“Check Out New Offers On Your Favourites!”
Will you open this email? Does this pique your interest in the brand?
We wake up to over a hundred emails in our inbox. But what prompts you to open an email? The subject lines!
Emails build a communication bridge between brands and customers.
You can use it to announce new product launches, exclusive offers, special announcements, or reward your customer’s loyalty. But all these will have no value if the subject line does not strike a chord.
According to Forbes, working professionals check their emails at least 15 times daily. But how often do they open and read them? No one has the time to check every email and read your flawlessly crafted content to make a decision. You have only a few seconds to hook, communicate, and sell your products.
Imagine scrolling endlessly on a lousy Wednesday afternoon. It is extremely sunny outside. Your phone is blowing up with deadline reminders. And that’s when you get an email notification – “Experience Tropical Paradise In 10 Minutes!”
That sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?
A good email subject line must create a certain urgency, curiosity, or excitement to click on it.
Something personal or descriptive or both. But it should also maintain clarity and brand relevance. While the above-mentioned subject line sounds fun, it still sounds incomplete. Your audience will be confused about what to expect in that email.
So, what makes an email subject line stand out? Read along to find out about the key characteristics, best practices, and examples of a good email subject line.
Table of Contents
What Is the Need for an Email Subject Line?
According to recent reports, over 45% of email recipients click on an email solely based on its subject line.
69% of recipients report emails as spam based on the subject lines. It is fascinating how one element of an email deeply impacts its success rates. An effective subject line can lead to better open rates, increased engagement, and effective communication of brand tone.
Email subject line is the first step to grabbing your target audience’s attention. Think of it as someone who introduces your brand narrative to the audience. These are the stepping stones to building a long-term relationship with your consumers. And in this scenario, the first impression matters.
A good email subject line will not only increase open rates but also improve the click-through rates. It serves as a crucial link to enhance the trust between the brand and customers.
An effective subject line will improve your email deliverability and marketing strategies. This will help your target audience understand the brand better and improve engagement.
Now that you know why it is important, let’s discuss how you can create effective email subject lines!
Psychology Behind Good Email Subject Lines: The C.U.R.V.E. Approach
A good email subject line should draw the attention of your target audience and should stand out from the thousands of emails in their inboxes.
After years of experience testing out email subject lines, Alex Williams, a digital marketing expert, came up with an interesting theory: The C.U.R.V.E. Approach.
Let’s take a look at how this approach can help you create the best email subject lines.
Curiosity
The best way to attract your audience is to make them curious. Curious about what the email stands for. Curious about what you have in store for them.
It can be something simple or a mind-blowing fact. But don’t promise more than you can offer.
Urgency
Humans love thrill. The adrenaline rush when they have to submit right before the deadline or exciting adventures. Words like ‘Hurry up!’, ‘Few Slots Remaining’ or ‘Last 2 Hours To Go’ can invoke a quick response.
But remember that you cannot always push them into making last-minute decisions!
Relevancy
While it all narrows down to the ability of effective subject lines, you cannot sell sugar-loaded cakes to a diabetic. It is like promoting ballet lessons for kids to a teenager.
Your message through the subject line should be relevant to the recipient and the email.
Value
You cannot be selfish! Brands send emails with a purpose. But they should offer something. The customer needs to know what they are getting out of it.
Emotion
The best way to get a response from anyone is by triggering their emotions. Humans mostly make more purchase decisions based on their emotional instincts than logical or rational theories.
The C.U.R.V.E. Approach includes a basic understanding of what a good email subject line needs. But how do you use it?
How Can You Implement the C.U.R.V.E Approach?
To figure out the best email subject lines for your brand, you need to dig deeper.
Understanding how your target audience will react to the subject lines will help make them more engaging. Here’s how you can implement the C.U.R.V.E. approach for writing effective subject lines:
The FOMO angle
This creates a sense of urgency in the consumers to make a quick decision.
Example:
Hootsuite, a popular social media management platform, sent out this email to talk about special offers and discounts.
Their main aim was to grab your attention and share an exclusive limited-time offer. It creates urgency and encourages the customer to take immediate action.
Curiosity
An attempt at instigating the audience’s curious mind to click on the email to get more information.
