Expert Tips on How to Write a Subject Line for an Email

Every workday, I receive about 60-100 emails, mostly autoresponders from course enrollments, and some marketing emails.

I open about 10% of them, far less than the average open rate of 38% for beehiiv marketing emails.

Email marketing is important to my business, so why am I opening fewer emails than the norm? 

The reason is ineffective email subject lines.

A good subject line needs to grab my attention and speak directly to my interests without screaming, 'sales pitch.'

Knowing your audience helps you write email subject lines that connect with them at the heart of their needs.

If you want this for your email strategy, let's explore how to craft subject lines that get opened.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

In this article, we'll discuss how to write a subject line for an email. This includes the importance of an email subject line, the components of a professional email subject line, the do's and don'ts of crafting a subject line, and finishing with examples and analysis.

That's a lot of information, but here are the five most important takeaways:

1. Craft Strong Subject Lines: 45% of subscribers open emails based on the sender and 33% on the subject line.

2. Personalize for Your Audience: Personalization increases open rates by up to 23% so use a first name in the subject line.

3. Use Concise and Effective Length: Email subject lines with 2-5 words have the highest open rates.

4. Incorporate Emojis and Specificity: Using emojis can increase open rates by 56%; 55% of consumers prefer targeted promotions.

5. Trigger Emotions: Including elements like FOMO, urgency, or curiosity can boost open rates by 22%.

Understanding the Importance of a Strong Subject Line

Customers are savvier than ever and can quickly discern whether an email offers real value or just fills their inbox with fluff. A strong subject line will be the gateway to your content, determining whether your email is opened or overlooked.

For me, here are the emails I opened today:

• Her Post-HCU Pivot... Complete Strategic Outline

• "Soft" ways to promote your freelance business

• 🚨NEW GOOGLE UPDATE🚨 The June 2024 Spam update is live

While these email subject line examples are from other content creators I follow, I opened them because they related to what I wanted to know at the moment.

Google algorithms and the Helpful Content Update are big news in my industry, so two of those emails focus on this topic. The other one is about freelancing, and I'm always on the lookout for new marketing strategies.

For comparison, here are the ones I didn't open and trashed automatically:

• What does your customer journey map look like?

• 😅 Adulting Made Easier 😅

• Feeling the Cash Flow Squeeze? 💵🍊🧃

These are perfectly good email subject lines, but they don't speak to me. The first one screams promotional (to me), and the last two aren't relevant to my situation.

While most of your audience probably isn't like me and opens 10% of the emails in their inbox, about 45% of your subscribers DO open emails based on the sender, and 33% open them based on the subject line.

By tweaking your subject line copy, you can grab the attention of over 30% of your subscribers.

Statistics That Highlight Subject Line Significance

As you can see, subject lines are your audience's first impression of you, and the copy you use will either attract or repel them.

Dissecting the Elements of a Successful Subject Line

Length: We found at beehiiv that email subject lines with 0-20 characters, or 2-5 words, have the highest open rates. Long subject lines receive lower open rates, with 81-100 characters receiving 8%.

Specificity: Fifty-five percent of consumers prefer emails with targeted promotions and discounts, showing a clear preference for specific and relevant content.

Use of Emojis: beehiiv found using emojis increases open rates by 56%. Place emojis at the beginning of your email subject line for higher engagement, and use industry-specific emojis like 🎓 for education or 🏝️for travel.

Personalization: A study from Stanford University and the University of Chicago cited that open rates increased by up to 23% and click-through rates (CTR) by up to 32% when the receiver's name was used in the email subject line.

Emotional Trigger: Include FOMO, urgency, or curiosity in your email subject lines to increase open rates by 22% and 20%.

Timing and Relevance: If the copy in your email subject line isn't relevant to your recipient, they won't open your email. Similarly, the day and time of your email can influence their decision. Benchmark reports say during the hours between 6:00 and 9:00 am.

Let's dig deeper into each component of what makes a compelling subject line.

The Psychological Impact of Subject Lines

Emotional Triggers Versus Rational Appeals

Which email would you open in your inbox?

