Email Subject Lines

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  • Hi there. Welcome to lesson four of unleash your email awesomeness, right subject lines that get opened in this lesson. You're going to learn how to write subject lines that do a great job of catching people's attention and encouraging them to click on your email because here's the thing. Your subject line is the most important copy of your entire email.
  • Your subject line is the first thing that people see when your email lens in their inbox. And it's the one thing that's going to catch their attention and convince them to open your email or not. For example, here's a screen cap of my personal inbox. And as you can see, the subject lines tend to be the things that draw our eyes first.
  • Right? Often even before we notice who the emails are coming from, we've got Christian Mickelson's five day challenge at the very top. Then heroine Thursday evening edition. An email from Kennedy steward, who who's a local politician, an email from Asana about a mid-year goals. Check-in. And so on the chances that I'm going to click on any of these emails, instead of just checking them off as read depends entirely on how I catching and intriguing the subject line is.
  • Your message, your content, your call to action, your landing page, all of these things depend on the success of your subject line, because if your subject line doesn't do a great job of inspiring people to actually open and read your email, none of these other elements matter. Okay. So let's take a look at my top 10 most useful tips on how to write an effective attention grabbing subject line.
  • I'm going to be sharing a whole bunch of examples here that I've taken from or based on real life, subject lines that have been proven to do well. So I hope you find them useful. Okay. So first step, keep it short and sweet under 35 characters, if you can. Why because shorter subject lines are more eye-catching and easier to read.
  • For example, take a look at this one. Uh, Oh, your subscription is expiring. You've got to love the personalized voice here. Right? Okay. So this one is actually right on the edge of that 35 character limit that I was just talking about, but I'm using it here because I really think that starting off with that personalized , which is itself a combination of two, two letter words, right.
  • Makes it feel short and very attention grabbing. So that's why I'm including it here. And I really do encourage you to think of how you could use, uh, Oh, to start off something that you're sending to your audience and see how it works, because you might be surprised and it might get a lot of clicks. Or how about this one where to take this desired action right now, for example, where to grab a beer now or where to save 30% on your next massage.
  • How could you make this work for you remember part of the appeal is being able to do the thing instantly right now. So make sure that whatever you choose has that immediate gratification factor. Then there's this one question about a particular situation or desired goal that your target audience is experiencing or would like to achieve?
  • For example, Question about your dinner or questioned about your marketing or question about your EEQ again, whatever fits for you and your audience. And then there's this one stop. Doing that thing, the thing that's not getting results, right? It's a very direct approach, which allows you to get to the point right away.
  • So for example, you could have stopped procrastinating or stop settling for less or stop telling yourself you can't stop believing what they say. There are so many different ways. You can take this and come up with something that grabs attention and sparks curiosity. And then finally check out this one.
  • Hey, I love it. Don't you, it doesn't get much shorter than this, which will really make it stand out in your subscribers, inboxes. And the extremely personal nature of it is likely to make people think that you're sending this email specifically to them, which should help to increase the number of people who open it.
  • Just to be aware that the email follows through, on that personal approach and presents the content in a way that really makes it feel like you're talking one-on-one to the recipient. And I would encourage you to not use this one particularly often, because you're probably going to find that it only works if it's used very rarely.
  • And by the way, do you know who used this particular subject line? Two really great results. Barack Obama. It was one of the most successful fundraising emails of his reelection campaign back in 2012. So yeah, don't underestimate the power of short. Okay, so that is our first tip. Now let's move on to our second, which is keep it simple.
  • Make sure that your subject line is immediately understandable at a glance. I encourage you for most of your subject lines to not try to be super clever or tricky, just state as simply and succinctly as you can. What the subject of the email is, and you'll get lots of clicks. So right now you might be thinking, wait a minute, the last subject line you just showed us was Barack Obama's hay line.
  • And that doesn't tell us what the subject of the email is. And you're right. I would call that one, a rules were made to be broken kind of subject line it's okay to break the rules once in a while, as long as you've built up enough trust and Goodwill with people so that when you do send out a clever or somewhat opaque subject line, they're not going to resent you for it.
