Good Email Subject Lines



THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD EMAILS

What?????  I don't understand!

See Blog entry for Bad Subject Lines:  January 27 blog entry


EXAMPLE 1: subject line 'Help!'  

Readers may immediately ask themselves what kind of help? Is there an emergency?  Is this urgent?  Having a one word subject line is very vague.  When your in the middle of your busy day this is the last thing you need.  This email can be easily deleted out of anger.

EXAMPLE 2: subject line 'Re. Re. Re. advertising.' 
       (response in the body of email)       Yes I totally agree!

Readers may immediately ask themselves what are they answering yes too?  I don't have the best memory and I can't even remember what I had for breakfast some days.  You can tell this email has been passed back and forth a few times.  You can tell this by how many 're's there are in the subject line.  The subject line was not recently changed.   The reader will have to go back in the email trails to find where the question was for them to answer, 'Yes I totally agree!'

Bad Subject Lines revised to Good Email Subject Lines 

Line 1 : Subject:  I need help to reorganize the store room closet.
Line 2 : Subject: Does everyone agree on the advertising promotion flyer?
        (response in the body)   Yes I totally agree!


During our busy work day we have hundreds of emails a day. Time is money and time is precious in most companies.  The best subject lines are very clear from the start. This will make the reader aware of what the subject will be about.  They can decide the level of priority and if they need to read it right away.  Remember always inform your reader as best as possible in the subject line what you are writing your email for.