The email inbox is a crowded place: To cut through the clutter, your subject line has to be sharp. A bad subject line leads to bad open rates, which will negatively affect your entire email campaign!
Start strong with these seven tips to get your fundraising email opened:
- Message it right.
Often, a line that arouses curiosity will spur donors to click. Other times, a benefit-oriented statement will work, such as “Save a hungry child.” Still, other situations require a more direct approach. If you have a matching grant appeal, a multiplier, or a specific offer, spell it out clearly. If you’re sending a year-end email, trumpet urgency and tax deductibility. Or if you’re doing disaster fundraising, be straightforward: “Flooding in Africa — how you can help.” But however you craft your subject line, don’t promise something your email doesn’t deliver.
- Avoid tricks.
Especially avoid blatantly misleading subject lines like, “Found your iPhone.”
- Put the main idea first.
Front-load your ideas. For example, instead of “Spring e-newsletter reveals three lives changed,” try “3 lives changed — your spring e-newsletter.”
- Use brief subject lines.
Ideally, these should be under 50 characters. Anything more, and most recipients won’t even see the full subject line.
- Avoid the spam trap.
Probably the most notorious spam trigger is “free.” But even words and phrases like “Act now,” “amazing,” and “click here” — as well as symbols like exclamation points and ampersands (&) — can set off spam filters. Know what to avoid. Spam-trigger lists and spam checkers are available online.
- Consider your “from” line.
If your organization’s name is in the "from" line, there's no need to repeat it in your subject line.
- Test.
A simple A/B test will speak volumes. For example, try pitting a curiosity-based line against a benefit-oriented line, or test with and without first name personalization.