When it comes to email marketing, the number one thing we marketers care about is conversions. But if your recipients don\u2019t open your email, you sure as hell ain’t getting any click-throughs and conversions. <\/span><\/p>\n For every marketing email you compose, strive to write a clear, concise, and intriguing subject line that avoids buzzwords. The following best practices will help you get there.<\/span><\/p>\n To start, put on your thinking cap and get creative. Skim through the content of your email and use your intuition to determine the key message you\u2019re communicating. Use this as the basis of your subject line. <\/span><\/p>\n Now think about the styles of subject lines that make YOU want to open an email. There are various types you can use to get your target audience’s attention. <\/span><\/p>\n Lists are an effective way to catch your recipients\u2019 eyes. Numbers stand out from words visually, plus people are curious to discover what the list includes. If you\u2019ve written blog posts or hosted webinars<\/a>, you\u2019ve likely used this tactic before. When your email highlights a blog post or webinar that uses lists, showcase that list in your subject line.<\/span><\/p>\n A question in your subject line inadvertently creates a call-to-action. Your recipients are more likely to open the email to get the answer, or simply gain a better understanding of why you\u2019re asking. Questions can also cause your recipient to pause for a split second to consider their own answer.<\/span><\/p>\n For Vendasta\u2019s weekly newsletter, two of the top three open rates were from subject lines posed as questions. For example, our best email subject line was \u201cWho’s your best salesperson?\u201d, a question we used to highlight the new salesperson leaderboard functionality we released that week. Coming from a personal email address (i.e., our VP of Sales, George Leith), this question undoubtedly intrigued our recipients. \u201cWhat could this email be about?\u201d \u201cWhy is Vendasta\u2019s VP of Sales asking me about my salespeople?\u201d \u201cWho <\/span>is <\/span><\/i>my best salesperson?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n When sending from a personal email address, you give yourself a little more flexibility with subject lines. Conversational subject lines are written in a way that makes an email appear as if it\u2019s a casual message delivered personally by the sender. This tactic is especially useful for sales campaigns, where the emails are sent by the salesperson assigned to your partners. For a Vendasta sales campaign, we used the subject line \u201cQuick question,\u201d a simple, casual and personal phrase. This subject line, combined with a familiar sender, garnered a 45.0% open rate (where the call-to-action was a simple reply to the email).<\/span><\/p>\n Your target audience is unique, so try different styles to discover what works best for them. You might consider trying these other unique subject line styles:<\/span><\/p>\n Recap: Determine your topic, try new styles every week and discover what styles are most successful for your target audience. If you\u2019re using the same subject line for every version of your newsletter, you might notice that your open rates begin to decrease over time. Here\u2019s where I\u2019d like to share a valuable email marketing secret<\/a>: The #1 best practice for writing effective subject lines is\u2026 describing the subject of your email. Since you write unique content every week, your email subject line should always be unique and relevant. Use a different subject line for every email in your campaign, and ensure it describes your content.<\/span><\/p>\n The problem a lot of marketers have with writing effective subject lines is that they feel this sort of irresistible urge to highlight too much of their content directly within the subject. This is a problem because recipients already get bombarded with marketing emails every day, and many of those emails also contain 60+ characters in the subject line. When your recipients skim through their emails and take that split second to scan your subject line, you need to stand out.<\/span><\/p>\n Vendasta Yesware found that shorter subject lines do not result in greater open rates. And those findings are relevant, to an extent. For Vendasta\u2019s weekly newsletter, we found that the rather lengthy 50-59 character range has actually been <\/span>most <\/span><\/i>effective, with a 24.91% open rate. But I wouldn\u2019t recommend a subject line longer than 60 characters because most email clients will truncate the rest of your subject, and that will obviously take away from your message. For Vendasta, subject lines over 60 characters have landed us our worst average open rate\u201421.56%.<\/span><\/p>\n To ensure your subject line fits on all smartphone screens, you should try to keep your subject line under 40 characters. Again, anything more than that may be truncated, meaning you won\u2019t get your entire message across. And when more than 50% of emails are opened on mobile devices, your subject line\u2019s appearance on mobile matters, big time.