Tag Archives: subject lines

Learn how to write a survey email subject line that gets your emails opened and your surveys responded to.

You’ve probably gotten a survey email before, with a subject line that reads something like: 

  •  “Customer satisfaction survey.”
  • “Your opinion matters!”
  •  “Let us know what you think.” 
  • “Feedback about your recent purchase.”

…But how many of those do you actually open?

You already know that subject lines can make or break any email campaign you send out — particularly with survey emails, which require customer responses to be successful. 

According to a recent report, only 22% of marketers believed customer loyalty for brands has increased over the past two years. 38% of customers, however, consider themselves loyal to brands they love. This shows a very discouraging disconnect between marketers and the people they want to reach. 

So why is this happening, and what can you do to bridge that gap? Those generic “Let us know what you think” survey email subject lines might only get the attention of your angry or frustrated customers. 

Remember, the goal of an email survey is to collect honest data about a wide range of customers — happy, unhappy, and everywhere in between — and understand your customer experience from start to finish. 

10 tips for creating survey email subject lines your subscribers will open

If you’re sending out survey emails with lackluster subject lines, your data will be measly (and totally inaccurate). Don’t worry, though. Here are 10 tried-and-true tips for sending survey emails with fire open rates (plus 15 example subject lines)! 

1. Trigger an emotion

Imagine all the survey email subject lines in your inbox right now. What emotions come to mind?

Are you having trouble coming up with an answer? That’s probably because most of those subject lines don’t trigger any type of emotion. They’re forgettable. 

Just like with your other email campaigns, you want to invoke some type of emotion in your subscribers when they see that Gmail notification. Emotion always trumps rationale. “Let us know what you think” will not produce an emotion unless the customer had an extreme experience with your company. 

While extremely positive reviews are great, it can take a lot to counteract extremely bad reviews, so you want to aim for customers who had a pleasant experience but may need extra reinforcement or reward to write a review.

The easiest emotion to trigger in your survey subject lines is empathy. People tend to identify with other customers as the “us” and brands as “them.” That’s why word-of-mouth marketing is so important.

Let subscribers know that they can help their fellow comrades make informed decisions about your company or organization by replying to the survey.

2. Make sure it’s personal

“Quick customer feedback survey” doesn’t necessarily pack the punch you’re looking for. Not only is this email subject line dry and boring, but it’s also extremely robotic and impersonal. Your subscriber isn’t an inbox — they’re a human. So in your subject lines, speak to them like a person.

According to research from Accenture, 75% of customers are more likely to spend their hard-earned money with brands that recognize them by name and remember information about them. Plus, personalized survey emails are vital for understanding customer satisfaction (which = retention).

We might sound like a broken record, but it’s extremely important to use personalized subject lines. 

You can also take it a step further by sending personalized automated emails. If you’re requesting feedback about a recent purchase, make sure to incorporate the day, location, order number, and any other unique information you have to help the customer recall their experience.

Uber does a great job of personalizing their automated feedback emails with a friendly tone and specific information about the purchase.

personalizing automated feedback

3. Pose a question

Even if you go the route of “Well, how did we do?” you’re still engaging with the subscriber instead of simply reacting to their recent purchase. A question forms the beginning of a conversation with a real human being — it’s not simply a robotic response.

Questions are excellent survey email subject line choices both for past purchases and general surveys about your brand as a whole. Time automated surveys about products to go out after the subscriber has had a chance to experience the item.

Survey email example from Amazon

 

4. Mention the word “survey”

Specifically asking your customers to take a survey in the subject line is a great and clear CTA right off the bat.

However, you should still word your subject lines in an intriguing way. “Take our survey today” probably won’t deliver the results you want.

Instead, use personalization or some kind of incentive along with the word survey to boost your subject line’s potential.

5. …or don’t mention it at all

This isn’t carte blanche to completely dupe your subscribers. You can, however, entirely avoid even mentioning the survey in your subject line.

Get creative. Consider how you would start a conversation with a trusted friend you’re asking for advice, and write your copy from there.

Focus on developing a one-on-one relationship with your subscribers in your survey email subject lines.

6. Focus on the benefits

Following up with the previous point, you can avoid mentioning the survey in your subject lines by mentioning the benefit instead. To do this, however, you need to offer some kind of incentive for taking the survey.

For longer surveys, offer a bigger incentive—like 50% off a one-time purchase. This may seem like quite a large give, but remember the value of a customer’s time and feedback.

Even quick product reviews on your website could warrant a smooth 10% or 15% off.

7. Make sure your copy lives up to the survey email subject lines

If you make promises in your survey email subject lines, make sure you follow through with it in the body copy.

This point is crucial for several reasons:

  • To avoid spam filters (spammy copy = bad copy, always 
  • To uphold your brand’s (and email service provider’s) reputation 
  • Getting the results you want. Dry, boring copy won’t make people want to take your survey! 
Survey email example from Tailor Brands.

 

8. Keep it short

Over 41% of emails were opened on mobile devices in 2021, and your subject lines need to take that into consideration. Finding the ideal subject line length is tricky, but when it comes to survey email subject lines, we’d recommend keeping them short so they fit into app notifications.

How short? You should be safe with 50 characters.

You should also keep it short so that your subject line copy is concise, straight to the point, and easy to understand.

9. Encourage some kind of urgency.

If you don’t discuss anything about time constraints, your subscribers might not respond. They’ll think about responding. They’ll have every intention to respond. But they won’t actually respond.

Expressing urgency can be as simple as using the word “now” in your subject lines. You can also let subscribers know that the coupon for taking the survey will expire at a certain time.

10. Use emojis.

A report by Experian revealed that fifty-six percent of brands using emojis in their email subject lines had a higher unique email open rate. 

Emojis can be over-used in email marketing these days, but they add levity and friendliness to almost any send. In a world of bland corporate surveys with almost no pep, an emoji in your subject line can add a little spark. ✨

Remember — not all emojis render properly based on the email client. Check to see if the majority of your list uses a supported email provider before going all-in on the emoji front.

15 survey email subject line examples worth copying

Most survey email subject lines follow a simple set of formulas: they personalize, incentivize, and/or create urgency to get folks to click in and fill out the survey. 

Here are a few examples to inspire your next survey subject line:

Examples using personalization

  • “[NAME], people have questions about [insert product]. Can you help?”
  • “Hi [NAME]. Can we talk?”
  • “Hi [NAME], how do your new [brand] sneakers fit?”
  • “Hey [NAME]. Time’s almost up to earn 50% off.”

Examples using second person POV

  • “Your Saturday afternoon trip with Uber” 
  • “Well, what do you think?”
  • “Your feedback makes us better” 

Examples using incentives

  • “Take a quick survey, earn 25% off”
  • “Looking for 40% off?”
  • “Penny (or more) for your thoughts?”

Examples that create a sense of urgency

  • “LAST DAY to win a $200 Visa gift card” 
  • “Last chance! Survey ends at midnight”

Examples with emojis

  • “Answer our survey, get a 🎁”
  • “Got a minute? ⏰”
  • “This Valentine’s Day, we ❤️ your feedback.”

Start sending those survey emails

Survey email subject lines are tough because, by nature, surveys aren’t the most interesting pieces of content. Marketers really need to use their creativity to come up with something unique that will spark interest.

We could write an entire blog post on survey email copy but you need to actually get subscribers to open the email first. Otherwise, you’ve just wasted your time creating something amazing that no one will ever read. 

Focusing on your subscribers’ wants, needs, and state of mind can help you develop subject lines that hit home. Just don’t forget to A/B test a few different subject lines!

Need help creating rock-solid subject lines or embedding beautiful surveys directly into your emails? Campaign Monitor can help with customizable templates.

A clever, well-planned valentines day email campaign can yield some seriously positive results. To help you play cupid with your subscribers this year, here are 45 of our favorite Valentine’s Day subject lines to inspire your own.

