We all know this feeling: newsletter after newsletter in your inbox, but no desire to open them. Nowadays, customers are flooded with an overabundance of emails full of information, especially newsletters. This problem is faced by many annoyed customers who delete the advertisements, instead of opening them with enthusiasm. The content could be the most interesting and convincing content, but the newsletter subject line is pivotal. That’s why many marketing teams ask themselves: how can you make the newsletter subject line eye-catching, thus customers are convinced to open the email instead of deleting it disinterested?
In this blog, I’ll show you why this issue is so important, share the most important email marketing tips, and explain how to solve this problem.
Why is Email Marketing Essential?
- Low marketing costs: Writing and sending newsletters doesn’t blow up your budget – on the contrary, it’s easy on your wallet
- Reaching numerous recipients: you can reach many different people in different places at different times
- High ROI-cost-ratio: Market researchers have found out that email is the marketing campaign with the highest return on investment (see chart below)
- Increase in traffic: through email marketing, many recipients visit websites and online stores
- Increase in conversion-rate: more traffic to the website also increases the conversion rate
- Environmentally friendly: Nowadays, it is very important to take care of our planet. Many potential customers share the same opinion and appreciate it when a company does not waste paper unnecessarily on advertising.
Why are catchy newsletter subject lines so important?
The subject line of your newsletter is the first impression of the company to the customers. Therefore, it is even more important than the content of the email itself. Why? If the subject line doesn’t convince the subscriber, then the content will not be read – no matter how creative and exceptional it is. 47% of recipients base their decision on whether to open the email on their personal evaluation of the subject line.
Moreover, the subject line sets the tone of your newsletter. It shows the customer the value of the email, encourages them to read it and make a connection with your company. This can even lead the customer to engage more with your company and values it positively. Therefore, it is essential to focus on performant, eye-catching and unique subject lines in order to be successful in your email marketing campaign.
A bad subject line, on the other hand, can be worse than just bad. It can cause the email to be marked as spam or to even get it deleted. On average, 69% of recipients mark the email as spam based on the subject line alone. This can result in potential customers being bugged and thus, they might associate your company with something negative. This again could lead to lost profits. Even if emails don’t end up in the spam folder, it is not guaranteed that they will be read, because customers look at the subject line first before they decide to open it. So the open-rate is very dependent on how sensational your subject line is.
Another interesting fact: In Germany, the open rate is 22.82% and the click-to-open rate is 18.94%. This means that once the email is opened, customers are willing to click on various links in the email.
But, as mentioned before, for this to happen, it is important to find the perfect subject line.
The most important email marketing tips for catchy newsletter subject lines
1. Avoid the spam folder
Extremely important: Avoid the spam folder! Because once the newsletter is there, the potential customer doesn’t even get to see the subject line. Certain words in your marketing email can provoke the spam filter and thus send the newsletter directly to the spam folder, e.g. words like “free”. Also avoid words like “win”, “cheap”, “buy”, “newsletter”, and “discount”. This will cause most newsletter recipient to delete the email directly.
Following this could also be fatal:
- Incorrect spelling and grammar
- too many capital letters and punctuation marks
- use of special characters
2. Creating subject lines in a certain way
What can you do then to get your newsletter opened? Make your subject line as specific and as concise as you can so that your subscribers know what it is about, but they should not be put off by the length. You have to keep in mind that people receive masses of newsletters and email ads every day and skim through many subject lines. If they don’t know what it is about or the subject line is too long to read, then you have already lost. Also, don’t forget to keep your content interesting. Because if the subject line encourages people to read your email, but the content doesn’t live up to the subject line, many readers will be disappointed and they will never open another newsletter from you again.
This also makes your subject lines catchy:
- Rhetoric questions:
“Do you love sale as much as we do?”
“Do you want something new?” - Short, but meaningful lines:
“Loose your holiday pounds now!”
“Acne free!” - A call-to-action
“Transform your favourite picture to a poster”
“Test us for free” - Fear of missing out
“Your favourites are back in stock – get them before they are gone!”
“Oh no! Your discount coupon expires today” - Arouse curiosity
“Don’t open this E-Mail!”
“This is scary! Do you have the courage?” - Humour
“One day topless through the city – get your convertible for a day!”
“We like to be used!” - Honesty
“I know, another fundraising campaign”
“Here it goes again. Another advertisement” - Emoticons
“We ♥ you”
“Do you want summer, sun, and sunshine? ☼” - Controversy
“Your marketing is bad: why you should think local”
“Why your 5-year-old daughter is more digital than the most CMOs” - Know and address your audience
“[Name], save extra points with your next purchase!”
“Happy Birthday [Name], 20 % discount for your special day!” - Describing Adjectives
“Here is your new cool jeans”
“Want some delicious juicy smoothies?” - Trendy topic
“Don’t wear fashion trends from last year!”
“Clothes that celebrities wear” - Single word line
“Sale”
“Panic”
3. Email Segmentation
What can also help you succeed with newsletters is segmentation in email marketing. People feel addressed by it and some even have the feeling that the email was made just for them. This creates interest and also a positive image of the company, which seems to care a lot about each individual customer. Let’s have a look at an example: when young adults receive newsletters about hearing aids, most of them remain unread. On the other hand, if interests, hobbies, places of residence, etc. of potential customers are used, the engagement to open these emails increases. Marketers found out that segmentation in marketing campaigns can lead to an increase of 90.70% in click-through rates. Moreover, the open-rate for segmented marketing campaigns is 12.46% higher than for non-segmented ones. Sounds pretty good, right?
What is Subject-line Optimization?
Let me introduce to you our tool and how we at neuroflash can help you get the most out of your newsletter subject lines. Because sometimes the content of the subject line has real potential, but often it is expressed in an improper way. With our subject-line optimization tool you can render the same content in various different ways. We can then help you choose the subject line that will achieve the best results for your marketing campaign.
Are you interested? Then book an appointment with us to learn more about our tool and how to use it or try it for free for 7 days.