  • Just make sure that you do it only once in a long while and reserve it for emails where you really want to catch their attention and above all, make sure that the rest of the email makes sense with that subject line people don't like feeling like you're trying to trick them into reading an email.
  • Okay. So having said that, let's take a look at some simple and obvious subject lines, so you can see what I mean. For example, flash sale, 50% off everything. This one gets the idea across very directly, right? There's a sale everything's half priced and it won't last long for people who are interested in your products, programs, or packages.
  • This offer will no doubt be appealing. And then there's this one. Free event or course or anything that makes sense to send out an invitation for such as a webinar or a teleclass the word free will catch people's attention. And then the invitation will make it feel more personal and concrete. Like you're sending them an invitation specifically to them, which people often enjoy receiving.
  • Right. Or how about this one for an offline event, meet me in whatever place that you're holding the event and then include the first name of the recipient. This makes it sound really personal. In fact, one of my clients holds regular retreats and one of the subject lines that has always worked really well for him is meet me in Italy name.
  • Whenever I see it, come in my inbox, meet me in Italy, Erin. I always think, Oh my God, I totally want to, I want to go to Italy even though I'm the one who wrote the darn email. So, uh, if you hold live events, uh, then I would encourage you to use this subject line for at least one of the emails you use to promote that event and see how it does, especially if you're holding it in a place that people really want to go, like, if you are holding it in California or Hawaii or Florida, or some lovely place that, uh, you know, people are going to want to visit for whatever reason.
  • Or how about this? Here's your, whatever it is, you're giving them. So for example, here's your email marketing cheat sheet or here's your bliss blueprint or here's your free ebook or here's your success roadmap? The more concrete, it sounds like you're giving them an actual physical thing. The more people will be likely to check out what it is.
  • And again, as always, if you're going to be giving them something or you're making the promise that you're giving them something, make sure that the email actually fulfills that promise. And then there's this one, how to fast track your. Desired goal, whatever that desired goal happens to be. So you could say how to fast track your weight loss, or how to fast track your journey to six-figures, how to fast track, potty training, whatever it is that you are going to help your audience achieve.
  • And the obvious additional benefit here is the idea of learning how to achieve this goal faster. Right. Okay. So those are some examples of how to write subject lines that are really direct. Now let's look at our next tip. Focus on a benefit. Ooh, benefits benefits are the building blocks of good copy because what they do is they describe how your ideal client or customer are going to benefit from using your service.
  • And when I say benefit in that context, I mean, how is your service or your product or whatever it is you offer going to make their lives better? It's all about them. Not you. And it's showing how they're going to make their lives better by simply clicking and opening your email and then taking whatever action is you're offering them to take.
  • Right? So the focus here is always on what they stand to experience and achieve. For example, Look at this first pairing, here are two different subject lines that you could potentially use. I'm so excited or you're going to love this. So imagine someone's using this to, uh, introduce a new product that. Or a new program that they're launching, right.
  • I've seen, uh, entrepreneurs say, Hey, I'm so excited. And what they're hoping for is that people will be curious to learn what they're excited about and click on the email and do, you know, some people who know those entrepreneurs really well and love everything they offer. They might actually take that action.
  • But if you're sending it to an audience of people who don't already know you really, really well, it's better to focus on what their experience is going to be and say something like you're going to love this. Because you're making a promise about something they're going to experience, and they're going to be curious enough to find out what it is you think they're going to love.
  • Here's another pairing on the one side, you have our best, whatever the product is yet. And again, you're talking about what you have and what you're offering. Um, imagine flipping it to look at. The customer or client's experience and say something like your wishes. Granted on the one side, you have kind of a boast about a new version of a product you're going to launch, for example, right?
  • But on the other side, you're creating the impression that you've been listening to what people really want, and you have come up with a solution for them, and that might get them very interested to find out how exactly you've granted their wishes and what those wishes are. Right. Here's another one and feeling generous versus a free gift for you.
