Stickyblog

If you resolved to write more engaging, meaningful email subject lines in 2010, well done you.

Not so this lot:

1.       Kick-start the New Year with the Confused.com newsletter

2.       Welcome to 2010 at Slug!

3.       Beating the January blues!

4.       Welcome in the New Year with Browns

5.       Welcome to 2010 – Student News from Birkbeck

What’s wrong with these subject lines (other than being horribly clichéd)?

Without knowing what the email contains, how do I know if I should open it? Unless you’ve got a dedicated fanbase of subscribers, it’s presumptuous to think someone would open your email without knowing if it was relevant to them. Some of the offenders listed above have decent offers (eg 50% off food at Slug & Lettuce bars) but you wouldn’t know unless you opened and skim-read the email.

And I know it’s churlish, but I kick-started my new year with a Bloody Mary, not the Confused.com newsletter…

On a positive note, we saw a much better effort from CD WOW! with their snappy and self-contained:

• Happy New Year! Here’s £2

How to improve it? Lead on the benefit to the customer:

• Here’s £2. Happy New Year!

Posted by Claire Bussey to email, marketing, writing for email