Email marketing: 8 subject lines that will drive your recipients away!
In an email campaign or newsletter, your subject line is everything. It is what will encourage your recipients to open your email — the very first step in email marketing towards turning your leads into customers.
Here is a look at 8 more-or-less common mistakes in this area, 8 sure-fire ways to end up in the junk folder and drive your recipients away, 8 errors to avoid at all costs…
1. "Test: You're invited to the evening of…"
A classic mistake when sending an email campaign that was previously tested internally. You add the word "test" at the beginning of the subject line and then forget to remove it for the final send.
This kind of error can damage your brand image and give the impression of an amateur send. It is therefore an important element to check before every real send.
Email and newsletter sending tools such as Mailpoet or Mailchimp offer a dedicated test preview option, making the "Test" label unnecessary (it will be indicated automatically in a test send and will not appear in the real one).
2. "Newsletter no. 4"
Or "April 2018 Newsletter" or any other completely cryptic variant that tells the reader nothing about the content of your email — this should be avoided at all costs.
The subject line of an email must "sell" your message and entice people to open it and read it. A subject line this generic will inspire absolutely no desire in your recipients.
3. "Discover our new product!"
Along the same lines, terms like "products", "services" or "new arrivals" lack precision.
You should think of your email subject line as the trailer for your message. Say enough to interest your recipients, but not too much. This balance will be completely thrown off by the use of a generic, vague title.
4. "RE:"
Adding a "RE:" at the beginning of a subject line (or even putting nothing else besides that) might seem clever. A "RE:" implies that the email in question is a reply to a previous message (generally one that your recipient supposedly sent to you). A handy way to boost your open rate with ease.
But how will your recipients react when they open your email and discover a commercial message (or any other type of message that is clearly not a reply to something they sent)? They will remember a manipulation attempt and feel not only that you tried to trick them, but that you took them for fools. It is an excellent way to give your brand a bad reputation.
What's more, this tactic has been known to everyone for a long time. All it takes is a glance at the sender address to confirm that this "RE:" email is definitely not a reply from a friend. These are all excellent reasons to unsubscribe at best, or mark you as spam at worst. Which is all the more reason for you to refrain from using this tactic.
5. -90% on all our products!!!!!
Overemphasising your message is counterproductive. On the one hand, excessive punctuation conveys an idea of aggression: it conjures the image of someone shouting the sentence you are reading. On the other, it causes you to lose credibility.
This attempt to stand out visually can therefore land you in the junk folder.
6. -90% ON ALL OUR PRODUCTS!
An all-caps message will also give the impression of someone yelling. Moreover, this tactic can trigger the automatic spam filters of certain email providers. In such a case, you will not even reach your recipients' inboxes.
And even if you do get through, your recipients will have no desire to give their time to an email that is "shouting" at them.
7. "Free", "100% satisfaction", "Earn money easily"
Terms such as "free", "earn money", "100%" are to be avoided. Following the era of email scam attempts (who has never received a message from a dying emperor generously wishing to bequeath their entire fortune?), spam filters send emails with such subject lines directly to the junk folder. And when they do not, the recipient usually takes care of it themselves.
8. "Congratulations! Discover your gift now!"
Typically the sort of email that people suspect is a scam attempt.
Fraudulent emails are so widespread that everyone is on guard these days. Do not give your recipients a reason to be.
If you are announcing the results of a competition, include the competition name in the subject line; this should remind recipients that they did indeed take part in such an event.
Playing on mystery by mentioning a gift can be considered good practice, but it is a double-edged sword. We are all accustomed to overly clickbait titles that are often misleading. The ideal is to find the right balance between a subject line that is catchy but realistic, mysterious but informative, persuasive but not over-sold.
We hope these pointers will help you avoid the most common mistakes in this area. Also bear in mind that before settling on the subject line of your email campaign, you need to consider the context in which you will be sending your emails. Sending an email campaign to the right target at the right time is essential.
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