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The subject line is the most important piece of your email marketing message. If it isn’t strong and interesting, your readers will never open the message. And if it contains the wrong words, it could get flagged as spam, meaning your emails won’t get delivered and you could get permanently blocked.

So, what can you do to improve your email subject lines? Here are 5 easy tips to get you started.

1. Keep it short—According to research from MailerMailer, emails with shorter subject lines significantly outperformed those with longer subject lines. There are a couple reasons for that. First, the average email carrier only displays 38 to 47 characters in the subject line. So, if your subject line is too long, some of it won’t even show up. Second, your readers are in a hurry. You need to give them as much information as possible in the fewest words as possible. Always edit your subject lines for brevity.
2. Brand it—A lot of people used to think that including the brand name in the subject line wasted too much precious real estate. Turns out they were wrong. According to a Silverpop study, subject lines with brand names in them were shared more often than those with just offers. And Marketing Sherpa’s study says that branded subject lines are among the most opened emails.
3. Make an offer—Discount offers and free product offers are 2 of the top 3 most-opened email subject lines. Subscribers love a good deal. Your offer needs to be strong enough to grab their attention and clear and concise enough to easily fit into the subject line. Like they say in The Godfather, “make him an offer he can’t refuse.” Just make sure you don’t include spammy words in your offer as this will cause your message to get blocked.
4. Don’t personalize—Another myth is that personalizing emails causes them to get opened more often. Turns out the opposite is true. Here’s another stat to consider:

• Emails that had only the subject line personalized (12.4% Open Rate & 1.7% CTR) did worse than those with no personalization at all (13.5% Open Rate & 2.7% CTR). -MailerMailer

     5.  Never stop testing—Every email marketing campaign is different. A tactic that works for one company may not work for you. The only way to find out what works best for you is to test different subject lines. Try running different formats alongside each other to see which gets better open rates and more click-throughs. Never stop testing!

Do you test different subject lines in your email marketing campaign? Has it helped you get more opens and conversions?

2010 is poised to be the year that email marketing and social networking become inextricably linked to each other. Savvy marketers know that leveraging social media can help spread their messages further than ever before, creating a viral effect that results in increased brand awareness and more sales.

Don’t believe that social email marketing is important or useful? Here are a few stats from Email Stat Center to consider:

• 20% of Facebook, MySpace and/or Twitter users have posted or shared something from permission email to their social account(s) via a “share” option. – Merkle , “View from the Social Inbox” (2010)
• 32% say they’d share promotional email offers with members inside a social network and open emails from others. – PMN and Pace University’s Lubin School of Business’(IDM) Lab (2009)
• 51% of respondents report having clicked “forward to a friend” links in marketing email, but 38% have never seen these links. – Epsilon (2007)

I could go on, but you get the point. So, if you’re creating a social email campaign, what do you need to do to guarantee success?

1. Make email content easy to share—Include one-click share buttons for all the major social networks right there in your email. This allows readers to quickly share your message with their entire community.  
2. Let the community know about your newsletters—Any time you send out a new email, post about it on your social networks. Include a tease about what’s in the email, and offer opt-in links so followers can sign up.
3. Know who’s on your list—Your email list is more than a bunch of random email addresses. Each address represents a person with a certain amount of influence and the potential to spread your message. Get to know your subscribers.

Is your email campaign socialized?

In this installment of my “23 Rules…” series, I’m tackling email marketing. Below, you’ll find what I believe to be 23 essential rules to effective email marketing. Please add to the list by leaving a comment in the replies.

1. Never, under any circumstances, spam others (learn about the CAN-SPAM Act)

2. Give your readers options for unsubscribing

3. Have a plan. Don’t just randomly send email blasts.

4. Focus on creating benefit-driven subject lines

5. Keep subject lines under 50 characters so they aren’t cut off

6. Avoid using spammy words in your subject lines

7. Tailor your message to the preview pane by placing the most important info up top

8. Track your results (delivery rates, open rates, click throughs, conversions, etc.)

9. Don’t try to do too much within a single email

10. Link to highly-targeted landing pages

11. Don’t email too often as it can upset customers and cause them to ignore you

12. Always deliver on the promise of your subject line

13. Let subscribers update their contact info quickly and easily

14. Use clear, powerful calls to action throughout the email copy

15. Test different subject lines, copy length, and calls to action to find the winning formula

16. Make sure your email copy is easy to scan

17. Keep any images small for fast loading

18. Try to build relationships with your subscribers

19. Don’t buy your email list

20. Don’t sell your email list to others

21. Send confirmation messages when someone subscribes to your email list

22. Your success depends on the quality of your email list

23. Never stop building your email list

Which email marketing rules would you add to this list? Leave a comment with your thoughts.