According to the National Retail Federation, the average American planned to spend $165 on Valentine’s Day gifts and celebrations in 2021. With so much money trading hands on Valentine’s Day, there’s no reason your customers shouldn’t receive Valentine’s Day emails from you.

Don’t let the florists and jewelers reap all the rewards: Your business can cash in on this holiday too. By sending the right Valentine’s Day emails, with the right subject lines, you too can sweeten your bottom line this February.

We’ve put together a list of 45 Valentine’s email subject lines your subscribers will love. Plus, you’ll find subject line tips and some examples of great Valentine’s Day email marketing that got our hearts beating a little faster.

45 of the best Valentine’s Day email subject lines

B2C subject lines

Here are some of our favorite subject lines from the worlds of retail, ecommerce, and other B2C industries. You’ll notice teases for a lot of special offers like gift cards, free gifts, or even free delivery that entice readers to open.

  1. Society6: Valen-time’s Almost Up to Get 30% Off Everything
  2. Edible Arrangements: Red roses are so last year
  3. Starbucks: No flowers, but alllll of the chocolate
  4. Paper Source: Will you be our Galentine?
  5. Gordon Ramsay Restaurants: Make Valentine’s Day one to Remember
  6. Hulu: Spend Valentine’s Day with Our Favorite Couples
  7. Shutterfly: Personalize your Valentine’s Day gift
  8. Moovly: Create a Valentine’s Day video in a snap
  9. Sephora: Looking for the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for him?
  10. Birchbox: Valentine’s Day treats for you and yours
  11. Saxx: Hurry! Last Chance For Valentine’s Day with Express Shipping
  12. Ink Cards: 6 HOURS LEFT to send cards in time for Valentine’s Day delivery
  13. La Mer: Happy Valentine’s Day: enjoy a free sample
  14. Birchbox: Last chance to gift Birchbox this Valentine’s Day
  15. Nordstrom: Valentine’s Day gifts for her and him
  16. Steve Madden: It’s love
  17. Birchbox: This Valentine’s Day, think inside the box
  18. Target: Sweet deal on Valentine’s Day gifts + in-store pickup
  19. Nordstrom: Valentine’s Day gifts for the loves in your life
  20. La Mer: A last-minute miracle for Valentine’s Day
  21. Guess: Let us set you up this Valentine’s Day
  22. La Mer: Seal it with a kiss: The lip balm for Valentine’s Day
  23. Orbitz: Deliver your Valentine’s Day gift in person
  24. Anthropologie: Show your love with these great gifts
  25. J. Crew: Ditch the chocolates and check out these gift ideas
  26. Orbitz: See the ones you love, hot fares for Vday
  27. Bass Pro Shop: Unique gifts for a unique Valentine
  28. LuLu: Be mine! Our Valentine’s shop is open!
  29. Touch of Modern: A Valentine’s Day gift guide you want to open
  30. Williams-Sonoma: XOXO Valentine’s Day favorites are here
  31. FabKids: What will you wear this Valentine’s Day?
  32. Stoneberry: Heat up this Valentine’s Day with a sale on heaters
  33. Uncommon designs: Bright designs for your bright love
  34. The Watchery: Time for love. Get these deals before time runs out
  35. One Kings Lane: Silky sheets and sweet dreams for Valentine’s Day

B2B subject lines

A Valentine’s Day email campaign isn’t just for business-to-consumer brands. More and more, business-to-business (B2B) brands are getting in on the holiday email fun as well.

  1. Movable Ink: Roses are red, violets are blue, this floral retailer lifted conversions – and so can you!
  2. WordPress: Aren’t in love with your website? Make a change
  3. Leo’s Tax Service: Get your taxes filed by Valentine’s Day
  4. Commercial Cleaners: Book before Valentine’s Day and Get $50 off
  5. Buffalo Web Creators: Nothing says romance like website design

Nonprofit subject lines

A Valentine’s Day campaign is also a great time for nonprofit organizations to drive donations, as some on your email list might want to give back this time of year.

  1. Petco Foundation: Join The World’s Largest #ShelterValentine ❤️
  2. SOS Children’s Villages: Share your love this Valentine’s Day
  3. The Trust for Public Land: 7 Places to steal a kiss this Valentine’s Day
  4. Austin Humane Society: Your furry Valentine
  5. United Way: Send a Valentine that sends a message

Tips to create the perfect Valentine’s email subject lines

Optimize your subject line for your subscribers

A subject line should compel a subscriber to open the email. You have to choose your words wisely, especially since space is limited.

Most subject lines are about 50 characters, so your word selection is crucial. Get familiar with the email clients and devices your subscribers are using so you can optimize your subject line length for them. You can see this information in Campaign Monitor in the Campaign Reports section under Email Client Usage.

Here’s an example from our own Newsletter subscribers:

most popular email client report from Campaign Monitor

Since many of our subscribers view newsletters in Gmail and on iPhones, we optimize our subject line length for those devices. An ideal length is between 41 characters (portrait view on an iPhone) and 70 characters for Gmail.

Read more about how to determine the best length for your subject line in this post.

Show the love in your Valentine’s email

It might seem obvious, but you should mention the holiday in your subject line, or use words that are associated with it. You’ll notice most of the subject lines above use the phrase Valentines Day or words that coincide with the holiday, like lovesweet, or romance.

Or, for those last-minute planners, phrases like last daynot too latelast-minute valentine’s gifts, or there’s still time will compel readers to open.

Add an incentive to your Valentine subject line

If you can work an incentive into the subject line, do so. For example, if you’re running an offer for free shipping or a Valentine’s Day sale, be sure to let readers know about it in the subject line. Alluding to your offer ahead of time will increase the likelihood that your subscribers open your email.

Use an emoji to increase the 💜

Do you want to set your email apart from others? Consider adding an emoji. Brands using emojis in their subject lines saw a 45% increase in their unique open rates.

The ❤️ is one of the most popular emojis, and it can generate 6% more opens. What better occasion to break it out than Valentine’s Day? Several of the subject lines listed above contain a variation of the heart emoji, which means this symbol can be used for a number of email types.

If you’re planning to use emojis, be sure it makes sense for your brand. It should fit with your brand’s overall tone. As always, it’s a great idea to a/b test subject lines to see if emojis resonate with your audience.

To learn more about emojis and how to use them in your emails, check out our guide!

Valentine’s Day email examples

To go with Valentine’s Day subject lines, you’ll need a beautiful Valentine’s Day email design. Here are some of our top examples.

Modcloth

b2c valentine's day examples

Notice how Modcloth focuses on the aesthetic of Valentine’s Day, rather than romance. The red background is bold and exciting.

Society6

 b2c valentine's day examples

Society6 uses artistic design to match their brand and style, and they even feature artist-made work in the email.

Prezi

B2B Valentine email

Really Good Emails

Prezi uses a clean, subtle Valentine’s Day design in their email, which encourages users to send a valentine with their service.

Stocksy

 B2B Valentine's Day email

Really Good Emails

Similar to Society6, Stocksy uses content from their site to create a beautiful, festive design.

American Red Cross

red cross nonprofit valentine's day examples

Notice how American Red Cross uses the holiday and authenticity to show their mission. The sweet story they share in the email above is bound to attract readers.

Plan International

nonprofit valentine's email examples

Plan International uses images and Valentine’s Day colors to tug at readers’ heartstrings.

Share the love this Valentine’s Day

Are you prepared to embrace Valentine’s Day? With the tips and email subject lines in this post, you’ll be ready to create and send the sweetest, revenue-making Valentine’s emails, and that’s something everyone will love.

Use Campaign Monitor to make your own Valentine’s Day emails. And don’t forget to check out our library of email templates that make building your campaigns a breeze.

Take a look at your current email inbox. How many emails did you receive today? How many did you receive in the past hour? You’re most likely scanning for your favorite brands or catchy subject lines—and the others are largely ignored.

