Did you know that you can boost email open rates by writing catchy email subject lines?

The subject line of an email is one of the most important components. Subject lines can either make or break an email.

The subject line must be compelling enough to entice readers to click through.

Your subject lines for emails are only one small part of your messages. However, they are among the first impressions your email recipients will have of you. Marketing professionals use them to make their emails stand out in the inbox.

What do you want people to do with your email content? The subject line is the first step. 

How to come up with Catchy email subject lines?

We should consider some basics of writing a great subject line before we look at our tips. So let’s talk about how to come up with catchy email subject lines? Your subject lines for emails should contain the following elements no matter what your goal is:

Do a Little Story-Telling

Storytelling is one of the most effective ways to capture and attract readers. The telling of a story can also be a place for curiosity. 

An intriguing introduction to a story is the best way to start your email subject line. There is, however, a need to click or open the story before the whole story is revealed.

To make your audience interested in your topic and eager to learn more about it, you need to intrigue them. However, don’t just tell them random stories. You need stories that are related to your brand. 

You don’t want to confuse your readers by including unnecessary information in the email.

Send Emails That Are Tailored to the Recipients 

It is important to remember that every recipient is unique. Therefore, you must make sure the emails you send to them are also unique. If needed, you can tailor these emails specifically to these individuals.

You might be wondering how you can personalize your emails. Various methods and technologies are available on the internet that you can use. It lets you discover your audience’s interests, occupations, or even pet peeves. 

With the information you already possess about them, you can tailor your content so that it is suited to their needs.

Instill a Sense of Urgency

You can motivate people to take action by creating a sense of urgency. By strategically structuring your subject lines, you can accomplish this goal.

Urgency in Email Subject lines

A promotion or sale should have an end date and a start date. Viewers who see this as they scroll through their inbox often click to learn what’s available. 

Make a Compelling Proposal

In this case, opening an email offers a benefit. People are constantly searching for new experiences. Free experiences or discounts are especially enticing.

Catchy Email subject lines with compelling proposal

Your email’s subject line should include the offer. When “free stuff” is directly mentioned in newsletters, people are a lot more inclined to open them.

Send Emails That Are Relevant

Those who subscribe to email lists often want to stay informed, or at least learn more about a particular topic. Essentially, you want to pique their interest. 

You can establish yourself as an authority in your industry by creating subject lines that include trending topics and timely headlines. People will be enticed to click on your emails and read your content.

Create a Sense of Curiosity 

There are times when subject lines are effective because they convey a sense of curiosity. Take a look at this example:

Subject line that instills curiosity

However, it’s best to maintain a certain level of mystery. Especially if it sparks a natural interest and curiosity in the recipient. As a result, they can increase open rates since they require a reader to open the email in order to read more. 

Despite its mysterious nature, your subject line should nonetheless reflect your brand. Though you should be careful since there is a possibility that it will be seen as spam if it’s too obscure.

Now you’ve learned the basics, let’s look at the best practices for writing subject lines for emails

How to Write Catchy Email Subject Lines?

We all know that the subject line of an email must be visually appealing and catchy to be effective. Therefore, here are some suggestions on how to write a good and catchy subject line.

Decide What the Email Is For

How does the subject line reflect the purpose of the email? When writing a subject line, start with the intent or purpose of the email and build upon that.

Decide on its purpose, so you can establish a good structure you can follow.

You can also draft your messages first to make sure you use similar words and tones in your subject lines. You can write down your thoughts as you draft.

Once you have listed your ideas, you have a more comprehensive view of how the message will be presented. You are prevented from repeating the same idea on the message over and over again.

Seek For Opinions

You might want to ask others what they think of your email. You may want opinions about the subject line, the content, and even your call to action. Get opinions from friends, family, and even colleagues.

Ask them to provide feedback on their preferred option. Discover why they liked it and how it could be improved. Second opinions can help you view a situation from a new perspective.

Test Your Subject Line

Conduct an A/B test to determine the most effective subject line. Make sure that the email subject line is effective after you have conducted the test. And use it in your upcoming email marketing campaign.

After learning how to create effective subject lines for emails, let’s look at some examples.

Here Are Some Useful Email Subject Lines

After learning how to create effective subject lines for emails, let’s look at some examples.

Spice it Up With Some Sense of Humor

You might think that emails ought to be professional and serious, wouldn’t you? Would a humorous subject line make for a catchy email subject line? 

Sending an email that makes your subscribers smile will increase their likelihood of opening it. If you deliver a humorous email, you are more likely to achieve higher open rates and sales. 

