So, you have set up your email marketing strategy according to your campaign calendar (so you know you’re contacts are receiving the right comms at the right time), and you’ve set the tone of your comms to make sure you’re going to resonate with your contacts in the most effective way…. what next?
It’s time to start construction.
1. Write an impactful subject line
Subject lines are the first thing your recipient reads when receiving an email from you. Email subject lines are like news article headings, they need to convey the main point of your message and encourage the reader towards your ultimate goal, which should be your CTA.
Why? Because whether or not your email gets opened, your recipient will see your subject line. So, a subject line helps builds your brand in your customer’s inbox even if it’s not actually opened. It creates a psychological association between your subject line and your brand and over time, it creates a cognitive association between the language you use, and the perception your customers have about you – even when your open rate isn’t increasing.
Be as specific as possible. One-word subjects such as “Hi,” “Question,” or “FYI” are not informative and don’t give the reader an idea of how important your message is. If your message is time sensitive, you might want to include a date in your subject line, like “Our event is coming up next week”, or “Registration closes tomorrow.”
Have you tried email personalisation?
Using personalisation in subject lines can increase open rates by 50% and higher click-to-open rates, too. BUT, make sure your data is clean before using personalisation tags – you don’t want to be referring to someone by their last name, if their contact record is incorrect with their first and surname fields mixed up.
The best way to know the success of your email subject lines is to test them using A/B testing, and continually optimise.
Here are some tips for and best practices when writing catchy real estate subject lines;
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Keep it simple – don’t use too many action words
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Personalise where you can by using personalisation tokens
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Use urgency or timely action-oriented subjects
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Surprise recipient with a fact or statement
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Pose a question
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Segment your list and target recipients
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Put action verbs at the forefront
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Give people a reason to feel special
Need help crating your subject lines? You can try using a platform like Phrasee to do it for you!
2. Leverage your Preview Text
The preview text, which is sometimes referred to as preheader text, is the copy that sits below the subject line when the email appears in your inbox. This text is the second most important thing to utilise when trying to grab your recipient’s attention after the subject line.
Outlook:
Gmail:
Apple Mail:
The preview text should combine a sense of urgency, together with an expectation of what your reader can expect to see in your email.
- Keep the content concise and use plain language
- Include the main points of your email, address your CTA (if you haven’t in the Subject line) or reiterate it here
- A/B test your preview text across campaigns and see which works best for open rates
- Make sure you’re getting your message across in 40-50 characters to ensure your full message is displaying both on desktop and on mobile
- Don’t repeat your subject line – people don’t need to read the same thing twice
- Test the email subject link and preview text to see how it reads together
Keep an eye our for Part 3 of our Email Toolkit series where we're talking about how content drives conversion.
In the meantime, if you're interested to see how we have helped organisations like Hastings Deering set up their email marketing platform and template library, you can read about it here.
