Interestingly, 64% of recipients decide whether to open or delete a message solely based on the subject line. Approximately 376.4 billion emails are sent per day in 2025, and global email users are set to grow to 4.73 billion users in 2026. Your email subject line helps in creating the first impression and sets an expectation regarding the content of the email.
Your email subject helps recipients in deciding whether to open an email or ignore it. Your content, call-to-action, offers, etc will matter only if the email is opened, which somewhat depends on the effectiveness of your subject line. Nowadays, users get distracted easily, it is important to create an engaging and relevant subject line.
In this article, we’ll learn the role of the subject line in open rates, principles of effective email subject line and best practices and tips to design email subject lines to boost open rate!
Role of Subject Line in Open Rates?
Personalize the subject line boost engagement as compared to generic subject lines. Mobile users can see only the first 35 characters. Hence, clarity is important. The subject line helps in grabbing the attention of the users. You can add personalization elements in the subject line, such as using the name, past interaction, location, etc. Keep your subject line short and effective. Most importantly, avoid using spammy words such as “Free”, “Urgent”, “Offer”, etc. Try to create a subject line that creates curiosity and compels the users to know more about your email. An engaging subject line can boost your open and engagement rate.
Principles of Effective Email Subject Lines
The email subject line helps in creating curiosity and grabbing the attention of users. It improves open and engagement rate and helps in building strong first impressions. Let us look at some of the basic principles of the subject line.
- Personalization: Targeted context works better than generic send-to-all messages. You should add some element of personalisation to attract the attention of the reader.
- Relevance: Try to center your subject line around the problem that readers are facing or a goal they are measured on.
- Value: Hint at the recipients of some useful value or insight.
- Brevity: Use short lines as it scans better on mobile and avoid truncation.
- Clarity: Use simple and easy-to-understand language. It helps in beating the clever wordplay that often confuses the reader and hides the main point.
Subject Line: Best Practices to Boost Open Rate
Here are some of the best practices to improve your email subject line that can boost your open rate
- “How-To”: The how-to subject line formula works well because it forces you to describe the content of the email in clear language. Inform the readers what they should expect from the email. Focus on how you can benefit the readers.
- The Announcement Subject Line: Using words like “Introducing” and “New” in your email subject line gives readers a feeling that your email contains new, fresh information that I haven’t heard of before. Email subject lines that contain words like “Introducing” and “New” can boost your open rate. It encourages readers to open the email as it might provide them with some new information.
- Number Subject Line: Using numbers in your email subject line can boost your open rate. For example, a subject line, “5 steps to measure the success of your campaign” and “How to measure the success of your campaign”. The subject line with numbers performed better. It provides value to readers and encourages readers to open your email.
- Short & Effective: Your subject helps in creating the first impression of your business. Create an impactful subject line; however, make sure it is short and effective.
- Personalize: Create a personalised subject line by using their name, location, preference, etc to grab their attention. People nowadays expect personalized content, and they appreciate it. Personalizing the subject line helps in connecting well with readers.
- Avoid Spammy Words: Avoid using spammy words such as “Free”, “Offer”, “Urgent” as they can land your email in a spam folder. It also makes your business look unprofessional and distrustful. It hampers your open rate.
Your subject line is the determining factor whether a reader will open an email or not. It is important to frame your subject line wisely and write an interesting, compelling subject line. You should A/B test your email subject line to know which email subject line best fits your email. Lumia 360 provides smart and innovative solutions that can boost your business online. From social media marketing to crafting relevant and engaging content to generating leads to generating responsive websites and managing online reputation, we cover it all. To know more about our solutions, email info@lumia360.com or call 514-668-5599.
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