The Clarity Quest team recently attended various sessions during the two-day Marketing Profs B2B Forum, aiding in our never-ending quest to boost our marketing knowledge and skillsets. Each session offered nuggets of insight we’ll undoubtedly use to help our clients reach their goals.
I had the pleasure of attending Jay Schwedelson’s The Secret to Getting More Email Opens NOW. While Jay shared many expert tips for writing email subject lines that increase open rates, I chose my top three favorite takeaways to share on the Clarity Quest blog:
1. Make your content more digestible
You know what they say; the average adult has the attention span of a goldfish. So, if you want your audience to open your email and read the included content, you need to make it easily digestible.
A great way to showcase this in your email subject line is by making it extremely obvious that the content included is a list. And if possible, include a number. People like numbered lists because they know what they’re going to get, and they’re easy to scan through quickly.
According to Jay, subject lines promoting list content increases open rates by 34%, and subject lines starting with a number increases open rates by 24%.
2. Change the way you promote your webinars
Let’s be honest—people are sick of webinars. Not sick of learning more from the comfort of their own home but the concept of webinars.
Webinars aren’t a new and exciting way to present to people like they were back in March 2020; they’re now a regular part of life. So, it’s not a great selling point for attendance. Essentially, your audience is more interested in the topic you’re presenting, not that it’s a webinar, and your subject line should reflect that.
Do this:
Not this:
You can cut any mention of a webinar and skip straight to the good stuff—what they’ll learn. Jay also mentioned that using the word “exclusive” in the subject line increases open rates by 21%.
3. Make your subject lines less self-serving
Your audience cares more about themselves than you. That doesn’t mean you can’t send content that promotes yourself or your company but frame it in a way that serves the reader.
According to Jay’s research:
- When promoting third-party content that features yourself or your company, excluding any mention of your brand increases open rates by 28%.
- Mentioning a job title/function in subject lines increases open rates by 37%.
Boost Your Email Marketing Efforts
Need help crafting your email marketing campaigns? Enlisting the help of an outsource marketing agency is a great option. Our team of content marketing experts is ready to help.
*All statistics are provided from Jay Schwedelson’s presentation, The Secret to Getting More Email Opens NOW. The research was conducted by his company, WorldData.
