Email subject lines are as much of an art as they are a science. It takes constant creativity to make sure your messages aren’t repetitive and annoying, and there definitely isn’t one single way to shape an email subject line, but in the same breath, some words and emojis have proven themselves to be more effective at generating opens that others.
Below is a general overview of some of the more popular words and emojis you should be adding (and a few you should avoid adding) to your email subject line rotation to better optimize your open rates.
Best & Worst Words To Use
Data has shown that the term “content” is one that most effectively generates opens and engagement from customers. It’s a pretty general term, but it draws users to click into your email.
Similarly, the term “policy” is also effective at encouraging prospects to open an email. The term suggests that important information is inside.
On the other end of the spectrum, words like “Friday” and “Monday” don’t seem to have a very positive effect on email opens. Just because everyone loves Fridays doesn’t mean they’re super compelled to open your email when they see the word.
Here’s a list of the best and worst words to use (econsultancy):
Best & Worst Emojis To Use
Not much of an emoji user? Maybe you should give it a shot.
One study shows that the friendly snowman symbol is hugely effective at encouraging people to open marketing emails. It generates nearly 66% more opens than the average email. That’s quite a bit.
The black sun symbol and black star symbol also seem to have a positive effective on open rates, whereas you should probably avoiding giving people the finger. The pointer finger symbol has the worst impact on open rates.
Here’s a list of the best and worst emojis to use (econsultancy):
Using these popular words and emojis doesn’t guarantee success. After all, every customer is different and responds to certain terms better than others. Even so, I think it’s good to have a general idea of what people are responding to in email subject lines.
Looking for other data that can help you increase open rates? We can help.