I started looking at some of the subject lines in my inbox the other day. And although we may all think that we’ve written and read about subject lines ad nauseam, Lord knows I have, they are still VERY important to the success of your email marketing campaigns.

So what do we know about subject lines? Here are the key rules:

1. Avoid repeating your From Label in your Subject Line, as you can see from examples below, you’ve got limited space, so use it wisely.

2. Don’t think your readers will remember you. Include something about your content in your subject line.

3. Include your most valuable information as close to the front of your subject line as possible since email readers whether it’s on a mobile or not will cut it off if it’s too long.

So here are a few subject lines both good and bad.

Groupon has done a great job at training all of us to see the one deal for one day. This is simple; they use “half off” instead of 50%. Perhaps they’ve found in their testing that words work better than using percentages.

This subject line is non inviting, there is no reason why I’d open this email. “January Newsletter’ just isn’t enough for me to get excited.

This subject line has the problem of the one before it. I don’t remember who the sender is and they repeat the from label in the subject line.

WebGuild has a great subject line. They outline three hot topics from their newsletter getting readers to open.

In this Techonati Newsletter, not only is the from label bland, but I have no idea what’s inside. I know Technorati, but do I care that it’s Newsletter #75?

The Daily Beast includes the name of their specific newsletter in the subject line so you get what edition of the newsletter you’re getting. It also fits in one of the hot articles. I’m in.

Ad Hoc, the restaurant, sends out a daily dinner menu. What I like about this is their pre-header text so that i can call them right away. However, I would have put the entree in the subject line and had the From Label read “Ad Hod Daily Dinner” or something relevant.

So there you have it, another article on the importance of subject lines. Any comments? We would love to hear them!

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