Care for thy subjects

This is an e-mailer I received recently:

Pointing out the typo in the Subject line (loose) may seem like nitpicking, but the little typo does throw some light on how little importance advertisers attach to subject lines when they roll out their e-mail campaigns. No prizes for guessing who looses!

Here's another mailer:

A bland subject line (Everything changes with time...) that says the exact opposite of what the mailer says! I have nothing against Businessworld; it's just that they've been sending too many mailers with subject lines gone awry.

All's not bleak though. Take a look at this e-mailer:

A great subject line (Jack Sparrow ab bolega Hindi), has enough clickworthiness, and most importantly, is relevant.

Imagine a supermarket shelf stacked with multiple rows of identical cans. The only difference between the cans is the text they carry on their labels. The cans cannot have any graphic element and have to use the same font size for the text. Now imagine that you are one of those cans and your job is to get into a shopping basket as quickly as possible. The job of an e-mail subject line is as unenviable, if not more!

So what makes a good subject line? I don't think that there can be a definitive answer (like there can be no diktat on what makes a good headline), but here's a thumb rule: a subject line should have enough promise/intrigue/trustworthiness in it for the recipient to open the mail, without being irrelevant.While we are on the subject of interesting subject lines, a caveat is in order. A manic obsession with open rate is more dangerous than bland subject lines. That might encourage misleading subject lines. You may achieve a fantastic open rate, but ruin your believability in the bargain.

Advertisers need to insist on creative attention in writing subject lines. Agencies should make writing interesting subject lines part of the creative process, and not a rushed afterthought.

Even the From line deserves a lot more attention than it gets; more about that in another post.