You, like the rest of us, will be continually monitoring the returns from your email marketing campaigns, looking for that tell-tale drop that you will have to address as quickly as possible. You might consider, as most of us do, going online. A Google search for ‘best email subject lines’ returns a first page replete with all sorts of suggestions, including the 31, 101, 180+, 80 (this one recently updated) best for you to choose from. If you’ve got time to go through the 1391+ suggestions, then good for you. Your time management is exemplary. Most of us will read the entries in exasperation and bewilderment.

There’s nothing wrong in looking through a list for ideas, but the idea that there are the ‘best’ of anything for email marketing is fundamentally flawed as they are, rather obviously, generic. All such a list can do is give you pointers. The thing is, most of the suggestions, not only for subject lines, merely indicate an eternal truth for email marketing.

Even a quick reading, the best kind, will show that, in general, most of the suggestions could be classified under specific headings, ones which are universal in email marketing. The most obvious ones are:

1.    Relief

If you can deliver relief from pain, worry, or even the most underrated trigger, boredom, then that’s your Subject Line there.

2.    Missing out

‘Only three left’ will generate a degree of urgency. The power of the thought of regret of not taking a chance when it was offered is a powerful one.

3.    Personalisation

This hardly needs mentioning, apart from, that is, the benefits of subtlety. Using a person’s name is a method used by everyone, even scammers, and while you should be familiar, just making it obvious that you know their purchase history and have something that will fit right will give the impression of thoughtfulness.

4.    Curiosity

‘You’ll never guess what we have for you’ can be a bit risky as they might not bother to find out. It works for some, and it’s up to you to discover which on your email marketing list will respond. You’ll never know until you try.

5.     Humour

Many marketing emails can be intense. If your Subject Line is the only one that promises a lighter read, especially if you’ve had a response in the past, it can encourage a subscriber to open it. Care is required to differentiate between humour and jokes, the latter often being a risk too far.

6.    Free

You won’t want to give much away without getting a direct return so free offers should be used with discretion. The item must be completely free or else it can only be used once and the unsubscribe button might well be triggered.

This is not an exhaustive list. Also, I’m aware of the irony of making a list of reasons not to bother with lists, but in this case we are not offering quick fixes, but giving email marketing ideas for you to experiment with. We’ll cover these subjects in detail in the future.