Writing Catchy Email Subject Lines that Work {Updated}


A professional receiving multiple emails, symbolizing the importance of writing engaging subject lines to capture audience attention.

When writing an email subject line you should aim to get attention of people to your letter and, of course, to improve your open rate dramatically.

The big question is – how to write catchy email subject lines and get your emails opened?

The reality is, there are different email subject line styles and include some of the following:

  • curiosity email subject lines
  • offer email subject lines
  • self-interest email subject lines
  • humanity email subject lines
  • news email subject lines
  • social proof email subject lines
  • story email subject lines
  • urgency/scarcity email subject lines

This list could go on and on.

Today, we’ll give you the information on different styles of email subject lines.

Additionally, we’ll provide you with tips for writing email subject lines that provide excellent results.

Above all, we’ll review some of the best online tools that you can use to write the best email subject lines.

There is no doubt that each of these tools can contribute greatly to your email marketing efforts.

Keep on reading to learn more about the best practices for email subject lines. So, let’s get started.

Email Subject Line Styles

We have just listed the major email subject line styles. It’s important to point out that each email subject line style has its own peculiarities.

Below, you’ll be able to familiarize yourself with each style of email subject line. 

Offer Email Subject Lines

Let’s say you would like to offer FREE stuff. If this is the case, it would be nice write an email subject line in the so called offer style. It goes without saying that the word FREE needs to be included in your email subject line. When people see your email subject line, they would be interested in opening your letter and reading it.

Self-Interest Email Subject Lines

What does self-interest email subject line means for readers? That means that a reader is likely to get a very important benefit if he/she chooses to open an email. The subject line of a self-interest email should also give openers an idea of what the email’s body content is about. In other words, self-interest email subject line shows the benefit of opening an email.

Curiosity Email Subject Lines

If people don’t like self-interest email subject line, they will most likely decide not to open an email.

The main goal of a curiosity email subject line is to make people interested in opening your email.

It’s worth noting that this type of email subject line is all about curiosity.

The subscribers should understand that they will get more information if they choose to open an email and get familiar with its content.

Humanity Email Subject Lines

Humanity is the number one priority in creating this sort of subject lines. It’s incredibly important to make human appeal in order to get the attention of subscribers to an email.

Actually, this can be done in many different ways. For example, you can tell your subscribers a story that they would like to hear.

You can also express your thanks to your email subscribers. One way or another, you need to show humanity to people behind your products or services.

News Email Subject Lines

It’s a great idea to share interesting news with subscribers. There are different types of news. News can be about a new product (service) launch, releasing discounts, events that happen in your industry, etc.

Would like to share an interesting piece of news with your target audience? If so, you need to create this type of an email subject line.

It’s worth noting that the interesting piece of news works for an email marketing strategy very well.

People tend to like, share and comment interesting news on social media. All that you need to do is to share interesting news with your email subscribers.

And of course, you need to pay a close attention to your email subject line. That means that you’ll be able succeed in email marketing if you write a catchy subject line for a news email.

Social Proof Email Subject Lines

It’s no surprise that people choose to analyze behaviors of others carefully prior to purchasing something. And of course, as an email marketer you can take advantage of this fact.

So, it makes a lot of sense to provide subscribers with social proof in an email subject line. The big question is – what type of social proof do people want to see in your email subject lines?

It would be nice to mention famous names, share success stories or provide impressive statistics in email subject lines. The statistics makes it possible for your subscribers to see how many people are using your products or services.

All of this has a profound effect on buyer’s decision. If your products or services are incredibly popular among buyers, then you are likely to land a lot of new customers for your business this way.

Story Email Subject Lines

Do you have an interesting story to tell? If so, you should definitely make use of story-telling method.

It’s important to point out that story telling is an effective technique that works pretty well in email marketing.

If you are going to provide a story in email’s body content then you need to provide story’s title in email subject line.

This type of an email subject line is likely to perform well and get a lot of attention.

Subscribers, who find the story’s title interesting, will open your email and read its content carefully.

Most likely that your business will get a lot of new customers if people like your story.

Urgency/Scarcity Email Subject Lines

It’s widely known that great limited time offers can drive conversions.

That’s the reason why they have to be a part of your email marketing strategy.

Urgency/scarcity emails are the type of an email that contains a call to action.

In this type of emails you should encourage people to act as soon as possible in order to get the certain benefits.

For example, you can provide readers with the information on the limited time offers.

With such offers, prospects will be able to get a discount on your products or services for limited time only.

Tips for Improving Email Subject Lines

The reality is, writing a catchy subject line that attracts public attention is not always easy. First and foremost, you need to decide in what style you would like to write an email subject line.

