Do you have a low open rate in your emails? Your subject line may be the culprit. Subject lines need to be compelling so people open your emails, but they are often considered not as important as the body of the email. It's actually the opposite! Subject lines are the doorway to getting your email opened.

Think of subject lines as the front door teaser for what you’re going to share in your email. Obviously, the subject line needs to be relevant to what’s inside the email, but there are a few tricks you can use to get more opens. That’s what we’re going to be sharing with you today.

Are you struggling to improve your email open and click rate? Your subject line is the best way to grab the reader’s attention and increase the conversion rate. Your choice of subject line will depend on your audience and what you are trying to achieve with your email. With the inundation of email in our inboxes, the key is to know your audience and find a way to pique their interest.

A Quick Tip: Subjectline.com

I love using www.subjectline.com to check to see the rating of my subject lines. All you do is copy and paste your subject line into the platform, and it gives you a rating of how close it is to the best industry standards. It also gives you advice to improve your score to hopefully improve opens. I almost always use this tool before sending emails for my clients. The more you do it, the faster you learn how to write for better conversion. The best part is you get to check your subject lines for free!

6 Ways to Increase Opens & Clicks

Let’s go over a few subject line tricks that have increased open and click rates for my clients.

1. Fake mistake

According to Jay Schwedelsen, fake mistake subject lines generate more than 50% of opens on average. If you add “oops”, “uh oh”, or “yikes” to your subject line, people will naturally want to open to see the disaster. It doesn’t have to be a real disaster (unless that’s what it actually is). A fake mistake can be as simple as the example below. Seeing some sort of perceived mistake made by a business makes people want to open the email and see what happened. 

Example: Oops, You Almost Scrolled Past This

2. Comparisons

People love comparisons, and they want to know the answer to comparisons. They want to know your opinion. This is a great trick to use if you don’t have new content to promote. Take existing content that is related to one another, and make a comparison between the two.

Example: Solar Energy vs. Hydro-Powered Energy - Which is Better?

3. Dot Dot Dot...

Using dot, dot, dot is so compelling because you instinctively want to know how the sentence ends or where the story is going to go. These are great to use for large announcements or maybe to hype up a new product or service.

Example: The Keynote Speaker is...

4. Bookend emojis (first and last character of the subject line)

Studies have shown that emojis work for both B2B and B2C businesses. Put them at the beginning and end of your subject line to stand out from the competition. If you look in your inbox right now, how many subject lines have emojis? Not many companies are utilizing this strategy, which makes your emails stand out when you do. 

Example: 🏠How to Buy in This Housing Market🏠

5. Special characters () [] **

Special characters work similarly to emojis. Put asterisks, parenthesis, blocks, or anything else you can think of around the first word of your subject line to make it stand out. You can also put the first 1-2 words in all caps and with special characters to really set yourself apart.

Example: [LAST CHANCE] to Take Advantage of Our Sale

6. Lists

People love reading lists. How many times have you read a clickbait article because it was titled “top 5…”? People want to know what you put on the list and your opinion. 

Example: Top 7 Mistakes Businesses Make

These subject line tricks have greatly improved click rates for my clients. These proven strategies and techniques will work for you, too! Give them a try and see what works best for you. I always try new things with my clients’ emails to see if their open and click rates improve. I find that a quality subject line improves open and click rates. Test a few of these strategies, and discover what works best for your company.

Want to improve your email marketing strategy?

Rutkin Marketing is a HubSpot Solutions Partner and specializes in helping businesses hone in on their marketing strategy, create lead funnels, finetune their messaging, and grow their sales initiatives to drive revenue. The professional team at Rutkin Marketing can help you identify a strong selling and marketing strategy along with an execution plan and KPIs to measure your success in the platform you choose to use.