The QLC blog – The Quest for Seamless, On-demand Digital Communications

Headlines have critical importance when it comes to effective copywriting. They decide whether the reader will spends more time with the copy or give it a miss. But even with a not so good headline, there is a chance that the reader may skim through the below content – maybe due to an interesting picture!

But with email marketing the chance narrows down further. If your subject lines don’t entice your recipients, there is no way they will ever see your so painstakingly well-crafted mailer with your best possible offer. When it comes to email marketing, subject lines carry even more responsibility since they are you first and only point of contact with the end user.

Here are a few tips for composing effective subject lines:

Do’s:

• Keep them short, sweet and catchy.
• Ensure that they are grammatically correct and do not have any typos.
• Try to limit them to 75-85 characters (including spaces) in order to ensure that they render completely across all email clients.
• Ensure that you include the offer and your brand name.
• Try personalization – including recipient’s name in the subject line generates higher open and click-through rates.

Don’ts:

• Use punctuation and all caps font.
• Use the same subject line repetitively.
• Use of the following words/symbols; there is a high probability that your mail may land in the Spam/Junk folder if you use them:

(Note: This is not an exhaustive list)

Please feel free to contribute to the above lists in case we have missed out on anything.