Plus, you need to follow tips for writing email subject lines that work. So, the question is – how to write the best performing subject lines?

Below, we’ll provide you with email subject line writing tips to help you get the most out of email marketing.

Write short and informative subject lines. Obviously, your email subject line doesn’t have to be very long.

Actually, the shorter your email subject line is – the better! Make sure that your email subject line consists of no more than 5 – 7 words.

On the other hand, your email subject line has to contain enough information about your email. It shouldn’t be hard for people to figure out what your email is about.

Include the benefits in your email subject lines. It’s a great idea to tell readers about the benefits that email receivers will get if they open your email and get familiar with its content.

People are likely to open your email with a big pleasure if they find how they can benefit from your email. That’s why it really makes to talk about the benefits in email subject line.

Don’t make promises that you can’t keep. Of course, you’ll greatly improve your email open rate if you put promises into your email subject line.

On the other hand, making promises in an email subject line is not always good.

People tend to make promises, but unfortunately they don’t always keep their promises. If you promise something, readers may set high expectation for your email.

However, they are likely to get frustrated if your email doesn’t contain the information that they expected to find.

With this type of a subject line your email will probably have high open rate, but you will definitely find it hard to convert email receivers into customers.

That’s something that should be avoided at any cost!

You should motivate people to open an email. Your goal is to make people interested in opening your email subject line and reading your email content.

However, you shouldn’t tell people exactly what your email is all about.

If you make it clear for people what exactly is included in your email, they may be not interested in opening your email and reading it.

Use the right type of online tools to create email subject lines that work. The help of online tools is immeasurable in the process of creating emails.

It’s pretty easy to create powerful emails with great online marketing tools.

That means that you’ll be able to save a lot of time with great online tools.

But most importantly, you’ll be able to create powerful emails that attract a lot of attention and convert very well.

Great Tools for Creating Powerful Emails that Work

As it was mentioned above, it’s incredibly important for email marketers to use tools for creating powerful email subject lines in their work.

It’s important to point out that online tools of this type have been designed to make the life of email marketers easier.

However, you must be very selective when it comes to picking tools for email marketing. Keep in mind that not all email marketing tools are perfect.

Now, you’ll get an opportunity to get familiar with the most popular online marketing tools for writing powerful email subject lines that get a lot of attention.

Below, we’ll review great email subject line writing tools and describe its key features in detail.   

  1. A/B significance Tester

There has been a lot of talk about the importance of using split testing technique in email marketing. Let’s say that you have created two different versions of email subject lines.

Now, it’s time to figure out what email subject line will work better for your target audience. If you choose to take advantage of A/B significance tester, you’ll be able to compare two email subject lines one to another and then pick the best one.

Above all, the tool will provide you with many great tips and tricks that you need to use in order to create an email subject line that works well.

  1. Bulletproof Email Buttons

It’s fair to say that this tool has nothing to do with email subject lines, but you need to use it to increase email’s conversion rate.

It goes without saying that buttons would be a good addition to an email. If you add a button to your email, more people will go to your website and get familiar with your products and services.

Email copies with buttons tend to provide better results and there is no question about this.

If you have such a great tool as Bulletproof Email Buttons you’ll find it easy to create buttons for your email copies.

The tool makes it possible for users to create great buttons for email copies fast and easy.

Bear in mind that you don’t need to have coding skills in order to be able to create email buttons with this amazing online tool.

  1. GifRocket

Emails with videos can do a great job for your online marketing campaign. If you would like to create a video using a series of GIFs images then we recommend you to pay a close attention to such a wonderful tool as GifRocket. The tool has everything that’s needed to create great videos for email copies.

  1. Headline Analyzer

Headline Analyzer is an amazing online tool that you can use for creating or improving your email subject lines.

This type of an online tool will help you evaluate the subject line of your email and then tell you about its efficiency.

So, you’ll know how much attention your email is likely to get with such a subject line.

  1. Sender Score

As you can see, the efficiency of email marketing campaign largely depends on email subject lines.

The delivery of your email also plays a very important role in the success of your online marketing campaign.

If delivery of your emails is poor, nobody will get your emails and nobody will see your email subject lines.

Sender Score is a great online tool that you can use to send your emails to your target audience.

Do you need help with email marketing?

Contact us today! For decades, Finepoint Design digital marketing agency has been doing email marketing for different types of businesses in Michigan and its surrounding areas.

We are always ready to offer cost-effective solutions for any of your email marketing needs!

Email marketing is just one aspect of marketing. We’ve got some great info on other types of marketing as well. Check it out!

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