Shock & Compel

Did you ever think it would come to this?  Your entire eMarketing campaign is riding on 50 characters (including spaces)!

I’m talking about the all important email subject line.  This is a crucial first barrier to your message being heard.  Think: Gate Keeper in cold calling.  

So here’s the plan: Shock prospects into paying attention!  Compel them to open your email!

Now we’re not talking “Shock & Awe” here, but it’s still easier said than done, right?  And an effective mission depends on subject line success! 

Goal:  Create an email subject line that will lead to an email openned, NOT trashed or junked!

There’s no perfect process to creating foolproof subject lines, but through research, consulting with others who are successful and my own trial and error I’ve gathered some useful strategies to ease the pain:

1.  Personalize (aka: use the person’s name)

How many times have you heard to use people’s names to get their attention and give warm fuzzies?  Well personalization is just as useful in subject lines as it is on the phone and in person.  

Thankfully, technology allows most bulk email programs to easily merge individual names into your email.  (I use GetResponse.com) 

A word of caution, though – don’t be the cheesy salesperson who says your name over and over and over to the point of annoyance.  I recommend once in the subject line and once in the greeting, maximum.

2.  Write the Subject Last

The reason is simple: writing the subject last can save time and reduce stress.  Subjects are so important and so darn succinct that it helps to have the completed, written, concrete email in front of you. 

Consider the alternative: attempting to squeeze the deep purpose and meaning of an abstract concept into less than 50 ridiculous characters!  Experience has shown this takes too much time and wastes too much energy. 

To review: Email body first, subject second.

3.  Ask Who Cares

Look at your completed email and consider why someone would care about the information it contains.  Will it save them money?   Save them time?  Give them an edge on the competition?  Reduce stress?

Knowing a good reason to read your email will tell you why they would choose to open it.  Use this key information when deciding on your subject line.

4.  Shock (aka Grab their attention!)

Do you thoroughly read each email subject in your InBox?  Probably not.  

Like you, most of your customers will quickly skim through email subject lines while the voice in their head says “blah, blah, blah.”

Your job is to jolt the world’s internal voices out of boredom!  Stop the “blah, blah, blah”!  What can you say that would jump off the monitor and make your customers look twice?

5. Compel

Now that the recipients are looking twice at the subject line, what do they actually see?  The subject line must peak their curiousity or otherwise give them a solid reason to open the email and spend precious time on the content inside.

Be creative and have fun!