<\/span><\/p>\n Keep in mind: <\/b>Conciseness matters. When you convey the same message in fewer words, your subject line will be more compelling. <\/span><\/p>\n Personalized subject lines garner 26% higher unique open rates than non-personalized subject lines (<\/span>Experian<\/span><\/a>). This statistic truly depends on your industry, company and recipients. But generally speaking, when your recipients see their company name, city name, software usage details, etc., they recognize those details and feel that much closer to your message. Essentially, they feel like they\u2019re getting some sort of special treatment.<\/span><\/p>\n At Vendasta, we used the subject line \u201cA First Look at [Company_Name]’s Virtual Doorway\u201d for another sales campaign. This personalized subject line (again, with a familiar sender\u2014the assigned salesperson) achieved a 42.1% open rate (with a 24.1% CTOR).<\/span><\/p>\n Keep in mind: <\/b>Industry best practice is to vary your subject lines between personalized and non-personalized to ensure you don\u2019t come across as spammy, especially when you\u2019re using the same piece of information to personalize your message. <\/span><\/p>\n You must be cautious and strategic when choosing keywords for your subject line. Buzzwords can boost your open rates, hurt your open rates, or simply land your email in everybody\u2019s spam folder. Oh, and the results ultimately depend on the industry you do business in. Confusing right?<\/span><\/p>\n Words like \u201cfree\u201d or \u201ctrial\u201d will boost open rates in certain industries. However, keep in mind that when you combine these words with other buzzwords, like \u201csale,\u201d your email might get sent directly to spam folders. There are hundreds of these buzzwords that could redirect your blood, sweat, and tears to every marketer\u2019s worst fear: the spam folder. It\u2019s impossible to be aware of every spam trigger, so use your discretion. If you\u2019re really curious, do a Google search for \u201cspam trigger words.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n If your email doesn\u2019t automatically end up in the spam folder, your recipients might still see it as spam and mark it as such. U<\/span>se your judgment\u2014if it sounds spammy, it probably is.<\/span><\/p>\n Although some people see emojis in subject lines as a gimmick, others feel that these little graphics are a fun and effective way to stand out from other text-only subject lines. As a result, adding symbols to subject lines is a gutsy tactic with high risk\/reward potential.<\/span><\/p>\n The trick is to use an emoji that is highly relevant to your message. For example, \u201c6 hot sales tactics to try in 2016 ?\u201d. Irrelevant emojis in your email subject lines will not boost your open rates\u2014in fact, they\u2019ll probably hurt your rates. <\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s actually surprisingly easy to use symbols. Simply copy one from a free website like <\/span>FSymbols.com<\/span><\/a> and then paste it into your subject line.<\/span><\/p>\n Most symbols are supported in most email clients, including Gmail, Outlook 2007\/2010\/2013, Apple Mail, Android Mail and Yahoo! Mail. If a symbol is not supported, the recipient will see a \u2610 character instead, so make sure you\u2019re using a tool like Litmus to ensure your subject lines appear properly within these email clients.<\/span><\/p>\n Square brackets can help your recipients differentiate between what\u2019s a [Webinar], an [eBook] or a [Video]. For example, earlier this month, the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions blog sent me an email with the subject line \u201cIntroducing The Sophisticated Marketer\u2019s Guide to Content Marketing [eBook].\u201d They also sent me \u201cTop B2B Marketers Reveal How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Marketing Efforts [Video].\u201d This is the only way square brackets should be used. <\/span><\/p>\n Just like when you\u2019re brainstorming the title of a blog, eBook or white paper, writing multiple subject lines gives you the opportunity to compare and contrast what appears to be the most intriguing content. <\/span><\/p>\n As you write each subject line, challenge yourself to make the next one clearer and more concise. <\/span><\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve written 5-10 subject lines, ask a coworker (or two) to pick the subject line they find most effective. <\/span><\/p>\n No matter how many tips and tricks you read about subject lines, your target market is unique and will react to your subject lines as such. You need to find out what works for them. <\/span><\/p>\n A\/B testing<\/a> means comparing two versions of something to see which one performs better. Use this technique for your subject lines. Popular email marketing platforms<\/a> like MailChimp and Pardot allow you to essentially split your email into two versions, and then deliver each version to a percentage of your recipient list as a test. The version with the highest open rate is then sent to the rest of your recipient list.<\/span><\/p>\n Keep an eye on your email analytics to see how your subject lines affect open rates. By doing so, you\u2019ll gain a better understanding of what types of subject lines get the highest open rates for your target market. Keep in mind that there are several other factors that affect open rates, such as the sender, day and time. Monitor everything.<\/span><\/p>\n Back in the day, the subject line of Vendasta\u2019s weekly sales webinar invite read \u201cVendasta Weekly Webinar Invite.