Email marketing is still a very viable means of getting your message out. The key is to have your email opened by your potential customer. And the key to having your email opened and read is the 'Subject' line. After all, it's the only information other than the 'From' line that can influence your recipient.
Here are the clues as to how to get your email read and possibly acted on:
1. Avoid the use of FREE! in your subject line; it will not get through a spam filter. You can use 'free' in the subject but not as the first word, not capitalized, and surely not followed by an exclamation point.
2. Have the subject line be relevant to the email content. If not, it may still be opened, but without effect as far as action by the recipient goes. It will just be a wasted shot.
3. Never use the word 'help' in the subject line. It translates to 'automatic delete'.
4. Start the subject line with the most important info FIRST. Let it catch the recipient's eye.
5. To fine tune your subject line, you must test often. Set up a binary A/B test to find out which is better.
6. Track everything. Don't go by memory, keep hard records so that winners can be remembered and losers can be avoided.
7. Try to make time be an essential factor: set a deadline for action because urgency motivates action.
8. Don't forget that follow-up emails should be sent, and here, the subject lines can be related, giving a coherent look to your campaign. Not simply duplicated, but definitely coordinated in some serial, related look.
9. Don't let your enthusiasm lead you to exaggerate your claims, ever, but certainly not in the subject line of your email. It is poison.
10. And lastly, don't look for the 'silver bullet' subject line: it does not exist. Test, test and test until you have a winner, and then go for it. There is no more direct means of getting to your customers.
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Jake Allen is a noted writer, entrepreneur and Internet personality with an extensive background in marketing.
He is the founder of Jake Allen's Inner Circle, an online marketplace dedicated to Internet success, and can be reached at http://freescamsearch.com and by email at jakeallen@optimum.net.
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