By now you probably know that I firmly believe that email is still the Internet’s killer app. And If we spoke a while back about email subject lines, it’s very likely that I would have told you that using the recipient’s name in the subject line is a good strategy. I might even have argued that it falls in line with the personalisation of marketing content, and you absolutely need to be doing it.
I apologise. That was then.
Today everyone knows that this tactic isn’t personal. It’s been used so often, that it doesn’t hold that novelty anymore.
Instead of using the recipient’s name, use the name of someone they know. The subject line “Zeina recommended I get in touch with you.” is a pretty decent way to grab the attention of someone who knows Zeina.
The catch here is that you need to know that your recipient knows Zeina. This means you need to have Zeina in your database; which means you need to go beyond the name, without being a creep. So you have to do it gradually.
Here are 12 tips for creating the best email subject lines.
And here is a nifty tool to help you create click-worthy subject lines.
