Here’s a couple ideas about getting your emails opened and READ!

When it comes to email marketing, you know that the “first impression” is the subject line of your email. If you can’t get them past your subject line and into the actual message you’re sending, you’re just not going to make any money. That ain’t news to anybody.

Here’s the issue I’m dealing with. A lot of email marketers say that personalizing your subject lines is essential to your success. What I mean is you apparently have to put the recipients’ name in the subject line to increase your success rates.. ie. “Hello, DAVE, this email is for you!”. I am going to disagree here. In all honesty I’ve had more success when I have NOT put the recipients’ name in the subject. I know it sounds just wrong because it’s not what “they” say…

… but let’s think about this for a minute. If you really want to ‘personalize’ an email, why WOULD you put the recipients’ name in the subject line? I mean, we want to make the recipient comfortable with our email, as if they’re receiving this email from a friend or at least someone they already know, right?

For example, I think my friend Murray might be interested in a cool video I saw on youtube so I’m going to send him a link via email. However my subject line would not be: “Hello, Murray, I found a video you might be interested in! Read message immediately!!”. If I already know Murray, and he already knows me, why the heck would I put his name in the subject? Most likely I’d make the subject say something like “Hey dude, this video is great”, or simply “Thought you’d like this video”. Make sense?

If you put someone’s name in the email subject, they immediately know you’re about to pitch them something. And you want them to open and actually read the email, right? Then personalize it by NOT mentioning their name at all. Personal emails do NOT have the recipient’s name in the subject line. Simple as that.

Another way that I’ve increased email response with subject lines is to put MY name in the subject, NOT theirs. In fact, one of the most successful email campaigns I ran had the subject line: “Hey it’s Geoff”. That’s it, and EVERYONE opened my email. And this was to a list that I practically NEVER ran ads to, so they didn’t really know who “Geoff” was when they received my message, BUT they opened it and read it.

I suppose this is up to you about how you want your emails to “sound” when they’re read. If you want them to sound like a blatant sales pitch, then put their name in the subject line. But if you want it to sound like a genuine personal email, I’d recommend NOT putting their name in the subject line. Whatever works for you is best, but test both ways and see how your email open rates differ between these campaigns. You might be surprised. Just remember that the subject line’s function is to get them to open your email. Period.

Thanks for reading, have a great day.

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- Geoff Stephen
GlobalNPN.Com Admin