6 Rules of Great Email Subject Lines

Many newsletters and business offers are never read by Internet users for the simple reason that the email didn’t have an effective subject line. Some people tend to forget to include the “Subject” in a mail. A subject line may only be a few words but these few words are very important. You need to avoid the 5 habits that waste time and cause problems to your readers as well.

As more and more emails fill our in-boxes it’s more important than ever to have a subject line that catches our attention.  The subject line is one of the most important aspects of your email marketing campaign because it’s what creates a first impression for your business.  With just a few words you can encourage someone to read your newsletter or you can cause them to delete your email without another glance. Since the recipient doesn’t already know you, you need send them an introductory mail.

Here are some simple rules for creating a great subject line:

  1. Keep the subject line direct and short.  Subject lines should never be more than ten words long.  In fact, five words or less is the perfect length.  Most email browsers won’t let users see more than five or six words so a longer subject line will be truncated and not seen by the user.  Use strong and descriptive words rather than fluffy adjectives such as “very”. It should match your content as well, don’t be fishy.
  2. Emphasize the benefits to the reader.  You want to make it as easy as possible for your customers to know precisely why they will benefit from reading your newsletter.  This can be as simple as a “reward” for just opening the e-mail.  A reward can be information or a discount coupon.  You want to use catch phrases such as “save money” and “save time” to get a reader’s immediate attention.  The key is to entice your customers to want to read more and open the email.
  3. Ask questions.  When you ask a question in the subject line you cause a reader to become curious and want to know more.  As well, when you ask a question the e-mail sounds more like it’s coming from a colleague rather than just a business and will more likely be opened and read. Read more »

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Email List Hosting Services

You can build, send, and keep track of your email marketing campaign by using an email hosting program like Aweber and GetResponse. Using an email program is an important method Strategic Internet Marketing. An email hosting service takes away some of the work of manually adding and deleting addresses from your database. These services also have the ability to test your newsletters before you send them out. There are multiple templates for you to choose from which means that you won’t have to learn how to use html in order to send a newsletter that is professional looking. If you decide to use a template make sure that it matches the look and feel of your company brand and website. Consistency is the key to effective online marketing.

Email list hosting services allow you to track and manage your email marketing campaign. You have the ability to receive reports that have precise details about which links and graphics your customers have clicked on. This information lets you change the content of your newsletter when you know what it is that your customers most want to read and see. As you start to send out more newsletters you’ll get a better feel for what it is that your customers want. This is why you want the content of your newsletters to be flexible.

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How to Write Email Newsletters - Part II

Previously on How to Write Email Newsletters - Part I.

Keep it Short
- Your newsletters should be:

  • concise
  • short
  • straight to the point

It should be no more than 1000 words and deal with no more than five different products or services at one time. People don’t like to read lengthy emails.Newsletters that deal with too many departments are more difficult for you to update. This could be a roadblock to you sending out newsletters on a regular basis while at the same time providing new and fresh content. If there is too much information in the first email your customers won’t want to click through to your website. And a no-click means you have no way to keep track of the success or failure of your email marketing strategy.

The main difference between Internet Marketing and traditional marketing is that online methods allow you to track what is happening. If the emails you send out don’t encourage customers to click to your website you won’t know what is working and what isn’t.

Frequency and Timing - You need to determine when and how often you’re going to send out email newsletters. You don’t want to send emails out too often as this will overwhelm your customers.

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How to Write Email Newsletters - Part I

If you’re going to send a newsletter via email you need to provide incentives for people to want to stay on your Email List.

  1. Ideas for Content - You don’t always have to offer discounts or a free product as incentives to customers. The content of your newsletter can also be a good incentive. Good newsletter content includes:
    • Customer submitted success stories.
    • Information from experts in your industry.
    • A section for questions and answers.
    • News and statistics about your industry.
    • Feedback from customers.
    • Tips about your products or services.

    Your newsletter should not include information such as “about you”, your company history, or your company news. This type of information is only valuable for investors. The bottom line is that your customers don’t really care about what is happening in your business. They only want to know what you can do for them. Good newsletter content is anything that catches the interest of your customers. A newsletter, just like your Home Page, has only a few seconds to attract the attention of your customer before they decide to delete it. Your newsletter should immediately let your customer know: Read more »

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Goal Oriented Email Marketing

After you’ve created your email list it’s time to develop an Email Marketing Plan. Determine what your business goal is and how you plan to achieve the online business objectives and goals: through

  1. repeat customers?
  2. more leads?
  3. email marketing?

You want to define your goals as well as you can so that you can keep track of the process.

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