  • Well, you know, on the one hand it's like, I'm feeling generous. Oh, isn't that lovely for you? That's really nice. But are people going to really be excited about the fact that you're feeling generous? I think they're going to be more excited about the fact that what you're offering them is a free gift. So if you focus on what they're getting, you're going to get a higher result.
  • Okay, so check out this pair. Now one says this brought tears of joy to my eyes versus feel like a good, happy cry. Again. The first one is talking all about your experience, the experience of the person you sending out the email and it's. Really lovely that whatever you're talking about has brought tears of joy to your eyes.
  • That's great. But I think people are going to respond to more if you offer them that experience right. And say something like, feel like a good, happy cry, because anybody who is going to be receptive and respond to whatever it is, you're offering them in the same way that you responded or in the way that you're hoping they will respond is going to be far more likely to click on that one.
  • I would argue then the tears of joy one. And finally check out these two. The first one is my top, whatever secrets revealed versus a number of tips to become a whatever master. Right. I'm just looking at this now. And I would shorten becoming to become, just to get rid of those two extra characters. Now that I look at this, but let's look at these two from the context of focusing on their experience.
  • Right? Okay. The first thing is actually a pretty good subject line. And you know, if you were to use this, especially to an audience who already has a really strong understanding of your skills and expertise, they might be interested in knowing what your particular secrets are. Right. But for people who may not already know you all that well, okay.
  • By focusing on what they're going to get out of learning your secrets. You might find that they respond really well to that. So between these two, if I was going out to a pretty cold audience, I would probably choose the latter because I think people are going to be more interested in getting some tips on how to master whatever it is you're talking about.
  • Then they are going to be, to find out what your personal secrets are. Okay. So let us check out. Tip number four. Right. I'm sure you already know this and try to avoid it like the plague, but it still needs to be said, please, please, please. As much as you can try to avoid sounding salesy or fake, and the reason why is right there, right.
  • People hate being sold to so the more artificial and overtly salesy your subject line is the more people are going to be inclined to not to click on it. For example, I would encourage you to avoid using subject lines such as. Something like this, the best deal ever. You got to see this right? The best deal ever are you sure I've come across some pretty good deals in my life.
  • Are you absolutely positive that the one you're giving me is the best deal ever. These are all of the things that I would think if I saw that subject line appear in my inbox. And the reason why is because when you use superlatives like best ever, or number one, it immediately makes people suspicious that you're probably exaggerating or inflating your claims.
  • So I would encourage you to avoid using this kind of language, unless you can absolutely back up your claims with concrete proof that whatever you're offering really is the best. And is the whole, you got to see this makes me think you're trying too hard to sound genuine and cool. And in this case, it's backfiring because who actually writes subject lines like that, other than marketers, I mean, right.
  • And how about this one, a miracle cure for whatever problem is ailing you. Is it a miracle cure? Really? It's miraculous. Okay. Um, sure. Maybe, uh, but again, this kind of overblown claim tends to make me suspicious and makes me kind of roll my eyes and think, Oh, whatever you're promising is probably not so miraculous.
  • Same goes for this one, I'm going to make 1297 a day. Using whatever system this person is selling. Sure that sounds believable. Um, so, you know, I, I do encourage you to make bold claims and claims that make people go, what are you serious to a certain extent, but if you make a claim, that seems so incredibly unbelievable.
  • You really run the risk of someone saying, yeah, sure. You can. And dismissing you as some kind of gross spam marketer. And of course that's not something you ever want to be thought of as right. Or how about this one achieve this wildly ambitious goal effortlessly in your sleep. For example, like make a six-figure income in your sleep shed, unwanted pounds in your sleep, lose weight while you sleep muster your money problems in your sleep.
  • Does that I say once again? Sure, sure. That sounds believable. When you make something sound way, too easy, you set off people's scam alerts. And if there's one thing that you really, really need to do, when you are sending out marketing emails to people, it's a, you have to earn their trust. And when you use kind of overblown subject lines like this, I'm worried that you might find it really, really hard to get that trust.
