{"id":40193,"date":"2017-08-23T13:38:46","date_gmt":"2017-08-23T17:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/blog\/5-best-words-subject-lines-5-avoid\/"},"modified":"2024-02-22T09:58:14","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T14:58:14","slug":"5-best-words-subject-lines-5-avoid","status":"publish","type":"blog_posts","link":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/blog\/5-best-words-subject-lines-5-avoid\/","title":{"rendered":"The 5 best words for subject lines (and 5 to 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Marketing"}}]}},"acf":{"page_type":"internal","external_url":"","page_template":"centered","sidebar_position":"right","post_author":"","post_date":"","post_description":"","post_link":"","post_file":false,"media_gallery":false,"project_metrics_title":"","project_metrics":false,"show_hero":false,"hero_margin":false,"hero_type":"image","hero_subhead":"","hero_headline":"","hero_text":"","hero_button":"","hero_icon":false,"hero_image":false,"sidebar_type":"sticky","content_builder_sidebar_group":{"content_builder_sidebar":false},"flexible_page_builder_group":{"flexible_page_builder_fields":[{"acf_fc_layout":"wysiwyg","add_menu_anchor":false,"anchor_menu_text":"","wysiwyg_group":{"show_section":true,"alignment":"left","subhead":"","headline":"","wysiwyg":"<p>With so many emails per day and so little time to connect, subject lines are crucial.<\/p>\n<p>While there are no \u201cmagic\u201d words for subject lines, there are a few keywords that have shown great success in increasing open rates (how many people on an email list open a particular email) and engagement rates (the number of unique email recipients who opened an email or clicked on a link in an email over time).<\/p>\n<p>Here are the top performers:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Alert:<\/strong>\u00a0Emails with the word \u201calert\u201d in their subject lines have a higher likelihood of being opened and clicked through, according to a study by<a href=\"http:\/\/www.adestra.com\/resources\/downloadable-reports\/2013-subject-line-analysis-report\/\">\u00a0Adestra.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Bulletin:<\/strong>\u00a0Emails with the word \u201cbulletin\u201d also have a\u00a0higher likelihood of being opened and clicked through.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Daily or Weekly:<\/strong>\u00a0Date-specific keywords can be highly effective, but only to an extent. The word \u201cdaily\u201d has a slightly higher open rate, as does the word \u201cweekly,\u201d but \u201cmonthly\u201d is\u00a0not as strong overall.<\/li>\n<li><strong>News:<\/strong>\u00a0Content pieces that have the word \u201cnews\u201d in the subject line generally perform well.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Names:<\/strong>\u00a0In some cases, personalising a subject line can help with open rates. For example, a Sheriff\u2019s department (and Granicus client) discovered that when their Sheriff or officer\u2019s name was included in the subject line, their open rates doubled.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>On the other hand, there are number of keywords that can be detrimental to open and engagement rates, including:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Free:<\/strong>\u00a0Near the top of the list of words to avoid for email subject lines is \u201cfree\u201d due to overuse. It can also harm a sender\u2019s reputation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>$$$:<\/strong>\u00a0Symbols and emojis are usually triggers for SPAM filters.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Guaranteed:<\/strong>\u00a0Naturally, the word \u201cguaranteed\u201d can bring on a level of scepticism by a reader, and are quickly dismissed or deleted.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Report:<\/strong>\u00a0While\u00a0\u201cbulletin\u201d has strong results in terms of open and engagement rates, \u201creport\u201d does not fare well. If you are sending a report, whitepaper or journal to readers, try using descriptive words instead.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Earn:\u00a0<\/strong>The word \u201cearn\u201d can be associated with money-making plans, which readers are not interested in if they don\u2019t know you.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>There are no \u201cperfect\u201d words for increasing open or engagement rates, but there are other considerations that can contribute to your success:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Be relevant:\u00a0<\/strong>Make your subject line relevant to what your audience wants to hear from you.<br \/>\n<strong>Consider timing:<\/strong>\u00a0Capitalizing on a news hook or something timely can have a great impact on open and engagement rates.<br \/>\n<strong>Add in a \u201ccall to action&#8221;:<\/strong>\u00a0When referencing a call to action in your subject line, be clear and simple. Use verbs like \u201cRegister,\u201d \u201cMeet up\u201d or \u201cTell us\u201d<br \/>\n<strong>Experiment:<\/strong>\u00a0By A\/B testing different subject lines or calls to action, such as a button or an image instead of hyperlinked text, to see if you can drive more click-throughs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/uk.granicus.com\/downloads\/content-marketing-public-sector\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-19189\" src=\"https:\/\/uk.granicus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image\/jpeg\/Content-marketing-guide-banner-600x205.jpg\" alt=\"Content marketing guide UK\" width=\"653\" height=\"223\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Do you have examples of words that have worked well for your organisation\u2019s email campaigns?\u00a0Let us know at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:info@granicus.com\">info@granicus.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","button":""}}]},"posts_slider_group":{"show_section":true,"posts_slider":[{"add_anchor":false,"anchor_name":"","background_color":"green","slider_subhead":"","slider_headline":"Discover More Blogs","slider_text":"","slider_type":"blog_posts","manual_resources":false,"slider_resource_tax":"recent","add_additional_filters":false,"department_filter":false,"market_filter":false,"outcome_filter":false,"product_filter":false,"region_filter":false,"solution_filter":false,"topic_filter":false,"slider_link":{"title":"View All Resources","url":"\/uk\/learning-center\/","target":""},"slider_link_icon":false}]},"centered_layout_builder_clone":{"flexible_page_builder_group":{"flexible_page_builder_fields":[{"acf_fc_layout":"wysiwyg","add_menu_anchor":false,"anchor_menu_text":"","wysiwyg_group":{"show_section":true,"alignment":"left","subhead":"","headline":"","wysiwyg":"<p>With so many emails per day and so little time to connect, subject lines are crucial.