Greetings! Today’s post is about ten tips on writing beautiful email titles to increase your email open rates. Writing compelling email titles is important because it is the first step to getting your already interested subscribers to read the content within the email. If subscribers don’t open your emails, any effort put into penning them will go down the drain.

Ready? Here are our ten tips.

Tip #1: Make your readers feel special.

In his book “Confessions of an Advertising Man”, David Ogilvy urges marketers to treat the consumer not as a moron but as a wife. This means to always make the consumer feel special.

Indeed, the power of exclusivity is powerful on an emotional level. When people feel valued as customers and most importantly, an “insider”, they are more loyal to your brand and tend to open the emails you send more often.

Some phrases to make your readers feel special: “Exclusive Invitation to you, “[insert name]” / “For our email subscribers only” / “Our gift to you, [Insert name]”/ “Be the first”.

Tip #2: Create a sense of urgency in your email titles.

Creating a sense of urgency is good if your email content relates to sales. This is because people always hesitate, especially when they suspect that you are trying to sell them something. When your readers procrastinate, the email that was painstakingly drafted may not be read at all–ever. Therefore, it might be a good idea to sometimes create a sense of urgency via email titles.

So use phrases like “5 slots left only!”/ “Now”/ “Offer expires Thursday”.

Avoid using the word “hurry”, or typing all the words in CAPS to push the reader into action. Doing so might give rise to a sense of meaningless urgency, or worst still–give a false impression that the email is spam.

Tip #3: Include something unexpected: When they expect Zig, go Zag.

Take a leaf off one of Groupon’s email titles:

“Best of Groupon: The Deals That Make Us Proud (Unlike Our Nephew, Steve)”

The “(Unlike our nephew, Steve)” component was totally unexpected. Who is Nephew Steve?

Don’t you want to know? Click.

Tip #4: Pose a compelling question.

When your title is a thought-provoking question that addresses your customer’s pain points, you can immediately capture their attention. Pain points usually include the various fears and concerns of your readers. The trick is to use the right sort of questions that compel the readers to ask “why” or answer “yes, I want to know more”.

Some examples include: “What’s the best way to handle a tantrum?” / “How can your child get better grades effortlessly?” / “How can you be financially secure in this recession?”

Tip #5. Keep it simple, stupid! 😀

Avoid using big, pretentious words in your email title.

Keep your email title as concise, short, and sweet as possible.

Tip #6. Take out anything spammy.

Avoid including words that might make your reader regard your email as spam.

Such words or phrases include: “New customers only” / “Call now” / “Don’t delete” / “Hi” / “Free!”

Tip #7. Include a call to action.

What better way to inspire your reader into clicking your email than a direct call to action? These phrases arouse curiosity in the reader.

Some examples of these phrases are: “You need to know” / “What happened to” / “No questions asked” / “For the first time” /“…in the world”.

Tip #8. Use a teaser.

This is alternatively known as the “sneak peak” function. Everybody loves to have a glimpse of what is up-and-coming in the market!

Some phrases are: “Sneak peak at our new feature”/ “Backstage access to Asian Fashion Walk”/ “An exclusive 5 minutes with our founder”.

Tip #9. Command.

Sometimes it is good to be really clear and concise with your words. Using a command in your subject line encourages your readers to follow your instructions right away.

Some example phrases are: “Join our free subscription now” / “Join us this Sunday” / “Stop wasting your money”.

Tip #10. Keep email titles at acceptable lengths.

Prior research has shown that email titles of around 55 characters have the highest open rates.

We hope you have enjoyed today’s post–Be sure to write beautiful email titles!