Do You Want People to Read Your Emails?

How many of us get inundated with emails every day?  Yep, it happens to all of us.  Clients, prospects, mentors, newsletters we subscribe to, sales promotions, Facebook notifications — they completely fill up our inbox just as quickly as we clean them out!

Which, by the way, we DO clean out our inboxes… by deciding quite quickly which ones we’ll read or not.

Think about how you chose what to read and what not to read.  Sure, there are probably some people who send you emails that you’ll always read.  They’ve built trust with you and you devour everything they write.  However, there are other emails that you decide whether to read solely based on the subject line.  Sucky subject line?  Delete!  Right?

Well, you send emails, too.  There are people on the receiving end going through the same process you are.  So how can you make sure that one little line will get your emails opened?  Here are 8 tips to put you in the 25% of emails that actually get the right attention:

1. Use odd numbers in your subject line:  Do you receive 1,423 emails a day?
2. Ask a question:  Are you struggling with open rates?
3. Use percentages:  Only 25% of emails received are even opened
4. Use brackets in the subject line:  [Video], [New Video] Better open rates
5. Use personal pronouns like you and your: Do you want people to read your emails?
6. Use “Re” in your subject line, but do so sparingly:  Re: Do you want better open rates? (combined three there, didn’t I?)
7. Use scarcity as a tactic:  Third and final notice!
8. Borrow credibility:  Zuckerburg’s Top 3 Strategies

You want to pique the reader’s curiosity or maybe even cause confusion or shock.  Anything to get their attention.  For example, last week I received an email and the subject line was simply “Subject Line”.  I thought it was strange that this particular coach was emailing about subject lines.  It piqued my curiosity and I was confused.  What did I do?  I opened the email!  The funny thing was, in this case, it was an error on their part, but it sure made me open it.

One other note worth mentioning is that you want to keep your subject lines to fewer than 55 characters.  Some email service providers will truncate subject lines longer than 55 characters and the effectiveness of your message will be… well, cut short.

Think you have a great subject line?  Test it out.  There are tools available to rate it like this one:  http://www.aminstitute.com/headline/

Just stuck for a subject line?  Visit www.reddit.com and see what’s trending in the world today, I’m sure something will catch your attention.

So have fun with your new tips and tools to make sure your emails get opened on the other end!