Remember when you could easily secure a 90%+ delivery rate and 50%+ response rates to your emails? Those days are long gone.
People lose interest FAST when they’re processing HUNDREDS of emails every day. Not to mention the barrage of messaging apps and social media. If you want to have any chance of recipients opening your email and, more importantly, CLICKING ON IT AND RESPONDING, it’s critical to put some real thought into how you craft your message.
Here are the six core elements that go into a successful email campaign:
1. The sender: Do they recognize the name? If not, you’ll get a lower response and may get a bump in opt-out rates.
2. The format: In most cases, you want to send an email in a “pretty” graphic template, but instead have it look like a personal, one-to-one communication. There are exceptions, like when selling physical products (clothing, for example) or if the subscription is for a newsletter (like MSP Success). But even then, you do NOT want the graphics to overwhelm the message, pushing the lead, CTA (call to action), and link below the fold. (The “fold” is the point on an email or website where you have to scroll down to continue reading. The term comes from the newspaper industry.)
3. The subject line: This is the headline of your message and is extremely important to getting your email opened and read. People skim the sender and subject line and decide to open and read it based on that FIRST.
4. The lead: This is the opening sentence of your email.
5. The offer or CTA: What are you writing them about? What do you want them to do? Reply? Click?
6. The link: If you want them to click, you have to provide a link that is ABOVE THE FOLD, not buried down in the email.
I’m going to focus on writing an effective subject line, lead, and CTA—the keys to writing emails that get opened.
What You Need to Know Before You Start Writing
Before you start thinking about what kind of message will deliver the highest and best response, know this: If you are spamming people by pumping out emails to recipients who don’t know you and have never given you permission to email them, stop it. Now.
A responsive email list STARTS with ONLY emailing people who WANT to receive your messages and have given you permission to email them. They’ve subscribed by filling in a form on your website or they’ve responded to a marketing campaign.
Even so, if recipients become unresponsive and you continue to email them, you WILL hurt your sender’s score because inbox providers (Microsoft, Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) judge your reputation largely on recipient behavior. So when people you’re emailing aren’t opening or clicking and you continue to email them, you are an assumed spammer EVEN IF the people you’re emailing gave you permission to do so.
Set Your Expectations on Response Rates
If you’re playing fair and only email true permission lists, opt-out rates are still relatively small on average (under 1%) and bounce rates are also small (under 2% unless you’re spamming).
However, note these stats:
- The average open rate is only around 40% to 45%. Some report as low as 20%, which is typical for a list of prospects (not customers).
- The average CTR (click-through rate) is about 2% to 3%.
That means if you email 1,000 prospects, only 400 will look at it and eight will click—and that’s with a PERMISSION list of prospects that have willingly subscribed to your list.
Get the Subject Line Right
Now it’s time to write. The subject line is the first big determinant of whether or not your email will get opened. Here are a few mistakes to AVOID when writing a subject line:
Mistake #1: Capitalizing the first letter of every word
Capitalizing the first letter of every word in an email subject line instantly tells me “spam.” Why? Because that’s not how most personal email subject lines are written.
Mistake #2: Trying to sell
Here are a few real subject lines from spam emails I received that are trying to sell:
- Mobile App Development
- Boost B2B SEO Now
- Festival Delight: Get 60% Off Web Design
- Cost-Effective Web Development & Mobile Apps
- Accounting And Bookkeeping
As you can see, these also commit the first-letter-of-every-word-capitalized mistake AND they are coming from a complete stranger. This is the one-two knockout punch that kills ANY chance of me opening and responding to these.
Mistake #3: Being BORING
Another problem with the above subject lines is that they’re boring. The last thing anyone wants is to waste time on something totally irrelevant AND boring. Here are some other examples of subject lines that are BORING, even though they came from senders I know:
- A Buyer’s Guide To Unified Communications
- Press Moves Update – USA September 2024
- October Newsletter
- Tailored Lead Generation Strategies For You
Again, the capitalization mistake. This is because untrained amateurs trying to write copy ALWAYS go into “brochure speak” when they craft a marketing communication.
Here’s the key: Write your email like you’re sending it to ONE person, not a broadcast. If you were writing to someone you know, would you use any of these subject lines? Of course not. Your writing style would be entirely different: more casual, more natural.
Now let’s look at what some GREAT subject lines have in common.
Strategy #1: Create curiosity
All things being equal, curiosity is your BEST FRIEND when it comes to getting your emails opened (and clicked on). Here are some subject lines we’ve used that have been successful (note that the ones with “Robin” were personalized to the recipient).
- Robin, is this REALLY you in the photo?
- That voicemail I just left was horrendous
- I’m SO excited, my hands are shaking!
- Our office flooded (pics enclosed)
- I’m getting some hate over this…
- You WILL get left behind
- IMPORTANT (please read)
- I’m SO embarrassed about this
- WTF should I do now?
- This MSP added 41 new clients using “ugly” marketing
- How to write a blog post that goes viral
- The ONE WORD you should never say to a prospect
- One sign your IT company is FAILING you, big-time
- Forward this to your employees ASAP
- Are you okay?
- Is this Robin’s actual email?
Strategy #2: Personalization
When email marketers first figured this out and started personalizing subject lines, response rates went through the roof. Then everyone started using it, everyone became numb to it, and we’re right back to the usual open and response rates.
HOWEVER, strategic personalization does work in a subject line. As you can see, the example above—“Robin, is this REALLY you?”—uses personalization well. Obviously, it could be added to any subject line, but you don’t want to overuse it.
The person’s name is not the only personalization you can use in a subject line. For example, the company name or the person’s FULL name, zip code, city, or location are ALL ways to “personalize” an email to get a bump in open rates.
Gotcha!
Enticing a recipient with a great subject line is a good start. Next, you need to deliver a compelling message and prompt the recipient to take action. I’ll cover that in Part 2. Stay tuned!
