You’re crafting an email. You want someone to KNOW something or DO something. If you’re taking the time to write the message, you certainly want it to be READ. Otherwise, why bother? Have you ever really thought about how important the email subject line is? It’s crucial actually! It’s the difference between an email being opened, or being deleted, simple as that! Let’s take a deeper dive into some reasons for this, other than a professional first impression. Let’s give the subject line’s importance the time, credit, respect, and appreciation it deserves for being such a vital part of effective communication. 1. SHORT. INFORMATIVE. SPECIFIC. Make sure the subject line is ALL of these! It gives clear context of the email in a nutshell. To illustrate, here’s a purposefully boring example of the progression: Short- Subject: Appointment Informative- Subject: Cancelled Appt Specific- Subject: 7/20/24 Cancelled Appt A well written subject line should immediately give the recipient an understanding of the email’s content and urgency at a glance. Keep that in mind! When you can, use well known abbreviations to make this as short as possible. First glimpses only show a few characters, especially when viewing email on a mobile device. Which we all do…all the time! Scrolling and deleting…all day. 2. Open Rates. What’s the point of writing an email if no one is actually going to open it? You want it to be opened! That is the FIRST goal! Compelling subject lines pique interest out of curiosity, emotion, flattery or self-interest (solving their problem). Make it irresistible! 3. Searchability. I never really thought about this one. Having key words in the subject line makes it easier to search for them later. Improving email organization and retrieval for both sender and recipient. How thoughtful of us! There’s less anxiety when we know we can find something almost immediately. And it’s way better than searching for emails by date. TIP: Careful not to use words in the subject line that are typically associated with spam. Certain words could trigger spam filters, landing your email directly there…in SPAM…never having reached the recipient’s inbox. Follow up! Seems basic, I know. But sometimes we need to be reminded of the little things that make a big difference. This is one of them! Take full advantage of the subject line, ALWAYS! Don’t leave it blank. Don’t fill it with lame, useless, or redundant information. Will we nail it every time? Nope! But it’s there for us…why not use it well? |