With the average person receiving 121 emails a day, competition is stiff for brands who want to stand out. You need to not only have a catchy subject line but impeccable content, so your subscribers continue opening your emails and converting into customers. Keeping your open rates at the industry standard or higher shows that your emails are engaging and helps demonstrate a higher ROI.

How can you increase your email open rates? While there are plenty of resources out there that discuss simple adjustments to email copy or design, you need to go above and beyond if you want to compete with the biggest brands. Read on to discover a few unconventional tips to improve open rates and hook your subscribers in for more.

What are open rates?

Before jumping in on the tips to improve open rates, you need to know what an open rate is and how it affects your campaign’s success. The open rate in email marketing is defined by the percentage of the total times your specific email campaign was opened by subscribers. You can calculate the open rate by:

Open rate = unique opens / (sent emails – bounced emails)

formula showing open rate is equal to emails opened divided by total of email sent minus emails bounced

While often combined with other performance metrics like click-through or unsubscribe rate, email open rates are one of the key indicators to help you understand how your email campaign performed and where you need to improve.

For example, if you notice a low open rate, you may need to A/B test future subject lines and monitor the performance. Or it might be a sign that your subscribers are fatigued, and you need to adjust your sending cadence.

If your subscribers aren’t opening your emails, they aren’t reading your superb content and converting into customers. Improving and monitoring your open rate is a big step in optimizing your entire email strategy.

Industry open rate benchmarks

Campaign Monitor recently analyzed over 30 billion emails sent globally in 2019 to learn key takeaways for email marketers. If you’re ready to increase your open rates but are unsure where to start, take a look at these industry benchmarks:

Average Industry Open Rates in 2019

See the full report here.

While the average open rate overall is 17.8%, Consumer Packaged Goods, Automotive and Aerospace, Food and Beverage, and Retail industries all saw decreased open rates compared to the previous year.

It was also discovered that Tuesday produces the highest open rate, but also the highest unsubscribe rate, showing marketers don’t need to chase the “best day” to send. Rather, follow best practices and produce high-quality content to see increased open rates.

Tips to improve open rates for your email campaigns

Now that you understand the metric, it’s time to look at a few unconventional tips to improve open rates on your future campaigns.

1. Become a subject line master.

Your subject line is the first impression every subscriber has of your email and brand. It’s a huge factor in your open rate and needs to stand out in the crowded inbox. For years, many brands have used the same subject line formula, which has subsequently been filtered out as white noise by consumers.

If you want to drive conversions, you need to get creative and try different subject line variations. Here are a few ways you can craft unique copy for your subject lines.

  • Ask a question. Using a question is a great way to make a more personal connection with your subscribers by directly addressing their problems or needs. A question also poses a bit of mystery, which often intrigues people to want to know more.
  • Be straightforward. Sometimes it pays off to stop beating around the bush and just tell your readers what to expect from your email. For example, if you have something to announce, just be direct and tell your audience.
  • Make a list. Insert numbers so the subscriber knows what to expect from opening your email. Lists are also digestible content that readers feel comfortable quickly reading.
  • Create a teaser. Believe it or not, people actually love cliff hangers. Creating a teaser for your subject line will entice subscribers to read more.
  • Choose your language carefully. Use the same language and tone that your audience does. The right language will help you appear more relatable.
  • Use reverse psychology. Tell your subscriber not to open your email. While it seems silly, it’s a great way to pique your subscriber’s interest because it’s not typical. However, your email content has to be high-quality for the subscriber to keep coming back.

Petsmart Utilizes a List in Easter Subject Line

2. Send your emails at the right time.

When you send your email can have a large impact on whether your emails are opened, so it’s important to carefully research past performance with correlating send times. While you may not be able to perfect your strategy immediately, you can A/B test your emails to identify which time frames work best for your audience, so you can implement them in future campaigns.

According to research we’ve done, this is the breakdown of emails opened:

 Email Send Times Breakdown

The 9 a.m.–5 p.m. weekday schedule resulted in 53% of emails being opened with a peak time right before lunch, and a majority of these emails occurred on a mobile device. While these are standards, it’s still important to test your industry and take into account your audience’s age, location, and occupation. Perhaps your audience winds scrolls through their email before bed or while heading to school.

Bottom line: Imagine how your audience spends their day to help you determine an ideal send time.

3. Use email best practices.

There are a few simple steps you can take to improve visibility and success among subscribers.

For email best practices, consider these tips.

4. Micro-segment your audience list.

One of the many advantages of email marketing is that you can connect with your subscriber on a one-to-one level, meaning the email needs to be hyper-relevant to the individual’s needs, location, interests, and more. Consumers demand this kind of relevance with their communications, so much so that personalization has become the standard for email marketers.

Segmenting your email list is one of the best ways to increase your email’s relevance and open rate. If you’re a retail company, you can segment your audience based on the specific items those customers have purchased. If your subscriber downloaded a whitepaper and ended up on your email list, send them similar content to what originally caught their attention.

Once you have your segments pinned down, it’s much easier to craft clever subject lines because you know what your audiences prefer.

Netflix Personalizes Email Based on Watch History

Source: Really Good Emails

5. Write like a friend and share humor.

If you’re looking to grab your subscriber’s attention, put your business hat aside and write like a friend. The average consumer isn’t fooled by corporate-speak, so changing your tone is an easy way for you to appear more human and relatable.
Consider these two phrases:

  • Corporate tone: “We’re offering our customers big savings on featured product lines!”
  • Friendly tone: “This deal was made for you.”

Along with your tone, try injecting some humor into your content to entertain and surprise your subscribers. How many times have you opened an email with a funny cat GIF or a witty joke? Most likely, it made you smile and had an impact on your opinion about the brand.

The key to using humor is understanding your audience. What’s funny to the millennial generation isn’t necessarily funny to Gen X, so knowing their likes and dislikes will help you land the joke and create more engaging content.

Blue Apron Uses Humor in Email

Source: Really Good Emails

Wrap up

Ready to boost your open rates and bottom line? If you’re looking to keep improving your email strategy and engage with more subscribers, open rates are crucial. However, don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results immediately. Give yourself a little wiggle room and keep testing new techniques.

To get started, consider these helpful tips:

  • Create engaging and unique subject lines.
  • Use email best practices.
  • Send your emails at the right time.
  • Segment your audience list for more personalization.
  • Use a friendly and funny tone in your content.

If you’re searching for more ways to increase your open rates, Campaign Monitor helps optimize send times and offers in-depth analytics. Sign up for free today.

Your email subject line can make or break the success of your email campaign. So, when it comes to crafting the best email subject lines for sales, it’s imperative that you take the time to get it right.

What makes a good email subject line for sales?

When sitting down to work on your subject lines for sales emails, you want to make sure you’re taking the time to make them the most effective you possibly can. To do this, you want to consider each of these subject line best practices:

  • Know your audience
  • Test your subject lines before sending them
  • Avoid using all caps—in fact, ditch title case altogether
  • Keep it short, sweet, and to the point
  • Personalization can help you stick out in a crowded inbox
  • Emojis are your friends when they’re used correctly, so don’t be afraid to incorporate them
  • Generate excitement and/or a sense of urgency to get readers to act now

12 email subject line examples for those in sales

The good news is that there’s no perfect email subject line for sales. That said, your creative team can let their creative juices flow and, as long as they test well with your subscribers, send them off to your readers.

If you’re finding yourself with a bit of writer’s block, don’t worry. We’ve compiled a list of 12 email subject line examples that’d be perfect for a sales email. Remember, these are just templates, so feel free to use and edit them to fit your brand’s needs and voice.

1. Have you tried {product/service/brand/location}?

A great place to start with an email subject line for a sales message is to ask your readers if they’ve tried anything from your brand in the past. The idea is to get your readers thinking, and, once they’re intrigued, they’ll click through to your message to see what your aim is.

Subject Line: Have You Tried Scanning Wines Yet?