Join our webinar on travel planning strategies or

It's Now! Plan your dream vacation!

I can bet the second email subject line example got you excited to click.

While it's a good idea to be specific and clear in your email subject line, simply adding an element of urgency can increase your open rates by 22%.

With your audience, A/B test urgent or curiosity-based email subject lines versus straight-forward ones.

To help you out with writing a subject line for an email, here are some emotionally triggering words that got me to click:

• Unbelievable: The Unbelievable Way to Use LinkedIn (Seriously)

• Unforgettable: 5 Simple Tips for Unforgettable Appetizers

• Discover: I Discovered the Perfect TikTok Video Idea

• Instant: Instant Tips to Improve Ball Fakes

Essential Components of Effective Email Subject Lines

Let's break down how to write a subject line for an email.

Length and Readability of Subject Lines

If your email subject line preview is too long and doesn't make sense, many subscribers will not click on your email.

When examining the number of words in your subject line, beehiiv reports 2-5 words as the optimal number.

But if your subject line copy is confusing and lacks clarity and some oomph, it won't matter how short it is—your emails will still go unopened.

Clarity Versus Creativity

Here are two examples of how to write email subject lines. Which one will you open?

💪Gym Workouts for Ultimate Strength or

🏋️Lift Like a Pro

Probably both, right?

The first email subject line is clear and concise. The email is about strength-building gym workouts.

The second one is also compelling because it's creative and leaves me curious.

Who doesn't want to lift like a pro? Sign me up!

Clear, concise, and creative subject lines capture 55% of your audience's attention and encourage them to engage with your content.

Crafting Subject Lines for Different Audiences

I often delete emails from other creators because they don't relate to me. Their lead magnet initially attracted me, but their follow-up emails missed the mark but, I do sign up impulsively for anything I see on social media.

When you think about it, your email subject lines also have to coincide with your lead magnets.

But how can you organize different lead magnets for various audiences and then send emails to those audiences?

Segmentation Strategies for Tailored Subject Lines

The proper method is to segment your audience into personalization features like gender, interests, or job roles.

For example, Pat Riley of The Daily Coach newsletter asks his audience about their job role with a survey – before you get his first welcome email.

This is his way of segmenting his email list so that when he writes an email subject line, it is tailored, personalized, and relatable.

The Dos and Don'ts of Email Subject Line Best Practices

Timing and Frequency Considerations

This morning, I emptied my dishwasher, drove my twins to school, folded laundry, and started my workday by opening my inbox.

I was flooded with 56 unopened emails by 8:00 am.

This meant these emails were sent between 10 pm yesterday - 7:59 am the next day.

I deleted most of those emails and left the most important and relevant ones from the people I follow.

If you don't want your audience to avoid your emails automatically, send them when they'll engage with them.

beehiiv tells you the best time to send your emails based on your audience's behavior, taking the guesswork out of optimal email scheduling.

How often you email your list will depend on your email types.

If you curate social media news, beehiiv recommends a few times a week, which is appropriate since social media changes frequently.

But if you want to update your audience about your latest podcast episode or story they would enjoy, once a week is sufficient.

Subject Line Length: Best Practices by Industry

While 2-5 words are optimal for email subject line length, it can vary depending on the industry.

For example, in the B2B industry, email open rates are a low 15%.

Looking at a sample of the B2B emails I get daily, most exceed subject line length benchmarks (note the one I clicked on because it relates to me right now).

I find that clearer email subject lines are longer.

Look Inside: The All-New AI Learning Path for Leaders

Double your chance of YouTube success

Last Day: Save 50% on thruuu Subscription 

And while some B2B companies use a name @ company as the sender for relatability, I find their shorter email subject lines confusing.

E- Expires Tonight – not sure what that means

Where will we grow next? – what does this mean?

So, email subject lines for B2B companies can be longer than 2-5 words to increase open rates.

For my writer audience, I find that email subject lines of 6-7 words are optimal; anything longer tends to get lower open rates.

Best Practices for Personalization

Is having your name as the sender or including your subscriber's name the only way to personalize your email subject lines?

