Email subject lines can become a hot topic around the department before a campaign deployment. There are several best practices and you of course want to do subject line testing, but at the end of the day if you can provide a short and sweet preview of the email a subscriber is opening, while providing a good reason to actually open that email, you are on the right track.
Over the weekend I was going through some personal email and saw the following subject line from Blinds.com
Our Best Sale Ever – 4 Days Only!
I like it! Now as an advance note on my following comment, I just recently became a subscriber to Blinds.com so have not seen many other emails. If they use this tactic (saying it’s their best sale ever) over and over it will of course become diluted and lose effect.
But assuming they are selective with their CTAs (calls to action), this subject line has 4 winning points to note:
1. It’s not too long: People are busy, they scan quickly, and it’s rarely good to cram too much into a small space. This short subject is to-the-point.
2. Promotion Preview: If it’s their best sale ever, aren’t you at least somewhat curious what that sale could be? Notice they did not reveal the actual promotion here, but gave a reason to open and find out.
3. Urgency: It may in fact be their best sale ever, but it only last 4 days. This gives you reason to explore the email now, and not put it aside for a week.
4. It’s Targeted: Well for me it is. I just happen to be in the market for window treatments for my new home. This may be coincidence, or I may be apart of a well executed segment based on site activity.
To close it off, the email design was very well integrated with the subject line. It’s a sad day in email when you have a great subject line, but the content of your email does nothing to follow up. Here we see copy from the subject line repeated for emphasis, and the entire email is about the promotion. Keeping the customer focused is very important.
I like what I’m seeing here and will follow blinds.com a bit more.