 “Have you tried” subject line for sales emails

Source: Really Good Emails

2. A {benefit} for {reader}

As an email marketer, you know just how valuable an incentive can be to get a subscriber not only to open the email, but to click through to your website. Some of the best email subject lines for sales include an incentive, and there’s no easier formula than the benefit for the reader.

Incentives can come in any number of forms, including:

  • Special gift
  • Downloadable content
  • A percentage off their purchase and more

Subject Line: 15% off – Just for you.

Benefit to reader subject line for sales

Source: Really Good Emails

3. #Tips/tricks/ideas for {common pain point}

Consumers want more informational content and less promotional content, so what’s a sales email to do? You can easily turn a sales email into an informational one by providing industry tips and tricks to your readers.

Does that mean you can’t include a plug to subscribers to purchase something? Of course not! Just don’t allow it to be the primary focus of your message. For example, Eventbrite is using the following email to help their current clients remain active members of the community by not only encouraging them to create an event, but giving them tips on how to get started.

Subject Line: 3 Tips For Organizing Events on Eventbrite

Email subject lines for sales tips and tricks

Source: Really Good Emails

4. How much do you know about {topic/brand/product/service}? ?

Again, a sales email doesn’t have to focus on selling a product. This email from mattress brand Casper does a great job of intriguing the reader into opening the message and teases all sorts of information that’s good to know—especially if you’re struggling with sleep. Once subscribers are on the Casper website, they may be intrigued to check out the products that the brand has to offer to address the pain points covered in their informational content.

Subject Line: How much do you know about sleep?

“How much do you know” subject line for sales

Source: Really Good Emails

5. <Name>, we just added {product/service/tip} that you might enjoy

There’s no better way to catch your reader’s attention than by personalizing content to their specific needs. In fact, we found that personalized email subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened by subscribers. In this message from Netflix, they not only address the subscriber directly, but they show suggestions that are based on the reader’s recent viewing history.

Subject Line: Smiles Davis, we just added a TV show you might like

“we’ve just added” email subject line for sales

Source: Really Good Emails

6. ⏰ Don’t wait: Get {deal} off your {product/service/order}

In sales, time is money, so why not use your subject line for sales email to create a sense of urgency for your readers? Combine urgency with a good offer and you’re sure to see your engagement rates start to climb.

This example by Freshly works on several different levels. They creatively use an emoji to grab the reader’s attention, and the use of the clock instantly alerts the reader to the fact that this email is time sensitive. From there, the email subject line not only gives the reader an incentive to act now, but tells them that the sale’s only good for the pre-black Friday timeframe.

Subject Line: ?️ You Can’t Wait: Get $60 Off Our Pre-Black Friday Sale

 “Get your deal” subject line for sales email

Source: Really Good Emails

7. <Name>’s year in review

A year in review may not seem like a good sales tactic at first; however, when done right, they can encourage your clients to remain active with your brand. These years in review show your clients that you’re paying attention to their activities and encourage them to remain engaged with a brand that cares about them and their activities.

Subject Line: Check out your 2017 Year in Review with PlayStation

Year in review email example

Source: Really Good Emails

8. <Name>, Welcome to {brand}

Your first impression with a new subscriber can make or break your relationship. When someone signs up for your email list, they expect to hear from you in some way. That’s why a good welcome email is absolutely crucial to include in your email marketing strategy. You want your new subscribers to know that you’re excited for them to join you, tell them a little more about your brand, and maybe even throw in an extra incentive to encourage them to click through to your website.

Subject Line: Smiles Davis, Welcome to Filmsupply!

Welcome email examples

Source: Really Good Emails

9. The newest {product/service} is here ?

When it comes to sales, you never want to sound gimmicky. However, excited and gimmicky are two very different things. Some of the best subject lines for sales emails are those that generate a sense of excitement amongst readers. Whether it’s some exciting industry news, a brand-new product or service that you’re offering, or a big upcoming sale, share the excitement with your readers. Adding in some festive emojis can help generate some “good vibes” as well, so don’t be afraid to incorporate some.

Subject Line: ? YOUR MINI MONSTERA IS HERE ?

“Product is here” email subject line example

Source: Really Good Emails

10. We want to hear from you❗

Your subscribers want to know that you care about them and their opinions. Therefore, including customer feedback email in your strategy is an absolute must. The average response rate of an email survey falls around 24%, making it a valuable piece of content worth including in your arsenal. Approaching your customers for feedback shows that you care about them and their needs, so don’t be afraid to include a feedback email subject line in your sales email collection.

Subject Line: We want to hear from you! ✈️

Feedback email subject line for sales

Source: Really Good Emails

11. Introducing {product/brand/service}

New products are exciting! Share the excitement with your followers by keeping things simple with your sales email subject line. Your consumers will be intrigued by the idea of you introducing something new and will be inclined to open your message and see what all the hype’s about.

Subject Line: Introducing Our Newest Juice: Blue Lemonade

Product introduction email subject line for sales

Source: Really Good Emails

12. {Competitor/brand/product} alternatives you’ll love

A little healthy competition can go a long way in promoting your product. However, you never want to play dirty. When it comes to “alternative” product informational emails, you want to keep things classy and professional. Talk about your process or product and how it differs from similar products on the market. Again, the idea’s to be informative, not salesy with these emails, so make it about weighing the pros and the cons instead of bashing other brands for what they lack.

Subject Line: 46/ A Dropbox alternative and a gravestone for your desk

Alternatives email subject line example

Source: Really Good Emails

Wrap up

When crafting your subject lines for sales emails, you have a little more wiggle room than you would other types of messages. However, that doesn’t mean you should throw caution to the wind. Make sure you keep these email subject line best practices in mind:

  • Know who your audience is
  • Test each subject line before sending
  • Avoid using all caps and title case altogether
  • Keep it short, sweet, and to the point
  • Personalization matters
  • Emojis are your friends
  • Get readers to act by generating excitement and/or a sense of urgency

Want to become a master email subject line writer? Check out our guide to becoming an email subject line superhero!

Our customers often ask us what “open rate” means and whether the open rate they’re getting is great, average, or terrible. Read on to learn more about open rates, how they’re measured, their averages, and how to improve.

Open rate 101

Let’s look at a few basic elements of open rates and how to measure them before we dive into improving.

What is the open rate?

The open rate is a measure of how many people on an email list open a particular email campaign. The open rate is normally expressed as a percentage. At Campaign Monitor, we calculate it as total opened emails divided by delivered emails (sent emails minus any bounces).

email open rate formula

So a 20% open rate would mean that, of every 10 emails delivered, two were actually opened.

How do you measure an open?

When each email is sent out, Campaign Monitor includes a hidden image. When that image is downloaded by the recipient, that lets us know the email’s been opened.

A few caveats to this point:

  1. Recipients that open an email but have images turned off in their email client probably won’t count toward your open rate.
  2. Text-only emails likely won’t have an open rate since images are used to track opens.
  3. Many email clients have a preview that automatically downloads images. This could count as an open without the recipient actually opening the email.
  4. Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) feature, launched in September 2021, effectively disables open tracking for users who have opted into the feature. For more on MPP and how it affects email marketing, head here.

The bottom line is that you should never treat your open rate as your cornerstone. Looking at open rate instead as a way of measuring trends in your email campaigns will help shape your view of success.

What’s a typical open rate?

Really, there’s no typical open rate. The rate obtained for any list will depend on how it was measured, when it was sent, the size of the list, and many other potential variables. There’s no shortage of benchmark numbers out there, but, even between benchmark figures, you’ll find big variations in the reported open rates.

There are certainly some broad trends in open rates.

  • As list size goes up, the open rate tends to fall.
  • Companies and organizations that are focusing on enthusiasts and supporters, like churches, sports teams, and nonprofits see higher open rates.
  • Typically, more specific niche topics—like some manufacturing areas—also have higher open rates than emails on broader topics.

Based on everything we’ve seen here at Campaign Monitor, and on the other research out there, the takeaway is this: If you’re getting an open rate between 20% and 40%, you’re at least around average.