The Art of Personalizing Without Overstepping

As a content creator, you collect emails and then have to entice your subscribers to click on your email.

This is a tall feat for many content creators, but if you tap into personalizing your email campaigns, your open rates and CTRs are guaranteed to grow.

Here's what I've seen works:

• Tap into interests: Create concentric lead magnets to attract audiences with similar interests. I launched a beehiiv newsletter about LinkedIn Marketing tips for freelancers. If you're a freelancer wanting to learn about LinkedIn, my newsletter is perfect for you.

• Use their title or job: I email freelancers, content writers, and copywriters. Using that term in my subject line will highlight the content's value and relevance.

• Leverage engagement data: Send your subscribers a survey, poll, or quiz and use that information to create more personalized emails.

How to Write a Subject Line That Captures Attention

Creating a Sense of Urgency Without Being Pushy

Email subject line best practices focus on using curiosity with action words without resorting to clichés or spammy phrases.

Avoiding Spam Triggers and Clichés

The top spammy phrases and cliches not to use in your email subject line are:

• Limited time offer

• Urgent

• Hurry!

• Last call

• While supplies last

• Only a few left

• Running out

• Why pay more?

Utilizing Action Words and Verbs

Instead, drive engagement and intrigue with action words and strong verbs.

Here are my favorite action words and verbs for my email subject lines:

• Boost

• Create

• Build

• Optimize

• Increase

• Save

• Upgrade

• Learn

Analyzing Email Subject Line Examples for Inspiration

Let's check out professional email subject line examples to help you with your email campaigns.

The Use of Personal Stories in Subject Lines

Using stories helps humanize your brand, building a stronger and more personal connection with your audience​. It all starts with your subject line.

"I got Botox— & THIS is what it looked like" from Refinery29

• I would click on this email even though it's not my typical content and I'm not interested in Botox. Why? Because I want to KNOW what happened. A personal story compels readers to open the email to learn about the experience and its outcome

"Immortality and Knitting Socks" from We're Here

• An easy way to gain a subscriber's click is to relate two unrelated concepts. This sparks curiosity and creates an intriguing narrative that makes the reader eager to discover what this is all about.

"Lessons learned as a mom of two" from The Pivot by Robin

• Knowing the creator and where they started before they became successful is inspiring and provides valuable context, making their lessons more relatable. So when Robin shares more personal information about her life, there's no way a subscriber wouldn't click on this.

Crafting Subject Lines for Different Campaign Goals

Are you interested in growing your brand or increasing the ROI from your email list?

Your email subject lines must captivate attention, evoke curiosity, compel action, and align with the specific objectives.

• Grow your brand: If you're a fitness influencer, sharing personal stories like "How I Achieved Massive Muscle Gains" will gain clicks.

• Increase conversions: If you're a sports content creator with a new eBook, drive sales with this email subject line template: "Discover Jump Shot Secrets in My New Ebook."

• Boost email open rates: If you're an author and want more people to open your emails, try sharing exclusive content, such as "Discover My Top Writing Techniques."

• Reduce unsubscribes: Engage subscribers by injecting quizzes, surveys, and polls. If you do SMM, try this example: "Quick Poll: What TikTok Content Do You Love?"

• Retain customers: Hit the pain points to help retain customers. They bought your product and aren't seeing success? If you're a parenting expert, they will open this, "Your Guide to Stress-Free Parenting"

• Welcome new subscribers: Welcome new subscribers or customers with benefit-driven email subject lines like, "Welcome! Elevate Your Professional Journey"

Adapting Your Strategy to Different Email Platforms

Each email platform, like Gmail, Outlook, or Apple Mail, has unique features and user behaviors that affect how your emails are received and interacted with by your audience.

• Subject lines and preheaders: Gmail might truncate subject lines and preheaders earlier than Apple Mail iOS. Make subject lines short and frontload the most important information.

• Personalization: Outlook and Apple Mail don't support AMP for Email, but Gmail does. This affects whether you can use interactive elements like quizzes or polls, impacting your subject line copy.

