Email Subject Lines Influence Open Rates

By Chelsea Junget

As prospect’s inboxes fill with all types of messages throughout the day, including personal, business and dreaded spam, users scan subject lines to determine what to open. To increase your email open rates, carefully crafted subject lines are essential.

Let’s take a look at subject line length.

Email users need to quickly decide if an email is worth opening by gleaning the point of the message right away. Research from email marketers suggest that subject lines be no longer than 80 characters. Others say 35 characters should be the cut-off. So what’s the rule? There isn’t one! As always, an A/B test should reveal what your subscriber list responds to best.

Epsilon’s 2009 whitepaper examining subject line length and open rates reinforces the hunch that shorter subject lines drive better email performance. However, it is not a hard and fast rule. Instead, they suggest that word order and content may be more influential than subject line length. Placing the most important words in the beginning of the subject line may be the most important thing to keep in mind when crafting subject lines. “Sale on Flip Flops at Corner Shop” is a short 27 characters, but the point of the message is right up front: SAVINGS!

Share your experiences with subject line length in the comments.

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