Subject lines to increase your open rates (Email workshop series part 4) | Ep. 33 Content Magic with Lindsay Smith

Welcome to the fourth episode of my special 5-episode series, How to Have a Love Affair with Email Marketing. If you're just joining us, go back and start at the beginning of this series with episode #30.

Today, I'm getting into the art and strategy of crafting compelling subject lines. Despite what some may claim, subject lines play a crucial role in the success of your email campaigns—think of them as the eyes to the soul of your emails.

I'm exploring why they're so important, share some tried-and-true strategies, and even look at real examples with open rates to prove their effectiveness.

And, don't forget to check out my new program, The Email Lab.

Lindsay [00:00:00]:
And listen, a lot of people are going to say, maybe other copywriters are going to say subject lines aren't that important. I don't say that. I disagree. If you have an online business, you're creating content. And the way you create content is more important than ever. It's really noisy out there and learning to stand out is the only way. Hey, I'm Lindsey and I'm the host of the content Magic podcast, all about being an entrepreneur and creating kick ass content to market yourself and your business. I have a not so secret superpower for copywriting, marketing and content, and I've helped hundreds of folks just like you show up with a ton of confidence in the online space.

Lindsay [00:00:43]:
I've been doing this content thing for 20 years, and I believe the real magic is a combo of intuition, creativity and strategy. You can create content for your business without losing your mind, I promise. So tune in every week for tangible content tips, inspiring guests, and some real spicy opinions. Probably mine. Ready to dive in? Let's go. Well, hello and welcome back to Content Magic. And I'm very excited to welcome you to the fourth episode in my special series called how to start a love affair with email marketing. So if you are just joining us, I'm going to encourage you to go back and start from the beginning.

Lindsay [00:01:25]:
So that is episode 30. And if, again, if you're just joining us and you have not downloaded the workbook, I'm going to encourage you to do that as well. Because today, especially today's subject we're talking about, it's today's subject we're talking about. Subject lines I'm going to give you. It's a little bit more technical. So today's episode, you might want to like, listen to it a couple of times. But the workbook today, you are going to write some, just practice writing subject lines for yourself and you can grab that workbook at lindsaysmithcreative dot CA workbook. You can print that up and take a couple of notes before we get going, there's a couple of things about subject lines, and listen, a lot of people are going to say, maybe other copywriters are going to say subject lines aren't that important.

Lindsay [00:02:22]:
I don't say that. I disagree. There's a lot of, like, working parts to an email that converts. However, also, if you're new here, a lot of, I use a lot of analogies. So subject lines are kind of like the eyes to the soul of your, the bulk of your email or like the body copy of your email. And so, and I'm going to share some, I'm also going to share some, some numbers with you. Percent of people will open an email based on the subject line. So that's like half your list.

Lindsay [00:02:58]:
That's almost half your list, right. Also, I'm really good at writing subject lines. It's like this super niche thing. And sometimes I write my subject line first before I write the bulk of the email, or sometimes I write the bulk of the email and I go back. But usually anytime I open my email template and I'm writing an email, I know exactly what I'm going to say. Okay. So, and then depending on the email provider that you have, sometimes you have space for a subject line and a preview line. And for the purposes of this training and this episode today, we're going to talk a little bit about both.

Lindsay [00:03:37]:
And so here's another analogy coming at you. So this, if you remember playing Marco Polo in the poll in the pool in the pole, if you remember playing Marco Polo in the pool as a kid, this is what I want you to think about. So your subject line is like the Marco. It's like calling out and then the polo is your preview line. So your preview line answers polo. So we're avoiding anything that's like clickbaity because you do, you have to deliver on those like your subject line and your preview line. They're essentially promises. They're promises of what's inside the bulk of your email.

Lindsay [00:04:17]:
So it can't really be clickbaity. You do have to deliver. And I also want to mention one thing here before we move on. People are going to unsubscribe from your list. It's not that big of a deal. This happens to every service provider and even product based businesses, too. That's okay. Also, don't go through your list of unsubscribes because you're just going to feel bad about yourself.

Lindsay [00:04:43]:
Don't do that. I've done it and it's not a good time. And I like to believe that the people that unsubscribe, they're just making more room for the people who do want to absorb your content and who do want to join your email list. So it's okay. We love those people. Thank you for coming. We thank them for being part of our list and we wish them well. Okay.

