Monday Copywriting Tip #34: Write a Good Subject Line

Writing subject lines for promotional emails and newsletters is made much harder by the huge amount of spam out there. More and more people are becoming less and less patient when it comes to scanning their email inboxes.

You need to write a subject line that appeals to your readers and also immediately lets them know that your email is not just another piece of spam.

How do you do that? Forget about being clever. Forget about trying to sell. Instead, go for RECOGNITION. In other words, people sign up for your emails or newsletters because they want them, so make sure that they recognize each email and newsletter as it comes in.

As an example, I write the subject line for a weekly email that goes out to coffee lovers who also like to cook. So a typical subject line will go like this:

Coffee Recipes - Walnut Coffee Cookies

And the next week...

Coffee Recipes - Coffee Fudge Brownies

I don't try to sell anything. I'm careful not to use words that might trigger spam filters. All I do is make sure people RECOGNIZE that this email is from us, and that they signed up for it and want to receive it.