Check out other posts in the “23 Rules” series”:

23 Copywriting Rules to Live By

23 Blogging Rules to Follow

23 Web Design Rules to Follow

Let’s play a game, shall we? I’ve come up with a list of email subject lines you might see a company use in their marketing campaign. However, each subject line has a mistake that could land the message in the spam folder. See if you can spot the mistakes. The answers are at the bottom of this post.

Subject Line #1: Save 15% on Your Order!!! Deal Ends at Midnight!!!

Subject Line #2: 15% OFF ALL ORDERS PLACED BY MIDNIGHT!

Subject Line #3: Re: Saving money on my car insurance

Subject Link #4: VICODIN for 25% off Retail Price

Subject Line #5: Make Millions with This Hot Stock Tip!

What’s wrong with these subject lines?

Think you know why these subject lines could get flagged as spam? Check out the answers below to see if you’re right.

Subject Line #1: Save 15% on Your Order!!! Deal Ends at Midnight!!!

The problem with this subject line is its excessive punctuation. In general, exclamation points are a cheap trick to try to stir up some excitement, but it’s okay to use one in your subject line. However, using six exclamation points is unacceptable, and it will land you in the spam folder more times than not.

Subject Line #2: 15% OFF ALL ORDERS PLACED BY MIDNIGHT!

Using all caps is another surefire way to get flagged as a spammer. I’ve seen some companies use all caps on just one or two words in the subject line to place emphasis on it, but that’s not a good idea either. Never use all caps in your subject line. It’s like holding up a sign that says “THIS MESSAGE IS SPAM!!!”

Subject Line #3: Re: Saving money on my car insurance

I’ve noticed a surplus of emails in my spam folder with “Re:” subject lines. It’s a trick used by spammers to make you think the message is a reply to an email you sent them. Never use a “Re:” subject line in your email marketing campaign.

Subject Link #4: VICODIN for 25% off Retail Price

This subject line actually suffers from two problems:

1. Vicodin is written in all caps

2. Selling drugs, supplements, etc. reeks of spam, and such messages will almost always get flagged

Subject Line #5: Make Millions with This Hot Stock Tip!

If you put the phrase “make millions” in your subject line, you might as well not even bother sending out your message because it will get flagged as spam. You can’t make ridiculous, too-good-to-be-true claims in your subject lines because that’s exactly what spammers do.

Did you spot all of the mistakes?

With Black Friday behind us and Christmas ahead of us, we’re right in the middle of the holiday shopping season. If you’re a consumer, you’ve probably noticed your inbox is constantly being bombarded with special holiday offers from your favorite companies. If you run a business, you’re probably one of those companies feverishly sending out offers to drum up holiday sales.

Make no mistake. Now is a great time for email marketing. But if you don’t approach holiday marketing correctly, you could miss out on some big opportunities.

That’s why I’ve come up with this list of holiday email marketing mistakes to avoid. Feel free to add to this list by leaving a comment.

1. Emailing way too often—It’s only natural to increase the frequency of your emails during the holiday season. After all, this is when customers are most interested in making purchases, and for many companies, the holiday season can make or break their entire year. While there’s nothing wrong with ramping up your email campaign during the holidays, you have to be careful not to overdo it. Remember, other companies are increasing the number of emails they send too, so consumers’ inboxes are exploding. Sending too many emails could cause the subscriber to unsubscribe rather than buy.
2. Sending multiple messages in a single email—We get it. You offer a lot of great products and services. That doesn’t mean you need to detail all of them in a single email. Trying to send multiple messages in a single email confuses the reader, and it causes all of the key messages to get drowned out. Keep it as simple as possible, and separate your messages across multiple emails.
3. Not getting to the point—Remember earlier when I said your readers’ inboxes are exploding with holiday offers from other companies? This means they have even less time than normal to read your email. So, don’t waste time in your email. Get straight to the point. Place your most important offer above the fold so that your readers see it as soon as they open your email. Keep it short and simple.
4. Not playing up the holiday theme—It sounds like common sense, but when you’re launching a holiday email marketing campaign, you need to play up the holiday theme. This means emphasizing that your offers are “holiday offers” or “Christmas offers.” It also means changing the design of your messages to get readers in the holiday spirit. Ignoring this will make your emails seem like all the other ones you send throughout the year. Now is the time of the year for them to be special.
5. Treating the subject line as an afterthought—I’ll say it one more time: Your readers are getting more emails than they can handle right now. They won’t read every single marketing message they receive. That’s why you need to focus on crafting irresistible subject lines that beg to be clicked. Check out these tips for writing effective email marketing subject lines.

Which holiday email marketing mistakes would you add to this list? Share your thoughts in the replies.