On Wednesday, October 10, Greg Glynn and Meg Crowder from Marshall Communications provided a complimentary webinar titled “How to Write Better Subject Lines.” The PowerPoint included tips for writing subject lines that get more people to open your emails or e-newsletters. Greg and Meg also shared strategies and tactics to improve your open rates.

3. o The purpose of a subject line
o How to make your subject line stand out
o The best way to get people to respond
o Subject lines for e-newsletters

4. o Inform the person or multiple people what the email is about
o Create a thread about a topic
 Try not to use the same subject line when the topic of the email
chain changes
o Set up a meeting
o Get approval or review of a document; this should be included in the
subject line

6. Define your target audience
o When sending bulk emails, think about who you’re sending them
to and if the subject line is applicable to everyone.
o If you have a national email list and you sell outdoor apparel,
there’s a large part of the country that won’t open anything saying,
“Sale on our warmest winter coats!”
o Instead, create separate email groups for cold climates or write a
more general subject line, such as “Great end-of-year sale – up to
60% off!”

7. o Using the recipient’s first name is best. People are far more likely to
open an email that has their name in the subject line.
o Use the words you, your and you’re. This will increase the open rate of
your email because the person is more likely to think the email is
actually for them. Examples: “You won’t believe this…” “You’re about to
learn the coolest thing,” or “Your time is valuable, so we kept this
short.”
o Build trust with the person you’re are emailing. If they get too many
emails from you that aren’t relevant, they won’t want to open your
emails anymore.

8. o In a recent Time Magazine article, 36% of millennials think
that emojis communicate their thoughts and feelings better
than words.
o The majority of people of all ages said they feel more
connected to people they communicate frequently with if
they use GIFS and emojis.
o Here’s an email from Domino’s Pizza that does this well. They
use emojis that are all about love and pizza.

9. o Use A and B testing to see what works for your audience. Maybe you discover
subject lines with emojis are opened at a higher rate.
o To do A, B testing, split up your list and send the same email to both lists, with the
only change being the subject line. See which subject line gets a high open rate.
o The following words actually release the body chemical dopamine that send signals
to other nerve cells. Here are four words to try: now, announcing, finally and free.
o Free used to be considered bad because it would trigger SPAM filters, but that’s not
really the case anymore. In fact, according to Worlddata, free gets 2x the open rate
compared to complimentary.

10. o Typos or unusually spelled word errors also get more noticed, so you could try:
Helllllo, you won’t want to miss this deal. Or Opps! Did you forget to look at this
email?
o Looking for donations? Mention the person’s name in the email, it makes the
ask more personal.
o Use words that make your content valuable, words like: Alert and secret.
o Word like easy, quick and simple are also good to use because it makes people
think they can accomplish what you are asking them to do.

11. o When If people can’t read your full subject line, it’s going to be even harder for
them to become interested in your email.
o Short phrases or words can work well for subject lines, you don’t have to write
complete sentences. A good rule is to use no more than 55 characters with
spaces in the subject line.
o Don’t miss out on the pre-header text, either. This is text that follows the bold
text of the subject line, in a lighter font, great for adding context.
o Short one, two or three-word subject lines are much more likely to stand out in
a person’s inbox.

12. o A few years ago, the question mark was considered a no-no in a subject line. It
was an indicator to email service providers that the email could be
inappropriate and triggered SPAM filters and most of the time went into junk
mail.
o Now the question mark and other punctuation are becoming more acceptable
again. Try not to use this strategy too often and, if you do, avoid words such as
special, quick, offer, buy, sell or big. These words, when used with punctuation,
can find their way to the junk mail folder pretty quickly.
o This technique is also great for social media. If you aren’t posting questions on
your social media accounts, you should be, you will get far more engagement!

13. o Using words such as today, time, and deadline can increase open rates.
o For example: If your fundraising event is a week away or your product is on sale
for two more days, be sure to use these words and phrases to let your audience
know they need to take action. Now, act fast, don’t miss out, we haven’t heard
from you yet…
o If you don’t indicate that your email is important or needs attention, then it
might get lost with all the others.
o If using exclamation points, use just one, more than one could set off SPAM
filters.

14. o Use the subject line as possible headline for the story. Ex: “71-year-old
makes mountains and pizza ovens.”
o Reference the section of the publication. Example: Story idea for your
“On the Record” section. Mainebiz has an interview section with
business leaders.
o Use the reporter’s or editor’s first name. Example: Mike, are you still
interested in the story we talked about?
o Use MEDIA ADVISORY in caps for a media advisory so that it stands out.

15. To submit a question, type a
question in the Q&A box
and we will answer it live!
To see a full schedule of our upcoming
complimentary webinars, visit
marshallpr.com/webinars
Stay tuned for how you can get even
more great content from us…

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