Very few lists of reasonable size are getting much above 50% open rates from standard email campaigns. Your list may have some specific factors that give you higher rates. If so, well done! However, don’t expect to be getting 80% open rates. At least, not from your general audience.

How can I increase my open rate?

You can make changes to a handful of different variables to drive higher open rates. Here are a few steps you can go through to test your campaigns.

Step 1: improve your subject lines.

The number one way to improve your open rates is to enhance your subject line. This—along with your preheader text and sender name—is the first thing your recipient will see before deciding to open your email.

Try including the most interesting piece of your email’s content right in the subject line. If it’s eye-catching enough, it might inspire someone to open the email and read on.

There are other tactics to try out, like using emojis, testing between longer and shorter subject lines, questions versus statements, etc., which we’ll touch on below. Test out whatever you can brainstorm to make your subject lines inspire more opens.

Step 2: test, test, test.

It’s so easy to test elements of your email. Utilize your email service provider’s A/B testing features to try out different approaches. Or try out an idea with one campaign, then send a similar type of email with a changed variable after a few days or weeks and measure the difference in engagement.

Not sure what to test? Try out these ideas to improve open rates:

  • Subject line length
  • Subject line tone
  • Subject line content
  • Preheader text
  • Sender name (e.g., company name vs. CEO’s name)
  • Sender email (e.g., hello@company.com vs. ash@company.com)
  • Send day
  • Send time
  • Send cadence (e.g., daily vs. weekly)

Step 3: optimize for previews.

There are two big factors here. First, most inboxes show preheader text next to or below the subject line. This was originally implemented to let you see what the first line of the email is, helping you decide whether you should open it or not. With many email service providers, you can change the preheader text to influence what the reader sees about your content before they open.

Here’s an example of preheader text.

email preview on a mobile device

Other email clients show entire email previews in the inbox. Use this to your advantage by putting the exciting content at the beginning. A preview will show the good stuff, inspiring your recipient to open the email, where they’ll hopefully look through the remaining body, or click through to that piece of content.

Step 4: deliver relevant content.

Still looking to improve your open rate? After you’ve optimized all the face-value elements of your campaigns, the remaining contributor to low open rates is relevancy.
Pure and simple, your audience wants to see things they’re interested in. Opening even just a few irrelevant or trivial emails from a company can make a recipient lose interest. And it’s exponentially harder to inspire an email open from someone disinterested in your content.

To address this issue (in the case that you’re ready to ramp up your content relevancy), it might be time to send a re-engagement campaign. Once you can hook parts of your audience back into the fold, it’s time to go through the first three steps again, continuing to improve your open rates.

Bonus: how subject lines can boost your open rates

Now, we’ve touched on the fact that your email’s subject line is an excellent place to start when trying to boost your open rates. However, you should consider them before anything else—and here’s why.

Your email subject line is the very first—and possibly last—impression you’re leaving on your reader. Not only is the subject line the first piece of information your subscriber sees in their inbox, if yours doesn’t stand out, you also run the risk of being skipped over entirely.

 You need a good subject line to stand out in a crowded inbox.

Source: Gmail

Each of your subscribers will likely have an inbox that looks just as crowded as the one above. It’s essential to craft your subject line to be noticed and to intrigue your readers into clicking on and opening your message.

Your subject line will not only help subscribers determine whether they should open your message, but it will also impact whether or not your message is trashed. In fact, 47% of your email subscribers will choose to open your email based solely on what you write in your subject line, and 69% of them will use that same content to decide whether to mark your email message as spam.

It’s vital to take a few minutes to understand email subject line best practices. In need of a quick refresher? Then check out these tips:

  • Shorter is better: Aim for 60 characters or less. Long subject lines may get cut off when viewed on some mobile devices and email clients. We recommend using a maximum of 9 words and 60 characters.
  • Use emojis carefully: Limit your subject line to 1 emoji. Emojis are fun and can add personality. However, according to our research, you should use no more than 1 emoji at a time to avoid looking like spam. Use an emoji to supplement words rather than replace them.
  • Personalization is essential: The more personalized the message, the more likely your subscriber is to open your message to see just how relevant the content within is.

Open-worthy subject line examples

If writing catchy email subject lines is more difficult than you’d like to admit, then having a handy set of examples can help you when your creativity seems to be lacking. Here are 12 email subject line examples to help you get started:

  • {Desirable outcome}: Your First 5 Steps
  • New {Product/Service/Idea}: What It Means for You
  • [Urgent] You’ve got {time} until {product/service/information} is gone
  • Tonight only: {deal}
  • {Name}? A surprise awaits you! ?
  • Deals that make us excited
  • Get a head start on your summer ?
  • {%} off your favorites
  • ✔ {number} checklist for {desired outcome}
  • {Name}, steal these [topic] templates
  • {number topic} ideas worth stealing
  • Did you forget something? Here’s {%} off.

Wrap up

Boosting your email open rates isn’t as difficult as you may think, especially if you keep in mind the tips covered here. Remember, to start effectively boosting your email open rates, you’ll want to:

  • Revamp your email subject lines
  • Optimize for previews
  • Test, test, and test again
  • Deliver relevant content

Need some help formatting your email subject lines to increase your open rates? Then check out our guide on how to become an email subject line superhero today!

Editor’s note: this post was updated for accuracy and freshness in October 2021.

This is a guest post from Anna Konovalova at FlippingBook.

If you’re a marketer and need to create email marketing campaigns, then you know it’s a challenge to come up with new ideas and a fresh, engaging design every time, especially when you want to stand out with your email campaigns.

Each of us receives a number of emails every day: work, personal, advertisements, promos, and more, but how many of them actually catch our eye?

Read on to discover ways to make your email marketing campaigns outstanding: starting from subject lines and preheader text to compelling emails with interactivity, videos, and a mobile-friendly interface.

Craft an engaging subject line and preheader text.

What do people see before they open an email? The subject line and the preheader text. Because of this, first impressions really matter.

Subject lines play a very important role in making your email stand out in your client’s inbox. Keep these tips in mind to help make your subject lines both compelling and informative.

  • Make your subject lines clear and short: The main task of a subject line is to indicate what an email is about. The reader should be able to understand your message right away from a quick glance at the subject line. Also, don’t make your subject line too long because it may be clipped on mobile devices
  • Add an element of intrigue: While it’s important to make your subject line clear, don’t forget to add a bit of mystery to engage your readers. This way, they’ll definitely want to open your email and learn more.
  • Ask compelling questions: By posing a question that’s relevant to your clients or that addresses their pains and challenges, you’ll make them more interested to read your email and find what solutions you could offer them.
  • Add emoji to your subject lines: Emoji are great for making your subject lines more expressive and grabbing your readers’ attention. They help create a more positive and personal approach to your email campaigns. 

Learn about subject line formulas here.

Preheader texts are also essential for your email and deserve more careful consideration than they usually get.

In our modern digital age, with people always on the go, preheader texts are becoming more and more important because so many people are reading email on mobile devices.

Preheader text is a great way to give a short summary of your email, as well as invite your clients to open and read. Paired with short, compelling subject lines, these little snippets can help you be more creative and bring your audience on board.

Find out about the what, why, and how to use preheader text by watching this video.

Keep it short and sweet.

When your email is opened, the next step is to fulfill the promise you make in the subject line, and that’s what the body text is for.

The body of your email should be concise, informative, compelling, and actionable. And you don’t have much time to achieve all this because the attention span of the average reader is getting shorter and shorter.

In fact, emails with 75–100 words have the highest response rate, at 51%.

This image shows the ideal amount of words to use if you want to stand out with your email.

Source: Boomerang

So what can you do to make the most of the body copy of your email? Consider these quick tips.