It is more likely to be noticed from other emails if it has a funny and humorous subject line. In addition, a humorous subject line makes you more memorable and can gain a greater level of favor from your subscribers. 

Get to the Point and Don’t Fumble Around

Subject lines that are too long may get cut off, especially on mobile devices. Nearly 45 percent of emails are opened on mobile devices. 

Keeping subject lines under 50 characters is recommended. Doing so ensures that your message is read from start to finish.

Consider which words matter less in your subject lines if you are having difficulty keeping them short. Look for ways to eliminate unnecessary details. 

The subject line should not include the words “here’s some update” or “report”. Research suggests these words may deter recipients from opening the message. The reader can then look forward to receiving the next email. Especially once they learn that the email is part of a series.

Subscribers Have Wants – Find Out

In order to build an emotional bond with your subscribers, you should ask them about their intentions. Have them picture themselves in the future or ask them about their plans.

If you want to improve someone’s life, you may ask them how you can help. Furthermore, you can inquire about their plans for the next few months. With appropriate and emotive subject lines, you can stimulate email open rates.

Surveys can also be conducted via email. As a result, you can collect a high level of data about the preferences of your customers. Your email marketing campaign is more likely to engage customers.

The best way to develop a marketing strategy is to get ideas from your customers.

Show Your Audiences Your Appreciation

Exclusiveness is a powerful psychological phenomenon. A sense of belonging occurs when people feel they belong. Consequently, they become loyal to your brand and convert on your emails.

Making your recipients feel special can result in a magical effect if the right words are used. Some examples are:

Subject lines that shows appreciation

Sender Names With ‘No-Reply’ Should Not Be Used

Most people do not open emails from unknown senders these days because they receive so much spam. Take the example of calling a company and not being able to reach anyone. 

Can you imagine how annoying that would be? You can also imagine how frustrating that would be via email.

Never use “noreply@yourbusiness.com”. Again prevent using addresses such as this.

noreply@

You look unprofessional and less presentable with this type of email address. Moreover, it makes it difficult for people to add your email address to their address book.

You Can Make Use of Emojis

Building a close relationship with your subscribers can be accomplished through the use of emojis. In email subject lines, emojis excel over plain text.

If you decide to create your own email subject lines, you can use a variety of emojis and emoji combinations.

Emoji in subject lines for emails

Emoji’s make your subject line distinct from those without them.

The emojis you use must relate to both the content and the subject line of your email. Any other use would appear unimportant.

Adopt and Use Effective Subject Lines

We often look to examples for inspiration when we’re unsure how to phrase our subject line. We can learn new ways to approach our subject lines by looking at clever wordplay or emojis in one of our favorite newsletters.

Don’t Lie About Anything

In the subject line of your email, you are promising your reader something about what you have on your content. Ensure that you fulfill your commitment accordingly. Avoid making false promises with your email to get it opened. 

When you click on a video on YouTube, and it is clickbait, you become disinterested. Clickbait causes people to lose interest in what the account is all about. Similarly, misleading subject lines can drive people away.

They’ll learn to distrust your subject lines, and they won’t trust you again. Lower open rates and higher unsubscribe rates can be the result of this.

Avoid Using the Same Subject Line for a Question and an Exclamation

Here’s an example so you can better understand

No question mark and exclamation point on subject lines

The “Do you want to get rich?” is not the problem. It’s also not “try this!”. These kinds of subject lines usually end up in spam folders.

Combining these two phrases results in spam. Email sabotage comes in many forms, and it’s a classic just yell and ask.

You’re not only alienating your audience with this format, it’s overdone as well. 

Choosing Verbs That Express Action Is a Good Place to Start

The language in subject lines should inspire people to click, much like in calls to action. It’s often easier to get readers’ attention when subject lines contain action words. 

You can generate clicks by creating subject lines that inspire urgency and excitement. For example: “Grow your business with these tips.”

Text Previews Should Be Engaging

The preview appears alongside the subject line even though it is not a part of it. You should also pay attention to it.

You can include preview text in your email to give recipients a preview of its content. Email clients will automatically pull preview text from your email body when you don’t set it yourself. You can use preview text to engage or drive your customers away.

Remember that text previews are as important as catchy email subject lines.

Your Lists Should Be Segmented

It may be relevant and useful to some people to send out blasts to your entire mailing list, but not to others. Hence, this may cause frustration and confusion. 

This company sent me an email about dog grooming services. What is the point? I don’t own a dog. 