Example:
Dan Koe, an author and co-founder of Kortex, loves everything about the internet & creative writing styles. In this email, he talked about tips from his own experiences.
This subject line invokes a sense of curiosity for people to click on the email.
Social proof
This helps build trust and credibility in the target audience before taking action.
Example:
This email subject line was used for a LinkedIn Newsletter by Andy Crestodina.
It talks about a case study on how to write an article that ranks for 100+ keyphrases. Now, this provides credibility to the claim made in the subject line. As a result, the email subject line builds trust and encourages the consumer to take action.
Reciprocity
An attempt to offer valuable resources or offers to elevate engagement with the target audience.
Example:
upGrad, a skill learning company, offers free courses to professionals and students.
They have various programs catered to every niche. This email talked about one of their exclusive interview masterclass. They offered a valuable resource in exchange for engagement from their audience.
Personalization
An attempt to customize the message to the recipient. These are tailor-made based on the recipient’s past behaviors.
Example:
Rebecca, Your Cart Is Waiting For You! Avail 20% off On Gaming Consoles 🎮
This email subject line communicates directly to the audience while highlighting their abandoned cart.
This provokes the recipient to check out their cart for special offers. As a result, a personalized email subject line can trigger and influence open rates.
How to Start Writing Effective Email Subject Lines
Now that you have some inspiration and knowledge, it is time to work on crafting the best email subject lines.
Are you still unable to decide how? Here’s a simple 5 step process to get you started:
Determine the goal
First, define the goals & intentions behind writing the subject lines, even before you start discussing ideas.
Be completely clear about why you are writing this subject line and who you are targeting. Make notes of the goals, intentions, and focus of this email subject line. Ask yourself questions to gather more understanding of the situation.
Brainstorm the possibilities
Once you are clear on the ‘why,’ it is time to brainstorm ideas, you can use any approach that works for you.
Generally, it is better to create a mind map and add words to a blank canvas. It gives you something to start with. While this is a fun process, don’t get carried away.
That will cost you time, resources, and energy.
Create a data dump
Does your whiteboard look messy after all the word vomit?
Well, that will make it difficult to proceed. You need to organize all your thoughts in a single sheet.
Start categorizing the ideas into why, what, where, and how. Add all the subject line variations you have thought about. Talk about why you thought of that.
This will give you a neat look into how your strategy is shaping up.
Make a checklist
Before testing these email subject line variations, run them through a checklist. This checklist is a step to eliminate the variations that are not relevant to your goal, brand, or consumer.
It mostly consists of the following questions:
- Why will your target audience open this email?
- Does it highlight your brand tone?
- Will it trigger any psychological response from your target audience?
- Is the subject line compatible with your email’s body content?
- Is there a way to shorten it by removing redundancy?
These are just some of the criteria that your variations should pass. You can customize it according to your preferences and goals.
Test. Optimize. Repeat.
Writing, brainstorming, and organizing the subject lines will not be enough.
Your role does not end here. You have more than one variation, but which one should you use? It is time to run tests, review the results, optimize your content, and repeat the process.
Do this till you land on what works best for your brand.
How to Test Your Email Subject Lines
You have created a list of email subject lines that you think are the best. But is there a way to figure out the winner? Let’s put your variations to the test!
A/B testing
This is a simple way to test if your email subject line is aligned with the brand tone, relevancy, proposition, etc. A/B testing can further help you to optimize your content and improve open rates.
So, how can you do the test?
It is quite easy. Take two variations of the email subject lines and send them to your targeted groups. Analyze the results to find which one works the best.
The variations don’t have to be completely different. It can be as simple as shuffling the same words into two variations. You can add a personalized tone to one and the FOMO angle to another.
This will help you determine what hooks your target audience.
Tools & resources
You can also use tools to analyze your email subject line. They will filter out spam content and help optimize your content. These tools can also generate inspirational ideas for you. A great way to combat the blank screen fatigue!
Here are some popular email subject line tools:
1. EngageBay
EngageBay has an email marketing and email personalization tool.
EngageBay gives a complete outlook of your email subject lines. You can also maintain a centralized customer database to improve your email marketing strategies.
2. Mizy
Mizy is an AI tool developed by an email marketing software company called Automizy. It is a free tool that can be used to test and analyze your email subject lines to increase open rates.
