But the concept really worked because when I opened the email they beautifully linked the subject line to the purpose of the email - “promoting the friends and family sale”.
Think 🤔 of how many emails you receive a day.
Personally I get at least 40+ a day. Most of those
I delete right away. My inbox is filled with emails from newsletters I enjoy reading, bill notifications for my utilities, and companies I’ve bought something from.
So what makes this a truly great subject line. And more importantly, how can we learn from this example so you can create the next great subject line.
Remember your goals
Your email could have different goals - make a sale, drive store traffic, get views for your video or blog post, or a webinar sign up to name a few.
The goal of your subject line is not to accomplish your email goals, it’s to get someone to open your email. Let the email do the selling.
Think about your subject line, depending on your device, you may have anywhere between 38 - 98 characters to accomplish that goal. Is that enough to get a sale,
store traffic, more views, sign ups?
Don’t get caught up in explaining your whole email in those 38 - 98 characters. Your goal with that limited space is
to make people so curious they need to see more.
Know your audience
Make the subject line appear relevant to each individual.
Use segmentation to group your audience by similar interests or demographics.
I wonder if Raymour & Flanigan sent the FRIENDS subject line to everyone or did they segment by age. Maybe my parents got a subject line referencing the Brandy Bunch.
Show no fear
Don’t be afraid to take chances. Try some out of the box ideas, you never know they may yield some big results.
If you have a large audience, you can do a 10-10-80 split test for your out of the box ideas. A 10-10-80 split test means 10% of your audience will receive version A, 10% will receive version B, and after a specified period of time the remaining 80% will get the winning subject line.
Time to “wow” your audience
It’s time for you to create a memorable subject line for your audience. Need some additional support?
Get some more subject line best practices.
Here’s a widely asked question: How long should an email subject line be? We did the research to answer this question for
you. Get the answer.
Need help coming up with subject lines? We’ve gathered 100+ amazing subject line examples you can steal to make your emails stand out. Here they are.
Use AI to help brainstorm subject line ideas. We wrote a blog post with a subject line generator prompt we’ve been using in AWeber’s AI writing tool.