“10 Kinds Of Business E-Mail Subject Lines That Suck You In And Waste Your Time”
By C. Graham
If you want to avoid “information overload,” but worse than that—“abuse of your time,” then I have a few suggestions. Over the last few years the impact of over whelming numbers of e-mail messages that stack up on your computer in-box overnight, has become a morning shock. And I am not including spam mail as part of this.
Ways to know which to open and which to delete is always a challenge. Face facts, you’ll lose some great stuff sometimes, but you will find that those of value always show up elsewhere later on—and often are offered free or with a lower price tag.
Delete—using these guides and see if they work for you:
- Push Lines: Like, “Only 24 hours left to grab this product.” Delete this one as fast as your fingers can hit the keyboard. If you check your e-mails infrequently, you missed the big deal anyway. If you check your in-box daily, and you have already read the offer a week ago, then you know when it ends already—and don’t have to be told again and again.
- Interest Lines: Like, “Bob, thought this would interest you.” Are they clairvoyant? Or is it the usual persuasion tactic of seeing your name there, which pulls your mind right to the “read” button. Delete these! If they are specific as to what it was that they are talking about, you might want to open it knowing that you probably are wasting your time anyway.
- Question Lines: Like, “Jim, have you heard about this yet?” You don’t need anyone to “clue you in” about something. If you are into your e-mails often, I guarantee that you already know it—and probably heard it from the source of the offer. This is a common way for affiliates to get you in to buy something.
- How to Lines: Like, “How to celebrate Valentines Day.” And you didn’t know how to do that? This type subject line usually indicates a message with short content, which will refer you to a blog to read. The author’s reasons are clear. A busy blog, search engines like—and links increase.
- Announcement Lines: Like, “Jack, some super blowouts are coming your way.” Do you really need to know that something that they think is a “super blowout” is something you will need or want?
- Brag Lines: Like, “How John made $25,000 his first month.” The process here is to pretend John has a secret that no one else knows about. Not likely. If it is, then it will hit the fan when the big boys start using the ideas. Then you know it’s worth your time to evaluate.
- Notification Lines: Like, “Notification your payment has been received.” Did you pay for something, then forgot it? Your next credit card statement will show it if you did. Another gimmick, a total lie, to see if they can hook you.
- Offer to Help Lines: Like, “Can I drive traffic to your site?” Since I don’t know you, why would you do that? Behind every subject line is an “offer” for you to buy something involving traffic. If it came from a guru, you might open it.
- Unbelievable Offer Lines: Like, “I’m giving you 1200 articles and 200 e-books worth $957 for F.R.E.E.” Sounds great! Who wouldn’t go for it? Recently, such fantastic offers, when you open the message, can only be obtained for “free” if you purchase something for $247, or if you join a monthly club for $67 per month.
- Impress You Lines: Like, “This is so important, that I can’t sit by and let you miss it.” Nothing is that important to you—but he thinks it is. It’s the start of a promotion of a product he created, or he is selling as an affiliate. Anything to get you to open the e-mail.
When an entrepreneur is moving around in the web business circles, they recognize the e-mail address attached to the subject line as being from a guru or his crew. Those you open because you know you always find good content inside. The categories listed above are what I call “generic spam,” because good marketing tactics are—be brief, get to the point fast, and be specific.
A subject line in an e-mail has the same function as an ad. It’s quick to grab your attention, contains words that draws your interest, and persuades you to do something—in this case to open the e-mail.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that when you subscribe to one newsletter (e-mail), that you will receive just one newsletter. Many traffic and safe list generator sites pass your address on to all its members, who also send you e-mails.
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Keywords: marketing, marketing tactics, newsletters, affiliates, email, email address, entrepreneur, persuasion tactic, information overload, spam mail,
Tags: affiliates, email, email address, entrepreneur, information overload, marketing, marketing tactics, newsletters, persuasion tactic, spam mail
