My best-performing email subject lines this year
About 9 months ago, I restarted my monthly email newsletter. I used to send one weekly, but stopped during covid and never quite got going again. Monthly feels more achievable at the moment.
As a marketer, I’m always interested in what language connects with a reader. If you receive 200 emails a day, why would you read mine? So I looked back at my open rates and click-through rates since I relaunched.
About my email list:
I have a relatively tiny email list, with fewer than 1000 subscribers. When I restarted, I removed a lot of people who’d never engaged, so this is a more targeted list.
Subscribers are split into two groups – corporate marketers and freelance copywriters. I write separate emails to each group once a month.
I tend to get a maximum of one person unsubscribe per newsletter.
The majority of my readers are in the UK and US.
About my newsletters:
You know those story-based emails that feature next door’s cat, a green wheelie bin and an inflatable flamingo – before segueing into something vaguely business related? Yeah, they’re not like that. So the click-baity, ‘You'll never guess what happened next!’ style of headline wouldn’t work. My subject line instead relates to the main focus of the email, which tends to be a subject close to a reader’s heart.
They tend to include practical advice, tips for writing copy, my take on connecting with your audience, and usually a book review. Plus some links to my services.
They’re broken into several sections with a couple of images.
The links direct readers to my own blogs, videos, website pages and LinkedIn posts.
I send my newsletters between 9 and 10am GMT on Wednesdays.
The results – which email subject lines perform best?
Industry open rates vary, but generally sit between 15 and 25%. Click-through rates average between 2 and 5%. Even if your emails achieve higher than that though, it doesn’t necessarily equate to higher sales or more loyal customers. It depends what action your readers are taking after clicking through, and whether you can continue to engage them.
While one high open rate out of the blue is a good indication the subject line made a great connection with your readers, if your open rates are fairly consistent, it’s more likely that your subscribers are generally engaged in your content.
Ranked by open rate, these are the last 10 email newsletters I’ve sent:
Are you making this mistake with your content {name}? OR 61.17% CR 5.83%
Here’s why everyone else is getting the best clients OR 60.34% and CR 10.06%
If you write content, is this where we’re going wrong? OR 59.18% and CR 6.12%
How to get fewer edits on your content (and only useful feedback!) OR 56.22% and CR 9.95%
How to get more clients (even without a niche) OR 55% and CR 3%
Don’t forget this one step with everything you write OR 54.88% and CR 3.05%
Business quiet, {Name}? OR 53.61% and CR 3.61%
A tip before you next appear on a podcast OR 52.29% and CR 4.58%
The real reason you don’t ‘like’ all 57 holiday pictures OR 51% and CR 4%
Can you answer the hardest question in business? OR 48.73% and CR 5.06%
So what makes a good subject line?
For my audience, questions and the promise of relevant advice (knowing exactly what they find meaningful) work well. Surprisingly, headings with a more negative tone work better, as you can see above.
Numbers (odd ones) are supposed to be enticing, but they haven’t worked for me in the past so I rarely use them.
Keeping the subject line relevant to the email content is always good.
What makes a difference? Try a few different styles or look back at your previous emails, and note how your audience responds to:
Personalised subject lines (including their first name)
Questions – are they curious? See which works best: ‘How to do this’ or ‘Are you doing this?’
Positive vs negative – are they more likely to read ‘Avoid doing this’ or ‘The best tip to do this’?
The overall content – are they looking for advice or inspiration or inspiration?
The links you include. While storytelling (more personal) subject lines can achieve higher open rates, does that correlate with a strong click-through rate?
Specificity vs general tips. For example, do they prefer: ‘How to get more clients’ or ‘How I onboarded 3 new SaaS clients last week’?
Once you build your readers’ trust, there’s much less pressure on the subject line. After a while, they will trust you to send valuable content without needing to judge from the subject line whether it’s going to be relevant to them.
For more tips on writing copy that connects with your audience, sign up for my monthly email Connect The Dots here.