Better Email Subject Lines

Email is a powerful tool for online stores. Here are some quick tips for improving the open rate on your email newsletters and notifications.

Make it snappy

Whether the reader is viewing email on a smartphone or a desktop email client the subject line has limited space to be displayed. Keep it short so it’s readable and attention grabbing. Less than 50 characters is ideal, according to analysis conducted by MailChimp:

The general rule of thumb in email marketing is to keep your subject line to 50 characters or less.

There are exceptions. Longer subject lines can work, particularly if important information or key words are kept at the beginning. Compare the open rates of different length subject lines to determine how important this is for your audience.

Consider using a preview line

Preview lines (or pre-header text) is the first line of text in the email. Many email clients, including big ones such Gmail, show this after the subject as a preview of the message content. You can use this line strategically to convey a message to the customer without even needing to open the email.

Here’s a an email from AppSumo displayed in Mail.app on a Mac. Notice the line of text below the subject:

Make it time sensitive

People are busy. Your email is probably one of dozens (if not hundreds) that will be hitting the inbox that day. Keep the subject line relevant and time sensitive to make the email something to be dealt with right away.

Rather than Newsletter #11 or Update from MyStore, consider these examples:

• 9 hours left to buy
• Just arrived: Heartlock Necklace
• Don’t miss out – last weekend of sale

Editing subject lines in Back In Stock

It’s easy to customize the subject line for your Back In Stock customer email template. From the app open Customize → Email template.

Make any changes you like to the Subject line field, and hit Save template. If you’d like to try it out scroll down to Send a test notification and fire off a test email.