Subject Line Awareness

The biggest concern among most email marketers is that their emails will be marked as spam and never reach their intended audience. The most efficient way to avoid this is to optimize your subject line. Certain words such as ‘free’, ‘offer’ and ‘discount’ raise red flags for most email clients. There are open source programs such as SpamAssassin that calculate the possibility that an email is spam. It scores emails on a scale from 0 – 5 based on it’s subject line and content. The higher your score is, the more likely it will be considered spam. If you use a subject line that is safe such as ‘Weekly Newsletter #1’, ‘Weekly Newsletter #2’ and so forth, stick with it. Witty subject lines sometimes confuse users and will in turn report you to their ISP. That’s not to say that you have to completely avoid catchy subject lines, but there’s a very fine line between ‘catchy’ and ‘spammy’.

As it stands now, there is no sure-fire formula to creating a consistent subject line. If you’re lacking inspiration, pick up your local newspaper. Articles usually highlight the story’s most important features. Also remember to always get to the point with your subject line. If you mislead your audience, they may lose confidence in your brand. Lastly and most importantly, TEST your emails as much as you can to ensure their rightful delivery. This is the only way to determine trends and styles that work for you.