  • And finally T who recognize this one, this is from years back, but I still see it popping up every once in awhile, one weird trick to achieve whatever goal you're talking about. The first time I saw this and I think it was actually the first time it was used, it said one weird trick to eliminate belly fat.
  • Do you remember that online ad? I'm sure you might've seen it on your internet travels. At some point it was so successful that it spawned hundreds of variations and quickly turned into a cliche. And when a marketing hook becomes cliche, people are far more likely to recognize it as a cheesy selling tactic and disregard it.
  • And also not think super highly of the person who sent it. I love this quote from MailChimp, the best subject lines tell what's inside and the worst subject lines sell what's inside. And when MailChimp speaks, you should listen because they do a lot of testing and they know what kind of subject lines are working for the people who use their service.
  • Okay. So having said that, let us move on to our next tip. Yes. Oh, I love this use numbers. People love them. They really, really do from the very earliest days of marketing and marketing research studies have shown that people pay attention to headlines that have numbers in them. And the same goes for subject lines and people's inboxes.
  • The ones that have numbers in them tend to get a higher open rate than those that don't. So when you want to catch people's attention and it makes sense. Perfect sense, given what you're going to be offering them when they click through whether it's information or a product that can offer, try to add a number to your subject line and see what happens.
  • For example, here are some logical ways you can use numbers in your subject lines. How about this five simple ways to achieve whatever the goal is that your email is about. This is great because it suggests a number of different approaches. Your readers can try in order to get the results they want. It also gives them an idea of how long the email is going to be.
  • Right. They're going to learn five different things, which is very, very different than learning 99 different things. Right? It gives them a sense that this email is probably not going to take too terribly long to read, and that's going to increase the chances that they click and read it. As well, or how about this one achieve this goal in 10 days, this gives people an immediate concrete idea of when they can expect to see results.
  • And it's a great incentive for them to take action. Or get two products for the low, low price of say $47 or two for the price of one. The idea of getting not one, but two things at a really good deal is super appealing to people, especially if it's something that they have to buy on a regular basis because buying two at once saves them the hassle of having to buy a second one later.
  • Then there's this three steps to achieve whatever goal it is they want to achieve. This is helpful because it implies that there is a proven series of actions that people can take in order to achieve a specific result. And for people who feel kind of overwhelmed, and they're not sure what they should do first or next, this kind of approach can be really appealing.
  • And again, Since it's only three steps. It gives them the idea that whatever it is they're going to achieve can be done relatively simply, right. It's only three steps and that's going to increase the chances that they read the email to find out what those steps are. And then finally there's the very simple and straight forward to get 50% off your next purchase kind of subject line.
  • Again, the appeal here is the amount of money they're going to save by taking action. If you're talking about a big ticket item, this kind of subject line is bound to catch their attention. Okay. So now for our next tip, Number six, ask a question. I love this one because when you ask a question, people tend to answer it in their own minds, which causes them to become more invested in the content and learning more about the answer.
  • For example. Do you make these five common, whatever mistakes do you make? These five common marketing mistakes. Do you make these five common dieting mistakes? Do you make these five common running mistakes? Do you make these five common makeup mistakes? There's a lot of different ways that you can go here.
  • And the advantage of using a subject line like this is that they're going to ask themselves in their own minds. I don't know. Do I make this mistakes? And so it's going to encourage them to click, to find out if they are. Or how about this one name? Did you see this? And obviously in this context, when I say name, what we're talking about is merging the subscriber's first name directly into the subject line.
  • So if it were coming to me, for example, it would say, Aaron, did you see this. This is a good one to use as a followup to a previous email that you sent a couple of days earlier, uh, promoting a launch or a sale. For example, when you follow it up with a, did you see this message? It comes across as you wanting to confirm that they received the first email and were able to read it.
