How to Get All Your Client Emails Opened

How can you make sure all your client emails get opened? Put yourself in your clients’ shoes and think about what goes through their minds.

“Why should I open this email now?” This is the question that your clients and prospects ask themselves each and every time they face their mountain of emails each and every single day. How can you make sure the emails you send to your clients get opened every time?

Email best practices starts with understanding what triggers your reader and that’s why we explored these 4 motivating principles in our post “Email Persuasion Tip #1: Create a Magnetic Subject Line.”

1. Utility
2. Curiosity
3. Specificity
4. The ‘You’ Principle

Now it’s time to bring these principles to life in your own client emails. Here are some real-world client email subject line examples provided by Mailchimp. In over 200 emails they analyzed the open rates which ranged from 93% to as low as 0.5%. While their focus was on email marketing, the results are relevant for all emails that you send to clients, whether selling, marketing, or any other business communication.

What I love about this article about client email subject lines is that they not only provide the specific best/worst examples, but they also provide comments that explains why. Check out the whole article for all the examples but see here how they have.

7 More Tips for Creating Magnetic Subject Lines on Client Emails

1. Think outcome: Before you start, think and plan your email. What is the outcome you want. Like Steven Covey said in his book ‘The 7 Principles of Highly Effective People’, “Start with the end in mind.”
2. Make it about them: Your focus of attention should be on your client first. When you filter your writing from this perspective you will be better equipped to write subject lines that are relevant for your reader.
3. Trigger your reader’s motivation with utility or curiosity: Does your subject line pass the litmus test? Ask yourself “Is this useful for my reader, from my client’s perspective?” or “Will this pique their curiosity?”
4. Create a sense of urgency: Using the words ‘urgent’ or ‘time sensitive’ or ‘now’ lets your reader know that your email needs prompt attention. Word of caution…Only use these words if your email is truly urgent.
5. Subject line = purpose of email: Describe the subject of your email. Tell the reader what’s inside. And be specific
6. Length of subject line: no more than 50 characters
7. Change the subject lines in threads: Instead of repeating the same subject line over and over. Change it to match the purpose of the current email.

Note: often times the same subject lines are carried forward for easy referencing to a specific issue or project. If it’s necessary to adopt this practice, add additional words at the end of subject line to specify the purpose of your new email. When you place the word at the END of the subject line, it will still show in a search for that file name. However if place at the beginning it will not.

• ABC Project: Heart House
• ABC Project: Heart House – Confirming Next Steps
• ABC Project: Heart House – Need Your Answers to 3 Questions Urgent

Use these tips to create a subject line that catches the eye of your prospect or client; something that is different and unique; something that is useful and relevant; something that makes him or her curious enough to open the e-mail rather than delete it. Having energy, providing utility and creating curiosity are important to standing out in their daunting list of unopened emails.

What have been some of your most effective client email subject lines that guaranteed high opens?