3 Subject Line Hacks That Boost Email Open Rates
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Your subject lines are make-it-or-break-it when it comes to getting your emails opened.
If your subject line isn’t intriguing enough, your email might just get deleted instead of opened and read. So how do you write subject lines that get your emails opened? Great question…
After growing email lists with more than 50,000 subscribers, I have figured out a few hacks for what makes people open emails.
Let’s explore the 3 best subject line hacks that boost email open rates.
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3 Types of Subject Lines That Will Get Your Emails Opened
- The more people open your emails, means that your email open rate increases
- which sends a signal to Google and other inboxes that your emails are not spam
- which in turn increases your domain’s email deliverability
- so that future emails you send land in people’s priority inbox, and not the dreaded spam folder.
There are three main strategies I go back to time and time again when crafting my own subject lines. These are my tried-and-trues, my go-to’s, the fallback strategies that always deliver.
1. The Results-Focused Subject Line
Like it sounds, this subject line hints at a big result your email will help people achieve.
The format for this type of subject line is usually along the lines of:
How to achieve (result or goal) without (something they don’t want)
How to achieve (result or goal) in (time frame)
Here’s how to REALLY (achieve result or goal)
And here are a few examples of this subject line in action:
“Here’s how to triple your course sales this month”
“How to lose weight without the restriction diets”
“How you can spend more time with your family this summer”
“3 simple ways to improve your productivity today”
Simple, to the point, but totally worth opening.
How & When to use this type of subject line
The results-focused subject line is great for those uber-value-packed emails.
Anytime you want to teach something, share a 3-step system, point out industry myths or mistakes… the results-focused subject line is perfect.
The key to making this subject line work for you is two-fold:
1. Make sure the result you’re promising is specific and that it’s something your audience actually wants to achieve.
2. Be clear and upfront… but also make the result sound super juicy
For example, which of the following subject lines is more enticing?
“How to get more clients”
or
“Here’s how to get booked out with dream clients in the next 2 weeks”
The latter, right? That’s because the second subject line is super clear, specific, and extra juicy.
2. The Curiosity-Provoking Subject Line
Who doesn’t love a little mystery in their life every now and again?
That’s exactly what this subject line serves up.
Just the right amount of mystery and intrigue without being overly clickbait-y.
Here are a few great examples of curiosity-provoking subject lines:
“I almost puked right there on the spot”
“I can’t BELIEVE I did this…”
“I’ve been keeping a secret from you…”
How & When to use this type of subject line
Here are two of my favorite ways to use the curiosity-provoking subject line:
1. Ask a question that your subscribers can’t answer without opening the email.
For example:
“Which one of these 3 are you?” (thanks to James Wedmore for that gem!).
The human brain is wired to seek out the answer to any question they’re asked.
… This is why it’ll be super hard for your subscribers to resist opening an email with a subject line like that.
2. Pull a juicy quote from the email itself.
Scroll through the content of your email and look for one line that’s particularly interesting or intriguing.
Ba-da boom, ba-da bing: there’s your subject line!
3. The BFF Subject Line
If I had to choose my favorite strategy, this would be it! And it’s honestly super duper simple.
All you have to do is think about the kind of subject lines you write when you’re sending an email to a friend or family member.
They’re usually pretty short and low-key, right?
For example:
“What’s up?”
“Did you see this?”
“Are you free today?”
These are great examples of BFF subject lines.
How & When to use this Type of subject line
Keep your BFF subject lines short, sweet, and casual.
When done right, the BFF subject line will look like you’ve sent it to a single person, rather than as a blast to thousands of subscribers at once.
If you need some inspiration, pop open your personal inbox and look through actual subject lines from emails to your friends and family.
Are there any subject lines that you can repurpose for your mailing list?
To date, two of my highest-opened subject lines have been:
“Hey girl”
“What’s going on?”
Two great examples of BFF subject lines 🙂
3 Subject Line Hacks That Boost Email Open Rates – Conclusion
Use the tips from above to spruce up the subject lines for your welcome series and upcoming newsletters and watch your open rates skyrocket.
