Vol. 1 Issue 17 - August 15, 2002 - Compelling Subject Lines


In this Issue...

  • Writing Compelling Subject Lines
  • Creating Curiosity
  • Tracking Responses


WRITING COMPELLING SUBJECT LINES

So we have many leads and e-mail addresses. Now what?

Now we communicate. The best way to take advantage of all our hard earned research is to initiate conversations with our new-found leads and grow our network. Just as if you are in a crowded room, we must first get someone's attention before we can start a conversation. However, on the Internet, that's not as easy.

What someone first sees in his or her e-mail inbox makes the difference whether or not they open a new message. The sender and subject line are by far the two most important identifiers that will prompt a reader to open an unread message.

If the sender is a known and trusted entity, chances are good that the message will be opened. If they are an unknown source then the subject immediately becomes totally important.

Compelling subject lines demand attention without turning people away.

Traditional direct e-mail marketing schools will preach that a response rate from 5% to 10% is successful. Some of the best e-mail marketers out there can get as much as 55% response. Those e-mails are designed for mass marketing of a product or service, but they have excellent response rates compared to the success of cold calling. In contrast, targeted recruitment e-mails can enjoy response rates as high as 80%.

So how do we get 80% response rates?


CREATING CURIOSITY

We get such great response rates by following some easy guidelines for building and focusing our target e-mail lists, designing interesting and persuasive messages and, of course, writing compelling subject lines. Subject lines can entice new readers to open the message. Therefore, they are the most important aspect of e-mail networking, but we have only a few seconds to catch a reader's attention. The goal of this article is to show how to get the reader to open the message so they can be recruited by its persuasive content.


THE NEGATIVE EFFECT

Stop Being a Failure - Discover 10 Ways to Get Your E-mail Read!

The above subject line surely gets attention. People are programmed to pay attention to negative information. We can see this because headlines are mostly negative and shocking. People have learned to react to negative stimulus since childhood. "NO! STOP THAT!" always garners attention. For that reason, people will react more predictably to an initially negative statement, and afterwards be drawn in by the positive. Dichotomy in the subject line attracts attention.

"Stop Being a Failure" causes the reader to stop to see what's going on. The positive statement that follows: "Discover 10 Ways to Get Your E-mail Read" generates interest in the message content and prompts them to open it. The trick is to do this without giving away so much information that the reader decides they don't need to know any more, and then deletes the message.


TRUTH IN ADVERTISING

It is important to be honest in the subject line. Misleading subjects, or subjects that are intentionally unrelated to the content of the message will almost immediately result in message deletion. When people feel they are being tricked after beginning to read the message they may add us to their "spammer" or "ignore" list.


QUESTIONING TACTICS

Subject lines that are vague and ask a question are very effective. This works because people are curious by nature. They can't help themselves but open the e-mail when they see a vague question in the subject line. The following subject line:

"Subject Line Hooks Don't Work" - Have you seen this?

has a negative introduction: "Subject Line Hooks Don't Work" that is closely related to the content of the message followed by a vague question.

We make a subject line catchier by asking about the following ABC's:

Action = Can I be more interactive? What am I eliciting them to do? Am I eliciting an action? Can I make it more compelling for the reader to open the message?

Benefit = Why should the reader bother to open it? What's in it for them? What is of interest to them?

Conviction = Can I be more clear and concise? Can I say the same in fewer words? Am I convincing? How am I removing skepticism in the subject line?

 

GIVING IT AWAY

A subject line must not give away the content of the message. If it does, the reader won't open the e-mail. If the reader infers too much about the content of the message before opening it, they are much less likely to follow through with opening it. Subject lines don't sell requirements. Their sole purpose is to entice a recipient into opening the e-mail.

Though our "sales" letter and content is where we truly have the opportunity to sell our product, service or idea, we begin to sell with the subject line. First we sell the idea of opening the e-mail, then the product, service or idea in the message. It doesn't matter if our reader buys into our ideas, our offerings, visits our website, calls us, forwards the e-mail to someone else, or replies. If any one of these results occurs, it means we were successful.


APPEARANCES ARE EVERYTHING

Using ALL CAPS turns people off all the time.

Using "you" or "your" if we don't know their name makes the subject line feel more personal.

Errors in spelling and grammar turn people off instantly.

The message should "have a nice ring to it" or "feel good" when read out loud. If our co-workers don't like it, our readers will not open it. Asking three or four different people to read it aloud ensures quality.

Our friends' feedback is of ultimate importance.

Catchy subject lines can be used and adapted over and over.


ESTABLISHING CONTROL AND TRACKING RESPONSES

No amount of advice will help unless we can tell which subject lines worked. We can track responses by using e-mail filtering software and rules or wizards. It's as simple as inserting a code into the body of the message or even the subject line itself. A filter or wizard takes replies matching our body or subject code and places them in a separate folder. This way we can assign a success rate to each subject line used. That works particularly well when we know how many e-mails were originally sent. We track that by copying sent e-mails into the same folder as the responses.

A good code should be one representing the date in a serial number format, such as 081602 which stands for August 16, 2002. To that we add a subject identification number like S012 meaning Subject Line Number 12. This way our wizard or filter can sort 081602S012 and move all responses containing that code into a specified project folder in our e-mail client.

Later, on another date or project we may change the subject line and our new code would be something like 081802S014. Occasionally someone may reply with a different subject line or without the original text in the body. We track those by keeping a spreadsheet with a column for the addresses to which we sent e-mail and a column for the message codes used. This way we can compare those unidentifiable messages with our list.

Writing compelling subject lines is a learned art--just remember that practice makes perfect!