Being a not-for-profit organisation, TechSoup New Zealand is always finding new ways to communicate, always looking for updates on world trends and finding new programs that can help you and your organisation get the most out of your resources. When we find something great, we love to share it with you!

When I am creating our weekly email communications I’m always learning and changing, whether that be through target campaigns or A/B split tests.  A big thing with these tests is a subject line – this can literally make or break the effectiveness of your email. I found a great article on Mashable that really drills down to what makes an awesome subject line, read on to see what I discovered. 

What drives those open rates? Is it through the content of the email or the sharp graphics? Is it all in the subject line? To be honest, it’s all of these. But the subject line is usually the hook that will catch your customer base.

How do you get the perfect subject line, one that won’t slip into junk email or be deleted as soon as it pops up?

The trends we are seeing now are shorter and shorter subject lines. Why? Well for one, more people are checking their emails on either a mobile device or tablet, with only about 36% actually checking on their desktop, which means we suddenly have less space for the subject line to hook customers in.

Keywords are the next most important thing. Capitalised words and words like “deal!”, “miss”, “free” and “conditions” seemingly deter the consumer from even touching the email – hello again deleted items! Words that have the highest open rate will always vary over industry but Mashable put together a list of best words and their open click rates- check out the table below. What’s interesting is words like “wonderful” and “just” being more personable are the ones that are getting the high open rates, so remember, it’s better to be human!  

The last thing you need to remember when writing your subject line is keep it broad and general. Let's say you're an organisation who offer a volunteer program in different regions of the world. If you use a location specific name such as Ethopia you may be leaving out people who are interested in other areas like Nepal or Uganda. 

You are cutting off customers before they even open the email! So keep it generic and general, then sell why you are doing what you do in the guts of your email – you never know who’s mind you can change.

Still want more? Check out Mashables article on “Are you subject lines strong enough?”