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Email Marketing Guide 2: Email design & content

2. Email newsletter subject lines

That little space in your email newsletter - of which about 35-40 characters are immediately visible in the in-box - has so much impact upon mailing results. Therefore it's important to give it the time and attention it deserves.

Crafting your email newsletter subject lines

Take a look at your own inbox. Take note of what clearly identifies and brands the sender and the subject. See what catches your eye and makes you want to open an email newsletter. Take these observations and then begin creating your own email newsletter subject lines.

Don't waste characters on dates or issues - that will be obvious upon receipt by the reader. In general, brand your company in the "from" field, which is where recipients expect to see it. Don't use an individual in the "from" field unless they are a noted expert. This now leaves you further space in the subject line to mention the name of the email newsletter - if this is applicable - and to give clues as to what's inside to entice the reader in.

Don't trigger spam filters

Clients often ask, what triggers spam filters? Because there are a variety of filters used at both ISP and company IT levels it's hard to define, but email newsletter subject lines do often trigger them. Do sensible things such as avoiding the use of a series of dollar signs, "Hello" - with nothing else, putting all your subject line in capitals or a completely empty subject line. Testing a segment of your mailing list before doing a send will also point out any real problems - such as a really obvious low open rate.

Test your email newsletter subject lines

Split out a test list from your mailing list. What you send and when you send should be identical for both lists - except for the test list's subject line. That way you'll be able to compare results scientifically. If your database is large enough, separate a batch and test several email newsletter subject lines and use the one that performs best for the remainder of your mailing database.

Areas covered in this guide

• Introduction
• > Email newsletter subject lines
• Email newsletter layout
• Email newsletter content
• Personalised email newsletters
• Email call to action