Email Subject Line Best Practices

To create the best content, you must keep your audience in mind and test different words and phrases to figure out what they prefer.

By reading this article, you'll learn how to write effective subject lines and how to test them.

Creating a catchy subject line

Try out these recommendations to create a subject line that will catch your recipient's attention. 

Use descriptive language

  • Use a direct and descriptive approach.
  • Avoid vague slogans
  • Consider communicating the benefits of your promotions or highlighting specific deals.

Make it short and sweet

  • Use a maximum of 9 words to meet the standard that considers how recipients scan their emails.
  • Subject lines of 55 characters or less are ideal.
  • The more accessible and faster it is for the recipient to read your subject line, the better.

Avoid Spam Triggers

  • Bad tabulation and ALL CAPS subject lines feel promotional and spammy.
  • Title case, or sometimes, even lowercase subject lines, can be more effective. 
  • Avoid Spam trigger words like "Free," "re:" "(reply)," "fwd," and exclamation points.
  • A lot of punctuation marks, such as those used in special characters, can make your email look spammy.

Subject lines, sender names, and preview texts tie together.

  • Make sure your subject lines and preview text make sense when read together.
  • Your preview text should complement your subject line.
  • Your subject line and preview texts should not contain repeats of your sender's name.

Test often 

  • You should continually test different elements of your subject lines, including length, emojis, and different emotional sentiments.
  • Take one aspect at a time and observe the results.
  • You can change a single word or the order of the words. Whether the subject line ends with one word, how the words are arranged, or how long it is.

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