Lindsay [00:05:07]:
So. And I want you, and there's some other things to consider, too, before we sort of move on. So we're going to be talking about open rates. That's, I mean, there's, there's also click through rates and a lot of other percentages. But today we're talking only about open rates. And so there's some things to consider. So the size of your list, also P's, it doesn't matter how big your list is or how small your list is. It could be 200 people or it could be 20,000 people.

Lindsay [00:05:36]:
It doesn't matter. You can still, those are still engaged subscribers, those are still warm leads, and those are still potential customers. Okay? So however, the bigger the list is, the lower the open rates will be just because of sheer size and percentages. Also, to keep in mind if any kind of like nurture sequence or welcome sequence or, you know, like we talked about lead magnets earlier this week. So if somebody is grabbing a freebie, usually, like, that nurture sequence will have higher open rates because those people have, they're new people, they just subscribed and they are like, expecting an email from you. So they're waiting for that thing and they immediately open it. Sometimes the numbers are not always like, what I'm trying to say is you can't compare from one list to the other. Okay, so I'm going to give you a couple of examples of different types of subject lines.

Lindsay [00:06:40]:
Like, they kind of, sometimes they fall into different categories. And again, this is something that we cover in more detail in my new program, the email lab. So you can go and check that out at lindsaysmithcreative dot ca email. I'm kind of like going over the basics today, but this is definitely something we get into a lot more inside that program. Okay, so I'm going to share with you three sort of categories. One is excitement, and you have to say it like that. So here's some examples that would fall under the category of excitement. Here's number one.

Lindsay [00:07:21]:
Oh, my God, I can't believe this happened. Also, you obviously have to talk like that with exclamation marks. And here's a second example. Honestly, you do not want to miss this. There was no exclamations there. But that's the kind of, those are kind of examples of like, you know, if you have something super exciting to share with your followers or your subscribers, rather. And, you know, like, sometimes I think we fall into this, especially when we're promoting something, we fall into this sort of pattern of like, don't miss this special offer, which I, which, to be fair, like, sometimes that works too, right? Especially if your subscribers are, like, expecting it. But I just want you to think a little bit differently about when you're promoting something.

Lindsay [00:08:10]:
And again, like, it really depends on what industry you're in. This is, I'm really speaking to service providers here. Okay, category number two, and I call this one the secret revealed. So you're sort of being mysterious and then you're delivering on the secret inside the bottom body of your email. Okay, number one, do this to grow your business. So I'm not telling you what the thing is to grow your business. So, and I made all these up, by the way. I made them all up for this episode.

Lindsay [00:08:40]:
So this is an example of like, you know, I would probably, inside this, the body of this email, I'd probably list like one, two, three. Usually when I'm like sharing tips, it's always three. Like one, increase your networking either in person or online. Like, I just made this up on the spot. So you have to, and like I said, you have to deliver that promise inside the body of your email. Okay, here's another example, the content hack nobody is talking about. So again, I'm alluding to like a secret. And so inside the body of that email, I would probably be, I'd probably say, honestly, I'd probably say there is no content hack.

Lindsay [00:09:27]:
Here's, you just have to create really good content and here's how you do it. Like one, get really clear on your messaging, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and how to do that. So, okay, so we've got the excitement category, you've got the secret revealed category. And then this last category is my favorite because this is what I'm really good at. And I call it kind of like the question mark or like the weird or the like, huh. So usually this is like, you know, they're kind of out there and it just kind of makes you go, huh. And then you open it. So, and this is a real example.

Lindsay [00:10:05]:
This first one, the subject line was something to this nature, a lessons from Dawson's Creek. So for those of you who are the same age as me, in your mid forties and you watched Dawson's Creek as a kid, you may or may not remember that the dialogue, the way these characters spoke to each other was kind of like pretentious and weird. And it was not at all like how regular teenagers spoke. So inside the body of this email, I was talking about brand voice and how you have to be true to your own brand voice, which means being conversational and using the words that you would use in conversation. So essentially I'm saying don't write your copy or your content the way the characters from Dawson's Creek did. You have to find your own brand voice. And then the other question mark. Weird, huh? Example I used is that time I bumped into Rachel McAdams.

Lindsay [00:11:11]:
And again, I just realized that I'm like talking about like two celebrities things here. And this is a true story. I did actually bump into her in a bar ages ago. This, like, before I had children. And I didn't even know it was her until somebody was like, yeah, that's Rachel McAdams. Anyways, so again, it's like, huh, what is Rachel bumping into Rachel McAdams have to do with content? And I'm sure I could find a bunch of reasons. These are just examples of categories. Again, inside my program, you get a mad libs style prompts and you can create your own based on some of these categories.

