44. 4 Tips To Write Subject Lines That Get Opened

In this episode, Samantha breaks down the psychology behind email subject lines and why it's one of the most important pieces of copy you'll write. Inspired by a Threads conversation with a friend who couldn't crack her open rates, Sam turned three voice notes of advice into a full episode on how to write subject lines that get clicked.

If you write your own sales emails and then stare at the subject line field like it's a final exam you didn't study for, this one's for you.

What You'll Learn:

• Why 69% of people mark an email as spam based on the subject line alone (and what to do about it)
• The curiosity gap concept and how to use it to make people desperate to open your email
• Four tactics Sam uses to write subject lines that stop the scroll, including the one-word subject line and the "steal the most outrageous line" method
• What formatting choices (brackets, caps, emojis) move the needle and which ones tank your deliverability
• The subject line mistakes that are quietly destroying your open rates, including false urgency, spam trigger words, and why first-name personalization is losing its edge

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Transcript

0:00

Hey friends, welcome back to Copy and the Marketing Podcast, where I teach you how to write copy that sounds like you but converts better. As you well know by now, my name is Sam. I'm the founder and lead copywriter here at Nomad Copy Agency. My background is in sales. I love to sell. I love to help other people sell, and I believe that the world is a better place when you are selling more. And last week I was on Threads and a girlfriend of mine had posted like, "How the heck are people coming up with their subject lines?" So I slid into her DMs, helped her out with it, and I realized after leaving like three three-minute long voice notes that this should be a podcast episode. So here I am. We're talking today about how to write subject lines that get opened, but also just going through some really great, super easy to implement best practices on how to write a subject line. This podcast episode is for you if you write emails to your list, especially if you write the whole thing and then you come back and you're like, "How the heck am I gonna get this thing opened?" So let's dig in. First things first, what's the purpose of a subject line? Is to get your email opened. The secondary purpose of a subject line is to get people to read, that you want them to be curious enough that they start reading that email, trying to figure out what you were talking about in your subject line. So if you're subscribed to literally any sort of, like an apparel brand, you probably get a ton of emails that say something like, "New gear" or "Fifty percent off all shoes" or something like that. And it's like, oh man, if they're your favorite shoes, you're gonna click on it. You're gonna see if they have fifty percent off in your size. It's gonna encourage you not just to open the email and get the deal or see what's new in the store, but it's also gonna encourage you to scroll to see what those things are that they have. So here's some statistics to start us off, is that forty-three percent of people open an email based on the subject line alone. And that's relevant because typically when they see an email from you, they're gonna see your name or your business's name, the subject line, and then some preview text or pre-header text. So the majority of people are making the decision to open the email based on the subject line alone. The two other deciding factors are who it's from and what that preview text might be. But on the flip side of that, 69% of people will mark an email as spam based on the subject line without ever opening it, especially if they don't recognize your business name or the pre-header text, it doesn't seem relevant to them. So that means your subject line is doing two jobs. It has to earn the open, avoid getting deleted, and then get people curious enough to scroll through the email, which is what you ultimately want them to do so that they scroll and click and buy from you, right? So writing subject lines is potentially one of the most important parts of the process of writing your emails So an assumption that a lot of people make, and I honestly thought this back when I first started doing copywriting too, is that a good subject line tells you exactly what is in the email. So you think of this like it would be the headline on an article, and sometimes that's true, sometimes it's not. But ultimately, what your subject line needs to do is create a curiosity gap. So, the curiosity gap is just the space between what your reader already knows and what they want to know. So for example, one that would be like B plus work that feels like it's a heading would say, "Five ways to grow your email list." And maybe inside then you tell them five ways to grow your email list or five ways to whatever it is that you do, right? So you're creating some curiosity there, But what you're not doing is telling them exactly how that's going to be relevant to them, and it may not hold their attention, especially if the first thing on that list is super obvious. So, think about the last email that you opened that you weren't probably expecting to. Like, for example, I follow several designers. I'm friends with several designers. I don't read all of their emails. I'm more so on their email list to be supportive. I actually take all of the emails that I get that I actually open from them and put them in a swipe file because it was something... They put something in the subject line