We’ve all done it; you open your emails in the morning and ruthlessly cull anything that doesn’t appeal, based on primarily one thing – the subject line.

The ‘right’ subject line can make or break the success of your Electronic Direct Marketing Campaign (EDM).  So, how do you ensure that YOUR email is the one that your customer actually opens?  The following article explores The Most (and Least) Effective Keywords in Email Subject Lines.

The subject of well – subject lines is absolutely crucial for any Marketer to understand. Marketing expert Mark Brownlow asks How much email do people really get?  The answer is hard to pinpoint, but on average, a Hotmail Inbox will receive between three to four marketing emails per day, meaning that competition is fierce (at the height of my consumer email fatigue I once received 42 marketing emails in the period of 48 hours, motivating me to hit UNSUBSCRIBE).

Therefore, using Keywords in your email subject lines is the way to ensure you cut through your competition to reach your customer and increase that conversion rate!

One factor that is often overlooked is the financial resources that your business as actually spent to get that EDM out there in the first place.  You had the marketing team come up with the concept ($$) who then translated it to the graphics department ($$) who then put a design together ($$) which was sent back and forth several times before it was finally approved ($$) Sound familiar? And THEN you had the cost of sending it.   So essentially – by not using the most effective keywords in your subject line, not only are you not reaching your customers – you are using A LOT of resources in the process (you may as well individually call each person!)

To improve your digital marketing, other than understanding what keywords work (See this related article from Jericho for ones to avoid) you must keep subject lines short, to the point, and accurately explains the subject matter of your email. It helps your recipients decide whether the email is relevant to them, and therefore whether they will take the time to open it and read more.