Does Your Subject Line Do the Job?

It's proven that the FROM field of your emails is the MOST important factor in getting your messages opened. But after that, it's surely the subject line.

Many ezine (email newsletter) publishers seem to consider their subject lines as afterthoughts, which is a bad idea.

Example: Suppose you get an e-mail with the subject line, "Get Rid of Your Debt Today."

I don't know about you, but my right pinkie is already poised over the delete key!

However, this could be an e-zine I've subscribed to that just isn't announcing itself properly.

Now, what if the subject line instead read:

"[Frank's Financial Tips] Get Rid of Your Debt Today"

See the difference? By listing the title of your e-zine, it reinforces your brand, it allows your readers to filter your e-zine into a separate folder in their e-mail inbox, and most important, it lets your recipient knows your message is NOT spam.

Now I do see some e-zines that ONLY list the e-zine name. For the example above it could just say, "Frank's Financial Tips." That's okay, but it doesn't tell me what's in the issue or why I should open it. Remember you're competing with dozens of other e-mail subject lines in your readers' inboxes, so give them a reason to open yours.

Studies show that also using the reader's NAME in the subject line can dramatically increase open rates, but I reserve this tactic for special promotions I send out that are time-sensitive and I want great response to (such as announcing an upcoming teleseminar). Example: "Jennifer, join me next Tuesday?"

This helps get the reader's attention and builds curiosity so she opens it right away. If you want to use this tactic, you'll need a list service that supports "personalization."

No matter what subject line you write, keep it short and sweet, because many e-mail programs cut off long subject lines. Here are the maximum subject line lengths (including spaces) in some popular e-mail programs:

AOL: 52 characters
Hotmail: 45 characters
Outlook Express: 64 characters
Yahoo: 80 characters

Don't go crazy counting spaces, but just keep in mind that shorter is better. (This sentence here contains 60 characters, including spaces.)

[EDITOR'S NOTE: For my list of 87 proven subject lines that you're welcome to outright *STEAL* and use for yourself, see my program, "Email Promotions That Really Rack up Sales"!]

Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen," is creator of the award-winning 'Boost Business With Your Own E-zine' system. To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up for her FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, visit http://www.EzineQueen.com

MORE RESOURCES:

RELATED ARTICLES

Getting Subscribers For Your Newsletter Is As Simple As This...
Having a newsletter is one thing but how many subscribers do you have? Or are you ok with the number of subscribers you have? If you are not satisfied with the answer, then this article is for you. This article will show you how a simple approach did it did it for me, so now is your turn.

Why Self-Publish Your Book?
When I meet an author with a great book concept, one who's definitely the right person to write that book, right away I'll often encourage him or her to self-publish. This is because I know that, if an author is thoroughly invested in what they have to say, and if they're determined to create a buzz about their message, they'll discover .

Future of Electronic Publishing
UNESCO's somewhat arbitrary definition of "book" is: "Non-periodical printed publication of at least 49 pages excluding covers".The emergence of electronic publishing was supposed to change all that.

Self Publishing At The Speed Of Thought
Publishing, both electronic and hard copy, from articles to books, has come a long way in recent years. I used to be fascinated by anyone who had become a "real" author of a book.

10 Winning Ezine Publishing Tips
1. Share your personality with your subscribers.

5 Keys To A Successful Ezine
There are 5 basic keys you need for your ezine to be successful and here they are though not necessarily in this order.1- HostingYou need good reliable hosting for your website.

3 Things You Need to Do to Turn Net Information into Cash
Although we are in the information age, very few people have been able to turn the colossal amount of free accessible information available online, into cash or business success.a) Specialize One of the reasons for this is that there is actually too much information available online.

Publishing Special Reports And Ebooks At No Cost
So you'd like to start publishing special reports and ebooks to use as marketing tools and to sell as products. But you have no budget to get this new venture going.

EZines: Get from Adequate to Fabulous
If my in-box is any indication, most of the business world is hot on e-newsletters. I receive half a dozen every day.

10 Newsletter Ideas to Write Articles for Your Newsletter
Since you publish your newsletter on a regular basis, sometimes it's difficult to find newsletter ideas for your next issue's content. You sit in front of your monitor and stare at the white screen where the typing cursor is blinking.

Create An Ezine To Get People Back To Your Site
I know you've worked hard on your website. I know it looks pretty good - in fact, it's fantastic.

How to turn your Newsletter into a Web Page...in 45 seconds!
Do you place back-issues of your Newsletter onyour website?There are two good reasons why you should:(1) It shows potential subscribers that you'reserious about your Newsletter(2) Newsletters are rich in keywords, so it'sa very good idea to turn back-issues of yourNewsletter into HTML documents and then submitthem to the major Search EnginesHere's a little trick that will help you formatyour Newsletter as an HTML document:Copy the text of your Newsletter into a text editorsuch as NOTEPAD.Then copy the text from NOTEPAD into Microsoft Word.

6 Ways to Catch More Opt-ins Than Ever Before
Remember that when you have new visitors at your website, your #1 goal is to get them on your ezine list! That way you have permission to contact them again and again, educating them about your helpful services and products that they came to learn more about.But you can't just put up a link that says "free newsletter".

Are Your E-Mails Bouncing? Hard Bounces, Soft Bounces, and Everything in Between
Are you doing "the bounce"? No, it's not a new hip-hop dance. A bounce, or bounce-back, is an e-mail that is returned to you because it cannot be delivered for some reason.

Ebook Rebranding - The New Ebook Marketing Power?
Well, it is definitely yes!In the early day of internet marketing, giving away ebook free was a very good list-building strategy. It worked extremely well.

The Number One Tried and Tested Method For Exploding Your Ezine Subscriptions
We all know how cagey and stubborn prospects can be and we know that only a tiny percentage will buy our products the first time they see them. We all know that the only way to convince savvy prospects to buy is by building trust with them and that the single most effective way of building trust is by getting our visitors to subscribe to our newsletters.

Write Your Weekly Ezine in 5-Minutes! (or better yet, dont write it at all)
How to write your ezine in 5 minutes by legally and ethically stealing other people's articles..

8 Killer Mistakes For Ezine Failure You Must Avoid
It is true that sometimes in life there is a small line between failure and success. The same thing applies with ezines and newsletters.

Ezine Advertising Strategy Exposed-15 Tips to Boost Your Profits
In my opinion, Electronic Magazine (Ezine) advertising is the greatest, untapped source of online advertising available today.The reason: Ezine Advertising (EA) matches your product or idea to people with similar interests.

7 Benefits Of Using Newsletter Templates
1. Time saver.