Email Engagement: Starts In The Subject Line

Personalization + Urgency + Excitement + Information + Curiosity = Email Engagement Success

If you are able to combine at least 2 or all 5 of the above elements in almost all of your messages, you will definitely get great results from your email engagement campaigns.

The rest of your emails should have valuable information that they will appreciate, without the expectation of a sales pitch. In this approach you are not only building credibility with them, you are giving them tools to build credibility with their audience. Win – Win and your messages get opened.

Let’s look at the different email engagement approaches:

• The Fear of Missing Out
  • People will react to the fear of missing out more than to anything else. A lot of successful brands and marketers are using this in their blog headlines, ads and email campaign and you should too.
  • When it comes to inducing this type of fear you must create urgency and imply time sensitivity – using different power words and expressions  like: urgent, alert, breaking, important, missing out, etc.
• Use Intrigue to Spark Interest
  • To make your subscribers curious and excited about your email you have to create a need to know the answer. For that you must use open-ended subject lines that feed the imagination to make sure they open your email.
  • These types of subject lines can be questions or intriguing statements that are breaking the “rules” of your typical messages sent – it drives email engagement through their curiosity.
• Pain Points up front in Your Subject Lines
  • This means that you need to do your research right and know your audience very well, ensure you are targeting the correct audience or you are wasting time.
  • It is already known that pushing the pain buttons of your potential clients is an important part of a sales process and in email engagement, the sales process is to make them to open your emails.
  • An example of such a subject line in the wellness niche would be: “Aren’t you tired of paying higher premiums because you haven’t quit smoking?”
  • That type of message could be a bit too aggressive, but it drives a strong pain point for this specific audience.
• Social Proof
  • This is Key as Social Proof is one of the best tactics for engaging and driving an action.
  • Just have a look at what all the top online shops and marketers are doing. Amazon is using reviews and ratings, marketers are using testimonials, local businesses use Facebook Reviews and Google+ Ratings and the list can go on.
  • In the case of emails subject lines, you can use numbers to build social proof and credibility. An example of that would be “500 companies cannot be wrong about this plan design or product”
• Numbers
  • A trick that almost every internet marketer is using is – to include numbers in over 75% of message headlines. Go back and check out the emails and articles that you are reading. It’s 100% sure that most of them contain numbers.
  • Numbers attract us because they are something that clears out confusion and ambiguity. An example of such a subject line is “3 Ways to Build Your Retirement Savings”
• Association
  • One of the best triggers for people is to see the topic they are interested about related to someone they trust and admire, like a celebrity. That is why many brands are paying huge amounts of money to different celebrities to promote and use their products.
• Personalization
  • This is something that has become more and more popular in the last few years and the reason for that is simple, it works.  It is said that the most beautiful word a person can here is their own name. Well, this isn’t any different for reading.
  • If your list is built in such a way that allows you to insert the name of your subscriber in the subject line, then by any means, do it. You will see that you will get up to 2 times bigger open rates.
• The “How To” Subject Line
  • We love tutorials, explanations and learning how to do things so it’s only natural for us to be into “How To” subject lines. Like numbers “How To” has a hypnotic effect over us and grabs our attention instantly.
  • Have a look at your inbox, you will notice that many of the subject lines start with how to or contain different variations of this expression. A very good example for such a subject line would be “How to Get a OOP expenses paid tax free ”
• Stories
  • There is nothing better than a good story, right? Of course, there isn’t,  the best sellers in the world are the best storytellers. Stories get our attention and when your subject line starts like the beginning of a beautiful story, then it’s too good not to find out more.
• Humor
  • There is nothing that can beat a good sense of humor and that can be seen with your subject lines. People love having a good laugh and by getting them to do it from the subject line, you will make them want more so they will open your emails.
  • Obviously, this is something that requires a little bit of creativity and thought, but it will definitely be worth your while when you will check your open rates.
  • Contact us with any questions.

If you have questions, we are happy to help. Send us a note & we will get right back to you.

Join our newsletter and get access to all member exclusive resources & updates. Use the form below and get immediate access, once complete.