How to come up with email subject lines people click

• How do you come up with email subject lines people click? is a question I get ALL. THE. TIME.
• 2 methods to come up with subject lines that make your emails irresistible
• How to bank the email subject lines you come up with for later

How do you come up with email subject lines people click?

I do it by being that annoying friend. (You might already be one!)

If you email a list, you’re probably like me:

That friend who’s always saying, “Ooh, that’s a good subject line” and taking out your phone in the middle of the conversation to jot it down…

…mouthing it out so they know you’re almost done…

…and then finishing with a “Sorry, sorry” as you conspicuously place your phone on the table and turn it face down to mark that you are now BACK.

Totally present. Listening. Participating in this thing called “life.”

(Of course, you don’t have to have a subject-lines fetish to be that friend. Same annoying habit works nicely with texts or anything you think you must attend to on your phone right now. “A friend’s asking me about good places to get a steak in the West Village. Sorry, sorry.”)

I’m talking about subject lines because I have an Email Makeover Jam call coming up as a bonus for my courses Launch Hero and Inbox Hero and it’s a question I get every time:

How do you come up with email subject lines people click?

Thought I’d share the answer with you, in case you were wondering, too.

In a nutshell, it can go one of two ways.

How do you come up with email subject lines people click? Method 1

I start with a placeholder like the one today: “tbd.”

This email service provider, ActiveCampaign*, makes me put something into the subject line field before I’ve written the email.

It says, “You can always change this later.”

Yes, I know. Why make me put anything? I don’t like committing even when I’m told, “You don’t have to commit to it.”

But anyway.

Next, I write the email, I see where it goes, and I pull the most potent line or idea from it for the subject line. For instance, today’s might be “Best. Email. Subject. Line. Ever.”

How do you come up with email subject lines people click? Method 2

I have the subject line ready before I even write the email.

This is rare. Even when I think I know what it is, I usually end up changing it.

But on a day when I have nothing to write, I might dig for a subject line and use it as a prompt.

Where do I dig?

Sometimes, way back in my emails from the early days, when friends emailed each other.

Those email subject lines look like they’re from a friend…

…because they are!

And that’s the stuff we tend to open first. Emails that look like they’re from a friend.

Examples of how you can come up with email subject lines that sound like they’re from a friend:

• dinner dates
• Din din
• Meeting
• fact
• Hee hee I’m so mean!*
• i want to be more like yous two
• did we decide on a time?
• done.
• we must do this!
• Hmmm.

How do you keep track of the clickable email subject lines you come up with?

Other times, I look in my evernote, where, along with a bank of story ideas, I keep a running list of subject lines I like. That note is called “email subject lines for later.”

A lot of those come to me when I’m out walking, or talking to friends.

Cue scenario described at top of this email.

And there you have it. How to come up with email subject lines and annoy your friends.

xoLaura

PPS – The Email Makeover Jam is something I offer a couple of times a year, usually as a bonus when I’m promoting a course.