You want your emails to stand out, grab attention and make your readers take action. To do that takes a dose of creativity, a pinch of time and a heaping-helping of tips from your favorite email service provider, VerticalResponse.

We’ve created a recipe of sorts, so the next time you sit down to whip up a batch of sweet emails you’ll have all the ingredients you need to grab readers’ attention.

1. Create a killer subject line from scratch
When you bake chocolate chip cookies your whole house smells great, right? That smell grab’s attention and motivates your family to head to the kitchen for a treat. Think of your subject line as that mouth-watering, cookie-induced aroma.

“Your subject line needs one fantastic lure to get people to open and check out your email,” says our Community Education and Training Manager Jill Bastian.

To create a killer subject line you should:

• Be creative. You can use a play on words, a little humor or create a fun title for an upcoming sale that’s mentioned in the subject line. Fabletics, an online shop that sells women’s workout clothes, had an effective play on words with their subject line: Stop meshing around. Their pre-header continued with: stay cool in brand-new mesh styles
  
• Tell readers what to expect. If the email contains a discount code, say so in your subject line.
• Intrigue your readers.

2. Add an incentive
One of the best ways to get recipients to notice your emails is to offer an incentive. Who doesn’t love a good deal? Consider sending an email with a discount code or free shipping. Maybe your loyal customers receive a free gift with their purchase, or a gift card when referring a friend. Drugstore.com has a great example.

Of course, promotional emails like this should be sent as part of a varied email diet. In other words, these emails should be sent once in a while, not every day.

3. Add a pinch of inspiration
An email that advertises a sale is great, but providing inspiration is even better, Bastian says. Take a look at the example below. Bastian, who loves to knit in her spare time, says the email below inspires her to get her needles moving.

“What I really want is content to inspire me to create something new with the yarn I have,” she says. “Those are the emails that I spend time looking at, or clicking to check out a pattern on their website.”

When you’re creating your next email, inspire your customers. Help them use your product in new and fun ways.

4. Stir in a call-to-action
One of the biggest eye-catching ingredients in your email should be a call-to-action. When a recipient opens an email, he or she should know exactly what you want them to do. If you want them to email you, there should a call-to-action button that says “Contact Us.” If you want them to make a purchase, there should be a call to action that says, “Start Shopping.”

These buttons should be visibly different than the rest of your email. Take a look at the example below. The call-to-action grabs your attention. It’s a different color than the text, its size draws your eye, and it’s in a prominent location.

5. Presentation counts
If a dessert looks tempting, it will sell. It’s the same with emails. Your emails need to have a professional, modern look to catch people’s attention. Fortunately, we have a bunch of vibrant, easy-to-use templates already set up for you.

How do you make sure your emails grab attention? We’d love to hear your suggestions. Feel free to share them in the comment section below to fuel everyone’s email appetite.
Ready to whip up your next email? Get started with VerticalResponse.

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