E-mail marketing: how to create a great subject line for your sales newsletter
The E-mail inbox of today's buyer is filled with messages of all kinds. But with an attractive newsletter subject line, your newsletter can stick out from the digital noise, and it can incentivize your subscribers to click.
Good old newsletter. Many experts in digital marketing point out that it is still the most effective of all marketing tools.
With the correct e-mail, you can stay on top of the mind of your consumers. Make them pay attention to your new product. Inform them of your excellent new opinion piece. Or you can connect with your buyers who haven't heard about you since the last lockdown.
Because there are so many reasons to send a newsletter to your consumers, you cannot make mistakes when you create a subject line for it. And what is even more critical your success depends on just one sentence of a subject line. So if you are uncertain about how to make the best subject line for your newsletter, let us help you with some helpful advice.
Be concise and direct; tell your buyer what's inside
As Evaldas Mockus from Content Marketing Institute points out: almost half of the people open their newsletters on mobile devices. The subject line that is too long (especially one with more than 43 letters) will not attract or keep your subscribers' attention. Even if they browse through their e-mail inbox on a desktop computer, they will most likely click on a short subject line.
The research has found out that the most compelling subject lines are those made of 4 words. But the result is slightly different when it comes to click-to-open rate (the metric that measures opening of the e-mail and one action of a subscriber after that). Subject lines with 7, 8, and 9 words have the best CTO rate. So stick to them, and you will have conversions.
Here are two good examples from our inbox:
Put your buyer in the first place, not your brand
Many newsletter creators make mistakes when they put their brand in front of their buyer's needs. So don't duplicate the name of your brand in the subject line. When your subscriber sees your newsletter in the inbox, he will know who it is from.
Rather, address your buyers' needs, desires, and problems in the subjec line of your newsletter. Instead of saying „Fly the more profitable way with Ryan Air“ present the benefit to your buyer in a more concrete manner without putting your brand in the first place. Say it with the words like these: „Fly to London at 25 euros only“.
Carrie Shaw, an expert in digital marketing, cites the Zapier's newsletter example in which the subject line adresses the subscriber's dilemma: „How good are you at estimating time?“ So instead of saying that Zapier will help you organize your time, they pull you in a dialogue. Shaw suggests that they could even go a step further and create a witty subject line like this: “We’re bad at estimating time, but you don’t have to be."
Use numbers whenever you can
Even though the subject line is usually filled with words, it's good to add some numbers into the mix to make your offer more precise or leave a stronger impression. For example, a sentence like „Your last chance – only 48 hours left till the end of Bosch sale“ brings clarity and call to action suspense.
Elvadas Mockus states that as soon as the human brain encounters the number, it starts to organize information logically. When you see a cipher in the subject line, it becomes bait for your cerebral cortex.
That's why the researchers from CRM company Yesware analyzed millions of e-mails and their subject lines and came to the following conclusion: newsletters with numbers in the subject line had a much better opening rate than the strictly verbal subject lines (some 45%).
Why is it so? It seems that numbers communicate something that words can not. Numbers instill trust and build credibility; they are precise and create no doubt. On the other hand, words have the capacity to subvert credibility. For instance, when you emphasize the benefits of your product with numbers (e.g., that your thermometer measures the child's temperature in only 1 second), who would dare to object?
To illustrate this, here's a comparative example. Read these two subject lines and answer the question below...
- Top advice on shares investment
- Increase your profit up to 20% by investing in Amazon shares
...which one would you rather click on?
Choose the right words for your newsletter
We have come to the most sensitive part of the newsletter creation process. Connect five wrong words, and no one will click on your mailer.
Even though there is no research about the most effective words in the Croatian language, maybe the study conducted by Campaign Monitor could give us a clue. According to their study, the most successful trigger for opening the mailer is – your name! Yes, you got it right. Personalized mailers get better results from those with „general“ subject lines. So if you address your subscriber directly with the words like „John, get this promotional code and save 500 kunas on a new laptop“, you'll surely get John's attention.
The next trick that can work is using the power words. There's no final list in the Croatian language, but English examples will do the work. Content Marketing Institute recommends four types of words or phrases that will incentivize your subscribers to click.
The first group contains the words and phrases that incite curiosity: astonishing, be the first, banned, forbidden, extraordinary, forgotten, hidden, unique, little known...
These are the words that denote something amazing or something you don't see every day. But, the trick will also do the words that evoke mystery and unavailability—everything beautiful, mysterious, and even negative feelings that could inspire interest.
The second group consists of the words and phrases that tickle the vanity of your subscribers. People like to be adored or feel that they deserve your respect. Imagine this kind of subject line: „Nourishing night cream that will rejuvenate your skin,“ and you will instantly understand what we are talking about. CMI recommends the word like these: irresistible, attractive, handsome, unique, elegant, enchanting...
The words that create trust belong to the next group of power words. Let us give you some examples: approved, authentic, expert advice, professional, tested... If we were in the cosmetic industry, we would probably create a newsletter with the subject line: „Professional care of famous make-up artists delivered in new L'Oreal mascara“.
And last but not least are the power words that aim at our fear of missing out. The CMI's list of such words and phrases include: the most common mistakes, attention, beware of, do not miss... So the subject line with the wording „5 easy tricks that will help you prepare a perfect pancake“ certainly belongs to this group.
To conclude... test to see what's working best
As always with digital marketing, don't forget to test your subject lines all the time. If you notice that your buyers gladly open the newsletters with „numerical“ subject lines or if they like emotional headlines, use them more often in your mailers. The more you test and try the better the chance that you will hit the soft spot of your subscribers.
From concise, direct and straightforward subject lines to numbers and power words... we have made a short overview of the best tactics to create a compelling headline for your newsletter. If your e-mails still don't yield results, ask for help from a digital marketing agency like LOGIC MARKETING.
References and further reading:
https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2021/07/best-practices-email-subject-line/
https://www.copper.com/resources/newsletter-subject-lines#use
