7 Words You Should NEVER Use in Your Email Subject Line

The subject line of your email can make or break whether the recipient opens it or deletes it without even reading it.

A poorly written subject line won’t get read, and your email may be deleted unread.

A well-written subject line can help you grab the reader’s attention and compel them to open the email and read what you have to say. Email subject lines are an art form in their own right, but if you follow these tips, you can create an email subject line that will bring your reader in.

If you’re like me, you see hundreds of emails a day. A good subject line is therefore crucial. Unfortunately, most people ignore their email subject lines and instead use vague phrases that don’t really tell me what I need to know.

If you use these words in your email subject line, they will more than likely end up buried (or deleted) by my spam filter or just deleted altogether because it didn’t give me enough information about why I should read on. The following are seven words you should never use in your email subject line.

My apologies if one of them slipped through!

1️⃣. FYI - FYI means for your information, which sounds awfully formal for an email subject line. Can't you just put Follow-up:___? It's shorter, clearer, and describes what follows much better.

2️⃣. TOC - TOC stands for a table of contents, usually from a book or report. While books do often have section titles and page numbers that serve as a table of contents, emails rarely do--and when someone writes TOC in his email subject line, he's telling me he thinks his email is so important I'll actually want to read every word.

3️⃣. URGENT!!! - We've all seen those subject lines with red font screaming URGENT!!! Just about every time we look at it, we find something not urgent at all. In fact, many times there isn't even anything that warrants our attention at all. When somebody screams urgent at us in an email subject line, we might be fooled once but certainly won't be fooled again.

4️⃣. DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT MY BLOG!

5️⃣. GOTTA SEE THIS...

6️⃣. SHARE NOW!!

7️⃣. READ NOW!!!!

Tips on Writing Catchy Subject Lines

When it comes to email subject lines, you’re probably like most people—you want your emails to get opened. Fortunately, there are some tried-and-true methods that can help your subject lines do just that. (Here’s a quick guide on how to write great email subject lines.)

To be clear, though, I wouldn’t rely on these tricks alone; what makes a good email subject line varies from person to person. So instead of following a strict formula for writing an awesome email subject line, focus on writing content that appeals to your audience and reflects their goals and interests.

The best way to stand out with an email subject line

Email subject lines can be an important factor in determining whether someone actually reads your email or not.

Everyone receives numerous emails on a daily basis, and if yours doesn’t catch their attention in the first few seconds, you might as well have not sent it at all.

One of the best ways to make sure your email stands out from the rest is to use this one clever trick with your subject line that most people don’t know about! This quick tip could help increase your response rate by 100%!

Email Subject Lines That Draw Attention

Successful marketers know how important it is to get people’s attention. If your email is lost in a sea of other messages, you might as well not have sent it at all.

One of the most effective ways to ensure that someone reads what you send is by using a great subject line. It’s like catching someone’s eye when you walk into a room—if it doesn’t catch your eye, then you probably won’t walk over and talk to that person. The same thing applies to email marketing.

Why Are Email Subject Lines Important?

Email is still one of, if not THE most popular channel for inbound marketing. Whether it’s a newsletter, newsletter series, or product launch promotion, a clear and compelling email subject line can mean all the difference between success and failure.

It’s your first impression with prospective customers, so why are so many brands (and their creative agencies) failing at it?

Most brands have no real strategy when crafting their emails. Here are some tips that we recommend using:

1️⃣. Keep it short & simple—Hitting sends shouldn’t take more than five seconds from start to finish. The trick is conveying what you want to say while keeping each word succinct, relevant, and easily digestible by someone on a tight schedule. Be cognizant of font size; spaces between words; white space around photos; etc., so there isn’t any room for distraction or confusion.

2️⃣. Tell them exactly what they need to know—When you’re crafting a sales pitch, keep things specific and actionable. Don’t overload your readers with information that could confuse them or dissuade them from clicking through. And remember to include something in your subject line that piques their interest enough to make them open the email.

3️⃣. Surprise ‘em! Testimonials work well because they help eliminate your prospect’s skepticism as to whether or not you really can deliver on whatever is your promise in your ad copy. But don’t be too cute or cheeky about including them; after all, these people aren’t just blurting out whatever comes to mind during an interview. The testimonial will do its job as long as it sounds genuine.

4️⃣. Always A/B test! That’s right—just like AdWords and other digital channels, email subject lines are a testing ground where you should always run more than one idea against your control.