<\/p>\n<p>While there are no \u201cmagic\u201d words for subject lines, there are a few keywords that have shown great success in increasing open rates (how many people on an email list open a particular email) and engagement rates (the number of unique email recipients who opened an email or clicked on a link in an email over time).<\/p>\n<p>Here are the top performers:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Alert:<\/strong>\u00a0Emails with the word \u201calert\u201d in their subject lines have a higher likelihood of being opened and clicked through, according to a study by<a href=\"http:\/\/www.adestra.com\/resources\/downloadable-reports\/2013-subject-line-analysis-report\/\">\u00a0Adestra.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Bulletin:<\/strong>\u00a0Emails with the word \u201cbulletin\u201d also have a\u00a0higher likelihood of being opened and clicked through.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Daily or Weekly:<\/strong>\u00a0Date-specific keywords can be highly effective, but only to an extent. The word \u201cdaily\u201d has a slightly higher open rate, as does the word \u201cweekly,\u201d but \u201cmonthly\u201d is\u00a0not as strong overall.<\/li>\n<li><strong>News:<\/strong>\u00a0Content pieces that have the word \u201cnews\u201d in the subject line generally perform well.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Names:<\/strong>\u00a0In some cases, personalising a subject line can help with open rates. For example, a Sheriff\u2019s department (and Granicus client) discovered that when their Sheriff or officer\u2019s name was included in the subject line, their open rates doubled.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>On the other hand, there are number of keywords that can be detrimental to open and engagement rates, including:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Free:<\/strong>\u00a0Near the top of the list of words to avoid for email subject lines is \u201cfree\u201d due to overuse. It can also harm a sender\u2019s reputation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>$$$:<\/strong>\u00a0Symbols and emojis are usually triggers for SPAM filters.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Guaranteed:<\/strong>\u00a0Naturally, the word \u201cguaranteed\u201d can bring on a level of scepticism by a reader, and are quickly dismissed or deleted.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Report:<\/strong>\u00a0While\u00a0\u201cbulletin\u201d has strong results in terms of open and engagement rates, \u201creport\u201d does not fare well. If you are sending a report, whitepaper or journal to readers, try using descriptive words instead.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Earn:\u00a0<\/strong>The word \u201cearn\u201d can be associated with money-making plans, which readers are not interested in if they don\u2019t know you.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>There are no \u201cperfect\u201d words for increasing open or engagement rates, but there are other considerations that can contribute to your success:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Be relevant:\u00a0<\/strong>Make your subject line relevant to what your audience wants to hear from you.<br \/>\n<strong>Consider timing:<\/strong>\u00a0Capitalizing on a news hook or something timely can have a great impact on open and engagement rates.<br \/>\n<strong>Add in a \u201ccall to action&#8221;:<\/strong>\u00a0When referencing a call to action in your subject line, be clear and simple. Use verbs like \u201cRegister,\u201d \u201cMeet up\u201d or \u201cTell us\u201d<br \/>\n<strong>Experiment:<\/strong>\u00a0By A\/B testing different subject lines or calls to action, such as a button or an image instead of hyperlinked text, to see if you can drive more click-throughs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/uk.granicus.com\/downloads\/content-marketing-public-sector\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-19189\" src=\"https:\/\/uk.granicus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/image\/jpeg\/Content-marketing-guide-banner-600x205.jpg\" alt=\"Content marketing guide UK\" width=\"653\" height=\"223\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Do you have examples of words that have worked well for your organisation\u2019s email campaigns?\u00a0Let us know at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:info@granicus.com\">info@granicus.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","button":""}}]}},"post_slider_clone":{"posts_slider_group":{"show_section":true,"posts_slider":[{"add_anchor":false,"anchor_name":"","background_color":"green","slider_subhead":"","slider_headline":"Discover More Blogs","slider_text":"","slider_type":"blog_posts","manual_resources":false,"slider_resource_tax":"recent","add_additional_filters":false,"department_filter":false,"market_filter":false,"outcome_filter":false,"product_filter":false,"region_filter":false,"solution_filter":false,"topic_filter":false,"slider_link":{"title":"View All Resources","url":"\/uk\/learning-center\/","target":""},"slider_link_icon":false}]}},"call_to_action":{"hide_call_to_action":false,"color":"red","custom_cta":false,"custom_subhead":"","custom_headline":"","custom_description":"","custom_link":null,"custom_image":false}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_posts\/40193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blog_posts"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_market","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_market?post=40193"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_dept","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_dept?post=40193"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_type?post=40193"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_region?post=40193"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_outcomes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_outcomes?post=40193"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_topic?post=40193"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_products","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_products?post=40193"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_solutions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_solutions?post=40193"},{"taxonomy":"resource_tax_services","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/granicus.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource_tax_services?post=40193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}