Even though you are only sending emails to people who have consented to receiving them, you still have to compete for your contact's time and attention to actually read your email.

Here's some tips to help you achieve a subject line that gets the attention of your audience, and has a greater likelihood of being opened and read:

1. Related to the Community. If you have an established readership of your newsletter, referring to the newsletter by name will help with recognition of the email. But add a twist to it so that recipients know it is fresh. For example, my Contact Point Newsletter always has Contact Point Newsletter at the end of the subject line, but I attach a short extra statement to the start which refers to the content. Our tests have shown that adding the extra catch phrase alongside the standard newsletter phrase achieves a greater open rate than without. There's nothing more unenticing that every you send to your list being the same three words like "Acme Sports Newsletter".
2. Inspires Thought. A catchy phrase that makes people think is an excellent way to elicit an email open. But pick your audience, and don't over-do it. If your newsletter is about a serious topic, you need to be more sophisticated in your approach to your thought-provoking subject line.
3. Related to Current News. Mentioning a current news topic related to your email will increase opens because your audience will likely to be keen to keep abreast of the hot topic. Just make sure that your email contents really does add that value!
4. Focus on a benefit. But again, consider your audience. What is of benefit to one may not be of benefit to another, so where you are articulating a benefit in the subject line, you need to target your campaign contact list more precisely. Steer clear of words in your subject lines that have been overused and that may make you look like the next fly-by-nighter or spammer e.g. "free", "cheap". Don't make offers that sound too good to be true. Phrase the subject in the common vernacular of your contact list (e.g. don't use the word vernacular!). Of course, the benefit contained within your newsletter may not be related to a special offer; your message may contain other important information.
5. Use AI. Stuck for a headline? Ask your favourite generative AI program to write you 5 different headlines on a particular topic, and pick the best. Or ask it to refine the tone or style, and go again!
6. Subject Length. Some marketing experts recommend subject lines should contain no more than 7 words. Short and sweet to get your reader's attention but not waste their time. Still others have recently reversed the trend, and are using very long email subjects. Consider your audience, and perahaps mix it up, but the more concise your headline the more likely all of your audience will actually take it in and be impacted by it.
7. Use Examples from the Media such as high quality news outlets, or from emails that got your attention. When a headline captures your attention, analyse it to work out why you gave the email your time, and then create a subject line that applies the example to your organisation.
8. Distinct from Spam. Take a peak at the emails sitting in your junk folder and make sure your subject lines are nothing like them!
9. Following the Trend or Not?. Trends come and go, including with the way headlines are written ... at the start of a new trend, if you can pick it, using that trending type of phrase can helpful to get people to open your email, but when the phrase becomes hackneyed it can have the opposite effect. As an example, at the time of writing there's a trend to use the phrase "xyz thing ... here's what you need to know". In my opinion that has become over-used and I inwardly roll my eyes everytime I read it.
10. Capitals and exclamation marks. Using all capitals, lots of exclamation marks, or other special characters in your subject lines should be used with caution. They could make your email look like spam or that you have an offer that is too good to be true.
11. Test. The best way to guage the appropriate content for your subject line for your particular audience, is to test. If your contact list is large enough you can send multiple messages testing a number of different subject lines. Then based on the open rate of each campaign, use the subject line that generated the highest open rate to send out to the remainder and majority of your contact list. This is referred to as A | B testing.

Of course, the subject line is not the only determinant in having your email read. You might like to read more in our article "The Anatomy of a Great Email Campaign".

Happy Enudging!

Heather Maloney
Originally authored in May, 2007; updated June 2025.