Tips and Tricks for Using Emojis in Email Subject Lines Posted on January 25, 2016June 3, 2016 by Jessica Lunk “When you look back at the year in language, one of the most striking things was that, in terms of written communication, the most ascendant aspect of it wasn’t a word at all, it was emoji culture.” – Caspar Grathwohl, president of Oxford Dictionaries Emojis—the little picture expressions fastened to text messages, web pages, and now emails—are everywhere. Emojis were born and thrive in the mobile environment. As Americans spend more and more time on their mobile devices, it’s hard to ignore emojis as a new marketing technique to effectively reach your audience. Emojis are succinct and fun means of expression. Feeling silly? Send the “Dancer.” Approve of a decision? “Thumbsup” it is! Having a tough day, but want to remain optimistic? The smiling “Poop” emoji might be the ideal fit. People of all ages are warming up to emojis, and now savvy businesses are including them in their email subject lines. Before getting too “Heart Eyes” over the idea, consider these tips before using emojis in email subject lines. Subject Line Emojis Offer Benefits The average Internet user is inundated with a lot of digital information: tweets, posts, comments, emails, updates, notifications, the list continues. When advertising your brand, standing out is key. Emojis, through their color and whimsy, pop in an otherwise homogeneous landscape. Studies indicate emails with emojis in their subject lines get opened 45% more often. Brevity is a cornerstone to communication. Readers get bored easily and don’t have time to waste on deciphering the complicated text. Emojis can convey ideas quickly and save text space. By shortening subject lines with emojis, you bump the odds that your clients will see the full message on their mobile devices. In this awesome post from Buffer, they attribute the rise in emoji popularity correlates with the decline of internet slang. With the decrease in internet slang, emojis are replacing them with full force as we are now effectively replacing full sentences with emoji to convey the same meaning. So instead of trying to work popular slang into your marketing, you can get the same impact easier than ever without it looking forced. …But Not Without Some Considerations Emojis are not for every business. They convey emotion, tone, and a certain degree of informality; if informality or silly tones don’t match your business, don’t use emojis—even the more restricted ones. Consider the age demographics of your audience. Millennials are the vanguard generation of emojis. They’ll feel encouraged, not alienated, by emoji use. Older generations, however, run the opposite risk; they may not understand some of them or the social connotations attached to specific emojis. Not all email reading devices know how to render all emojis. Before sending out an important email, research which emojis will translate on which platforms and which will appear as indecipherable text or code. Here’s your emoji bibile from Unicode which will show you how each emoji appears on different platforms as well as their meanings and annotations. Additional Tips Make it easy to follow. Do a test with one emoji and then test adding more in a logical order to tell a story. You must A|B test the use of the emojis on your audience! See how they work on different emailing platforms, on desktop and mobile. Test how your clients respond to emails with emojis in subject lines and those without. Also test different emojis to see which ones will work best for your messaging. Explore emoji options! Lesser used emojis may be more relevant and engaging to your message; the solution is not always the Poop emoji.
