Use 3 words, if you want your emails opened.
Our last blog post highlighted 5 tips on improving your email open rate, and we wanted to share some great statistics with you on one of those tips – your Subject Line.
The most common length for an email subject line is 7 words. This doesn’t seem too long, as you usually have lots of information to communicate in an email, however; having too many words will DECREASE your open rate by over 5% compared to an email with a subject line that is only 3 words. A study conducted by Sendgrid shows that 3 word subject lines have the highest engagement rates (21.2%, compared to 17.2% overall and 15.8% for 7 word subject lines).
While being limited to three words can make it difficult when you have a lot to say, it makes you choose wisely. These statistics will help with what NOT to use in your Email Campaigns:
“Free” – when using the word Free, there is a significant decrease in the open rate- 13.1% versus 17.2% for subject lines without “free”.
“Today” – another good reason to think ahead of time on your emails and be prepared. Subject lines referring to “yesterday” and “tomorrow” have higher engagement rates (20.5% and 22.3%, respectively) than “today” (11.8%).
Hash Tags and URLs – avoid both Hashtags (#) and URL’s (website addresses) in your subject line as they perform poorly
Spam Words – There are a variety of “spam words” that can shoot your emails directly into the SPAM or Junk folder. Here is a list of SPAM words to avoid in your subject line when emailing about your business or your sales:
| Additional Income | Be your own boss | Compete for your business |
| Double your | Earn $ | Earn extra cash |
| Earn per week | Expect to earn | Extra income |
| Home based | Home employment | Homebased business |
| Income from home | Make $ | Make money |
| Money making | Online biz opportunity | Online degree |
| Opportunity | Potential earnings | University diplomas |
| While you sleep | Work at home | Work from home |
| As seen on | Buy | Buy direct |
| Buying judgments | Clearance | Order |
| Order status | Orders shipped by | shopper |