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Showerthought: A client in Austin told me my email subject lines were boring
I was showing a local coffee shop owner my email campaign draft last week. He looked at the subject line, 'Monthly Newsletter Update,' and just said, 'That puts me to sleep.' He told me to try something like 'Your new favorite roast is here' instead. I changed it and our open rate jumped from 18% to 32% on that send. Has anyone else gotten a simple tip that made a big difference in engagement?
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kimfisher3mo agoMost Upvoted
Fiona's friend is right about FOMO, but it's not just about missing out. It's about making the reader the main character of the email. "Your new favorite roast" works because it's personal and promises a direct benefit to them. A boring subject line talks about your business. A good one talks about solving their problem or giving them a win. That shift in focus is what actually gets the open.
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martin.riley1mo ago
Okay, but boring subject lines work just fine for a lot of businesses. My inbox is full of "Your Order Has Shipped" and "Invoice Attached" and I open every single one because I have to. Not every email needs to be a carnival barker trying to trick you into clicking. Sometimes the people who click on "Your new favorite roast is here" are just bored and curious, not actually buyers. That jump from 18% to 32% could be a bunch of tire-kickers who never buy a thing, while the people who really wanted the newsletter already opened the boring one.
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the_fiona3mo ago
That reminds me of a friend who writes clickbait for a living. He says the secret is to make people feel like they're missing out if they don't open it.
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Wait, isn't that just the definition of FOMO? I thought clickbait was more about lying with the headline.
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