Two hundred and five billion emails are sent every day. That’s a lot of subject lines, both good and bad. Learning the best and worst tactics can help you stand out and move your projects forward with greater efficiency and ease. Here are some of the top blunders and principles for penning a winner.
Emoji Mania
We’ve all seen it. The smiley wave heart wink. It’s isolating and completely derails your message. If you want to love-bomb a colleague, or tell them how impressed you are by their work, tell it to their face, and use real emotions and expressions.
WeIRd CaPs SPelLInG
Though its intention is to grab attention, it comes across as an aggressive shout, punctuated by a juvenile attitude. Your message should be interesting and important enough to stand alone, without distracting capitalization.
The Faux Reply
Though it might seem like a stroke of genius, creating a subject line re: to kick off a new email thread is misleading and frustrating to the recipient. IT wont take them long to scroll down and see that there is no email history, and then you’ll swiftly be blacklisted.
Hi
This cues unoriginality, a lack of confidence and a lack of purpose. Hi is an invitation to automatically delete. And not just because it looks like spam. Own your subject with conviction and give it the gravitas it deserves.
So what should you do?
Keep It Short.
Subject lines that are 5 words long or more and opened 50% of the time.
Make It Personal.
If you can, reference what they have contributed or what your email is in reference to. For example ‘Your CV’, ‘Your Opinion on X,’ ‘Your Ideas for X’.
Show Gratitude.
Thank you emails work. They get opened, they get read and while they may not always be responded to, they do get remembered and lodged in the future.
Show Initiative.
Any email subject that references next steps will have a high open rate and high response rate.