There are dozens of good split-testing tools available online that allow you to choose how many recipients get which version of your message—and even segment those results based on demographic variables such as age range, gender, location, and income level. I prefer to use Unbounce for my testing needs.

5️⃣. Make sure your call-to-action makes sense and plays off of what’s happening in your industry right now.

If you haven’t been seeing much engagement with certain campaigns lately, here are a few common mistakes to check yourself against before writing up another campaign:

• Did I set expectations accurately?

• Did I provide useful or original content to further educate my audience?

How to Write Emails That Get Lots of Engagement

Writing emails that get lots of engagement can be tricky, but there are some simple steps you can take to ensure your messages generate replies and click-throughs.

Whether you’re writing an email that asks someone to write an article or telling someone about a mistake they made, these tips will give you everything you need to help your email reach its full potential.

Keep it short, sweet, and simple

No one wants to read a long email. Don’t be afraid to get right to the point, and don’t make your reader do any work just to find out what you want them to do next. In fact, it is advisable not to include all of your contact information in your first email.

Set clear expectations

If you’re starting a new job or simply sending an email to a friend, first write an email draft and then send it yourself. If it feels too formal or sounds robotic, rework it until you can read it like a normal human being.

If you’re writing an email for work, set clear expectations from the get-go—don’t leave your recipients guessing about what you want them to do. Setting expectations will save time and help keep things organized on both ends.

Offer value

Although your primary goal when writing an email should be to provide useful information or a useful resource, there are plenty of strategies you can use in order to encourage engagement. The key is not sending out dull emails that inspire little more than a short reply. Instead, start by offering value.

Include a call-to-action

It’s no secret that engagement is a key metric for email marketing, but with so many brands sending out emails each day, standing out among those that hit people’s inboxes is a tough task. The best way to do it? Include a call-to-action in your email. This will help you keep viewers reading through your entire message and spur them into action.

AWeber's Fix Codes - How To Personalize Your Email For Each Subscriber

AWeber's Fix Codes - How To Personalize Your Email For Each Subscriber #Aweber #aweberfixcodes #emailmarketing #autoresponder #personalization Aweber's Fix Codes -- How To Personalize Your Email For Each Subscriber

Add personalized message

This step requires a bit of technical know-how. Once you log into your AWeber account, you’ll want to copy and paste these fix codes wherever you want to place your personalized information in your message.

You can add them anywhere; there are even directions that tell you how to create an entirely new layout from scratch, but for now, let’s focus on adding them to your existing template. To get started, select where you want your personalization code: within every email or just one instance per email.

If you have many subscribers who don’t necessarily correspond with each other, choose one instance per email so they will all receive different content relevant to their specific preferences. On the other hand, if you have customers who collaborate or communicate frequently with each other (maybe they work together), go ahead and put your code in every email.

Once you’ve chosen where to put it, click view advanced editor then scroll down until you see text similar to {fix} in bold letters near a set of curly brackets { }.

Adding a personality

According to Aweber, Adding a personality to your emails will make them more engaging and more likely to be read by your subscribers. It can also increase your click-through rates and conversion rates. One way is by adding images to your emails.

They also suggest that you use bold, capital letters, italics, underlining, and even all caps so that they stand out. I agree with these suggestions because it does help bring attention to certain phrases and parts of paragraphs that might otherwise be overlooked.

I am a stickler for grammar; in fact, when writing an email I proofread it at least 3 times before I send it out!

Also making sure my sentences flow together fluidly is very important to me as well.

Finally, most importantly if you want to add some pizzazz do not forget to customize your subject line.

The Best Way to Find Email Content Ideas

How do you come up with new ideas for email content? That’s an important question that every business owner needs to answer, as your email list is one of the best tools at your disposal to promote your brand and attract new customers.

If you’re struggling to come up with ideas, keep reading to learn how to find great email content ideas that are sure to engage your audience and help you build trust and authority in your industry.

Examine your own email inbox

The button element is a clickable call-to-action. When you integrate an email signup form on your website, it shows up as a text link.

If you want more visual impact, however, consider making that text link into a button element!

AWeber makes it simple to modify your email signup forms—all you have to do is choose Button Element from your list of available templates.

Look at competitor's emails

If you’re looking for email content ideas, look at your competitors’ emails. They already have an established subscriber base and a good amount of content on their website, so check out their email newsletter. Look at how they structure it, what images they use in their emails, and what tone they set.

These are all clues to how they find inspiration for creative ideas. (For bonus points, you can run them through a word cloud generator like Wordle! It’s amazing.)