that disrupted the pattern that made me so interested to go look at it. So it wasn't just, "Why you should hire a designer for your next sales page launch," or something. It was something that inspired me enough to open it that said that was relevant to me. So, I want you to think about this and the curiosity gap as I go through some of the tactics that I use to create a huge curiosity gap in my emails. Tactic one that I use when writing subject lines that I want you to think about is writing a one-word subject line. Subject lines between two to four words long get the highest open rates, but if you disrupt the pattern of people writing these really short subject lines with an ultra short subject line. So for example, if you just write, "Oops," or, "Disclosing," or, "Embarrassing," or, "Spaghetti," people are gonna be really interested. Now, this isn't something that you should do all the time. I don't think that one-word subject lines are a sustainable pattern. However, if your emails are getting opened at a lower and lower rate, maybe this disruption is something that would pique people's curiosity enough to get them clicked. So while that is certainly a curiosity gap, it's an extreme version of the curiosity gap. But what we're doing is we're making people curious enough to be like, "What the heck is Sam at Nomad Copy emailing me about spaghetti for?" It's creating a huge knowledge gap. Tactic two that you could employ is to pull out the most outrageous statement from your email. This one's one of my favorites, and I use it pretty consistently. So if you already wrote the email, you told a story, you led us to the sale, and then you come back to the subject line and you're like, "What the heck do I write?" Just find the sentence that would make somebody do a double-take. And these can get a little bit clickbaity. We don't wanna do that, but you wanna create enough curiosity of something. So they'll use the spaghetti example because I had a friend do this a couple years ago. Her husband, and it's well-known as part of her brand, is a professional chef. And, the subject line that she used was, "The spaghetti that almost caused my divorce." So it created a question mark in our minds of what is the story that she is going to tell us here that's gonna lead to this? Because it was, like, dramatic. We wanted to know what the hot goss was on the other side of it. So she pulled the most outrageous part of her email or, the most important part of her story, the pinnacle of what she was talking about, and turned that into a subject line So this one works for a couple of reasons. Usually, you're pulling something really specific and concrete, so again, it breaks the pattern and two, it creates this direct curiosity, not just to the what is this email about, but to reading the full story that you're writing in the email. So if you're a really good storyteller, pulling a really outrageous statement as a subject line is a great tactic that you can use. Tactic three that I use when writing a subject line is I go over to my swipe file. And if you don't have a swipe file, I want you to go to your inbox right now and create a folder with no emails in it called Swipe File. And anytime you get an email that you're like, "Dang, that was really good," whether it's because of the subject line or the content of the email, you're gonna take it when you're finished reading it, finish responding to it, whatever you need to do, and save it to your swipe file. Then when you write a really great email and you don't know what the heck to title it, you go over to your swipe file and look at what other people did to catch your eye. You may start to notice patterns inside of your swipe file, or you might notice one that you're like, "Oh, I could use that or use something very similar to that when writing my next subject line." So again, we wanna be able to create curiosity in your subject lines and make them curious enough to open it and curious enough to keep reading. And if other people did that, then you can evaluate why somebody else's piqued your interest and replicate that success in your own emails. Tactic number four, again, ways to break the patterns in people's inboxes are to use formatting or emojis in your subject lines. I am very cautious about this. I tend to recommend just using one emoji or one set of brackets at a time. I use brackets actually pretty often. If you go to look at your inbox, you know, maybe go look at your trash, you'll see several things in brackets. Sometimes it'll say, "Action required." This typically is just a little bit anxiety-inducing that something is bracketed and says, Action required" or "Action requested." It could also say something like, "It's here." So if you want people to open when you are launching and you've opened the doors to something, or if you've delivered something that they already paid for, putting words in brackets can call out and make it a lot easier for people to find and open that email, and it's more likely to get clicked when you're encouraging action. The other thing with formatting that you can do is, some people will put things in all caps or in all lowercase. So consider that in breaking the pattern of what's in people's inboxes. And then of course, like I said, using emojis. I wouldn't typically recommend using more than one emoji and certainly nothing inappropriate. Your subject lines are still your copy, and you want them to stay on brand. So think about emojis that you use regularly in your business when writing your subject lines. So things not to do in your subject line because they will tank your open rates, and I wanna be so clear about this. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever put a regarding or an RE; what is it, colon, semicolon? I don't have a regarding subject line in front of me to reference. That is false urgency, and that is technically illegal unless you are replying to something or talking about something that you are regarding via a past conversation. So do not put the RE in your subject line ever, unless it's automatic because you're hitting the reply button. Also, urgency language like ASAP, limited time, act now. These tend to drag down your open rates because people flag them as false urgency. So urgency can work, but only when it's specific and when it's true. So if you're saying something like cart closes tonight, or, last chance to get in at the founder's rate in a subject line, that is going to pique interest. That is true urgency rather than false urgency something else to note is I said it previously that you could disrupt a pattern by putting something in all caps. I would only do one word at a time in all caps. Putting things in all caps can drop open rates. I was trying to look up some statistics, and it's hard to tell, but it can drop your open rates by seventy-three percent and flag spam filters. So that's why your open rates would go down is because it would flag as spam and not even end up in somebody's inbox. You may also wanna look at other trigger words for your industry, depending on if... especially if you're in financial services or health or health-related industries, certain words can trigger spam, including things like investment, earn money, or even the word free, depending on what it's positioned next to. So that's something to keep in mind as well regarding your subject lines. And something that surprised me is that studies are showing that first name personalization is actually starting to lose its effect. So what first name personalization is, is when you're able to code into your subject line and say, "Samantha, open this now." That is actually starting to flag for people, not as an algorithm, but flagging people as potentially being spam. So I tend to reserve my first name personalization for the preview text or the pre-header. So I would choose this full subject line and then say, "Can you believe it, Samantha?" Or something like that as my pre-header and adding personalization there. So I thought that that was really interesting when I was doing some research for this. So in conclusion, great subject lines need to create curiosity. They promise a clear value or trigger a feeling. That is what is going to get your emails opened. Let me say that again. They will create curiosity, that curiosity gap that we were talking about. They will provide a clear value, and that doesn't necessarily mean to be a dollar value, or they trigger a feeling. The best case scenario is that you can do multiple of those at once. So right now, we just passed Father's Day. That could be something like, if we're doing value and feeling, save money while treating dad this year. And then it could be from, I don't know, wherever your dad shops that you're on the mailing list for, right? So we're treating Dad. It's creating this feeling, this image in our minds, and we're saying, like, saving twenty-five percent while treating Dad, we understand what the value is here. Some things that you can think about when you're writing your subject lines, again, to recap, one, a one-word subject line that stops the scroll. You can choose it as an emotion. You can choose it as a random word. Again, wouldn't exhaust this one, but it's fun to think about and use every so often. Thing number two, stealing the most outrageous line from your email or the most memorable concept from your email, and then it's like your best subject line's already written. Third, keep a swipe file. If you don't have one, start one, and if you do have one, take a look. Kinda study what works on you and then apply the pattern, especially if you are like your audience. So you might start to notice things in those swipe files that are really catchy. And then for breaking the visual pattern with formatting, again, I mentioned brackets. I'm a big fan of brackets, capitalizing one word, potentially doing all lowercase, or inserting a well-placed emoji. So I encourage you, try this on your next email. See how your hooks, your subject lines change a little bit, And see if implementing these tips helps you increase the open rate on your emails. Remember, if you have a thousand people on your email list and it goes up by one percent, that's ten more people who are opening your things. So even a one percent increase in an open rate can be huge for your business. Ten more eyeballs on your stuff, ten more eyeballs knowing exactly what you're up to and how to buy from you. That's just good business. So if you see a subject line or you write an subject line that works particularly well for you, I would absolutely love for you to shout me out on Instagram. You can find me at nomad.copy, or you can shoot me an email. I love to hear your success stories. And if this episode helped you realize that your email copy needs an overhaul, potentially that's your welcome sequence and something that you've already written, or that you just need help writing it for the first time, that's what Copy on Demand is for, as well as my done-for-you services. You can find me online at nomadcopyagency.com. Click on Services, click on Contact, however you wanna get ahold of me, and we can talk about what it looks like to work together and help you write copy that sounds like you but converts better. I'll see you next week on Copy Have a good one.