• Responsive design: 41% of people open emails on mobile devices. Make emails mobile-friendly by using a responsive design. Test your emails on multiple devices and email clients.

• Deliverability and spam filters: Each email platform has unique spam filters. Gmail, for example, focuses on sender reputation and engagement. To improve deliverability, keep your email list clean, avoid spammy language, and use a reputable email service provider like beehiiv.

Decoding the Success Behind Famous Subject Lines

NYT The Morning is the most popular newsletter, with 17 million subscribers.

Let's look at how they create the best subject lines for emails.

Analyzing the Anatomy of Viral Subject Lines

Why is the NYT The Mourning the most-read newsletter?

The Morning uses current events and trending topics to craft urgent, compelling subject lines. For example, they don't shy away from viral topics like the latest presidential debate.

Action step: Add a section to your emails for curating the latest news in your industry and highlight that in your email subject line.

Journalism's hallmark is attention-grabbing short headlines, a practice NYT has adopted in their email subject lines. Using their name in the subject line means they keep their copy between 2-5 words for important information before it gets cut off.

Action step: Create shorter headlines that evoke emotions. Use an AI tool like ChatGPT to help you create a list to choose from.

While personalization isn't always direct, The Morning targets audience interests with specific, curiously-relevant content. This makes subject lines feel tailored to readers who want the latest news stories.

Action step: Be explicitly clear in your marketing copy to promote your newsletter and lead magnets to grow your email list. Pinpoint specific problems for a specific audience.

Words that evoke curiosity or provoke thought are commonly used. Phrases like "exposed" or "hidden" or "crisis" entice readers to open the email to learn more.

Action step: A/B test different levels of curious-based copy like "This is what I found out about…" vs. "3 hard freelance lessons."

Advanced Strategies for Subject Line Optimization

Monitoring and Analyzing Subject Line Performance

Identifying which subject lines resonate the most with your audience and using other analytical data will help tweak your strategy to improve engagement and conversion.

Incorporating Feedback and Iterating on Subject Lines

• Gather and analyze data: beehiiv's dashboard makes analyzing audience, engagement, and monetization data easy. Premium members also get reports on subscribers, clicks, and posts. Use this data to A/B test email subject lines.

• Request feedback: Request feedback from your subscribers via surveys, quizzes, polls, or direct email responses. Analyze this feedback to understand what resonates with your audience.

• Refine and test: Based on the data and feedback, refine your subject lines and use successful elements such as personalization, urgency, or questions and continually A/B test.

• Implement and iterate: Adapt the refined and new subject lines to your email campaigns and repeat the testing cycle, feedback, and tweaking cycle.

Seasonal and Event-Based Subject Line Crafting

Many people find summer and back-to-school a hectic time of year. What can you do to make your seasonal or event-based emails stand out?

Cultural References and Topical Events in Subject Lines

A timely, relevant email that references current events or popular culture can boost open rates and grab subscribers' attention. For example, sock brand Bombas created a social media campaign around Valentine's Day, pairing its socks with different love languages.

As a content creator, look at how Bombas uses love languages and try adapting this technique to your emails and subject lines.

• Words of affirmation: You got this! A novel in one month

• Quality time: Let's meal prep together

• Physical touch: Heartfelt moments with your toddler

• Acts of service: My done-for-you ultimate gaming setup

• Receiving gifts: Free business planner!

The Art of Teasing Content

Leverage curiosity to tease your content right from your subject line.

Enhancing Open Rates with Curiosity-Driven Subject Lines

• FOMO email subject lines: This Email Changed My Approach, How I Fixed My Makeup Disaster, I Tried HIIT for a Month – Here's What Happened

• Curiosity email subject lines: I Was Fired, What 24 Hours of Gaming Taught Me, This Workout Routine Went Viral – Here's Why

Using Numbers and Lists

According to Zippa, email subject lines using numbers saw a 57% increase in open rates.

For example, the Family Budget newsletter uses FOMO, curiosity, and numbers to make this a highly clickable email subject line.