  • Okay. Or you could use it to introduce an exciting new development in your company or your industry. Hey, did you see what's happening in whatever industry did you see the news, that kind of thing? Uh, because when you ask them, if they've seen it. It gets them to wonder, I don't know. And a lot of people want to have all of the information they can at their disposal to make good decisions.
  • So by implying that they might've missed something, it encourages them to click to find out what exactly it is. Your worried that they missed. Or how about this? No, this about. A popular topic of interest, something that your target audience wants to learn more about. So for example, no, this about Facebook.
  • No. This about yoga. No. This about working out this kind of subject line sparks curiosity, because people are going to want to see if they do know whatever piece of information or advice you were about to share, or how about this one? Name, can I ask you a question? This one takes a personal approach and it sounds like it's more of a private conversation between you and the recipient.
  • Just make sure that the question and its answer are presented as benefiting them the reader more than you. For example, maybe, you know, you say. Aaron. Can I ask you a question? And then when I click on the email, it says, hi, Erin. And then it asks me the question immediately that the subject line is referring to.
  • And maybe that's a question, like, are you happy with the results you're getting with your email marketing or do you want to get better results with your workouts? These are questions that are clearly benefiting them more than you. Right. And if you follow up that question with the promise of a solution, that's going to make them happy with their results.
  • Uh, chances are, they're going to be interested in, want to learn more about it, right? This is way more powerful of an approach than using a question that clearly benefits you. Like, are you ready to sign up for my program? People aren't going to be as interested in answering that question, especially if they don't know your program or even know you very well as they're going to be to want to answer the question.
  • Are you happy with the results you're getting in a particular task or situation? Right. And finally want to achieve this goal. This kind of question is really shortened to the point, right? Want to sleep better? Want to get more clients want to boost your energy? The people who say yes to this question are going to be more likely to click on your email, to learn how to make it happen.
  • And that's the power of questions, right? When you ask the right question to the right audience, they're going to want to click on it, to find out the answer. Okay, so now let's move on to tip number seven, get personal. Yes. And the reason why I say this and say this a million times over is because people respond better to emails that have been written specifically for them and have their needs in mind.
  • For example, check out this subject line. I made this for you name by putting the person's name right in the subject line. You create the impression that you made, whatever it is you're about to offer specifically for them, which makes people feel kind of special, right? Just make sure that you follow through with this idea in the body of the email and to clearly explain why.
  • Your offering is perfect for them in particular. And when I say them, I mean your ideal client or customer, of course, the people who are most likely to want what you're offering. So in the body of your email, when you write it, make sure that you describe them and their situation specifically, so that the subject line makes sense.
  • Of course, I made it for you. Look at how it's going to obviously solve the problem. I know you have right. For example, one way that I would use this subject line in my own marketing is if I were to create a copywriting, cheat sheet, or maybe a template that people can use to create the perfect homepage, copy, something like that.
  • If I know that my list really wants to learn more about copywriting, and then I create a tool that makes copywriting easy for them, then I can say I made it directly for them because I know it's something they're going to use and appreciate it. So, how can you use it for your audience? There's this one?
  • I think I just used this one in a previous example. Didn't I name? Have you seen this again by putting their name in it? It makes the person feel like you want to know specifically if they have seen whatever you're talking about. Presumably, because it's going to have some kind of impact on them in particular.
  • And then there's this one again, it's kind of similar to an earlier one. I saw that was a bit longer, but saying here's your invite name makes people feel like they are receiving a personal invitation directly from you, and it's going to be more likely to motivate them to open your email, to find out more about the invitation and what it involves, or there's this approach, name about your.
  • Whatever, whatever topic it is that you want to talk about, about your email marketing, about your progress, about your finances, about your desire to wear a bikini in the summer. I don't know. I'm joking about that last one. It's way too long. But when you say Aaron or whoever's name, right, a boat, your.
  • Marketing your weight loss, your health, your flexibility, your life plans, your dreams, your goals. Everett is you're going to be talking about in the body of your email. When you use this, you let them know exactly what you're going to be talking about. And it also makes it feel way more specific to them and their personal situation.
