15 Email Subject Line Tips for Small Businesses

There are 9,456 unopened emails currently sitting in my inbox. I, like many others, am flooded with countless emails every day. With so much noise in everyone’s inbox, it’s crucial for your business to craft subject lines that make you stand out.

Many small business owners neglect email subject lines because they spend so much time crafting what’s inside the emails. However, if your email isn’t opened, it doesn’t matter what greatness is inside.

The email subject line is the first thing your customers see, and it can make or break your email marketing campaign, so let’s discuss some tips on how to write email subject lines that make your clients click.

Here’s an example of an email subject line promoting a deal for a business.

Most email providers will put this text in bold before you open the email. The bold font makes it more noticeable and lets you know that you haven’t looked at this email yet.

Email subject lines are critical for customer engagement. They’re one of the first things that people see when they receive your email, and they’re the best chance you have of getting your message opened. Subject lines like this one create a sense of urgency or curiosity that compels recipients to investigate.

Let’s talk about what makes a good email subject line in the section below. Then, we’ll dive into tips for crafting email marketing subject lines.

What makes a good email subject line?

Here are a few things that will make your email subject lines stand out from your competitors:

• Personality: A good subject line shows off your brand’s personality. It should match your online persona and align with what people expect from your business. You should be as excited about sharing your emails as customers are about opening them.
• Sense of Urgency: If you’re like me, you receive dozens of emails a day and probably only open a handful of them at a time. Your subject line should create a sense of urgency and convince customers to immediately interact with your email. In the example above, JetBlue uses the phrase “Hurry” to make it sound like a limited-time deal that people should take advantage of before it’s too late.
• Creativity: Email subject lines are a good time to have a little fun. Use a pun or a play on words to grab your customers’ attention. Emojis are also great for adding a visual component to your message.
• Personalization: People will notice their name if you put it in the subject line. Marketing software makes it easy to personalize emails to each person on your mailing list.
• Brevity: Shorter is better than longer. Try to keep your subject lines brief and to the point.
• Discounts: Numbers and discounts catch people’s attention. Use phrases like “20% off” and “2X the savings!” to promote a new deal at your business.
• Relevance: Ensure that your emails are timely and relevant to your audience. Use pop culture, name drops, and current events in your subject line to show people that your content is new and fresh.

Now, let’s discuss how you can craft an effective email marketing subject line for your business.

Tips for Email Marketing Subject Lines

Here are 15 tips for writing eye-catching subject lines for marketing emails and messages.

1. Keep your email short and sweet.

Avoid getting so creative that your subject line feels more like a subject paragraph. When long subject lines get cut off, your intended message is lost. Every email subject line should be catchy and get straight to the point, like this one does:

Your customers are busy and don’t have time to read a lengthy subject line, so 40 characters or less is the recommended length.

Not only does it help you get your message across faster, but it also makes it easier for customers using their phones to read it. After all, almost 42% of emails are now opened on mobile devices.

If staying under the character count feels too much like a puzzle, opt for word count. According to Invespcro, email subject lines with 6-10 words have the highest open rate of 21%.

This is closely followed by 0-5 words at a 16% open rate. But how in the world can you get your point across and stand out in a cluttered inbox in 5 words or less? Emojis are one solution.

2. Use emojis where/when appropriate.

Emojis have become an increasingly popular way to add personality to messages, so why not use them in email subject lines? Emojis help convey the tone and emotion of the email before your clients even open it. Use this to your advantage to entice clicks, like this email does:

Be mindful of using emojis in moderation and consider your audience.

While it makes sense for a summer camp to use emojis regularly in subject lines, a law firm using emojis on every other subject line could be viewed as unprofessional. Be careful using them — unless your law firm has created a name for itself by being funny and tongue-in-cheek.

It’s also worth noting that some email accounts don’t show emojis and instead substitute them for a simple box. Others might even mark emails with emojis as spam and prevent the message from ever reaching your clients.

So, despite them being fun and eye-catching, be mindful while using emojis.

3. Personalize your email subject lines.

Looking to increase your open rates by up to 50%? Personalization is the answer. By using your customer’s name in the subject line, you show them that you are addressing them directly. When you address a service they’ve used, it lets the client know you’re paying attention and appreciate their business.

Overall, email personalization increases a sense of familiarity, captures the customer’s attention and encourages them to click to read the email content.

But personalization is NOT just about popping in a name to the subject line or name-dropping past used services. Segmentation is key. Split up your audience by interests, behaviors and demographics to better tailor your messaging so that it resonates with them.

