> [Accessed 26^th February 2015]

Marr, M. (2014) The 9 Best Email Subject Line Styles to Increase Your Open Rates. WordStream, 31^st March 2014 [Online] <http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/03/31/email-subject-lines>[Accessed 28^th February 2015]

Popick, J. (2014) 6 Subject Line Essentials for Your Next Email Campaign. Inc, 26^th February 2015 [Online]<http://www.inc.com/john-brandon/women-tech-leaders-share-their-monday-morning-ritual.html> [Accessed 27^th February 2015]

Ratcliff, C. (2014) Email marketing subject lines: why best practice matters. Econsultancy, 10^th March 2014 [Online] <https://econsultancy.com/blog/64476-email-marketing-subject-lines-why-best-practice-matters/> [Accessed 28^th February 2015]