By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief, Southern
Writers Magazine
What is on the subject
lines of emails you receive? What words written in that subject line cause you
to open that particular email?
I get about a hundred
emails every day, (yes, there are quite a few that are junk) on my personal
email account–not talking about my business emails –I’m talking about my
personal email. With so many emails coming in I can’t afford to leave these
emails there. If I didn’t take care of that account daily, I would have
hundreds stacked up.
Which emails will I open
first? Okay, you got me; obviously the first ones I open are going to be the
ones from people I know; family, friends, personal business people/companies. I
am going to respond to these and either delete afterwards or file if needed.
What about the emails
from people I don’t know, which ones will I open? This is an important
question.
We send out emails every
day. What will determine the opening of our email if the person doesn’t know
us?
The subject line. If
they don’t know you or me, the subject line is going to be what they look at
and that will determine if they open that email or if they automatically delete
it.
Do you remember Writers
Class 101? They drum into our heads, “Your first sentence must grab
the reader’s attention.”
It’s the same for an
email. If there are fifty emails sitting there, they are probably going to
peruse the subject lines. Is the subject line interesting? Is there a word,
and/or sentence, that grabs their attention? If it doesn’t, what are the odds
they will open the email?
In today’s busy world,
we are most likely going to eliminate emails based on their subject lines if it
looks like junk. But, if it looks interesting, we are going to open it and
begin…I said begin…to read. Whether we continue to read, depends on the
contents.
It might help you to
know that creating a good, attention grabbing subject line is not something we
are born with; we have to learn to write those.
This brings me to my
point. It takes time, effort, and creativity to write a subject line. Don’t
rush through it. Give it the same care you give your first sentence when
writing your novel.
Are you wondering why
you would take that kind of time? Simple. You want the person to read the
email. If the email is worth the time it took to write it and you want them to
read it, surely then, it is worth the time to create a subject line that is
going to make people want to click on the email and open it.
Think of it as a
newspaper item. Write a good headline, and people will read the article.
This is your shot. That
email is a one-time deal. If you grab their attention, they will open it…and
begin to read it.
