067 The Psychology Behind Winning Email Subject Lines

A good email subject line will remind you what it’s like to taste blood in your mouth. What it was like lying on your back, dizzy and nausea. Granted, it’s a fleeting moment.

Normal, healthy people’s BS detectors kick in after 4 or 5 seconds. By that time, though, it’s too late. They’re hooked. They want inside.

They want inside because you tapped into a deep, very human emotion. Fear. Greed. Pride. Love. Security. Curiosity.

The unbreakable law of the web applies to your inbox, too: people blaze through there like it were an autobahn. And they blaze on the autobahn to do one thing … look at billboards … subject lines. They open what interests them and they delete the rest.

A great email subject line will assert itself and demand attention. What are the best practices?

Here are a few.

In this 9-minute episode you’ll discover how to:

  • Be specific
  • Use questions marks
  • Use percentages
  • Be personal
  • Go weird
  • Borrow credibility from a big name
  • Pillage your spam folder

The Show Notes

The Psychology Behind Winning Email Subject Lines

Voiceover: This is Rainmaker.FM, the digital marketing podcast network. It’s built on the Rainmaker Platform, which empowers you to build your own digital marketing and sales platform. Start your free 14-day trial at Rainmaker.FM/Platform.

Demian Farnworth: Howdy dear web writer. This is Rough Draft, your daily dose of essential web writing advice. I am Demian Farnworth, your host, your muse, your digital recluse, and the Chief Content Writer for Copyblogger Media.

And thank you for sharing the next few minutes of your life with me.

Okay. So I’ve got something a little different for you this week. Because this week is answering reader questions week. I’ve got four questions. Four separate episodes.

Today I’m going to address Art Wiseman’s question, a question he sent me on Twitter. He asked me to talk about email subject lines … and open rates.

So, now that you know what you are in for today and this week … on to the show …

Early in the morning a number of years ago, as I was settling into my desk and lugging down a little coffee, this rather startling email subject line ended up in my inbox.

It said. “Don’t **** with me.” Fill in the blank with an F-bomb.

In an inbox cluttered with email this is the one I paid attention to, four mono-syllabic words nearly made me wet my pants. That would’ve been embarrassing … especially when you find out what the email was about.

My reaction to that email was deep. It hit something very basic. Very primal.

Effective subject lines do that. Not unlike great headlines. It’s almost like a punch in the teeth. It jars loose old memories.

A good email subject line will remind you what it’s like to taste blood in your mouth. What it was like lying on your back, dizzy and nausea.

Granted, it’s a fleeting moment.

Normal, healthy people’s BS detectors kick in after four or five seconds. By that time, though, it’s too late. They’re hooked. They want inside.

They want inside because you tapped into a deep, very human emotion. Fear. Greed. Pride. Love. Security. Curiosity.

The unbreakable law of the web, what we talked about in episode 3, applies to your inbox, too: people blaze through there like it were an autobahn. And they blaze on the autobahn to do one thing … look at billboards — subject lines. They open what interests them — delete the rest.

Best Practices for a Great Email Subject Line

A great email subject line will assert itself and demand attention. And what are the best practices? Here are few:

Be Specific – “Eliminate $3,000 in Debt in Just 32 Days.” “1,283 Cheap and Vaguely Fun Lessons about Losing.” “493 picnic foods you should avoid when your partner is in an extraordinary state of terror.”

Use Question Marks – “Can We Really Trust These Productivity Tips?” “Want Powerful People to Notice You?” “What In the World Is Wrong with These Bloggers?”

Question marks toy with people’s curiosity. And make sure you ask questions that makes it hard for people to say “no” and move on.

Use Percentages – 78% of runners died at this distance. The secret to open rates above 50%.
Be personal. Use the first name, or, simply say YOU or YOUR. “Will People Trust Your Copy If You Don’t Do This?” “Demian, Do This When a Big Project Paralyzes You.”

Go Weird – Like the email subject line I shared in the opening, “Don’t **** with me.” Or something like, “Here’s my absurd Writing Claim.” Make an unusual statement. Even make up a word: “The Devil-Leather Way to Write Faster.” Who knows what that means, but it’s provocative.

Borrow Credibility from a Big Name – “Elon Musk Said This about Me.” “Even Stephen King Couldn’t Do This — Can you?” “Richard Branson’s Guide to Surviving an Amish Bathhouse.”

Pillage Your Spam Folder – Watch your own inbox and spam folder for inspiration and persuasive subject lines. If anything catches your eye, mark it for reference later…then copy that sucker. Segment the list.

Ultimately, keep this rule of thumb in mind: What works for headlines, works for emails. I’ll drop a link to a number of the episodes on headline writing.

Open Rates and Why They Differ between Industry

So, the second part of Art Wiseman’s questions was asking about open rates. For those who don’t know, the open rate is a percentage that tells you how many successfully delivered emails were opened by subscribers.

Here’s the thing open rates; they differ between industry.

For example, open rates for daily deal type emails is around 13%. Open rates for hobbies, however, tend to be a lot higher at 29%.

I dropped a link to MailChimp’s benchmarks.

There is another important metric, however, that you should be measuring when testing subject lines: the click-through rate. “The click-through rate is a percentage that tells you how many successfully delivered campaigns registered at least one click.”

I’ve also dropped a link to a MailChimp benchmark numbers for click-through rates, too. Check out the show notes.

Don’t Ignore Emails

Listen, email is not to be ignored. It is NOT the backwoods cousin to blogging or podcasting or social media …

It’s a die-hard communication device. In fact, it’s the tried-and-true workhorse of digital marketers. See, you’ve won a significant battle when someone gives you their email address …because EVERYONE goes into their email inboxes.

It’s a very intimate space.

Speaking of being inside an email, remember the email subject line I opened this episode with? It said “Don’t **** with me.” Do you think I opened it? You bet I opened it up.

Know what it said? All it said was, “I’m sick as a dog.”

Because of the “From” field I naturally knew who it was. Someone in the cubicle next to me who we loved to toy with. A guy normally okay with our shenanigans, this time or buddy wasn’t. He wanted to be left alone. Because he was sick.

And left him alone we did.

Now, stay tuned for tomorrow’s episode, where we answer Bonnie David’s question about About pages.

Until then, take care.