5 Tips for Better Email Marketing Subject Lines

First impressions are important, and email campaigns are no exception. When it comes to email marketing, you’ve only got a brief window to make an impression. In fact, in one 2021 study, 69 percent of respondents said they typically mark an email as spam based on the subject line alone.

 That means you only have a few seconds (or a handful of words) to show the reader that your email is worth reading. This is especially true when it comes to healthcare marketing, as medical providers tend to have busy schedules and even busier inboxes.

 Interested in learning how to write email marketing subject lines that don’t end up in the spam folder? In this post, we’ll go over a few tips and strategies that will get your email the clicks it deserves.

1. Keep it brief

As we mentioned above, your window for grabbing the reader’s attention is short. Particularly when people are checking their email on mobile, they’ll swipe right past emails that don’t catch their eye right off the bat.

For this reason, it’s best to keep your email subject line short and sweet. Ideally, you’ll want it to be no longer than 40 characters (about five to seven words) to avoid getting cut short on mobile email interfaces.

A 2021 Invesp study found that subject lines between six and ten words long had an average open rate of 21 percent, while the open rate for subject lines with 21–25 words was only 9 percent.

Remember: You’ll have plenty of time in the body of your email to convey all the necessary information to your reader. The main goal of a good email subject line isn’t necessarily to inform — it’s to intrigue.

2. No spammy language

Subject lines that come off too salesy or spammy will often get deleted right away, if not sent straight to the spam folder. To avoid this, stay away from aggressive punctuation like multiple question marks, exclamation points, and all-caps.

Particularly if you’re trying to keep your tone objective and professional, this type of punctuation can also detract from your credibility.

Words like “buy,” “free,” and “deal” can also be seen as too promotional, so using them might trigger a hypervigilant spam filter. Even if you’re selling products and services, try to focus your subject lines on the value you can add for the reader or the specific action you want them to take.

3. Avoid special characters

On a similar note, it’s best to stay away from using hearts, emojis, and other special characters in your email subject lines. While these may work for certain brands or organizations looking to adopt a casual tone or attract a younger demographic, they have little utility in medical marketing.

That said, on the rare occasion when you want to include a special character in your subject line, be sure to test how the email looks in all the major email clients. Not all clients render special characters in the same way, particularly on mobile, and the last thing you want is a corrupted special character sending your well-crafted email directly to spam.

4. Include a call-to-action

Since the goal of your subject line is to get the reader to open the email, it helps to tell them exactly what you want to happen once they click. Are you looking for new study participants? Try a straightforward call-to-action subject line like “Sign up for our diabetes study.” Do you have an event coming up? Encourage attendance with a subject line like “Join us at our sixth annual Nurse Practitioners Conference.”

Minimize the work your reader has to do to figure out what you want from them — and what you’re offering them in return. A strong, clear call-to-action makes your subject line more direct and encourages higher open rates.

5. Test multiple subject options

The best way to see what’s working for your email subject lines? Multivariate testing. By sending out different versions of your email to small test audiences, you can see which subject line gets more clicks and deliver that version to the rest of your audience. Services like MMS offer A/B subject line testing features to help you pick the best option.

You can also review your past email performance to get a better idea of which subject lines seemed to be most effective. Once you’ve got the data on your side, it will be that much easier to stick with what works and get the best results for your hard work.