Write catchy subject lines

Writing the perfect email won't matter if you aren't getting your emails opened. Here are some tips to help you write better subject lines.

Your writing style

Writing a catchy subject line isn't exactly like writing a blog post headline. With a blog post headline, you want to share some of the value that's behind the click.

For example, the headline "17 hidden clues your dog is actually a genius" is great at getting clicks from Google search, Facebook, etc., but it wouldn't do very good as an email subject line.

That's because email is different. People are oftentimes not in the mood to learn or research when they're checking their email. Most of the time, they're on their smartphone scrolling through a crowded inbox.

That's why your email subject lines should be casual.

Here are some casual subject lines that will get high open rates:

Be ambiguous in your subject lines to spark their curiosity.

While this sounds like a clickbait tactic, if you end up delivering value in the body of the email, nobody will care how you got the click.

Here are some email subject lines that spark curiosity.

You can also improve your open rates by adding the following at the end of the subject line:

Emojis also work, but only add them at the end of a short subject line since some email providers just show a box instead of the emoji.

If you collected first names in your opt-in form, you definitely need to use them in your subject lines.

For example:

I've found that capitalizing the first letter of each word doesn't do as well as all lowercase.

You're Not Going to Believe This vs You're not going to believe this

The same goes for exclamation points, which don't do as well as using ellipses.

You're not going to believe this! vs You're not going to believe this...