3. Snov.io
If you struggle with A/B testing, Snov.io is the solution! This tool helps you compare the two variations of the same email subject line to analyze what works the best.
4. Omnisend
Omnisend is a paid email subject line tester tool that analyzes your options and provides a percentage-based score. It also suggests actions based on your needs and preferences.
You can also use Omnisend’s tips to improve and optimize your content and increase open rates.
Source: Omnisend
5. Send Check It
Send Check It is a widely used simple tool that suggests insights and tips to improve your email subject line. It also shares further information on the scannability, readability, character length, etc.
Send Check It also shares a quick preview of how your email subject line will look. It also points out spam words and sentiment levels.
6. Test Subject by Zurb
Test Subject by Zurb helps assess your email subject lines under various parameters.
This tool not only shares a score for your variations but also has a great feedback mechanism. An easy-to-use tool that also shares a quick preview of how your email subject line will appear on different devices.
Examples of the Best Email Subject Lines
The C.U.R.V.E. approach can be a great start for drafting some effective subject lines. Do you still feel stuck? Well, you can use some inspiration!
Let’s look at some examples of email subject lines based on different categories and industries:
1. Generic subject lines
These subject lines are for general emails or daily offers. They can be regular offers or rewards for your loyal customers.
- Exclusive Offers Only For You!
- Last Chance To Avail 50% Off
- Action Required: Your Sweet Cravings Need Attention
2. Personalized subject lines
These subject lines are tailored for every customer. They can be crafted keeping in mind the recipient’s past behaviors. Such subject lines should be directly addressed to the customer.
- Josh, Guess Who’s Back? Our OG Sliders!
- A Quick Delivery Of Mojitos For Sarah 🍹
- Looks Like Chad’s Getting Blingy Cases!
3. Seasonal email subject lines
These email subject lines are for specific occasions or events. They can be quick holiday offers, greetings, topical moments, or seasonal sales.
- Savings For The Spooky Season Is Here!🕷️
- It’s Time For Some Merry Making & Lemon Frostings 🎄🍋
- Check What’s New For The Cyber Monday Sale!
4. Abandoned cart & re-engagement email subject lines
Think of these as a quick catch-up with your customers. These email subject lines should trigger a response for engagement, whether for abandoned carts or just maintaining the brand-consumer relationship.
- Looks Like You Forgot Something In Your Cart 👀
- Chase, It’s Been So Long …
- Are You Still Interested In Our Cherry Coke Bags? Get 10% Off Today!
5. Curiosity-driven subject lines
This is to trigger curiosity in your target audience’s mind. The subject lines need to be catchy, witty, and in the language that your customer speaks.
- We Figured The Best Way To Save $100 Every Week!
- Your Files Are In Danger… From AI
- We Have Been Keeping A Secret From You.
6. Urgency & scarcity-based subject lines
Remember how we talked about the FOMO angle? These email subject lines should trigger urgency and desperate need.
- Hurry! Only 5 Slots Left For The Exclusive Reading Club!
- Our Strawberry Whey Protein Is Almost Sold Out!
- Last Chance To Avail 25% Off! Offer Ends At Midnight.
7. Query-based subject lines
Twisting informative emails into a question will provoke a reaction. People are always curious to know more and learn about things.
- Can You Believe The 2025 Marketing Trends?
- Have You Heard About This New AI Technology?
- What Is Your Email Marketing Strategy Missing?
8. Onboarding emails
A quick welcome and conversation starter for your target audience.
- Welcome To Our Coffee Club! Here’s What We Have In Store For You-
- Hello! Are You Enjoying These Properties In Florida?
- Let’s Get You Started With The Next Step!
9. Niche-specific subject lines
You have to customize email subject lines as per your industry. Here are some popular categories:
a. eCommerce
- Guess Who’s Back? Our Annual Beauty Sale!
- Are You Ready To Meet Our Cooling Superstar?
b. SaaS & tech
- 5 Reasons Your XYZ Strategy Is Failing!
- Elevate Your Productivity In 5 Mins.
c. Finance
- Take This Investment Quiz To Know Your Plan!
- Top 5 Places To Start Your Investment
- Why You Should Sell These Stocks Today!