\u201d One day, the open rate dropped to an all-time low of 16.63%. Boy, those were dark days. But until we started monitoring our email analytics and testing new subject lines, we had no clue. Since varying our subject lines every week, our open rates for the webinar invite have ranged from 23.01% to 29.35%\u2014that\u2019s more than 300 extra opens per email.<\/span><\/p>\n As much as you and I strive to improve our open rates until we reach the impossible\u2014100%\u2014there\u2019s one thing holding us back: how open rates are measured. <\/span><\/p>\n Open rates require that an email is in HTML format and contains a tracking image (most marketing programs embed an invisible 1×1 pixel image within the content). If you\u2019re not sending in HTML format, it cannot be tracked. That\u2019s usually not an issue. But more commonly, your recipients\u2019 email clients may block images upon the initial load of the email. Although they\u2019ve opened the email, you will never know. <\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s where the click-through rate\u2014a super reliable email analytics metric\u2014comes in handy. Stay tuned for one of my upcoming email marketing blog post on CTRs. Until then, test out these email subject lines best practices for yourself. Leave a comment below to tell me what email subject line tactics you found particularly successful.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The following best practices will help you to strive to build a clear, concise and intriguing email subject line that avoids buzzwords and boost open rates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":121976,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"The subject line is the first thing a recipient looks at when they check their email. In fact, 35% of recipients open email based on the subject line alone (<\/span>Convince & Convert<\/span><\/a>). Of all the factors that affect your open rates, this is where you should be spending the majority of your time and energy. <\/span>\r\n\r\nWhen it comes to email marketing, the number one thing all of us marketers care about is conversions. But if your recipients don\u2019t open your email, you sure as hell ain't getting any click-throughs and conversions. <\/span>\r\n\r\nFor every marketing email you compose, you need to strive to build a clear, concise and intriguing subject line that avoids buzzwords. The following best practices will help you get there.<\/span>\r\n1. Experiment with different styles\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n
Email Subject lines with lists<\/h3>\n
![\"subject-lines-lists\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/07\/download-5-6.webp\")
<\/p>\nSubject lines with questions<\/h3>\n
Conversational subject lines<\/h3>\n
And more!<\/h3>\n
\n
<\/span><\/p>\n2. Use a unique subject line for every email<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"unique-subject-lines\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/07\/download-4-8.webp\")
<\/span><\/p>\n3. Keep your email subject line concise. <\/span><\/h2>\n
4. Personalize your subject lines<\/span><\/h2>\n
5. Be strategic with buzzwords in subject lines<\/span><\/h2>\n
6. Consider symbols\/emojis in subject lines<\/span><\/h2>\n
7. Use square brackets strategically <\/span><\/h2>\n
8. Draft 5-10 unique email subject lines <\/span><\/h2>\n
9. Use A\/B testing often<\/span><\/h2>\n
10. Monitor your email analytics religiously<\/span><\/h2>\n
11. Remember: Your open rates will never be perfect<\/span><\/h2>\n
1. Experiment with different styles\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\r\nTo start, you have to put on your thinking cap and get creative. Skim through the content of your email and use your intuition to determine the key message you\u2019re communicating. Use this as the basis of your subject line. <\/span>\r\n\r\nNow think about the styles of subject lines that make YOU want to open an email. There are a variety of different types you can use to get the attention of your target audience. <\/span>\r\n
Email Subject lines with lists<\/b><\/h3>\r\nLists are an effective way to catch your recipients\u2019 eyes. Numbers stand out from words visually, plus people are curious to discover what the list includes. If you\u2019ve written blog posts or hosted webinars<\/a>, you\u2019ve likely used this tactic before. When your email highlights a blog post or webinar that uses lists, showcase that list in your subject line.<\/span>\r\n\r\n
![\"subject-lines-lists\"](\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/04\/subject-lines-lists.png\")
\r\nSubject lines with questions<\/b><\/h3>\r\nA question in your subject line inadvertently creates a call-to-action. Your recipients are more likely to open the email to get the answer, or simply gain a better understanding of why you\u2019re asking. Questions can also cause your recipient to pause for a split-second to consider their own answer.<\/span>\r\n\r\nFor Vendasta\u2019s weekly newsletter, two of the top three open rates were from subject lines posed as questions. For example, our best email\u00a0subject line was \u201cWho's your best salesperson?\u201d, a question we used to highlight the new salesperson leaderboard functionality we released that week. Coming from a personal email address (i.e. our VP of Sales George Leith), this question undoubtedly intrigued our recipients. \u201cWhat could this email be about?\u201d \u201cWhy is Vendasta\u2019s VP of Sales asking me about my salespeople?\u201d \u201cWho <\/span>is <\/span><\/i>my best salesperson?\u201d<\/span>\r\n