  • Create a hierarchy of information: Put the most important information in the first lines of your text and, if needed, go into a bit more detail later on.
  • Make your text scannable: Use short paragraphs, headers, and bullet points to make your body copy clear and easy to read.
  • Describe the value of your offer: Remember, the purpose of your email is to inform your clients and to get them to act (e.g. clicking through to learn more). Describe the juiciest part of your offer so they become engaged and are motivated to click your CTA.
  • Address your clients’ pain: Knowing what keeps your audience awake at night allows you to understand what problems they need to solve. They’ll appreciate that you’re ready to answer their questions and offer them a real solution for the challenges they face.

Create an interactive experience.

After your email text is ready to shine, it’s time to add enticing interactive content.

Interactive content—GIFs, animations, responsive charts, infographics, surveys, quizzes, and polls—help you engage your readers a bit longer than usual and offer the chance for the readers to interact with your content (e.g., to click or tap on it).

Also, it’s a good way to stand out with your email content: according to Snap App, 88% of marketers agree that interactive content does differentiate them from the competition.

What’s more, you can make the reader experience with your email even more interactive by adding links and CTAs that lead to professional-looking digital publications with a nice page flip effect.

If you want to offer valuable content in your email marketing campaigns, then online publications could be just what you need.

This is an example of an interactive email, a good way to stand out with your email content.

Source: FlippingBook

You can add popup images, GIFs, links, and videos to your publications, making them more engaging, informative, and full of valuable knowledge.

This content is more likely to draw the eyes of your readers and raise their interest in your products and services.

Plus, digital publications are mobile-friendly, so your clients can easily open them on any device, be it desktop, tablet, or smartphone, and have the same great reading experience with crystal-clear text and images.

FlippingBook, software and cloud service for creating professional online documents, can help you with making online flipbooks, brochures, catalogs, magazines, and reports in a fast and easy way.

Add enticing videos.

If you’re looking to make your content more interactive, then you should definitely consider adding videos to your email marketing campaigns.

According to research, emails that include videos offer a 280% higher return than traditional emails. Videos are ideal for emails because they can communicate your message in a fast and engaging way.

Here are a few quick tips on how to use videos in emails.

  • Keep it short: Make your videos short and compelling; videos that last around one minute are the best to interest your audience.
  • Create a series of videos: One long video can get quite boring for your audience. Instead, you could make a series of short videos that’ll draw your clients’ attention, so they’ll be waiting for a new email from you to see the next video.
  • Create different types of video content: Educational, problem-solving, and how-to videos in emails can be very useful and valuable for your audience. Your clients will feel that you really care about them.
  • Use a static image with a play button: If you don’t want to embed video in your email, you can use a static image with a play button that leads to a YouTube, Wistia, or Vimeo video. With this approach, you can even track clicks and get statistics on your video.

Make your emails mobile-friendly.

Mobile clients accounted for 41.9% of email opens during Q1 2019, according to research by Emailmonday.

One more fact from that research: about 3 in 5 consumers check their email on the go (mobile), and 75% say they use their smartphones most often to check their emails.

This means that making your emails responsive and mobile-friendly is essential for your marketing campaign success.

Remember, your job as a marketer is not only to get your emails opened and read, but also to make sure your customers have a great experience, regardless of the device they’re using.

Here are the main tips on how to make your emails mobile-friendly.

  • Use a single-column design: A single column makes your emails easy and comfortable to read on mobile devices. It also helps to simplify your design and highlight the important parts of the email.
  • Create a distinctive call to action: Make your CTA large enough for your reader to be able to tap on it. A compelling CTA should be at least 44 x 44 pixels.
  • Use small images: Speed is everything these days, so make sure that all the images in your email load quickly and don’t keep your readers waiting.
  • Test your emails: Make sure to test your ready emails across different devices to see how they look. Nowadays, email marketing platforms allow you to check previews of your emails on desktops, tablets, and smartphones. You can also test how your emails look in different browsers and email clients.

Wrap up

Email campaigns are more than just marketing and sales tools.

They give you an amazing opportunity to enhance communication with your audience, engage prospects, and build up trust with your loyal audience.

Email is a space to talk to your audience in a more casual way than on your website. A human, personal approach will help you show that you care about your clients and that you’re open to dialog.

Create professional-looking emails that are comfortable to read on any device, interactive, and interesting, and you’re sure to stand out with your email campaigns.

Author’s bio:


Anna Konovalova is a Content Marketer and Translator at FlippingBook, software and cloud provider. When Anna isn’t writing, she enjoys going to the theater, listening to music, and finding inspiration in the world around her. You can find her on LinkedIn.

With the end of the year quickly approaching, it’s time to start thinking about how you can reach out to your audience and share your appreciation for their support all year long.

While many retail marketers can do this with a few words and some special promotions, nonprofit organizations have little to work with, besides their words.

That’s why crafting subject lines for thank you emails and messages that truly show your adoration for your subscribers is so crucial.

Why should nonprofits be using thank you emails

While all marketers should be making use of thank you emails in their email marketing strategy, it’s especially important for nonprofit organizations as the end of the year approaches. The fall months and holiday season tend to see the most charitable giving.

Donating is an emotional act. People give to others because they want to feel as if they’ve done something good, so you need to play your part and make sure they feel appreciated for going out of their way to donate to your cause. The best way to do this is by sending them a thank you message.

 Tinker Watches thanks their customers for helping them have a great year.

Source: Really Good Emails

Crafting a quality thank you email to send to donors

During a time when consumers are constantly being bombarded with messages to “download,” “buy,” or “get,” it can be quite refreshing to open a message that’s nothing more than a thank you for helping a good cause.

Due to the unusually high number of emails landing in their inboxes at the end of the year, many consumers suffer from email fatigue. So, while you may be looking for that last donation to push your nonprofit over their annual goal, make sure you’re taking the time to truly appreciate your current donors by sending them a genuine thank you email.

Deliver only the most compelling message.

When crafting your thank you email to your donors, you want to make sure you’re still delivering only the most compelling messages. Remember, donating is an emotional act made by donors, so you want to match or exceed that emotion to not only make them feel appreciated, but to keep them coming back as returning donors.

In this message from charity: water, they thank donors for participating in the Giving Tuesday efforts and thank them for being a constant inspiration in creating “a perfect picture of the world we believe in.”

This message from Charity Waters is compelling on multiple levels and thanks readers for donating and always being a constant source of inspiration.

Source: Really Good Emails

Humanize your message with your design.

Design plays a more significant role in your nonprofit email messages than you may think. The right image can be more impactful than your best copywriting, so humanizing your message with the proper use of imagery, typography, and layout can make or break your nonprofit’s thank you email.

A fitting design is crucial to stir up the right emotions. Just take this example from UNICEF. They make use of smiling, happy children playing in the water to help cement the idea of water = happiness into the reader’s mind.

UNICEF even uses blue layering over the image and in the text to create an emotional experience. In fact, blue colors are often associated with feelings of calming and soothing, which is great for this image. These are kids that are suffering from lack of water, so adding the calming and soothing tones to the image helps to bring that emotion to the surface. If this example were used as a thank you email campaign, the imagery would compel readers to feel as if they did some good.

Imagery can be more impactful than your best copywriting

Source: Really Good Emails

Focus your attention on your reader.

Finally, you want to turn the attention to your readers. Throughout the year, they hear plenty about your cause. So, instead of making the focus of your email your cause, how much you made, or how much you still need, focus the attention on the donor.

In this example from charity: water, they focus solely on the reader and the fact that, thanks to their contributions, they’re now able to help bring water to those in need in Rwanda. They still get to bring up their cause, but they’re focusing on the reader and what they did for the cause, nothing more.

Charity Waters makes their message all about the reader and their efforts.

Source: The Balance Small Business

4 tips for crafting subject lines for thank you emails that get noticed

While crafting a compelling and emotional message is an essential part of your nonprofit’s campaign, crafting the right subject lines for thank you emails is of the utmost importance. If you don’t have the right subject line, your readers are simply going to skip over it, and your message will go unseen.

Keeping these four tips for crafting subject lines in mind is crucial when designing and testing your thank you email campaign.