5 of the Best Practices for Email Marketing Subject Lines to Boost Response Posted on January 20, 2016May 27, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Whether its a white paper that helps your prospects solve a nagging problem, or a special email notification of a “secret” sale, when a customer sees something from your company in their inbox, there are two things that can happen. One, the customer will be attracted and enticed by what you have to say, or two, your email efforts will go on a one-way trip straight to the trash bin, or even worse, flagged as spam. So how do you keep your email reputation clean and effective? Believe it or not, there is one sneaky little trick that every successful business email creator knows: It is all about the marketing email subject line. This is the one-liner that shows up when a message arrives in an inbox and is potentially the only chance you have to make the best impression. There are five easy-peasy ways to make sure that the subject lines of your business emails are effective enough to encourage your customers to take that next step and click to open because they want to know what more you have to say. 1. Get Local, Vocal, and Personable If you really want to catch a reader’s attention, talk to them like you would a valued, well-known customer. Head the subject line with their first name or even mention their location. You want to exude a familiar tone that comes across as personable and personal. 2. Don’t Be Generic Don’t continually use the same subject line in your emails, no matter how tempting it may be or how logical it may seem to do so. Offer something more interesting by changing the email subject line to reflect what you are going to offer once the email is opened. 3. Straight to the Point Please Remember, you may have more than enough space to get into great detail in the subject line on your end, but when this mail hits a customer’s inbox, there is a pretty good chance that they will only see the first several words. So, keep your message short and sweet. 4. Don’t Serve Up Cold Spam Spam is no good and potential customers have no time for it. The average email inbox holder gets close to 150 emails a day, every day. They will delete almost half almost immediately. With this many emails coming in every day, the slightest hint of something spammy will land you in either the trash or flagged as spam and all future emails will be sent directly, without passing go, to the spam folder. There are some catchy little things you may be tempted to use in subject lines that must be avoided. They are: The word “free” Odd letter/number combos that look like gibberish Curse words (should be logical in business, but still worth mentioning) 5. Use Your Inbox Voice You probably know that there is a voice you should use indoors, but there is a voice that is reserved specifically for email subject lines that make you an effective communicator. This voice is low-key. This voice is not screaming in ALL CAPS and does not come off sounding like you are an over-excited car salesman who is desperate to make a sale. You should be leaning more toward the same voice you would use if a customer were standing right at your counter, which would hopefully not be yelling or filled with too much excitement. At Hatchbuck, one of our core values is “Do the Right Thing.” This value applies especially well to the inbox. Every email you send furthers a conversation, so take each opportunity to be thoughtful, creative and helpful in your subject line and email. When you focus on building relationships, rather than the aggressive sales pitch, you earn trust, respect, and the sales come naturally.
Hatchbuck Best Practices: Email Subject Lines Posted on November 16, 2015July 8, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Your opening line is always important. Whether you are performing a comedy sketch, making a political speech, picking up a date, or crafting a great email, you need a great opener. But how do you do this? What rules do you follow? After compiling some research from companies like Litmus, Sendgrid, Return Path, and some quick data analysis of our Hatchbuck marketing emails, I found a few email subject lines best practices that might help as you are crafting your great emails! How long should my subject line be? According to Sendgrid, 3 word subject lines have the highest engagement while 7 word subjects are the most common. What’s always important to remember is that mobile devices (where about 50% of your contacts are reading their emails) typically only display 25-30 characters. Are there any keywords that will help my cause? ReturnPath did a study of their own and found that these 3 “types” of subject line keywords performed best: Urgency: expiring, extended, hurry, running out Benefit: best, cheapest, fastest, easiest Command: add, buy, call, get What else works? There are 3 other types of subject lines that perform well and are worth considering: Asking a question Using humor Offering a promotion The one caveat here is that variety is the spice of life. Don’t do the same thing every time or you will wear out your list. A Hatchbuck Study. To confirm, deny, or illustrate these stats I decided to look at some of the great emails our marketing team has been crafting. I took a look at 15 different subject lines and their performance across 95,000 sends. Here is what I saw. Average Length: 4-5 words Highest performing (>30% open): 2-4 words Keywords (or “power words” as I like to call them) First name Growth eBook Winning Skyrocket Guide Easier Experts More Save Solution Highest Performing: First name, Save “Types” of Subject Lines used: Personalized (with the contact’s first name) Hi, [Contact First Name] Description – straightforward explanation of what is in the email ex: The Marketer’s Guide to Hyper-Relevant Content Download – offering a piece of content ex: [eBook] Content Marketing Playbook Bait – enticing idea that will be answered in the email ex: We think you’ll like this winning marketing play Promotion – special offer ex: Save Some Bones Highest Performing: Personalized, Promotion So for the Hatchbuckers, our best subject lines are short, sweet, and personal. We also have seen great success with our promotions – maybe that’s because we don’t offer them that often! What works best for you? The rule is to test, test, test. Always be looking at your stats to see how you can improve!