Conversational subject lines<\/b><\/h3>\r\nWhen sending from a personal email address, you give yourself a little more flexibility with subject lines. Conversational subject lines are written in a way that makes an email appear as if it\u2019s a casual message delivered personally by the sender. This tactic is especially useful for sales campaigns, where the emails are sent by the salesperson assigned to your partners. For a Vendasta sales campaign, we used the subject line \u201cQuick question,\u201d a simple, casual and personal phrase. This subject line, combined with a familiar sender, garnered a 45.0% open rate (where the call-to-action was a simple reply to the email).<\/span>\r\n
And more!<\/b><\/h3>\r\nYour target audience is unique, so try different styles to discover what works best for them. You might consider trying these other unique subject line styles:<\/span>\r\n
\r\n \t
2. Use a unique subject line for every email<\/span><\/h2>\r\nIf you\u2019re using the same subject line for every version of your newsletter, you might notice that your open rates begin to decrease over time. Here\u2019s where I\u2019d like to share a valuable email marketing secret<\/a>: The #1 best practice for writing effective subject lines is\u2026 describing the subject of your email. Since you write unique content every week, your email subject line should always be unique and relevant. Use a different subject line for every email in your campaign, and ensure it describes your content.<\/span>\r\n\r\n
![\"unique-subject-lines\"](\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/04\/unique-subject-lines.png\")
<\/span>\r\n3. Keep your email subject line concise. <\/span><\/h2>\r\nThe problem a lot of marketers have with writing effective subject lines is that they feel this sort of irresistible urge to highlight too much of their content directly within the subject. This is a problem because recipients already get bombarded with marketing emails every day, and many of those emails also contain 60+ characters in the subject line. When your recipients skim through their emails and take that split second to scan your subject line, you need to stand out.<\/span>\r\n\r\nVendasta Yesware found that shorter subject lines do not result in greater open rates. And those findings are relevant, to an extent. For Vendasta\u2019s weekly newsletter, we found that the rather lengthy 50-59 character range has actually been <\/span>most <\/span><\/i>effective, with a 24.91% open rate. But I wouldn\u2019t recommend a subject line longer than 60 characters because most email clients will truncate the rest of your subject, and that will obviously take away from your message. For Vendasta, subject lines over 60 characters have landed us our worst average open rate\u201421.56%.<\/span>\r\n\r\nTo ensure your subject line fits on all smartphone screens, you should try to keep your subject line under 40 characters. Again, anything more than that may be truncated, meaning you won\u2019t get your entire message across. And when more than 50% of emails are opened on mobile devices, your subject line\u2019s appearance on mobile matters, big time.<\/span>\r\n\r\nKeep in mind: <\/b>Conciseness matters. When you convey the same message in fewer words, your subject line will be more compelling. <\/span>\r\n
4. Personalize your subject lines<\/span><\/h2>\r\nPersonalized subject lines garner 26% higher unique open rates than non-personalized subject lines (<\/span>Experian<\/span><\/a>). This statistic truly depends on your industry, company and recipients. But generally speaking, when your recipients see their company name, city name, software usage details, etc., they recognize those details and feel that much closer to your message. Essentially, they feel like they\u2019re getting some sort of special treatment.<\/span>\r\n\r\nAt Vendasta, we used the subject line \u201cA First Look at [Company_Name]'s Virtual Doorway\u201d for another sales campaign. This personalized subject line (again, with a familiar sender\u2014the assigned salesperson) achieved a 42.1% open rate (with a 24.1% CTOR).<\/span>\r\n\r\nKeep in mind: <\/b>Industry best practice is to vary your subject lines between personalized and non-personalized to ensure you don\u2019t come across as spammy, especially when you\u2019re using the same piece of information to personalize your message. <\/span>\r\n
5. Be strategic with buzzwords in subject lines<\/span><\/h2>\r\nYou must be cautious and strategic when choosing keywords for your subject line. Buzzwords can boost your open rates, hurt your open rates or simply land your email in everybody\u2019s spam folder. Oh, and the results ultimately depend on the industry you do business in. Confusing right? Use Adestra\u2019s <\/span>Email Subject Line Keyword Checker<\/span><\/a> to test your keywords against the buzzwords they\u2019ve researched. <\/span>\r\n\r\nYou\u2019ll find that words like \u201cfree\u201d or \u201ctrial\u201d will boost open rates in certain industries. However, keep in mind, when you combine these words with other buzzwords, like \u201csale,\u201d your email might get sent directly to spam folders. There are hundreds of these buzzwords that could redirect your blood, sweat and tears to every marketer\u2019s worst fear: the spam folder. It\u2019s impossible to be aware of every spam trigger, so use your discretion. If you\u2019re really curious, do a Google search for \u201cspam trigger words.\u201d <\/span>\r\n\r\nIf your email doesn\u2019t automatically end up in the spam folder, your recipients might still see it as spam and mark it as such. <\/span>Convince & Convert<\/span><\/a> found that \u201c69% of email recipients report email as spam based solely on the subject line.\u201d So use your judgment\u2014if it sounds spammy, it probably is.<\/span>\r\n