1. Get personal.

Personalization is vital for any email marketing strategy; however, it’s particularly important when it comes to nonprofit email marketing. Consumers have come to you to fulfill their emotional need to give back, so, in return, they want to be recognized for their efforts.

When creating your subject lines for thank you emails, consider incorporating their name, donation amount, or any combination of information you have on them, such as their habits or whether they’re viewing, sharing, or donating.

The more personal you can make your subject line and accompanying message, the better.

Unsplash uses personalization in their thank you email

Source: Really Good Emails

2. Spark emotion

The ability to spark emotion plays a significant role in whether your email message will be overlooked or opened. Take this example from a political campaign:

Email subject line: A leader the world respects

Joe Biden's marketing team sparks emotion with their email subject line, playing to a community that’s preparing for the next presidential election.

Source: Gmail

During a time when a country is preparing for the next big election, playing into your audience’s emotions can and will determine your ability to get readers to open your message. The subject line in this example stands out, thanks to tension created in the news, ensuring readers are going to click and learn more.

When it comes to nonprofit thank you emails, you can spark emotions by using words such as:

  • Thank you
  • Grateful
  • Gratitude
  • Thankful
  • Appreciate 

3. Keep it short.

As with your email message, you want to keep your subject line specific and to the point. More and more people are using their mobile devices to view their emails, which means that longer subject lines are truncated. An ideal subject line is five words or less—around 50 characters in total.

4. Use emojis.

Thanks to emojis, your email subject lines can be more expressive than ever.

A few examples of subject lines for thank you emails include:

  • We appreciate your contribution ?
  • You Did It! ?
  • Thank You >Name< ?

Nonprofit thank you email subject line examples

Need some extra help crafting a subject line for your thank you emails? Here’s a list to help get you started:

  • Thank you for your donation!
  • Thank you from >Organization<
  • Thank you for your gift >Name< ?
  • ? Thank you for your generosity!
  • Thank you for supporting >Organization<, >Name<
  • >Name<, Your Donation Means A Lot ?
  • >Name< Your Gift Means The ? To Us
  • We thank you for your support >Name<
  • Thank You! ?
  • It’s Thanks to You, >Name<

Wrap up

Crafting a thank you email campaign takes time and creativity, especially for nonprofits. However, if you keep these tips in mind, you’re sure to make your readers feel appreciated enough to return to your organization:

  • Create a genuine thank you
  • Make it about your reader and their contributions
  • Use your subject line for thank you emails to spark emotion
  • Personalize your message to your readers

Need a little more help with your nonprofit’s email marketing? Then be sure to check out our Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing for Nonprofits.

An email subject line can make or break your campaign. A solid subject line that resonates with subscribers will get your emails opened, read, and clicked. Meanwhile, a lackluster subject line will earn you a swipe to the trash bin—or even flagged for spam.

Sixty-nine percent of people will report an email as spam based only on the subject line.

You want to make sure your subject line is relevant, interesting, and engaging enough to get your subscribers to actually open your email. Plenty of people turn to a subject line tester to help them refine their openers.

However, an email subject line tester may not help as much as you would imagine.

In this post, we’ll explain how email subject line testers work and their limitations. We’ll also go over some tips for creating an amazing subject line and how you can run your own accurate tests.

Why were email subject line testers created?

Simply put, email subject line testers exist to help you write engaging subject lines. Most email service providers also offer free subject line testers built into their campaign builders.

When they first came out, subject line testers were effective tools for optimizing your copy’s length, word choice, emotion, and much more.

Most email subject line testers analyze your subject line and spit out a handful of suggestions for improvement. For beginners, these testers are still worth toying with to get an idea of what makes a subject line “good” and “bad.”

What’s wrong with using an email subject line tester?

In many cases, using an email subject line tester is useful for monitoring your character count or keeping an eye out for spammy words. When it comes to the actual copy, however, subject line testers are pretty unreliable indicators of how an email will actually perform.

General data doesn’t work for each industry or unique audience.

Now, this isn’t the fault of developers or the companies who make these testers. The problem is that you simply can’t predict how an email subject line will perform with unique people and audiences.

Subject line testers don’t ask you to select your industry or product and they don’t ask you to provide any information about your audience. Instead, they use data from general sources to gauge future performance.

Publishers and NGOs are probably the worst industries to use these testers.

Why?

Many marketing tools, like subject line testers, are designed for use with retail or e-commerce industries. Attention-grabbing words for Foreign Policy magazine or UNICEF emails would probably be quite boring or irrelevant for subscribers to Adidas, for example.

Take this for example. The email tested below had the subject line “What’s really happening between the US and Turkey?” It performed pretty well with a 28.1% open rate, a good indicator of the subject line’s quality.

However, when we run the subject line through this tester, it tells us the subject line needs a lot of work. If the creator had updated her copy based on the results of this email subject line tester, she would have wasted her time fixing something that wasn’t broken and could have even ended up with a lower open rate.

Source: Coschedule

They’re static and limited.

Email subject line testers are only as good as the information developers give them. Since marketing is a dynamic industry with trends that constantly evolve, this creates a problem.

For example, words that boost open rates in December probably won’t perform well in July.

Subject line testers do their job by analyzing your subject line and looking for certain words. They look for words the developers believe can improve open rates and they look for specific words that may decrease your open rate.

If you wanted to create an accurate subject line tester, it would have to use an algorithm based on real-time information about your own subscribers and industry. Otherwise, the suggestions about “good” and “bad” words are just too general to put to any good use.

How to write an amazing subject line

Testing certainly plays an important role in optimizing your email campaigns, but instead of relying on generic online tools, look at your own email campaigns to see what works for your specific industry and audience. You can even run A/B tests to see which subject line performs better before sending it out to your entire list.

Plus, you can use the 8Seconds tool within your Campaign Monitor emails to see your best results. 8Seconds will test hundreds of different combinations and optimize them in real-time for subscribers who haven’t opened the email yet.

Keep these tips below in mind as you write your email subject lines.

1. Personalize as much as possible.

Using your subscriber’s real first name in the subject line can boost your open rates by 26%. However, personalization is much more than just including your subscribers’ names: You can personalize the content of your subject lines, too.

Which types of subject lines have worked for the subscriber in the past? Which products or services have they shown interest in? What have they purchased from you before? Where do they live and what do they do for work?

Creating segments based on this data and then incorporating some of this information into your subject line formula will make the copy as relevant as possible.

2. Don’t send the same subject line to your entire list.

Break your subscriber list up into different segments and create unique subject lines for each group.

You can segment your list based on

  • Location
  • Browser
  • Email client
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Income level
  • Behavior
  • Parental status

It’s easier to write a relevant subject line to 50 people rather than 150 people.

3. Write for one person.

Too many marketers make the mistake of writing generic subject lines. Even if you’re sending a campaign to your entire subscriber list, imagine that you’re writing for one specific person.

Email is an intimate method of communication. It’s not cluttered with comments and people have voluntarily given you their information.

Radicati estimates that 347.3 billion emails will travel throughout the internet every day by 2023. Treating email like a personal conversation helps break up the clutter.

4. Keep subject lines short.

Most email apps will cut off your subject line after 30 or 40 characters—that’s not much space to get your point across.

Try to keep your subject lines as short as possible. Use data from your previous campaigns to check out which email clients your subscribers use. Do they tend to open your emails on Gmail for Chrome or their smartphone?

If someone opens your emails on a desktop, you have more room to express yourself. Use this information as you create your subject lines.

5. Know what works for your audience (and audience segments).

Each audience—and audience segment—is unique. Subject lines that perform well inside your industry probably won’t work for other fields.

Even within your own audience, different segments will respond better to different subject lines—it’s just human nature.

Instead of treating best practices as gospel, learn about what your audience likes.

6. Don’t settle for any filler.

Filler doesn’t have any place in your email copy and there’s absolutely no room for it in your subject line. With precious real estate in push notifications, you can’t afford to include any fluff that doesn’t directly relate to the point you’re trying to make.