  • And finally, are you ready for this name by including them the person's name? You're more likely to catch their attention and encourage them to find out the answer. Are they ready for what, no matter what it is, they're probably guessing that they should be ready for it. And they're about to learn how to become ready for it.
  • And that might encourage them to be more likely to click. Right. Okay. Let's check out. Tip number eight. Add urgency. It motivates people to act now. So the reality is, is that so many people are going to look at your email in their inbox and think, Oh, maybe I'll read it later. But then their day goes on, they get 50 million more emails in their inboxes and they forget to go back to yours.
  • So if you have a good reason to add urgency right in the subject line, by letting them know, they only have a limited window in which to act, you're going to encourage them to click now, as opposed to later, for example, 50% off sale, only 24 hours left. This one uses time as an urgency. The sale ends at a specific time.
  • And if you don't act before, then you're hooped. Same goes for this one free, whatever it is you're giving away today only this creates huge urgency to act, right? Because the opportunity is available for that day only. And after that it's gone. So it really confers a clear sense of scarcity and value ditto for this free, whatever the topic it is.
  • Webinar this Thursday, since we're talking about a live event here, people are going to have a limited amount of time to register for it before the opportunity's gone for good. This one's good to join me. Live at 9:00 AM PST. Again, they have a very limited time to act on this and because it's an invitation to connect live, those who are interested in what you have to say are highly likely to want to learn more.
  • And then there's this get a free whatever product you're giving away. Only 20 available. For example, get a signed copy of my new book. Here's the urgency that's created by offering only a limited number of items. People understand that if they don't act right away, all of the items will be gone. Same goes for this one.
  • I'm giving away a 50, whatever the products are. S a C F S. Now most people who shop online will probably recognize that FCFs means first come first served. But for those who don't, the acronym might actually spark curiosity and motivate them to find out what it means. Okay. Now let's check out our next tip.
  • If you're going to go long with your subject line, as I myself often do use punctuation and formatting to add as much white space as possible to it. So that the ideas you have in your subject line are very easy to read because sometimes there's just no way around it to communicate the full benefit of the email.
  • You might want to use a longer subject line. And when this happens, it's a good idea to use a dash or a colon, ellipsis, arrows, or brackets to create some sense of separation between the main ideas of, to your subject line so that each of them stands out more and becomes more readable. For example, 30 days to.
  • Achieve, whatever goal you're focusing on last chance by separating the last chance part with a dash, you break up the subject line into two short punchy phrases that each become more visually eye-catching and easier to read. Or how about this one? I often use this kind of format. I'll put a word at the beginning of the subject line in all capitals or all caps and in square brackets so that you get the idea and then you expand on it by saying something after it, like this video.
  • How to achieve this particular goal. Right. You're getting the idea across that. What you're talking about is a video, but then you're also including the benefit that they're going to experience. If they watch that video all in the subject line. Here's another one reminder. And then you mentioned the name of the important event that's coming up or something like that, right?
  • When you use these pointy arrow lines, or even an actual arrow after the word reminder, which is in all caps, you create a separation between the idea that you're giving them an important reminder, as well as what you're reminding them about. So you get both of those ideas in there and they're both readable.
  • And it ends up being a subject line that they can really understand at a glance. Or I like this one. Oops. My mistake is your lucky break. The oops part is going to definitely catch people's attention while the rest of it is going to peak their curiosity and hopefully motivate them to click through, to find out what your mistake was and how they're going to benefit from it.
  • In this situation, the ellipsis, those three dots creates the separation and allows both of these ideas to be read at a glance. Or how about this? Do they only in all caps with a colon and then afterwards you describe what's happening today only. So they have an idea of what the benefit is, right? Again, you're breaking up an idea into two separate parts and you're separating them with different formatting, for example, by putting today only in all caps and then the space that the colon adds in between that idea and whatever it is comes next.
