Email marketing is still an insanely potent and cost-effective method to advertise your products, services, events and news to a plethora of people who have already demonstrated interest in what you have to offer. Unfortunately, email marketing is so common that many people ignore individual emails due to the fact that they receive so many on a daily basis – and that’s assuming that the email even makes it past the spam filter. In order to maximize your chances of success (having the individual open the email), we have put together a list of five tips that will make your subject lines stand out and beat the competition in open rates.

Keep the Subject Line Short

Most people check their emails multiple times per day, but the amount of information they will absorb over the course of that day is immense. Because of this, you want to keep the subject line as short and to the point as possible. Especially when you are dealing with mobile devices, it is likely that the subject line will get cut off in the process – avoid losing meaning and stay on point by pinging users with a short subject line!

Avoid Spammy Words

The human brain is quickly becoming conditioned to ignore a variety of buzz phrases that we consistently associate with marketing and spam tactics. In order to ensure your email has the highest open rates possible, it is a good idea to avoid words such as “buy”, “sell”, “sale”, “earn”, “cheap” and so forth. It is also a good idea because spam filters tend to be very critical of emails with these types of words in the subject line.

Give Them a Clue

There is a fine line between telling someone what the email is about and leaving enough doubt so that they will open it – the best email subject lines straddle this line perfectly. When you give readers a hint about what’s waiting for them in the email, they are far more likely to open it. This can sometimes be one word or a few words, but the important thing is that you show just enough marketing cleavage to convince the subscriber to open the email (and later, potentially their wallets).

Avoid Unnecessary Formatting

Some ways in which you express a message can come across as unprofessional. For instance, the use of exclamation marks should be avoided in almost all circumstances. Furthermore, using all capital letters makes it appear as if you are shouting – without adding any real incentive or reason for the subscriber to open the email message. Write how you’d write if you speaking normally, and with a quality catch-line, you’ll pull the reader in one way or another.

Make It Local

Last but not least, pinging users with localized information in the subject line is a key way to get people interested. Not only will it seem more personalized, but it’ll add relevance to the remainder of the subject line as well. Whether you are asking for a contribution, requesting feedback or attempting to sell something, a location in the subject line will boost your overall open rates.