Eliminating filler is easier said than done. In many cases, you don’t’ even realize you’re writing filler—it just sneaks in. After you write a subject line, analyze it to see if you can say the same thing in fewer words.

You could also ask someone else to look over and reword your subject line to make it more concise.

How to be your own subject line tester

We’ve spent a lot of time pointing out the problems with email subject line testers here. We’re not saying you shouldn’t test your subject lines – we’re just saying that technology doesn’t have everything figured out yet.

Instead, you’ll get much better results if you function as your own subject line tester.

A/B testing or split testing is much more effective because it tests subject lines among people who are actually receiving the emails.

After breaking your subscriber list into segments, create one campaign but write two unique subject lines. Send the campaign with one subject line to half of your subscribers and the other subject line to the other half.

Which email earned more opens? That’s the better subject line. You could also scroll through your past campaigns and look for patterns.

When you A/B test your own email subject lines, you can still run tests for all the different variables that online testers check.

  • Length
  • Power words
  • Questions
  • List numbers
  • Emojis
  • Emotion

Wrap up

While using an email subject line tester can help you catch any major red flags, the technology falls short in a lot of aspects.

  • Subject line testers are fed static information.
  • Subject line testers don’t account for unique audiences or different industries.
  • Start by designing an engaging subject line with best practices.
  • A/B or split test your own subject lines.

By understanding your audience, you can write the best subject lines and test them with the most accurate data.

Do you need some more help developing killer subject lines? Check out this post with six subject line tips to break through the clutter.

Article first published in January 2015, updated June 2019

Do you find it difficult to write great email subject lines?

Although there are a number of subject line formulas that can help, it can be hard to know if what you’re writing is really resonating with your audience and compelling them to open your emails.

That’s why, when we learned that headlines with a high Emotional Marketing Value (EMV) increased conversions, we wanted to dissect the process and share it with you.

So, in this post, we’ll show you how to use the EMV Index to improve your email subject lines and increase your open rates.

What is the EMV Index?

Back in the ’60s and ’70s, government research scholar Dr. Hakim Chishti was studying the roots of several languages including Persian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic, and Urdu.

In his research, he found that there are basic underlying harmonics in language that are always interpreted with the same “emotional” reactions. While the meaning of a set of words can be mistaken, the sound tones made when those words are said in a sentence are always interpreted the same way in our emotional response.

From these findings, the EMV Index was born. It’s essentially an algorithm that assesses how a group of words follows these emotional harmonics, and how likely they are to elicit an emotional response from a reader.

So, in the context of email marketing, it can be used to assess how much of an emotional response a particular set of words (like a subject line) will generate.

A perfect EMV Index score would be 100% but that’s rare, unless your subject line is quite short. A good score would rank anywhere from 40% to 75%.

How does EMV vary from other subject line methods?

With so many creation and testing tools for subject lines, what makes the EMV method different from other subject line creation methods?

1. Pushes emotional buttons

Research has proven that people don’t buy into a product for logical reasons. Often times, a buying decision is influenced by emotions. If, as a marketer, you’re able to push the right emotional buttons (or triggers) in your target audience, it becomes easier for you to sell.

What does this have to do with your subject lines?

Everything.

Subject lines that tug at the heart are more likely to lead to higher conversion rates than those that don’t stir a reader’s emotions. Below is an example of an emotionally charged subject line that elicits a click:

Subject lines that tug at the heart are more likely to lead to higher conversion rates than those that don’t stir a reader’s emotions. Below is an example of an emotionally charged subject line that elicits a click:

Source: Gmail

Everyone craves to be inspired to excel at what they do. That’s exactly the need the headline above is promising to meet. A reader’s response would be to immediately open the email to find out the secret to supercharged writing.

2. Creates a lasting impression

Subject lines crafted using the EMV method don’t just tug at the heart, they’re also so powerful that they make a lasting impression on the reader. Of course, one of the main purposes of marketing is to ensure that your brand is always top of mind when your customers need a product or service you provide. A powerful, emotionally charged subject line will help you achieve just that.

3. Triggers viral responses

We live in a world where ad blockers have become the norm and people decide which type of content they want to consume. The best way you, as a marketer, can increase the chances of your message being seen is by creating content that people will want to share.

For the email marketer, the gateway to viral emails is the subject line.

By creating a subject line that people love, you increase the chances of your email being forwarded or triggering a word of mouth campaign. Most of all, you can make it easier for your readers to share your email on social media by including share buttons in the email.

According to research, people put more trust in content that’s shared by other people (earned media) than content shared by a brand (paid media).

What’s the difference between paid and earned media?

So what’s the difference between paid and earned media?

Paid media

Paid media refers to any channel that you have to pay for in order to get your message to be seen by your target audience. Common examples include display and banner ads, PPC campaigns, and promoted content on social media, just to name a few.

Paid media refers to any channel that you have to pay for in order to get your message to be seen by your target audience.

Source: Facebook

Earned media

Earned media is, in essence, exposure gained through the sharing of content, brand mentions, shares, reposts, and other forms of online word of mouth. Earned media value, therefore, is a measure of the worth you receive from content that’s shared on various platforms.

How to use the EMV Index to write better email subject lines

Now that you understand what the EMV Index is, it’s time to put it to work writing better email subject lines.

By following these steps, you can compose email subject lines with high EMV scores that lead to more opens (and more conversions.)

Step 1: Write 25 potential subject lines for your email campaign.

Viral website Upworthy has a policy where writers have to write 25 potential headlines for every post they publish.

Whilst it may seem like a lot of effort, it forces you to think outside the box. When Garrett Moon of CoSchedule started to apply this to his own headline-writing efforts, he found that the headlines he wrote got better as he went on. The first 10 or so were easy to come up with but were pretty basic and obvious. After that, he had to start getting creative in order to come up with the next 15, and, as a result, he found that the final headlines he wrote were often the winners.

Spend some time writing a number of different subject lines for your email campaign, as it’s likely your best one will take some time to come up with. If you need help, check out this list of power words in email subject lines.

Step 2: Run them through the Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer.

The Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer is a tool from the Advanced Marketing Institute that analyzes headlines and tells you their EMV score.

Used in an email marketing context, you can simply enter your subject lines into the tool and it’ll return a score between 0 and 100 based on the emotional marketing value of the subject line you created.

To use this to write better subject lines, take the 25 different subject lines you wrote in Step 1 and run them through the tool, making sure you keep track of the score of each subject line.

Let’s say, for example, that you’re planning on confirming an event invitation. Here are two versions of subject lines you could use. The first is before tweaking using the EMV method:

Let’s say, for example, that you’re planning on confirming an event invitation. Here are two versions of subject lines you could use. The first is before tweaking using the EMV method:

Source: Advanced Marketing Institute

While it may seem to be a good subject line, it definitely can be improved on:

While it may seem to be a good subject line, it definitely can be improved on:

Source: Advanced Marketing Institute

Step 3: Use the two highest scoring subject lines in an A/B test.

When you’re setting up your email campaign in your chosen email marketing software, utilize a subject line A/B test and enter the highest-scoring subject lines from your original list of 25.

If you’re a Campaign Monitor customer, the tool will then send a version of your campaign with each subject line to a small portion of your list, then, based on which email gets the most opens or clicks, it’ll automatically send the winning subject line to the rest of your list.

Source: Campaign Monitor

Finally, you’ll get a report that shows you which one is the winner, and how many extra opens and clicks you got by running the A/B test.

Wrap up

Better subject lines mean more opens of your email campaigns, and more opens leads to more click-throughs, more conversions, and more revenue for your business.

So, for your next newsletter or announcement email, try writing a number of different subject lines for your email campaign and use the EMV Index to decide which ones to A/B test. You’ll end up writing more emotional subject lines that appeal to your target audience and get your emails opened.

Speaking of getting your emails opened, check out our article on how to improve your email open rates.