It's All In The Title

If you are anything like me, then you subscribe to dozens or even hundreds of ezines. Personally, I get about twenty each day, and I just don't have time to read them all. So I do what most people do - I scan the subject lines and see if anything interesting turns up. If the subject looks interesting, I read the ezine. If not, I delete it.

I never, ever save ezines. Oh, I used to keep them all organized in special folders, but I found that I get so many of them that I cannot even take the time to read all of the current issues, much less go back in the past and read the old ones. So if they do not get read right away, they get deleted.

The first (and often the only) thing that people see when they read your ezine is the subject line. A good subject tells your reader exactly what is inside the ezine in terms that make him want to open it up right away. A poor subject line probably means a quick trip to the trash can - unread and unwanted. A spam-like subject line can cause your email address, regardless of it's innocence, to be added to spam filters so nothing of yours is ever read by that person again.

In other words, if you want to increase the chances that your ezine is read, be sure and create a meaningful subject line. This is true regardless of whether you are selling something or writing a love poem to your honey - create a meaningful subject and your email will get read.

Let's do an exercise. I receive about 20 ezines every day. As I read through them for the day, I've included some of the subjects and what happened to the messages as a result. I've also included some suggestions for better titles which may have improved the chances that the email was read.

• W2Knews[tm] Earthquakes and Disaster Recovery - Considering the Seattle earthquake just occurred, this is a great subject for the ezine that goes with it. I almost immediately opened the email and read it start to finish. 
• JavaScripts Update (3-2-2001) - Boring. I would have used something which was more indicative of the contents. Perhaps the name of the most exciting JavaScript in the ezine. This ezine got deleted without being read.
• Napster Loss Is Copyright Gain - Another good title, except it does not include the name of the ezine. Including "Wired news" at the front would, I believe, have made this title more explicit. Nonetheless, I opened the email and read it, so the subject was not too far off the mark.
• Heads-Up Newsletter: Be Your Own Boss - Site Management for Dummies - Excellent subject line. Bold, to the point and informative. Needless to say, I opened the email and read it.
• Your GoldPass Benefits, and More! - Boring. Deleted the email without reading it. The subject needs to include more information about the benefits (which I don't know since I deleted it without reading). Tell me why I should read the email.
• SuperTopGreetings and SuperTopPages - Another not very useful title. Don't tell me what the message is - tell me why I want to read it! Perhaps "SuperTop newsletter - How to improve your hit count" or something like that. Now I might open it. As it was, the message got deleted.
• Mad March Magic - This is an interesting subject line as it made me curious. I read the ezine and liked it. The interesting use of words promised something entertaining and didn't feel like spam.
• Bravenet Photo Storage is Changing - Good subject line. I read the email. It's important to tell your reader why he needs to read the message - and this subject does that well.
• Violent games: Harmless or dangerous? - This one really caught my eye. I read the email immediately.
• Update Bulletin 28th February 2001 - This is a really terrible subject line. It has no meaning to me at all. What is it updating? What is the bulletin about? Why would I want to read this?
• Internet ScamBusters #42 - I think this could use a bit more description, perhaps the title of the lead story. 
• Protecting your rep in cyberspace, Part 4 - Very good title. Attracted me right away. The strong active voice made me want to read it right away.

Some tips to remember when creating subject lines are:

• Include action words. In fact, it's good to make the first word of the subject line an action word like "violent", "be", "help" or "mad".
• Active voice is better than passive voice - See the difference between "if you do this you will make money" verses "Make money doing this".
• Avoid spam-like phrases like "make money", "get rich", "$$$", "viagra" or similar things.
• Don't make the whole subject upper case.
• Don't include exclamation points at all.
• Tell your reader why he should open the email in no uncertain terms. What's the most interesting thing in the message? That's your subject.
• If you cannot read over the message and come up with a good, grabbing subject then perhaps you should spruce up your ezine. Remember, if your ezine is boring or not useful to your readers, then they will not remain subscribed.

The lesson is clear. Get your readers to actually read your ezine by using a well thought-out action oriented subject line. Boring or non-informative subjects will cause your ezine to simply be deleted. Spam-like subjects may cause your ezine to be marked as spam and automatically discarded.