By doing so, you create more targeted and effective email marketing campaigns, which drive conversions. Save time from manually doing this extra step by using email marketing software to insert the customer’s name into the subject line and schedule the emails automatically.

4. Maximize clicks with numbers.

Consider this next quick tip to boost your open rate with just one switch. Using numbers and statistics in your subject line makes your email more appealing to customers. In fact, email subject lines with numbers have 57% better open rates.

With these tips in mind, let’s tweak a subject line together. Here’s our example:

How to check for signs of roof damage

While this is to the point and within our word count, clients are likely to scroll past this subject line because it doesn’t create a sense of urgency, and it sounds like it will take time to read. Let’s rewrite this email subject line using numbers and a time-sensitive positioning.

5 Signs of Roof Damage You Need to Know About

While the message is the same, this subject line convinces the reader that this email is a quick browse because they know how many signs to look for. The use of the phrase “need to know” also adds a level of importance that is likely to get clicks.

5. Create a sense of urgency.

Nothing raises open rates like FOMO, or the “fear of missing out,” so use time-sensitive wording in email subject lines to encourage your customers to open your emails immediately.

Use phrases like:

• Last chance
• Hurry
• While supplies last

Another way to create a sense of urgency is to highlight the benefits they’ll miss out on if they wait too late.

For example:

• Don’t miss out on huge savings
• Act fast and get a free gift
• Our 50% off won’t last forever

These types of subject lines help persuade your customers to act swiftly.

6. Avoid spammy words.

Watch your mouth — or fingers in this case. Saying the wrong thing in your subject line can land your email in your customer’s spam folder.

Once your business is marked as spam, it hurts your reputation with the client and email system. Good luck fighting to get out of the spam folder in the future.

As a good rule of thumb, avoid these words commonly used by spammers:

• #1
• 100%
• Prize
• Free
• For you
• No (No strings attached, No catch, No purchase necessary)
• This isn’t junk
• This isn’t spam
• Subscribe
• Click (Click below, Click here, Click to remove)

Here’s an example of an email that landed directly in my spam folder. Notice how the subject line starts with the word “No.”

Instead, use words that are relevant to your business and offer value to your customers. If you must, must, must use spam trigger words, save them for the context within your email, and use them sparingly.

7. Look at competitors for inspiration.

Sometimes, coming up with catchy subject lines is tough. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Head to your inbox, look at what emails you’ve opened recently, and start making them your own.

Let’s try a practice round.

Amtrak: Top Tips for Stress-Free Holiday Travel

Our business tweak: Top Tips for Stress-Free Dog Grooming 🐶

Make it a weekly habit to find 3 emails you can finesse into your own to help build and strengthen your email marketing.

8. Test your subject lines.

There’s only one way to find the right combination of email tips and tricks that resonate with your unique audience — testing.

Use A/B testing to send out two different subject lines to a small portion of your email list. Then, track the open rates. Choose the subject line that performed the best to send to the remainder of your email list.

This process helps you determine which subject line is more effective at capturing your customers’ attention.

Keep in mind that when split testing, you should only change one element at a time, such as the wording, length, or tone. This way, you can accurately identify the impact of that specific change.

9. Send the email from a real person.

Your email’s sender name is the name that appears in the “From” column in your inbox. For better engagement, ensure your emails are coming from real people, not a generic company address. Adding a name will make your messages feel more authentic and establish a more meaningful connection with your audience.

This is particularly useful when sending an email newsletter or recurring messages to the same group of customers. Getting a weekly message from “Sam” is much more powerful than a message from “X company.” It makes the email feel real, as if it was typed out by hand by someone at your business.

10. Use AI to test different subject lines.

Let’s start by clarifying that we don’t encourage you to use AI to write your email subject lines. However, that doesn’t team ChatGPT can’t help you. You can use it to brainstorm new ideas for subject lines based on previous ones that have performed well for your business.

Here’s an example. Let’s say this subject line performed well for my business “Shop now and save 25% today.” I could ask ChatGPT to produce five more subject lines similar to this one.

From here, I can fine-tune these results to create more subjects that are similar to my original. Just make sure you proofread each result and personalize each subject line before copying and pasting.

11. Tell people what you’re giving them.

A good email subject line is like a cliffhanger in an action movie. It shouldn’t give away everything that you have to offer, but it should provide a pretty good idea of what’s inside your email. It should encourage people to open your message because they’re curious and want to learn more based on the subject line.

A good rule of thumb is that if your subject line can’t stand alone, it’s probably too vague. Customers should read your subject line and learn exactly what they’ll gain from opening your email. For example, this subject tells us that there’s a discount that ends soon, but it doesn’t directly tell us what products are on sale — we have to click on the email to find out.

