Everybody talks about the “open rate” of your email. And of course that is incredibly important. I sent out an email announcing my redesigned website and used the subject line “Birth Announcement”.

It was provocative enough to get close to 60% of the recipients to open it and about half of them to click through to my website. An average open rate is 12.5%. 25% is considered excellent. Now, the subject line was clearly gutsy, but it followed directly with an interesting visual that completed the thought, and some text sending people to the new and improved website. The message here is clearly make your subject line interesting enough for folks to pay attention. I am still surprised that I get any emails with the subject line “News From…” I don’t care what your news is…I want something that I know is of interest to me. So here are my tips for writing effective subject lines:

• Make it interesting to the reader.
• Give a benefit if you can.
• Get the important information in the subject line
• Don’t make it too long or you will lose your audience
• If you are being purposefully vague, follow with an image or headline that finishes the thought.

Once you’ve gotten your audience to open, make sure to follow with concise, useful information. And, of course, make it as visually appealing as possible.