List-Based Subject Lines: Pros and Cons

But what about email subject lines like 5 Health Hacks or Top 10 Gaming Headsets, which look like blog post titles?

Humans love to categorize, and this extends to emails. A big pro of using list-based subject lines is the structure and familiarity they provide. The recipient knows how much information to expect, making it more likely they will click through. Another pro is specificity, helping the recipient know what exactly the email is about.

But, from my research, I found only a few creators using list-based subject lines.

For example, in the TechParenting Today newsletter, a list-based subject line was used once in the last six emails.

While numbers can increase CTRs, list-based subject lines are restrictive since not all content fits neatly into a list format. They also reduce personalization if the email subject line isn't in the first person.

Integrating Keywords and Phrases

Studies from Alchemy Worx and Zippa share popular subject lines words to use:

• Jokes

• Video

• Free

Using these popular words and integrating keywords can help recipients find and group similar emails in their inboxes.

The Power of Keywords in Email Discoverability

Leveraging popular words and keywords makes it easier for subscribers to find the correct email they want to read.

For example, The Creator's Toolbox newsletter has almost a hundred emails on its landing page, but it's easy to find content about AI with their tags or by searching for that keyword.

Optimizing for Mobile: Short and Sweet

Since 71% of people open emails on their mobile devices, short subject lines are needed to ensure they get opened.

Mobile Optimization: Beyond Brevity

Aside from having short email subject lines, use your preview text to compliment your subject line copy.

Creator Jay Clouse knows this and specifies what he's talking about in his preview text, driving up the curiosity factor.

You can also use action words like "unlock" to grab your audience's attention and prioritize key information at the beginning of your subject line to ensure it gets read.

The Impact of A/B Testing on Subject Line Performance

There is no downside to A/B testing as most tests will show a positive variability.

A/B Testing Variations: Subject Line Edition

• Length

Email A: Parenting Tips from Experts

Email B: Tested Parenting Tips to Make Life Easier

• Personalization

Email A: John, Here’s My Pre-Comp Eating Plan

Email B: My Pre-Comp Eating Plan

• Using numbers or emojis

Email A: 🎧 5 Fresh Beats Just for You!

Email B: Fresh Beats Just for You!

• Using a question

Email A: Who Are the Top TikTok Creators?

Email B: Meet the Top TikTok Creators

• With offers

Email A: Get 20% Off Your Next Purchase

Email B: Exclusive Offer Just for You

• Seasonality

Email A: Easiest Spring Cleaning Routine

Email B: Easiest Cleaning Routine

The Role of Brand Voice in Subject Lines

Maintaining brand consistency across your marketing channels helps your audience remember you and, eventually, trust and buy from you (aka know, like, trust factor).

Consistency in Brand Voice Across Campaigns

You can infuse brand recognition with a consistent voice and brand image.

For example, the DTC newsletter always has an emoji of a box as part of their brand and email subject line, alerting me of their email in my inbox.

Other ways to brand your email subject lines are through consistent actions, such as avoiding clickbait or  using humor, building a consistent publishing schedule, and using an email template.

Leveraging Emotional Appeal in Subject Lines

Having emotional connections with customers boosts their value by 52%, proving how important emotional connections are to customer engagement and loyalty.

Leveraging Nostalgia in Email Marketing

An easy way to increase subscriber loyalty is to create intrigue with nostalgia hooks in your email subject lines.

Spotify uses the nostalgia hook "remember" or "remember when" to evoke listeners' memories about their high school days or when they first listened to a band.

Another way is to incorporate retro designs or copy them into your email subject lines and emails. Burger King rebranded its logo to an oldie but goodie version, bringing back familiarity whenever they email their list.

Final Thoughts

Getting your email subject lines right is key to grabbing attention and boosting open rates. 

Understand your audience, keep it snappy, and add a personal or emotional touch to make your emails irresistible. Keep experimenting and refining to find out what resonates best with your subscribers. 

Ready to nurture your audience with emails they can't wait to open? 

Sign up for beehiiv today and start creating compelling subject lines and emails that your audience won't be able to resist!