Email Hacks #2: Simple Recipe for Writing Winning Subject Lines

Getting your subscribers to open your emails is half the battle. Ain’t nobody gonna read your email or buy anything from you if they don’t open your email. This is why your subject line is so important. It has one job, and one job only: Get people to open your emails. There are plenty of resources online filled with tested and proven (hopefully?) subject lines you can swipe. I will not be giving you a list of email subjects here. Instead, the purpose of this post is to share a simple recipe for writing a winning email subject line every time. Put these to use in your own email marketing, and you’ll find the results especially delicious.

Stimulate Curiosity

As humans, we’re curious by nature…whether we want to admit it or not. Think about your email’s hook or storyline. What’s the most interesting piece of this story? Once you’ve identified the most interesting part of your email content, think about how you can use that one piece to create a curiosity-infused subject line. I’ll take an example from my previous blog post about using Authenticity in your emails. 

You might recall I wrote a true story about my social anxiety for a supplement client I worked with. This story for this email ended with me vomiting profusely in front of my ex-girlfriend’s parents. I decided to take one of the most interesting (and embarrassing) parts of this story (the vomiting), and I used it to craft my subject line. This was the exact subject line I used for that email:

So nervous he “tossed his cookies”…

Most people know “tossed his cookies” is a euphemism for throwing up. When someone on my client’s list who also suffers from social anxiety reads a subject line like this…do you think it will pique their interest? Absolutely! They’re curiosity gets the best of them. They have to see what I’m talking about. This is how you got about using curiosity in your email subjects.

Amplify Fear

Fear is an extremely powerful motivator. Especially the fear of loss. People can’t stand the thought of missing out on or losing something valuable. This drives them bonkers. You can use this psychological trick to your advantage when writing subject lines. This works like magic if you’re offering a discount or special promotion. Example:

Your discount is expiring.

Rich, poor, or somewhere in between…everyone enjoys a good deal and keeping more money in their pocket. With a subject like the one above, chances are they’ll open your email to see what they’re losing if they don’t act now.

Leverage Trending Topics and Pop Culture

Hot topics in the news or pop culture can make for buzz worthy subject lines. Just be careful with using topics that might be too polarizing. Take good ole’ Trump for example. He may still help you pull open rates, but you’ll piss a lot of people off in the process. Unless of course your audience is strictly staunch conservatives.

An example I used recently played off the movie 50 Shades Darker. The actual subject line was:

50 Shades of Harassment

I started off the email by sharing the story of going to see this wonderful movie with my wife. Then I transitioned into how debt collectors love to harass struggling consumers who can’t afford to pay their bills. This email was promoting a credit repair product, btw.

Keep in mind if you deploy this strategy, your subject lines may fade in effectiveness as these hot topics become less relevant. This strategy would be ideal for broadcast emails.

That does it for Email Hacks #2. Implement one of these strategies in your email marketing and let me know how it goes. I’d love to have you post a comment below sharing your experience. Or you can always drop me an email if you want to keep things private. Remember, these are just a few strategies you have at your disposal. There are so many ways to write compelling email subjects it can make your brain hurt. My advice: pick just 1 or 2 to focus on at first. Keep things simple, and you’ll be more likely to take action.