Look for trending topics in social media

A great way to find new email content ideas is by looking at what’s trending on social media. It’s a good practice to be monitoring your industry on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc., and look for what’s popular among your competitors and their audiences.

You can use tools like Social Mention or Brandwatch Analytics for help with that. Monitoring social media allows you to get ahead of trends early—and then capitalize on them with relevant email content.

Interview people in your niche

There’s no better way to get content ideas than by interviewing people in your target market. You can ask about challenges they face, how they currently solve those challenges, and how willing they would be to pay for a solution.

Asking Would you pay for a solution? gives you a great indication of whether your idea will fly or not. If someone says yes, then you can work out who you need to reach out to next.

Do Google searches related to your niche

While you can’t exactly Google your way to great ideas, doing a broad search for terms relevant to your industry or niche is a great place to start.

Take note of what comes up, which will give you an idea of what people are looking for, and begin brainstorming ways that you can provide valuable solutions.

The Truth About Prospecting Emails: How Long Should They Really Be?

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to prospect for customers and cultivate leads, but many business owners still wonder how long their email marketing messages should be.

Does the length of your emails impact your open rate, click-through rate, or unsubscribe rate?

The truth about how long prospecting emails should be lies somewhere in between the commonly held belief that shorter emails are better and the opposite belief that longer ones work best.

Short (1 paragraph) vs. Long (2 paragraphs)

When it comes to prospecting emails, there's no one-size-fits-all answer. The length of your email should be based on what you're trying to achieve and who your target audience is. If you want to build a relationship with the person and have them invest in your product or service, then write a long email.

If you want someone to read the first sentence or two in order to get the gist of what they can expect from your product or service and then opt-in for more information, then send a short email. Here are some other considerations when determining email length:

1 -- time constraints (you might not have much time to write an email);

2 -- simplicity (long emails often require recipients to take extra steps like downloading attachments or clicking links);

3 -- the type of campaign you're running (if you need people to sign up quickly, it might make sense to keep your email brief).

What's important is that email length shouldn't be dictated by industry standards. The most important factor should always be the purpose of your email and how well it accomplishes that goal.

Case Study #1 - Short Email

When it comes to prospecting emails, shorter is often better. A study by Yesware found that emails between 50-125 words had the highest response rate, while emails over 200 words had the lowest response rate.

Why?

Longer emails can be overwhelming, and recipients are more likely to skim them or even delete them without reading. The average reader spends 10 seconds on a page before scanning for what's important, so your email should have no more than three points in order to grab their attention.

Emails with less than five sentences were opened at a higher rate than emails with six or more sentences. Email length also affects how long someone will spend on your site--longer emails lead to longer browsing sessions which decrease conversion rates. In addition, as humans we want to feel like we're getting our money's worth when we read something--if your emails take too long to read, you're missing out on conversions.

You may want to start off with a short summary of who you are and why they should work with you if they aren't familiar with your company or services. Your prospect then has the choice of deciding whether they want more information from you based on what they've read thus far. If they don't know who you are, make sure you give them some background info quickly.

Don't forget to include links to your website and social media pages! One last thing to remember is proofreading--spelling errors or grammar mistakes will turn potential clients away. Once everything is finalized, send the email out!

Case Study #2 - Long Email

You might be surprised to learn that some of the most effective prospecting emails are actually quite long. In fact, one study found that emails between 1,001 and 2,000 words had the highest response rate. Why? Because longer emails give you more room to make a connection with your reader and build trust.

Plus, they show that you're really invested in helping your prospect succeed. For example, if I'm writing an email to someone who's struggling with cash flow because they've expanded their business too quickly, I might start by saying something like I know it's hard when we take on new projects without all the resources we need. That way, I'm telling them right away that I understand what they're going through.

Then I'll go into detail about how we can help them get back on track. If my email is short, I'll have a difficult time making this kind of connection. It also means I don't have as much space to share my expertise or show how our services can solve their problem - which means they won't feel as confident in our ability to help them achieve success. So no matter what type of business you run, remember that the key to getting responses from prospects is building trust. And sometimes the best way to do that is with a little extra length!

Three General Rules for All Prospecting Emails

No matter what business you're in, there are a few general rules you should always follow when crafting a prospecting email.

First, keep it short and sweet- your recipients are busy people and don't have time to read a novel.

Second, make sure the subject line is clear and concise- you want them to know what the email is about before they even open it.

Third, provide value as quickly as possible- tell them how they can benefit from what you're offering without dragging on too long or being confusing. Finally, thank them for their time!