How to Write a Perfect Catchy Email Subject Line
Most people know how to use email these days. It can be a lot simpler than calling someone at times because you have everything in writing. It can be a lot easier than sending a text message as well, as it is more acceptable to have large paragraphs in an email, rather than a few sentences in a text message.
But, how can you determine the next subject line for your email? If you include the wrong one, people will ignore what you have to say… or worse, delete it without reading it! If you don’t include a subject line, people may not even read what you have to say. After all, if you can’t even bother to include an Email subject line, you must not have anything all that important to say.
The body of an email can be easy to write – after all, you know what you have to say. Composing an email is oftentimes the easy part since those words tend to flow out of your head faster than we can keep up with! However, it can often be a struggle to determine a good Email subject line, which is the first thing a person sees in your email. Read on for tips about how to include great subject lines in your email!
Email Subject Line Best Practices
Communicate what you need
Are you trying to tell parents about your new service? Are you telling parents that your school is closing early for the day? Are you sending a weekly newsletter? This will change the tone of your subject line.
Even the subject line can communicate what you are trying to say, as well as determine how urgent your message is. A line like School Closed June 12 is not urgent, but gets the point across. A subject line like New Program! Children 4-6 Years Old! grab the attention of the parents reading the email.
Keep it short and sweet.
A subject line should not be the place to write your new novel. It should be 33-43 characters in length. This includes things like spaces and punctuation marks. School Closed June 12 uses 21 characters, while the subject line New Program! Children 4-6 Years Old! use 36 characters.
If it is too difficult to determine how many characters you are using, try making your email’s subject line 4-6 words. Keep it short and sweet – too short or too long, and people will be disinterested in reading what you have to say.
Use Emojis
We all love using emojis in our text messages to our friends and family. Did you know that you can use emojis in your subject lines as well?
Make sure that the emojis are used appropriately! For example, School Closed June 12 may include an emoji of the sun (since it is summer), or an emoji of a teacher. New Program! Children 4-6 Years Old! may include emojis of children smiling or an emoji of a smiling face.
Be sure to not use too many emojis, as this would make your email appear to be juvenile. If you use too many, your email will not be read since you won’t be taken seriously. However, emoji use would help your email seem more fun and whimsical, which will help you communicate what you need (as discussed in a previous section).
Format properly
As is the case with everything you type out, make sure that your email subject line uses proper formatting. For example, do not use several exclamation points or question marks in your subject line. This is a sure way to make sure no one reads what you have to say, as this looks like a spam email. It’s fine to use one – but do not use multiple.
Using improper formatting may have other effects too. For instance, if you type an email where all of your letters are capitalized, it will make it so the person receiving your email will think you are yelling at them. You do not want this, as you want people to read what you have to say without them getting defensive!
Be personal
When writing your email subject line, make the people receiving your email feel special. Using words like our and you will make this more personable, which means people will be likelier to read what you have to say.
Compare the following email subject lines: Open House on Thursday vs. You’re invited! Open house on Thursday! The former is very informational. The latter, however, would make the reader want to come to the open house!
Write the email first
Many famous authors, playwrights, and songwriters come up with their work before determining the title. This may be something for you as well if you are struggling to come up with a great subject line.
A lot of times when writing an email, you may have your thoughts jumbled and not quite ready to be sent out. By writing out the email before the subject line, you can get those thoughts out and then determine a proper subject using the above guidelines.
related article – How to Write a Newsletter for Preschool Parents