Email has one of the best marketing ROI rates, but achieving high open rates can be a challenge for even the best marketers. Getting potential customers to engage is both an art and a science. In this first of two articles, we'll discuss the more technical aspects of making subject lines irresistible; in Part II we'll cover how the right copywriting can entice customers to read further.
Over 80% of users regularly check email on their smartphone. This means some recipients on your email list will see less than 50 characters of your subject line, with some iPhone users seeing only 41. It might be even worse with certain combinations of phone and email client. For example, Gmail viewed on an iPhone may show as few as 36 characters.
For this reason, the best subject lines will be very brief or have compelling information front-loaded into the first 41 characters. Try to keep to seven words or fewer, watch your character count, and keep the message punchy.
One way to draw the eye to your punchy subject line is to include an emoji at the beginning of it. A/B testing by Swiftpage found that emojis in subject lines increased open rates by 29%.
However, keep some caveats in mind when using emojis:
Nothing grabs someone's attention like their first name, so when you can, use it in the subject line, preferably at the beginning.
What if every one of your emails featured something colorful and attention-grabbing without using any room in your subject line? BIMI (pronounced “bih-mee”) stands for Brand Indicators for Message Identification. BIMI is a tech standard that causes a user's email software to display an in-line logo on emails you've sent. If you've ordered from Amazon, you've seen an example of BIMI in the Amazon smile to the left of their email subject lines.
We have a whole article detailing why BIMI is a must-have for email marketers, but here's a brief summary: BIMI costs almost nothing to put in place, puts branding on every email, and meets security and verification standards to increase delivery rates. Even better, studies have shown it boosts open rates by 10% to 21%.
Both tend to trigger spam filters and appear spammy (not to mention LOUD) to readers. Don't risk lowering your delivery or open rates when good copywriting can get the job done and keep you looking professional.
If you would like some help implementing BIMI or making other improvements to your email marketing, we can help. We follow the most up-to-date practices and achieve the metrics that matter. Get in touch with Cain & Company for thoughtful, strategic marketing that boosts your bottom line.
