Create Email Subject Lines That Get CLICKED

According to Campaign Monitor, email marketing has an ROI of 4,400% with over 4 Billion people using email on a daily basis.

And according to Content Marketing Institute, Content Marketers rate email newsletters as their highest-performing resource for securing and nurturing leads.

Email marketing is the backbone of online business.

Problem is…

You could have the best ideas, content, and products but if your email subject lines suck, no one is ever going to know because they won’t open your emails.

With so many emails flooding inboxes, how do we make our emails stand out from the rest?

Good news for you, I used to have this problem so I studied what made good email subject lines that get clicked and I’ve been able to hold an average of 30% open rates on the emails I send to my list - sometimes even 80% open rates!

Today, I’m going to break down how I approach creating email subject lines that get clicked.

Let’s dive in!

What Makes An Email Subject Line Clickable

Great email subject lines all have these 3 things in common:

1. Cause curiosity in the reader
2. Are intriguing
3. Attention-grabbing

They do all of this while keeping things real, to the point, and on-topic.

The last thing we want to do is misuse clickbait.

“Clickbait” is a term commonly used in the online space where people create titles and headlines that attract attention and encourage readers to click on their content.

But there is a dark side to clickbait.

Let’s use YouTube as an example…

Back in the day, YouTube used to rank videos based on one metric - views.

People caught onto this and started creating video titles and thumbnails that were attractive to lots of people but when you clicked the video, you'd go something like this…

That’s BAD clickbait.

GOOD clickbait is where a title is attention-grabbing, causes intrigue, and curiosity in the reader but stays on topic and delivers on the content.

When it comes to writing email subject lines that get clicked, we also want to keep the subject line straightforward, short, and direct.

Ideally, we want people to see the entire title in their inbox and a great rule of thumb is to keep your subject lines under 40 characters.

Another great trick I’ve learned in terms of grabbing attention is to use emojis in your subject lines.

If you have a Mac, you can simply right-click your mouse and you’ll see an option to “add an emoji”. Just type in what you want and BOOM, you’re done.

If you don't have a Mac, you can always use Emojipedia to do the same thing.

The last tip when it comes to writing email subject lines that get clicked is to keep it simple and “less formal”, like your emailing a friend.

The easiest way to do this is by using lowercase letters.

Using too many capital letters in your subject lines is how to go to Spam City - then no one is going to read your emails.

Here’s an example from one of my best-performing subject lines (82% open rate)...

I said, “I wish I knew this when I started an online business 🤦”

This subject line performed so well for a couple of reasons:

• It’s short
• Attention-grabbing because the facepalm emoji adds drama
• Cause curiosity and intrigue because you want to avoid my mistakes yourself
• And it’s casual because I used lowercase letters.

How To Write Clickable Subject Lines Every Time

It’s pretty rare that I come up with a great email subject line off the top of my head.

What I like to do is learn from other people who have been successful and use their work as inspiration.

Here are a couple of ways to do that…

Follow your heroes for inspiration - I guarantee you have at least ONE person you follow and get regular emails from that you love to read. The next time you see their email, pause, and think about what it was that made you want to click.

Look up subject line examples - Almost every time I write my emails, I do the subject line last because it’s the “cherry on top” to my email. There’s a great resource I found from the peeps at SendInBlue.com. It’s 150 subject lines all categorized for you from personal to sales subject lines.

When you see what other people are using (and that’s working) you can get a lot of great inspiration and ideas from them. 

They don’t even have to be related to your niche!  

What’s more important is that you make it your own and use what I shared with you in this lesson.

Conclusion

Email subject lines are a huge part of building your online business. It’s still the #1 marketing tool used by companies of all sizes and isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

But you have to get people to click on your emails if you’re ever going to spread your message, share your ideas, or sell your products online.

Remember what makes a great email subject line:

• It causes curiosity and intrigue
• It's attention-grabbing
• It's short, straightforward, and direct
• It's casual, like you’re messaging a friend

And if you ever need some inspiration, check out the 150 email subject line examples here!

Take what you learned here, get out there, and start sending some emails!