Did you know that you have fewer than 5 seconds to convince a recipient to open an email? When it comes to email marketing, enticing your audience to engage with your email is a common struggle, and with a bland subject line, your chances of getting that email opened markedly decrease.

New trends are emerging throughout the world of email marketing all the time and a number of these revolve around the never-ending quest to create engaging and eye-catching subject lines. For instance, of late, you may have noticed the retail sector increasingly using emojis in their subject lines to attract you to open their email. However, whether this is suitable for own audience needs to be considered carefully. The fundamental goal of a subject line is to get as many opens as possible, and to give you a little help, we have come up with 5 top tips for writing an irresistible subject line.

1. Less is more

Whilst it’s important to make your subject lines as clear as possible, it’s also important to keep them short and sweet. For best results, a subject line shouldn’t be any longer than 50 characters. Whilst this may be a struggle, give it a try and see how you get on.

Particularly with mobile devices, making a subject line longer runs the risk of it being cut off prematurely. According to a study from Sidekick, 40% of emails are opened on mobile first – where the average mobile screen can only fit 4-7 words max.

2. Beat that filter

There’s only one thing worse than having your email sent to the ‘trash’ folder, and that’s the email being sent to the ‘spam’ folder. Sidekick found that 69% of email recipients report emails as spam based solely on its subject line, so making sure that your subject line isn’t ‘spam-worthy’ is a must.

There are also a range of words that act as a warning sign for email accounts, so be sure to avoid the following:

• Reminder
• Increase your
• Dear
• Free
• Help
• Get out of
• Urgent

3. Make it personal

One of the easiest ways to get an email deleted from an inbox is if it comes across as too generic. These days, consumers are attracted to a product or service with their name plastered on it – a prime example being CocaCola’s #ShareACoke campaign.

Personalising your subject line is one of the most effective methods for generating opens for an email campaign, and it can even be as simple as using the term ‘you’. Emails which contain personalised subject lines are 20% more likely to get opened – it’s a no brainer!

4. Urgency is important

There’s nothing wrong with creating a sense of urgency in your email. We have a deep fear of being left behind, or missing out, and this can be your chance to use it to your advantage!

In recent years, Sidekick have seen a 61.8% increase in opens when using the word “alert” in a subject line.

You need to make your recipients feel like they must open your email without any hesitation. Examples include:

• Get your marketing MOT today
• Today only
• Ends soon

5. Be humorous

We all love a bit of ‘banter’ here and there, and a humorous subject line can really stand out from the other dull, bland emails that surround it. However, humour can be a touchy subject, and without knowing your audience well enough, it can go wrong, so be aware.

We’ve come across a range of amusing subject lines:

• Groupon – “There are no deals in this email”
• Customer Surveys – “Baby got (feed)back”
• Move Loot – “Seat your heart out”
• Barack Obama – “Hey”

If you’re looking to be sneaky, include ‘RE:’ before the subject line, as the top 5 subject lines in a recent study from Sidekick had ‘RE:’ at the beginning.

Whatever you choose to do to improve your email marketing’s effectiveness, make sure you put improving your subject lines at the top of the list. It doesn’t matter how great the content in the email is, if it doesn’t get opened.

If you have any tips for successful subject lines, get in touch!