A Peek Inside My Inbox: Why Subject Lines Matter

It’s no coincidence that magazine publishers have entire departments dedicated to the cover of the monthly publication. What image will appear? How will it be laid out? And, perhaps most importantly, what headlines will make it to the cover?

Headlines in magazines are what we see on the newsstand that (hopefully) draw us in to read an article or two and buy a copy to take home. Well written headlines can pull a reader’s attention away from another publication right next to it on the display or even ultimately help a potential customer decide to take one magazine home over another.

On the other hand, a poorly written (or poorly executed) headline can leave certain magazines gathering dust on the newsstand. They can turn people off from wanting to even flip a copy open in the checkout line or end up having that magazine categorized as “trash” by the readers.

And even though there are dozens, if not hundreds, of magazines in various genres, those publishers know that the headlines on the cover are key to getting their magazine in front of their target reader.

Magazine headlines and email subject lines have a lot in common.

Over the last few years, I’ve studied magazine headlines in an attempt to understand them and put them to use in my own content marketing strategy. While print and web strategies may vary in several other areas, headline strategy is consistent across the board. Have a headline that piques interest, your post is more likely to be read. Have an email subject line that stands out, your email is more likely to be opened.

And since we all want our emails to be opened, read, and responded to, in the famous words of Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music…

“Let’s start at the beginning…”

Remember the last time you got a real card in the mail? It stood out from the junk mail and bills with it’s light blue envelope, printed address, a stamp chosen just for you, and maybe even a little gold foil seal on the back. It was personal from the moment it hit your mailbox and I bet you opened it before you tended to those bills, didn’t you?

Emails are no different and that personal touch truly matters. Let’s look at some examples of initial email confirmation emails inside my inbox:

See those subject lines? Which ones stand out as emails you’d like to open?

Even without the first name personalization (which is a feature available within ConvertKit broadcasts and sequence emails, btw), I’m drawn in on Nikki Elledge Brown’s “Here’s your cheat sheet!” And Jonny Nastor’s “Welcome to Hack the Entrepreneur”.

So why do the basic “Confirm your subscription” emails not jump to the front? It’s simple: they seem like more work to do. And if there’s anything I know about humans these days is that we want to do as little work as possible. While we did choose to head to your website and fill out the form and while some email providers (and even countries such as Canada) require double opt ins, that certainly doesn’t mean the subject line of the email has to be boring!

Let’s take a peek at a double opt in incentive email from our Canadian friend, Joanna Wiebe:

Check out that personalized subject line: “Hi! Confirm your email address to git yer goods”

Pretty ironic from a copywriter…. makes me want to open it and learn more about this pro who loves to break (and make) the rules herself.

Then once I’ve clicked and made it inside, the personal nature continues. Joanna relates her ‘confirm subscription’ button to downloading her book for free, reminding me why I signed up for her email list in the first place.

Who Are You, Again?

Most of your subscribers are not going straight from filling out your form and then heading over to their inbox to patiently wait for your email and then confirm their subscription — no matter how detailed you get about it on your thank you page. They sign up and then they read another blog post or hop on a call with a client or eat lunch or post a picture to Instagram or put the kids down to bed or write their own blog post. THEN they go into their inbox.

Look, if I can’t remember what I had for breakfast yesterday, I likely can’t remember who you are in my inbox.

More points for Joanna on this one. Take a peek at how her “from” name shows up for me:

By reminding me that she’s Joanna at Copy Hackers, I am 98.2%* more likely to open this email than if she had written Joanna Wiebe (because I may not remember who that is).

*stat is a rough estimate and entirely subjective

So Joanna has that friendly, personal vibe down for that initial intake and you can learn from her there. But what kind of subject lines get attention long term?

Keep It Simple, Shorty

Here’s a set of subject lines from one of my inbox folders, all from the same day:

When it comes to attention grabbing, the short and direct subject lines really draw you in. They act like white space in an email inbox and aren’t as visually overwhelming. In a busy inbox, you want your subject lines to stand out and grab the viewer’s eyes. Shorter subject lines say “Hey, hello! I’ll be easy to read!” and we’re naturally drawn there first.

On the other hand, longer subject lines give more details. They tell the reader more of what they’re getting when they click inside. They show deep thought invite the reader to settle in a bit. They’re less “headline” and more “part of the story”. Just remember that if your customer is reading your email on mobile (which 65% of people do), they can likely only see the first 50 characters of whatever you write.

Subject Lines Are Just The Beginning

Your subject lines can be direct, playful, personalized, curiosity-inducing, or drive a call to action. They can ask questions or even be a little “click-baity” (I kinda hate myself for writing that but it’s true).

But with all good stories emails, a headline is only the beginning. Once your emails are opened, the content inside and the action the reader is invited to take weigh in with equal importance. It’s the action that your subscribers take from your emails that truly makes the difference.

So while it may be true that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover, you can certainly judge an email by its subject line. How do yours stack up?

Want to see how we do with our own subject lines? Enter your email address below to join the growing list of bloggers and business owners who want a better way to do email marketing — The ConvertKit Way.