Use your customers’ previous actions to personalize the experience, like when writing thank-you email subject lines after the customer completes an action. Make your emails more relevant and personalized by segmenting your email list.

Make Use of an Autoresponder

If you can send your emails when they are most important, you will get better results. How is an autoresponder related to catchy email subject lines?

Although you might have great subject lines, if they’re not delivered at the right times, it’s not much use, right?

If you gain a new subscriber, for example, you should send them a welcoming email. A welcome email is worthless if it’s sent after you have sent other messages to them. 

Additionally, you should also send them some Christmas greetings via email during the holidays. 

It’s a good time to advertise or offer products during these times. In any case, it can be quite exhausting to keep up with all of these, especially if your email list is quite large. 

Automating your messages is a good idea. Usually, automated emails are sent whenever a certain action occurs. You can, for instance, automate a message that will be sent if there is a new subscriber. 

For your convenience, you can purchase software that offers an autoresponder service. A recommended software is Mailvio. It is an autoresponder with a built-in SMTP- Server. It also offers the following services:

  • List Segmentation
  • Detailed Analytics
  • Automation
  • A/B Split testing

And a lot more. The best part is, you can try it out for free for 7 days and then get it permanently for a very affordable price.

Discuss Controversial Topics 

Controversial subject lines? Would it make a good catchy email subject line? 

Controversial topics do interest most people. A controversial topic can easily attract the attention of some people. 

Consider your audience’s perceptions and interests before using controversial subject lines. You should, however, be very cautious. 

In the early stages of building your subscriber list and not knowing what they want, things can go wrong. Utilize shock, insult, or controversy in your subject lines if your business context permits this. 

Controversial subject lines for emails

Be careful not to offend your readers by using a controversial subject line. Be respectful and not vulgar.

Controversial subject lines can be both unique and intriguing when they are carefully crafted. These subject lines draw viewers’ curiosity and improve open rates.

Ask a Question in Your Subject Line

Additionally, asking a question in your subject line might catch the reader’s attention. This is especially true if the question you’re asking relates to your recipients’ buyer personas. 

Take a look at these examples:

  • “Are you sure that you’re doing the right work-out”
  • “Did you know that you can save $1000 by doing this?”

Be Sure NOT to Use ALL CAPS and A lot of “!!!”

A subject line that says “WE HAVE A SURPRISE FOR YOU” or “Buy 1 and take 1!!!!!”. Putting them together is no better, like this “FREE SHIPPING NATIONWIDE!!!” 

Your email won’t get opened with this kind of subject line. Isn’t this a catchy email subject line? Not at all, it may even result in your email being ignored.

How come? Most people do not like being yelled at. A lot of people dislike exclamation points and all caps since they give the impression of being angry and shouting. 

In addition to being disruptive, these tactics look spammy. Personalized emails will stand out a lot more than disruptive tactics like these. Use a catchy, engaging language and establish relevance.

Make Sure the Sender Name Is Recognizable

Sender names should be as human as possible. You can use your name and your company’s domain as a sender name. Recipients will know that the sender is a real person.

Professional email address

As the sender’s address, use your own name if you’ve already interacted with your recipients. The email does not need to come from the whole company, even if it appears to come from it. In order to make customers feel like they’re working with you personally, you should portray to them as an individual, not as a group.

Make Use of Numbers and Statistics

The subject lines of a lot of business emails contain general statements. You will get more attention to your emails when you use data and numbers. Your message should be clear and direct, and your expectations should be realistic.

In the same way that your blog title would be, your subject line should consist of numbers as well. For example, in your title, you might use numbers. For instance, “This software will increase your open rates by 70%”.

Conclusion

So what do you think of writing catchy email subject lines? Is it hard? Is it complicated? 

While these may seem overwhelming at first, once you get used to them, it becomes easier. Promoting your products and campaigns through email marketing is a great way to get the word out. 

With the right use of it and the right content, you’ll be able to succeed. Another important factor is to review your overall marketing strategy as well. 

All these tips are just a few suggestions. Hopefully, these tips will help you come up with your own creative and engaging subject lines. Make sure you prove in your subject lines for emails that you have great content to share.

Neil Napier

Neil Napier is the co-founder of Mailvio. Neil started his entrepreneurial journey in 2012 out of necessity to keep his visa in the UK, when he failed to keep his visa he moved to Finland and started his career as a serial entrepreneur and super affiliate. With over $10 million USD in revenue generated, he is a sought-after expert entrepreneur, copywriter & product creator.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.