6. Consider symbols\/emojis in subject lines<\/span><\/h2>\r\nAlthough some people see emojis in subject lines as a gimmick, others feel that these little graphics are a fun and effective way to stand out from other text-only subject lines. As a result, adding symbols to subject lines is a gutsy tactic with high risk\/reward potential.<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe trick is to use an emoji that is highly relevant to your message. For example, \u201c6 hot sales tactics to try in 2016 ?\u201d. Irrelevant emojis in your email subject lines will not boost your open rates\u2014in fact, they\u2019ll probably hurt your rates. <\/span>\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s actually surprisingly easy to use symbols. Simply copy one from a free website like <\/span>FSymbols.com<\/span><\/a> and then paste it into your subject line.<\/span>\r\n\r\nMost symbols are supported in most email clients, including Gmail, Outlook 2007\/2010\/2013, Apple Mail, Android Mail and Yahoo! Mail. If a symbol is not supported, the recipient will see a \u2610 character instead, so make sure you\u2019re using a tool like Litmus to ensure your subject lines appear properly within these email clients.<\/span>\r\n
7. Use square brackets strategically <\/span><\/h2>\r\nSquare brackets can help your recipients differentiate between what\u2019s a [Webinar], an [eBook] or a [Video]. For example, earlier this month, the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions blog sent me an email with the subject line \u201cIntroducing The Sophisticated Marketer\u2019s Guide to Content Marketing [eBook].\u201d They also sent me \u201cTop B2B Marketers Reveal How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Marketing Efforts [Video].\u201d This is the only way square brackets should be used. <\/span>\r\n
8. Draft 5-10 unique email subject lines <\/span><\/h2>\r\nJust like when you\u2019re brainstorming the title of a blog, eBook or white paper, writing multiple subject lines gives you the opportunity to compare and contrast what appears to be the most intriguing content. <\/span>\r\n\r\nAs you write each subject line, challenge yourself to make the next one clearer and more concise. <\/span>\r\n\r\nOnce you\u2019ve written 5-10 subject lines, ask a coworker (or two) to pick the subject line they find most effective. <\/span>\r\n
9. Use A\/B testing often<\/span><\/h2>\r\nNo matter how many tips and tricks you read about subject lines, your target market is unique and will react to your subject lines as such. You need to find out what works for them. <\/span>\r\n\r\nA\/B testing<\/a> means comparing two versions of something to see which one performs better. Use this technique for your subject lines. Popular email marketing platforms<\/a> like MailChimp and Pardot allow you to essentially split your email into two versions, and then deliver each version to a percentage of your recipient list as a test. The version with the highest open rate is then sent to the rest of your recipient list.<\/span>\r\n
10. Monitor your email analytics religiously<\/span><\/h2>\r\nKeep an eye on your email analytics to see how your subject lines affect open rates. By doing so, you\u2019ll gain a better understanding of what types of subject lines get the highest open rates for your target market. Keep in mind that there are several other factors that affect open rates, such as the sender, day and time. Monitor everything.<\/span>\r\n\r\nBack in the day, the subject line of Vendasta\u2019s weekly sales webinar invite read \u201cVendasta Weekly Webinar Invite.\u201d One day, the open rate dropped to an all-time low of 16.63%. Boy, those were dark days. But until we started monitoring our email analytics and testing new subject lines, we had no clue. Since varying our subject lines every week, our open rates for the webinar invite have ranged from 23.01% to 29.35%\u2014that\u2019s more than 300 extra opens per email.<\/span>\r\n
11. Remember: Your open rates will never be perfect<\/span><\/h2>\r\nAs much as you and I strive to improve our open rates until we reach the impossible\u2014100%\u2014there\u2019s one thing holding us back: how open rates are measured. <\/span>\r\n\r\nOpen rates require that an email is in HTML format and contains a tracking image (most marketing programs embed an invisible 1x1 pixel image within the content). If you\u2019re not sending in HTML format, it cannot be tracked. That\u2019s usually not an issue. But more commonly, your recipients\u2019 email clients may block images upon the initial load of the email. Although they\u2019ve opened the email, you will never know. <\/span>\r\n\r\n