12. Start with an action verb.

Action verbs create a sense of urgency and motivate people to act immediately. Use these verbs to encourage customers to take action, like reserving tickets to an event or taking advantage of a limited-time offer.

This subject line for a ski resort does a great job of motivating recipients to take action. Notice how it uses a relevant action word, “shred,” followed by an offer for a discount.

Here’s a short list of action verbs that you can use in your email subject lines:

• Save
• Discover
• Upgrade
• Find
• Get

13. Be mindful of capitalization and punctuation.

Capitalization and punctuation are great for adding emphasis to different parts of your text. However, you should use capitalization sparingly and add appropriate punctuation to each of your subject lines. Don’t overuse exclamation points or question marks, and don’t put your subject line in all caps to get your audience’s attention.

Instead, focus on creating relevant and interesting marketing messages. Use capitalization and punctuation to compliment this text, but don’t make it distracting. Here’s a good example:

This email subject line does an excellent job of using punctuation and capitalization. There’s only one exclamation point, and the capitalization highlights the seasonal deal that the company is offering.

14. Include preview text.

Preview text is the message you see next to the subject line in an inbox. It provides additional information about your email and a sneak peek of what’s inside.

Preview text is great for adding context. You have more space to write so you can clarify information in your email subject line. Use your preview text to describe offers, highlight specific products, and share updates from your company.

15. Review email performance.

Aside from A/B testing, you should regularly check your email performance. Look at things like open rates, clicks, and unsubscribers to help you identify trends in your email marketing. This will show you which emails performed the best so you can replicate their style and formatting for future campaigns.

Most marketing software will provide reporting tools for your business. Create dashboards like the one below to constantly monitor your email performance:

Now, let’s put it all together and explain how to write good email subject lines for your marketing campaigns.

How to Write Good Email Subject Lines

Here are four steps you can take to write effective email subject lines.

Step 1: Define the purpose of the email

The first step is to define the purpose of your email or why you want to contact customers. Is it to promote a new product or service? Or, perhaps you’re sharing a company update. Whatever the reason may be, use it as a guide for writing your email subject line.

Step 2: Add a call-to-action.

Every subject line should include a call-to-action. Start with an action verb, like the ones listed above, and add a message that highlights the most important aspect of your offer. The call-to-action is what you want customers to know (or do) more than anything else.

Step 3: Include an emoji.

Emojis add a visual component to your subject line. Use them when possible, but don’t overdo it. Avoid using them for transactional or customer support emails, as they might come off as unprofessional or informal. They’re best used in marketing emails and to highlight deals at your company.

Step 4: Categorize your email.

If you want to improve your subject lines over time, you should create a system that tracks and categorizes each email. For example, you can create a spreadsheet that records your emails’ subject lines, preview text, and performance data like open rates and clicks. Over time, you can analyze which emails had the best engagement rates and recreate similar subject lines for future campaigns.

Before we wrap up, let’s examine a few examples of good email subject lines and discuss what we like about each one.

Marketing Email Subject Line Examples

Here are five examples of email subject lines created by real companies for marketing campaigns.

1. “Wicked Savings for Wagging Tails 🐶😸” – Cheerble: We like this subject line because it uses emojis and alliteration to highlight a limited-time offer.
2. “Extending Our Labor Day Sale Just For You 🥰” – Ashley Furniture: We like how this subject line uses an action verb to call out a seasonal deal. One way to improve this one is to replace “for you” with some personalization that’s specific to the reader.
3. “1 Day Only Fall Flash Sale: 40% Off + Extra 15% Off!” – Briefcase.com: This is a good subject line because it creates a sense of urgency. The reader knows they only have one day to take advantage of this deal.
4. “Yup, Meta has stolen your data 🤡”– Flick: We like this email subject line because it’s creative. You’re left wondering what data was stolen and whether you should be concerned. This email is from a tech company, so it appeals to people who are closely monitoring AI tools like Meta.
5. “7 AI Insights You Can’t Afford to Miss” – Birdeye: This is a good email subject line because it uses numbers to summarize the takeaways in the blog post. As a reader, I know there are seven lessons to be learned from opening this email.

Creating Email Subject Lines for Marketing Campaigns

The art of crafting an effective email subject line is key in determining the success of your email marketing endeavors. By simply following these simple but effective tips, you can boost your open rates and connect with even more of your customers through your email campaigns.

So, apply these tips diligently, and watch your emails capture the attention they deserve.