Email marketing is considered one of the most profitable digital marketing channels for marketing teams across all industries. Not only does it see an average ROI of $42 for every single dollar spent, but it’s one of the top preferred communication methods amongst your B2B consumers. Unfortunately, many B2B emails don’t follow any sort of B2B email subject line best practices, leading to the poor performance of campaigns. When campaigns flop, it leads many to question just how essential this channel is.
5 B2B Email Subject Line Best Practices You Need to Know
Research states that 78% of marketing teams have seen an increase in email engagement as of 2019. With more people turning to digital communication methods for their commerce needs, email marketing has never been more important.
However, if you haven’t been following B2B email subject line best practices, it doesn’t matter how good your email content is because your audience is more likely to ignore your message in favor of something with a more attractive subject line.
Not quite sure where to begin with revamping your email subject lines? Then you’ll want to consider implementing these five B2B email subject line best practices into your email writing routine:
1. Always Test Your Email Subject Line Before Sending to Everyone on Your List
When it comes time to test out your email content before you send it, most email marketers focus heavily on the content within the email itself. Where they tend to neglect is testing their email subject line and even the preheader text that follows.
This is a big mistake because the email subject line and the preheader text are the very first pieces your B2B subscribers see in their crowded inbox. When you neglect to fill this information out, you’re guaranteed that your email will be skipped over or automatically sent to the trash file.
So while you’re already busy testing your email’s content, make sure to take the extra step. AB test various email subject lines and see which ones garner more opens and more click-throughs.
2. Don’t Neglect the Use of Emojis – Just Use Them Correctly
While you’re busy testing email subject lines, why not include a variation that includes an emoji? Research shows that emoji use in email subject lines can help you stand out from the rest of the subject lines in a crowded email inbox. However, they need to be used correctly.
You have to be wise about when you choose to use an emoji in your correspondence, and you have to be careful when selecting which emojis to use. Remember, the goal is to still be professional, just in a way that stands out a little bit from the standards.
3. Limit Your Use of Punctuation
This one might be a hard one for those who are very set in their written ways. However, you need to use as little punctuation as possible when it comes to your email subject lines. That’s not to say you can’t use proper punctuation when necessary. It just means you need to avoid anything unnecessary. Otherwise, you risk being flagged as spam by your reader’s inbox filter.
4. Personalization Still Matters
One of the primary reasons email marketing has been so successful amongst marketing teams is that it allows you to get personal with your readers. In the beginning, it just meant adding their name to an email subject line – but personalization has come a long way. Instead of just focusing on their name, why not use keywords that stand out to their particular niche, interests, GEO location, etc.
5. Be Descriptive, Yet Specific
How can you possibly be descriptive yet specific? Usually, when you’re descriptive, you need to use more elaborate wording to get your point across. Yet, when you’re trying to be specific, you want to cut down on unnecessary use of words.
This is a great place to start considering the use of emojis in your email subject line. While you still need to be as concise as possible given your short character count in the subject line, you can say more than you think with the right use of an emoji. For example, instead of using five characters to spell out the word world, you can use an emoji planet to get that point across.
CadenceSEO: Following B2B Email Subject Line Best Practices to Help You See Success
When it comes to B2B email subject line best practices, this is by no means an exhaustive list. However, these five items are essential in creating an email subject line that not only stands out but encourages your readers to click and open the message.
In need of additional email marketing help? Then contact our digital marketing team today to see how we may be able to help!