Lindsay [00:11:57]:
And you can go and look at that at lindsaysmithcreative CA email. And now I want to share a couple of my own subject lines. Like, I went through all my emails that I've sent over the past like four years and found some that I thought would be good examples. And I'm sharing my open rates for some of these subject lines. Okay, so here's one. It was the one thing you're missing in your content. And then the preview line said, do this to make everything easier. And I don't remember what was in the body of that email, but the open rate was 47%.

Lindsay [00:12:34]:
So that's like roughly half my list. And then this next example, I would say this was like, this would kind of fall under, like, secret. It says, why are you so special? And then the preview line said, aka your USP. And I did that on purpose. I did it on purpose using two acronyms. And I think I've talked about this one, how I talk a lot about, like, owning your weird, which is another word for unique selling point or unique selling proposition. And this open rate was 55%. And then the next example is, social media is not a marketing plan.

Lindsay [00:13:14]:
And then the preview line was think bigger. And this open rate was half my list, 50%. And I'm not sure, I didn't mark down if I had any links in any of these emails, because again, you know, that's another percentage. But that's sort of something we get into more inside the email app. And then, oh, yes, one of my favorites, David Schwimmer and broken bones. And then the preview line was, what do these things have in common? So this is a lot like my Dawson's Creek one, right? And hi, Rachel McAdam was one that I just made up. And so this, this open rate was 40%. And I do remember what I talked about in this one.

Lindsay [00:13:55]:
So for those of you who watched friends, or even if you didn't, it's, you know, this video comes up all the time in reels. It, you know, when they move the couch up the stairs and Ross says, pivot, pivot. So that's what this email was about. It was after I broke my arm. And I basically talked about how I had to pivot because I could only type with one arm for a really long time. And so that's what I was talking about. And then I saved the best for last. And I've shared this with other people.

Lindsay [00:14:28]:
They have also used this as a subject line or in their own content. And it is, let's not work together. And the preview says, if you want any of these things. And the open rate on that one was 67%. So that's more than half my list. And I remember what I shared. It was essentially like, if you want any of these things, I'm not the person for you. And I think it was like, if you want to go viral, I'm not the person for you.

Lindsay [00:14:55]:
Like, I focus on sustainable content and, you know, ideas and, and tactics and measures that go beyond the trends. And then I said, you know, I'm also not the person for you if you want like 10,000 followers in ten days, because I can't guarantee that also, you know, number of followers does not necessarily have anything to do with income. And I usually have three things. Anytime I'm sharing any kind of like, points, it's always one, two, three. I don't know why I do that. I just feel like three is a nice round number. Okay, so those are some real examples from my own list. And then now I'm going to ask you to sort of practice writing some on your own.

Lindsay [00:15:43]:
And they, and listen, they can just be made up for nothing. For nothing. Or you can jot them down in your workbook and use them for later. So to make some of the, to make this a little bit easier on you, I want you to think about using power words in your subject lines. And so, and I've used some of them in this, in the examples I've used. So, for example, strategies, myths, secrets, lessons, results, facts. I want you to sort of try those on for a bit and jot that down in your workbook if you didn't grab it yet. Lindsaysmithcreative CA workbook.

Lindsay [00:16:25]:
I'm also going to share it in the show notes. And so, yeah, let me know what you come up with. And if you want to dm me on Instagram, enziesmith creative. I'd love to see what you've come up with. Or just shoot me an email, because, you know, I love emails. And again, like, this is just sort of like a glimpse into increasing your open rates. You know, there's also, like, the body of your email that does count. This is just a tiny little glimpse of what we do inside the email lab.

Lindsay [00:16:58]:
And this is a brand new program, and it's opening up next week. Okay, gang, so that's it for today. And tomorrow, we have our final episode in this series where we're going to be talking about nurture sequences and welcome sequences and how to write these so that you're going to increase your revenue. So thanks for joining me today, and we'll see you next time. Thank you so much for listening. If you loved what you heard, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, or share this episode on social media. And don't forget to tag me on Instagram at lindsaysmithcreative. And if you do all three, I'll be your best friend forever and invite you to all my birthday parties.

Lindsay [00:17:45]:
That's it for today, and I'll see you next time.

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