  • So as you can see all of these. Are doing kind of the same thing in different ways. They're conveying two ideas in a single subject line, but breaking them up in a way so that the subject line is as easy to read as possible. Okay. Now for my final subject line tip. And it certainly last but not least test it.
  • If you can try and test your subject lines as much as possible, because the only sure fire way to know what works is to actually find out what works. You don't even have to have some kind of fancy email marketing software to do this all you need. And I think that almost all of the main software marketing systems do this these days is a way to split your subscriber list into two.
  • And then send them the exact same email with different subject lines, and then you can find out which subject line works best. So you can use it again in the future being fairly confident that you're going to get better results. Right. So that's what we call an a B split test. You put version a of the subject line up against version B and you see which one gets the most clicks now for best results.
  • You're going to want to try and test small differences between the subject lines so that you can really get a clear sense of which element of the subject line is making the difference. For example, here's a really great potential subject to test. Meet me in Vancouver versus. Name, meet me in Vancouver.
  • This is a simple test that it allows you to discover whether your specific audience responds better to seeing their name in the subject line. I mean, most audiences do. That's pretty much a given in marketing, but how do you know for sure with your specific audience, unless you test, if you did something like this with your list, you would gain some pretty valuable information that would help you improve your marketing in the future.
  • Okay. So before we move on very quickly, I'd like to show you how I personally test subject lines before I even send them out. And I don't use any sort of software to do this other than my Gmail account, but when I'm writing emails for my clients, I like to test out or try out or consider at least a bunch of different subject lines to see which ones I'm going to suggest that my clients use.
  • And here's how I do it. Okay. I simply send a bunch of empty emails to myself, testing out a whole bunch of possible subject lines. And then I look at them in my inbox to see which ones catch my eye. The most. For example, here I am testing subject lines for an email I sent out a while back, inviting people to sign up for a free webinar.
  • And as you can see the webinar that. I was inviting them to has the same name as this program that you are in right now, because I really like at least your email awesomeness as a title, apparently it grew from a webinar to this mini program that you're doing right now. Okay. So here's what the tests look like in my inbox.
  • As you can see, I'm playing around with putting email webinar in all caps or not. I am including the idea of free invite. I'm adding a whole bunch of information. I include the date in some, I include, Oh my God, that's next week and parentheses in some of the situations. And it was just playing around with that.
  • Now I did this awhile ago and I have to admit. That, uh, I chose the subject line then that I don't know, I would choose now, actually, here's the one I chose then. And it's actually the longest as you can see. And it's because I was sending it out to a group of people who already knew me really well. And so I felt fairly confident that the people who were likely to sign up would sign up no matter what.
  • But I also want it to get a whole bunch of different ideas in there, as you can see, I want it to let them know it was a webinar I wanted to include the benefit that is mentioned and highlighted in the actual name of the webinar. I wanted to let them know the date because it was coming up really soon.
  • And I wanted them to have enough time to sign up for it. And then I included the, Oh my God, that's next week. Because like I said, these people know me well, and I wanted to have a little bit of personalization in there because I thought it would make them laugh. And one of the things these people in that particular group often said about me is that I'm pretty funny.
  • And so that's probably part of the reason why I wanted to include it is because I wanted to give them that little sense of my personality and remind them that they think I'm kind of funny and also kind of hyper when it comes right down to it. So that is why I chose that one. Now, if I were to send it to people who don't know me very well.
  • The one I would probably use now is, uh, if you look towards the bottom, I would probably use free email webinar. Here's your invite or free email webinar invite inside in parentheses. That's probably the one I would use now, actually, especially if it was going out to people who don't know me, super duper well.
  • So there's just a glimpse into how I play with subject lines before I recommend them to my clients. Every single time I write an email for them, I do this and I recommend you do it too. Because the best way to know is to test and what I was just showing you was kind of a test on myself, right? It's not an objective kind of test, which is the best kind to do.
