You slaved away for 3 hours crafting the best email ever.

The perfect blend of high-value content with a pitch a humor, a sprinkle of story and call to action no one could ignore…..

But nobody opened it!! (d’oh!)

It’s not 98′ anymore. No one’s firing up  AOL. Praying to hear those iconic words  “YOU GOT MAIL”.   The AOL voice must have laryngitis because the average adult gets over 147 emails A DAY! That’s a lot of people fighting for your subscriber’s eyeballs.

Here are  6 quick ways to make sure that (almost) never happens again…

(Haven’t started your email list yet? No problem read this epic free blog post all about how to start your email list & profit from it) 

1. Email valuable content the same time every week

Think about it.  Doesn’t your heart skip-a-beat every Friday when you know your favorite blogger sends out an email that day?  She could have the world’s crappiest subject line ever but you’re still fanatically searching your inbox for it.

Just like podcasting, video-blogging or regular blogging getting on a set schedule for e-mailing your list is key.   Instead of waiting until the last minute why not sit down and bang out all four emails at once (batching) then schedule them to go out.

2. Use visual words or unusual word combinations:

“Facelift in Your Fruit Bowl”  “Swimming in Poop”  “Cheez-It Bender”  “Boom!”  “Bazinga!”

Those email subject lines are pretty hard to ignore. (Be honest, we both know you were thinking about how gross it’d be swimming in actual poop)  Getting your readers to react before opening your email is a good thing.

3. Segment Your Email List

This is probably the easiest, most effective way to boost your email open rates.  There are two ways you can do it:

1.Have freebies and content upgrades that relate to only certain blog categories for examples:  For all my post about blogging I include my 4 Day Launch Your Blog Mini-Course Freebie, for Webinars I have my Trello board webinar workflow, for email marketing I have my 2 years worth of email ideas.

2.Use the “Harry Potter” email. That’s when you ask people to pick the reason they joined your list or what their knowledge level is. (See the Email Marketing Fairy for a word-for-word script of the Harry Potter email).

This is really easy with Convertkit and Active Campaign

 Of course, if you don’t have anyone to sort  – you need to check out this blog post with 15 tiny things you can do to grow your list in an hour. 

4. Use [Freebie] in your subject line – 

According to the fine-folks over at Mailchimp the term “Freebie” gets more opens then FREE. Why? Probably because the word “FREE” sets off spam filters faster than a cheetah chugging Redbull.

Adding brackets [ ] creates visual interest, instantly helping your email stand out from the crowd.

5. Use “You” 

Newsflash people love talking about themselves and feeling special. While some email marketing gurus tell you to use people’s first names in the subject line – Don’t. If a subscriber mistyped her name or used a fake name when signing up for your list seeing “Kste, I dare you to open this” or  “Turd Ferguson, we miss you!” it’s an instant turn off – (like farting).

But the word  “You” always gets attention

“I dare you to open this”  “I made this for you” “Heard you got crabs” “You’ll get a kick out this”

6. Use “This”

This is my favorite copywriting hack for headlines and subject lines.   By adding the word “this” instead of a noun you create an instant curiosity factor.  People need to know.

Networking is the key to success vs This is the key to success

Don’t diet, exercise  vs Don’t diet do this 

But be careful, just like using too much salt will ruin your eggs so can using the word this too much with your emails

*Bonus Tip*

Write your subject line last!

Write the content first. Don’t waste 30 minutes racking your brain for a catchy subject line than throwing in the digi-towel when nothing comes. Don’t do that to your list. They need to hear from you. They need your help.  

While writing eyeball-grabbing subjects are important …

The thing that really propels open is YOUR NAME.

Think about, do you even read the subject line of your favorite bloggers? Nope. You see Elna, Terra or Sarah email you, you open it – no questions asked.

And building that kind of inbox fame is alot easier then you think. It starts with having a toe-curling welcome series. Which you can listen about right here →  How to create a toe-curling welcome series.

Get 2 Years Worth of Strategically Crafted Email Topics