How to Write Great Email Subject Lines

One of the hallmarks of our ever-connected, 24-7-365 world is the overloaded email inbox. This ReadWriteWeb captures the point by citing these statistics:

*Average employee receives 350 messages per week
*Average executive receives over 300 messages per day

*Employees spend about 20 hours per week managing email

With all the messages competing for the attention and time of our customers, prospects and coworkers, we need to think about ways to make our emails stand out as important, useful and relevant to the recipients.

One key way is to write great email subject lines.

According to the experts at the email marketing service provider Mail Chimp , the best email subject lines are short, descriptive and give the reader a reason to further explore your message. The entire subject line should be 50 words or less and, unless you want to trigger the spam filter or chill open rates, those words should not include:

*Free
*Help
*Percent off
*Reminder

According to a post from the getting attention! blog, readers also respond well to subject lines that:

*Ask a question

*Offer a teaser

*Convey the facts

*Include the word “you”

Similarly, a post from copyblogger shares that readers respond to subject lines containing emotional triggers “because they speak to underlying desires and fears that nearly all of us have.”