The subject line of your email introduces a story. Your article headline does too.
And that story either engages your reader or it doesn’t.
Every story has essential ingredients: a core character, an object of desire, an inciting incident, etc.
And every subject line and headline has essential ingredients too:
- Useful — Is the topic you’re introducing useful to me in some way?
- Specific — Is it crystal clear what I’ll get from reading on?
- Personal — Is it relevant and meaningful to me?
- Short — Is it succinct and to the point?
There are few other ingredients you can introduce into your subject lines and headlines:
- Unique — Is it something new or interesting?
- Curious — Does it tease me into wanting more?
- Urgent — Does it make me want to read it now?
Be careful with these last three ingredients. Done the wrong way, they can make your content sound cliche: “Have you been injured in an accident?” Or spammy: “Unbeatable value from Acme.”
Next time you craft a marketing or sales email to prospects, see if you can check off that it contains the first four ingredients listed above, at least.
Your open rates will improve. Which means the number of prospects you engage will too.