Blog: 5 fresh ideas for your email subject lines

Every great email needs a great email subject line - and how you craft it will seriously affect how well your email performs.

In this post we're looking at five fresh and unusual email subject line ideas that can help you cut through.

(A tip: you can try your own variations of each on real people by clicking the 'Test this on real people for free!' button alongside.)

Idea 1: Time sensitive subject lines

The fear of missing out is a really strong motivator for email subject lines. No-one wants to be the last to know nor to miss a great opportunity to get a great deal and save money. Try using email subject lines that make it clear time is limited; this will help you drive urgent action!

Idea 2: Comedy and funny email email subject lines

Using comedy as a way to drive people to open your emails is a proven approach; research suggests emails that included the word "joke" or "jokes" had the highest open rates of all messages. It's not always easy to see how your brand has a right-to-win with humor; but perhaps you can tie this in to a time of the year, for example April Fools' Day, and bring a smile to your potential customers?

Idea 3: Personalised email subject lines

To every person in every language it's said that the best sound is that of their own name. So tailoring an email subject line to make sure it includes the recipient's name is a great tactic to get the message read. If your business or local regional approach is a little more formal, you might change this from forename to a courteous "Mr. X" or "Ms. Y" to better respect an individual's preferences.

Idea 4: Surprising email subject lines

If you saw this message in your inbox you would open it, wouldn't you? Using a suprising email subject line like that really arouses your recipient's curiosity. Of course you'll have to work harder on your body copy to drive conversions, given the subject line is a little generic. But overcome the first hurdle to conversion in style, and use a contrary email subject line to get the most people opening your message.

Idea 5: Seasonal email subject lines

We've saved the best till last. You cannot afford to miss out on critical seasonal events like Christmas, Valentines' Day, Mothers' Day and more. These are vital purchasing opportunities and your brand has to be in your customers' inbox for a chance to sell. Bearing in mind how hectic inboxes can get at those times of year, you will need to stand out; we find that using emoji in email subject lines helps give your emails a little more pizzazz.

So that's it - our five top ideas for fresh email subject lines that cut through. Have you tried these out? How did they perform? You can pre-test variations of each to get the best results; get started by clicking the 'Test this on real people for free!' button alongside each example.