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Your Marketing Email: A Subject Line Checklist

Your potential clients and your clients are busy. Probably way more busy than they'd like to be. You know that because you're probably busy too.

So when you read a stat like the one from HubSpot where they share a report from Statista indicating that there are more than more than 306 billion emails are sent and received each day, it can discouraging.

How, in the face of that, you might wonder, can you make sure your potential readers open your email to read your content?

The short, truthful answer?

You can't. All you can do is to keep your focus on generating the most resonant content you can. On helping them solve the problem you help with and making it easy to read, integrate and ultimately, transform through your content.

There are, however, a few things you can incorporate (and a few to avoid) to try to help make your email stand out, authentically, from all the noise. Today I'm going to focus on your marketing email subject lines.

Here's a subject line checklist.

Be Sure Your Subject Lines…

  1. Are Resonant

    Make sure you have something in the subject line that will connect with or resonate with your reader. This can look like simply including the topic you're writing about. For example, that's what I did in this post that I'll email out. The post is about subject lines…the subject line is…..wait for it….the title of this post, which is "Your Marketing Email: A Subject Line Checklist."

    Resonant can also mean including words your clients respond to that relate to your topic. Maybe those are words like "magic" or "intuition" or "activism", "patriarchy" or words that speak directly to a problem you help them with like "stress" or "overwhelm" or "chronic pain."

    Making sure you use words that mean something to them and are focused on what they're focused on (getting relief from what they're struggling with) will help invite your readers to open your email.

  2. Contain Hints:

    While you don't always have to spell out what your email is about pedantically in the subject line, subject lines that don't have anything to do with the content of the email are annoying. Not only that, they erode your readers' trust. So make sure they contain at least a hint of what you're sharing.

  3. Are Specific, as needed:

    If you're reminding someone of a deadline, say that in the subject line. Or, for example, if you have an announcement for a new program, put that in the subject line too. Being specific when you can helps readers open the emails that matter to them. And it helps those in your audience who don't need to, keep on scrolling. This shows you respect your readers, value their time and are trying to make it easier for them to engage. All of which build trust.

  4. Sound Like You, the Real You

    This is true for your content overall and not just your subject lines. Make sure you use words and phrases the way you, the real you, would say them. If you don't, the energy of your content and your email marketing is going to be misaligned. So this means, for example, if you're a more subdued personality or you don't shout a lot, avoid ALL CAPS EMAIL SUBJECT LINES TO SHOW HOW EXCITED YOU ARE!!!!!!!!!!! about your new program. This goes for excessive exclamation points too!) Or maybe say, if you're in your 40's or 50's you don't try to create snap worthy Gen Z subject lines b/c well…TikTok unless that's how you talk.

    And, don’t be afraid to show your personality in your subject line too. For example, if you use emojis all the time when you text, include them here. If you like puns, why not incorporate those too? The trick here is to keep your subject lines, as well as the rest of your content, in alignment and sounding authentically you.

And here are a few things to avoid in your email marketing's subject lines.

Make Sure Subject Lines Aren't…

  1. Overly Clever

    I love language, and playing with language and coming up with a clever phrase is such fun. And, yet, while it might work, often it ends up feeling inauthentic when you read it in an email subject line, like the author is trying too hard to get you to open the email. And honestly, that just misses the mark. If you've had to stretch to come up with it, consider letting it go and opting for something simpler.

  2. Coach-y

    There are buzzwords in every industry, and the coaching industry is no exception. When I work with clients and their messaging, I tell them staying away from coach-speak is paramount if they want their work to connect in any way with people who aren't already coaches.

    So consider staying away from saying things like "manifest your dreams" "live your best life" "your essential self wants this" and so on in your subject lines.

  3. Click-y

    Ugh, clickbait subject lines. You know the ones, right? The subject lines that are designed to manipulate your reader's natural curiosity and get them to open the email when the topic itself may be only tangentially related.

    Signs you might be creating clickbait emails are including words or phrases like "Secret(s)" or "then this happened" or "you'll never believe…" I know you wouldn't intentionally set out to trip up your readers – but sometimes looking around at what others are doing can seem like you should be doing it that way too.

Building your audience takes time, and it takes trust. So, while you can’t make anyone open your email and engage with your content, bringing some care and thought to creating your subject lines can help. Making sure your email’s subject lines are resonant, specific when needed and sound like you is super important. So is avoiding too much manufactured cleverness, coach speak and click bait.

There is so much marketing hype out there that tells you the only thing you need to focus on in email marketing getting your open rates up - but that's missing the whole point. Who cares if your open rates are up, but your clients don’t connect with your message or with you or your energy or ultimately your business?

By keeping these few simple guidelines in mind when choosing a subject line, you can put your energy where it really belongs, in creating content that connects with and helps your ideal clients.

Photo by Gérôme Bruneau on Unsplash