How to Adjust Your Email Subject Lines to Increase Your Open Rates by:Kristie Lorette

You may have something very important to say, the perfect product for sale or offer a life saving service

. If you can't get your subscribers to open emails from you, then what you have to say ends up in the trash. The great news is there are ways you can massage your subject lines to increase your open rates.

It all comes down to grabbing their attention. You have to write such a compelling subject line that their fingers are itching to open it!

Keep it out of the spam folder

There are certain words that flag your email and get it sent directly to the spam folder (without paying $200 and without passing Go). There are online sites where you can run your subject lines and your entire email message through a spam checker. Lyris and Site Build It! are two free online spam checkers you can use. It assigns your email a score from zero to five. The lower the score, the "cleaner" your email. If it finds potential problems with your email, it will list these items out so you can tweak your subject lines and email messages, so it won't get flagged as spam.

Appeal to the reader

Face it, we receive hundreds of emails a day. This causes your potential customers to scan their emails for senders they know and subject lines that interest them. This means you have to write subject lines that are important to them-important enough for them to open it! The more appealing your subject lines are, the better your chances are that they will open it and read the message inside.

Put subject lines to the test

You may want to run some testing on your subject lines. Send the same email to the same recipients, but use two different subject lines. Monitor the open rates for each batch of emails to see if one subject line has a higher open rate than the other. If you find a subject line that works, mimic some of the characteristics of the subject line in your future email blasts.

Subject lines are the first email marketing item you have to tackle. It's only half the battle, but if you can't get your recipients to open your email, then what you have to say doesn't make a difference. By creating subject lines that appeal to your audience and get past the spam checker, you're on your way.

About the author

Kristie Lorette is a freelance writer that specializes in helping businesses and entrepreneurs create copy that sizzles, motivates, and sells. She is also the editor of The Inky Dot, a bi-monthly e-newsletter that offers tips, tricks, and advice on writing and marketing tips for businesses. You can learn more about Kristie and subscribe to The Inky Dot at www.studiokwriting.com.

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