Your subject lines impact whether or not someone will open an email from you. Your brand name and preview text plays a role, too, but nothing drives open rates like a great subject line. In this video, we’ll talk about subject lines for email marketing. I will break down some of my best-performing subject lines, as well as some best practices.

What Are Open Rates?

When thinking about subject lines for email marketing, we will first look at open rates. Open rates are the percentage of people who open your email versus the amount of subscribers on your list. For example, if you have 100 subscribers and 40 people open your email, that email has an open rate of 40%. In Flodesk, the email service provider that I use (and love), open rates for each email are extremely visible. If you’re interested in learning more about Flodesk, click here to get a 30 day free trial and 50% off of your first year!

Subject Line Best Practices

Let’s talk about some best practices for subject lines. The ideal length for your subject line is seven words. On most platforms and devices where people consume emails, subject lines will trail off after seven words. That’s why it’s best to cap it at seven and get your point across quickly and concisely! 

I also recommend limiting your use of emojis to two at the most. Emojis have not had a dramatic effect on my open rates, but they’re an easy way to add some character into your copy! Too many emojis can resemble spam messages which will cause people to avoid your emails.

Lastly, keep your subject lines free of spam-like language. Some terminology might overlap, but overall, try to steer your copy in a different direction so that your emails are not labeled as spam and sent to Trash. 

Be Clear & Genuine

I aim to make my subject lines clear, genuine and to stay away from clickbait. If your subject line is nothing more than a simple explanation of what is inside – I think that’s great! Your subscribers will appreciate knowing exactly what they will receive from you.

Free Email Class

If you want to go even deeper into emails that work, watch my free email class! I’ll walk you through creating strategic emails that actually make you money in your business. Click here for instant access!

Well-Performing Subject Lines

Now, I’m going to list some of my best-performing subject lines that had the highest open rates my team has seen. The following emails were sent to the majority of my list, a little over 20,000 subscribers. 

• (Update) Want to be a beta tester for a brand-new course? – 47.7%
• Correct link :) You’ve only got three more hours left for this. – 46.3%
• How I made back my $7,500 investment (applications are open) – 46.4%
• Are you ready to fall in love with Instagram? 💛 – 46.3%
• A very honest message inside 👀 – 46%
• Psst, content photo secrets are inside – 45.9%
• I’ve never posted on Instagram every day… – 45.6%
• How to get out of the Instagram rat race – 45.4%
• Download the 10 free Instagram Story Templates right now – 45.6%
• Incoming: Huge news inside ✉️ – 45.4%
• Last call: 3 hours left! ✉️ →💸 – 45.3%

Why They Work

Here are some things that I observed about these subject lines. The first two, with the highest open rates, are correcting a previous email with outdated information or a broken link. I do not think this is a strategy to use, but you can see by these open rates that it piques people’s interest. Don’t be afraid to send a correction when necessary!

I also noticed that numbers perform well. When using dollars or time or quantity, those emails perform better than others. 

Emojis in Copy

My next observation is that emojis do not necessarily mean higher open rates. However, the exception is the last subject line mentioned with the mail and an arrow to the money. I believe people could recognize the point we were trying to get across which was how emails can make you more money. While other emails with the same subject (without emojis) have had low open rates, this one pleasantly surprised us.

Lastly, I observe that subject lines alluding to the reader’s end goal perform really well. A lot of times, we focus on the pain points, but I think these statistics prove that audiences are intrigued by the promise of their end goal, too.

Get Your Email Strategy

If you want to go even deeper with subject lines for email marketing, I would love to invite you to watch that free email class that I mentioned earlier. You’ll walk away knowing how to actually make money with the emails that you’re sending for your business and to be strategic with it. It’s one hour long and you can watch it anytime!

As always, comment your questions or feel free to DM me on Instagram! 

See you guys next week on Tuesday at 8 AM!