I stop the scroll in any inbox
Because “open me” isn’t ever good enough
I’ve spent years mastering the art of the email subject line – the tiny line with the biggest impact. Crafting emails that get noticed (and opened) is both strategy and instinct. I’ve taught and mentored teams on writing effective subject lines, and this is exactly how I start.
Each example below includes my real subject line, preheader and performance results.
why it works: delight
Humor is a great tool, and this fun email was sent around Halloween. Depending on your brand voice, making a customer smile or laugh out loud is powerful engagement. This email subject line had customers playfully commenting things on the brand’s social media like, “Oh, you think you’re my boo now!?”
why it works:
empathy for audience
Humor is a great tool, and this fun email was sent around Halloween. Depending on your brand voice, making a customer smile or laugh out loud is powerful engagement. This email subject line had customers playfully commenting things on the brand’s social media like, “Oh, you think you’re my boo now!?”
why it works:
simple urgency
Sometimes the best copywriting isn’t about a clever play on words. This audience was known to have highest engagement when email marketing leveraged anxiety. I often (but not too often) wrote subject lines for this for these customers with urgency, scarcity and all caps. This drove higher open rates and better sales.
why it works:
the answer is yes
When I write an email subject line, or any headline using a question, the answer I anticipate from the reader must move them to the next step in the marketing stream. In this case customers are viewing their inbox, so the answer to the question posed is, “yep, I’m here”. An opened email is a quick start to a positive customer interaction.
why it works:
relevancy
This email was part of a “stay home, stay safe” series in the height of COVID 2021. I wrote with relevance for the time while staying away from any negativity. Side note: The daycare was closed for months, and my toddler rode the back of my office chair daily. I still did excellent work and am proud of us all for hanging in there.