Common Mistakes To Avoid in Email Subject Lines
Often, brands end up making common mistakes while writing email subject lines. Those mistakes can reduce your credibility and trust, and reduce open rates.
Do you also overlook these mistakes?
Misleading titles
There is a fine line between writing curiosity-driven subject lines and clickbait content. Overpromising or making false promises in subject lines to trigger a response can be deceiving.
This will result in a loss of trust and credibility from your audience. Overusing emojis can also look suspicious and spammy.
Unfiltered & unedited content
If your content has not been through various edit stages, it can end up looking spammy.
Incorrect usage or punctuation errors, spelling mistakes, and overusing words like ‘Free’ will reduce the credibility and reputation of your brand.
Overused punctuations
Adding exclamation marks can look more engaging than just adding a full stop.
But when you overdo them, it defeats the purpose. Adding wrong punctuation or excessive exclamation marks will make your content less engaging.
Your email will end up in the spam section.
Vague content
Using only generic statements in subject lines reduces engagement.
Such content is more likely to blend in with countless other emails. If you send the same email to everyone without personalization or compelling hooks, it risks becoming irrelevant and going unnoticed.
Remember, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to crafting effective email subject lines.
Neglecting crucial factors
Email subject lines are not just about shuffling exciting words.
There’s a lot that goes into the process. When you forget to categorize or segment your ideas, your content loses relevance.
If your content is not optimized for all the devices, you will lose out on a huge chunk of your target audience.
Spam Words To Avoid In Email Subject Lines
The need to create urgency in email subject lines often results in a heavy use of spam words. Oftentimes, brands do not understand why their content gets flagged as spam.
Here’s a list of a few spam words that you should avoid while crafting email subject lines:
- Guaranteed results
- Limited time offer
- 100% Free
- Urgent
- Click here
- Apply Now
- Earn extra money/Earn money
- Giveaway
- Guaranteed sales
- Lowest rates
- Congratulations!
- Order Now
- No hidden costs
- Free gifts
- Please read
Some of these words might have come as a shock to you.
People do not realize how they regularly use such spam words in their content. These spam words will lead to your content being flagged as spam, and your content will never see the light of the day.
Do a good research on all the spam words. Always run proofread tests. Avoid using spam in any part of the email content or email subject line.
Tips to Take Your Email Subject Lines to the Next Level
You have all the resources to start writing effective email subject lines. But would you like to take them up a notch?
Here are some tips to help you in this journey:
1. Be clear
Your email subject lines need to be completely aligned with the goal.
The content should only include the necessary points. Adding irrelevant information or talking in circles will make your audience lose interest quickly.
2. Use the C.U.R.V.E. approach effectively
The C.U.R.V.E. approach is a great way to format your email subject line.
Include any one or a balanced blend of all five elements in your subject line. Customize according to your audience. Add the scarcity factor. Induce curiosity, but remember not to overdo it.
3. Keep it short
Lengthy content formats are the worst enemies of today’s reduced attention span.
You only have a few seconds to hook your readers. With everyone reading emails on their phones, long subject lines will get cut off. There goes all your hard work! Keep the subject line to 50 characters at most.
This also reduces the chances of using spammy words.
4. Use emojis
Emojis add a fun element to your content! Don’t shy away from adding them.
The emoji you use should be relevant to your brand tone, email content, and target audience. Remember to use emojis sparingly to avoid getting marked as spam.
5. Right time. Right audience.
Timing is the key to better open rates. Sending emails at the wrong times can mess up the order in which your email is viewed.
Figure out what time suits the best for your target audience and schedule the emails. Sending Christmas decorations after the winter will not make any sense.
Wrapping Up
Emails are still a crucial part of every marketing strategy.
We check our emails right after we wake up and before the day ends. Email marketing is a great opportunity for brands to make their mark and be a part of their audience’s lives.
The first thing they see before even reading your email is the subject line. It needs to grab their attention without trying too much.
Writing the best email subject lines takes a lot of practice and testing. Even with all the tools and tips, you still need to test them religiously. You have to be patient with the process, as it may take some time before you see effective results.
But once you figure out the approach that works for your brand, it is going to be a piece of cake. Are you ready to craft some killer email subject lines?
An older version of this post was authored by Debolina Coomar.
