{"id":2010,"date":"2024-02-06T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.ironmarkusa.com\/write-email-subject-lines\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T11:56:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:56:19","slug":"write-email-subject-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ironmarkusa.com\/write-email-subject-lines\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Write an Email Subject Line that Doesn\u2019t Suck"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t<div id=\"acf-block-post-summary-block_2fa8dca6fa7b280e5992f8967cdab61e-3904689216\" class=\"ironmark-post-summary acf-block has-background has-brand-4-background-color wp-block-acf-post-summary\">\n\t\t<div class=\"acf-innerblocks-container\">\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong><mark style=\"background-color:#38C6F4\" class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">Highlights:<\/mark><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Keep email subject lines short, personalized, and benefit-driven.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use action-oriented language.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Create urgency or curiosity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Avoid spammy words and capslock.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Keep reading to learn more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<\/div>\t<\/div><!-- #acf-block-post-summary-block_2fa8dca6fa7b280e5992f8967cdab61e-3904689216.ironmark-post-summary acf-block has-background has-background has-brand-4-background-color -->\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here you are! You\u2019re ready to promote a webinar, keep customers updated with a newsletter, or invite contacts to a conference. All you need is for people to go to your site and register, sign up, or act in some way. So, you send out an email to let the world know you are ready to change their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SENT! The email is now in the hands of your current and prospective customers. You watch over the next few days to see how many people are clicking on your email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then. Nothing. No one clicked on it. Why?? The most likely reason is that you didn\u2019t write a good enough email subject line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.hubspot.com\/marketing\/best-email-subject-lines-list\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HubSpot<\/a> tells us 65% of surveyed marketers say subject lines have the greatest impact on open rates. With that in mind, here is how to write an email subject line that doesn\u2019t suck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-alt-serif-font-family wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Related: <a href=\"\/ways-to-design-an-effective-email\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Five Ways to Design an Effective Email.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Know Your People<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It goes without saying the best marketing speaks directly to the prospect, using language and tone that resonates. So know your audience! This is truer than ever since generational gaps appear in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2022\/12\/12\/gen-z-work-emojis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">how you punctuate<\/a>. For instance, consider no ellipses for Gen Z because those dots can be interpreted as passive aggressive. And no periods at the end because it can sound cold. Choose emojis that are more ironic than earnest. Speak their language. Which brings us to\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Avoid All Caps Like the Plague<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When you\u2019re texting someone, ALL CAPS IS THE SAME AS YELLING AT THEM! No one likes to be yelled at, so your email subject lines need to be sans CAPS. Some have argued CAPS makes your email stand out. Yes, but it stands out in the worst way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Personalize<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">People love seeing their own name in print. According to &#8220;The Power of Personalization: 2021 Email Marketing Report&#8221; by Campaign Monitor, personalized email messages get an open rate 29% higher and a click-through rate 41% higher than non-personalized messages. Powerful stuff. And if you don\u2019t have a customer list yet, you can also try adding words like \u201cyou\u201d and \u201cyour\u201d so the <a href=\"\/7-event-email-marketing-insider-tips\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">email speaks to them directly.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Shorter is Better<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.hubspot.com\/marketing\/email-marketing-stats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">55% of people<\/a> open their email on a mobile device. So it\u2019s important to make sure your email subject line is fully readable on mobile. This means your subject line needs to be less than 50 characters, which will keep it from getting cut off. This is also true from a marketing perspective. How many times have you read something SO long you lost interest and quit reading? See the point?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-alt-serif-font-family wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.ironmarkusa.com\/email-list-resurrection\"><strong>Related: <\/strong><\/a><\/span><a href=\"\/email-drip-campaign\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">Why Email Drip Campaigns are Crucial to Your Success.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Don\u2019t Be Afraid to Tell<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some companies are afraid to say what is in the email and give away the message. They fear the recipient won\u2019t have a reason to click. This could not be farther from the truth! It is more likely someone WON\u2019T click on an email if they don\u2019t know what it\u2019s about, especially as people try to protect themselves against phishing scams and other cybersecurity threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You must tell them why they want to open the email: what it is, what it does, and how it does it. For example: Instead of \u201cI know a secret \u2014 click to find out what it is,\u201d this could be changed to \u201cThis is a secret discount offer, only for you, #Name.\u201d This is much more appealing because the person knows it is a store discount geared towards them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"font-size: 46px; color: #000000;\">Now You Can Slay Your Subject Line<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you want to avoid having to remember all of these tips, then you could always hire Ironmark! We stay on the cutting edge of what works and what doesn\u2019t, and we track all emails for effectiveness. We will handle your email campaigns so you won\u2019t have to worry about bad email subject lines again. <a href=\"https:\/\/imk.ironmarkusa.com\/contact\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">Contact us today to see how we can help!<\/span><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here you are! You\u2019re ready to promote a webinar, keep customers updated with a newsletter, or invite contacts to a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":2011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-2010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-industries","tag-digital-marketing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ironmarkusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ironmarkusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ironmarkusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ironmarkusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ironmarkusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2010"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/ironmarkusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9094,"href":"https:\/\/ironmarkusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2010\/revisions\/9094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ironmarkusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ironmarkusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ironmarkusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ironmarkusa.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}