  • So as you grow your list, I encourage you to have on your. Ultimate marketing to do list the idea that once you get to, I don't know, maybe a thousand, 10,000 subscribers, something like that every once in a while, when you send out a newsletter or a content email or something like that, divide your list into and send different subject lines to each of the.
  • Halves of your list to find out which kind of subject line performs best, because I guarantee you're going to get super, super valuable information. That will help you choose more powerful and more effective Jack lines that you can then use for your sales emails. And those are the ones that make you money.
  • So the better those are the higher your revenues are going to be. So that is why I just went on about testing for so long, because it's really important and it can really have a huge impact on your bottom line. So those are my top 10 tips on how to write subject lines that get your emails opened before we go.
  • Let's take a look at some real life subject lines that I think are pretty great. Here's one from Ramit stuffy, who's the founder and CEO of growth lab. What successful people don't tell you it's relatively short. Uh, I think it's like 37 characters, so it's just over the ideal length, but again, it's not too terribly long and it's pretty easy to read.
  • Right. And it also provokes a certain amount of curiosity. It makes me wonder what are successful people not telling me, you know, I'd kind of like to know. And it implies a benefit that if I read the email, I'm going to get access to some exclusive knowledge that not all people have and it could be something that's going to help me become more successful in my life.
  • So, yeah, sure. Sounds pretty good. Here's another one from entrepreneur and startup coach. Tiffany Largie that I thought was really good. It simply says calling all single parents, it's short, simple, and lets us know exactly who the email is for. If I were a single parent, I imagine this subject line would leap out at me and I would click on it to find out exactly why this, um, coach is wanting to talk to single parents.
  • I'd be curious to see what she had to say.
  • I really like this one from yoga therapist and business coach Kelly Adkins. I think it's good. She wrote a Yogi, walks into a bar.dot dot, and your freebie in parentheses. She sent this one to me after I signed up for a free report on her site. I like how it uses a traditional joke set up to peak curiosity and display a sense of personality and humor.
  • And I also like the fact that she uses a Lipsey's those three dots right there. And parentheses to set up the other part of it and your freebie. It makes both of those ideas, um, really readable at a glance. And it makes me kind of curious to know what she's going to say. When I click on the email, I want to know what happens when a Yogi walks into a bar, right?
  • This is a good example of how to write a longer subject line while still making sure everything in it is really readable. And here's one from my friend in life and business coach, Leah Gord. Time-blocking trust and tequila last day to register for the workshop. Again, this is a really long email, but it uses strategic formatting to break up the ideas and make it readable.
  • And I like the time blocking trust and tequila angle. If she had just written that I would probably clicked on it for sure, because it gives me the idea. That there's going to be an interesting story there that involves tequila as well as time-blocking, which seems like it's going to be a decent, uh, productivity habit that maybe I should know more about if I want to get more done in my day.
  • And then finally, you know, having parentheses around last day to register for the workshop, it's a good reminder that she has a workshop coming up. And if I want to be a part of it, I need to act fast. Finally, here's a very simple, but very obvious one from J Peterman and online clothing, retailer, final hours to save 40%.
  • Site-wide the benefits here are immediately clear, right? Your going to save 40% off of everything on the site, which is pretty awesome because I know they have a really big site full of lots of amazing clothes and products. And so. It's going to make me curious to click on it, to learn more. And of course, I really liked the fact that it uses a number 40% to say exactly how much we're going to save and to catch my eyes with that number.
  • Right. So if you're familiar with the company, which you probably are, if you're receiving their emails and, um, maybe you've even bought something from them before. So, you know, the quality of their clothes and their accessories and everything else they offer. This is probably going to be a powerful incentive to click and learn more.
  • Okay. So that is the scoop on subject lines. Now it's your turn. Here's your chance to play with subject lines and learn more about how to write some really great ones that are going to catch people's attention and inspire them to open your emails. So please have fun with it. As I said, at the beginning, your subject line is the most important words in your entire email process, and they deserve your careful attention and your joy.
  • So that's it for now. Have fun with it and I'll see you again soon.

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