How To Create Standout Subject Lines

Even if you don't send email messages that are clearly commercial, your emails could get lost in the crowd if your subject lines don't distinguish you.

According to Stefan Pollard, a good subject line has three essential qualities: branding, urgency and brevity:

1. Branding: The brand, company name, publication or mailing name figures prominently. Never make readers guess who you are.


2. Urgency: It sums up the message content with the message's most compelling feature, top story or other information that signals the reader to open it as quickly as possible.


3. Brevity: It tells the story in 60 characters or fewer so that crucial information doesn't get cut off in the inbox.

In the holiday season, B2C marketers will have to add a fourth quality: distinction. What will distinguish your limited-time free-shipping offer from the 15 to 20 others that are probably poised for delivery right now to your customers' inboxes?

So, you need not only to write a good subject line but also know what your direct competitors are sending out, along with all of the other direct merchants whose emails will compete with yours for the reader's attention. It's a tall order, but this article will outline how to do it.