Email Marketing 101: Subject Lines vs. Body Content
December 21, 2021
Email marketing is a great way to keep in touch and maintain a relationship with your senior living audience. In fact, “74% of Baby Boomers think email is the most personal channel to communicate with brands.”
The challenge, however, is getting your audience to open and engage with your emails. While email marketing is an effective tool, there is an ongoing debate over which part of the email is more important: the subject line or the body content.
Our team at Markentum offers effective email marketing services that help you reach prospective residents for your senior living community, keep current residents and their family members in the loop, and stay engaged with everyone that is important. We are exploring the debate between the subject line and the body content of an email to find out, once and for all, which is more important.
Email Subject Lines
The subject line of an email is the part that people see first. It is what entices them to open your email or move it to the trash folder.
According to Statista, more than 319 billion emails are sent each day, and this number is expected to increase to over 376 billion by the year 2025. Your email subject lines have to be unique and engaging enough to stand out from the rest of the emails that flood your contact’s inboxes.
Tips for Creating an Engaging Subject Line
(These) [Characters] *Matter*
People notice things that are different, so using characters like parenthesis or brackets in your subject line can help your email stand out from the rest.
Use ALL CAPS for certain words
Just like special characters can help your subject line stand out, using all caps for specific words you want to emphasize can do the same. For example, “Join Us TONIGHT for Our Grand Opening!”
Use an ellipsis…
These three little dots have more of an impact than you may realize. Using an ellipsis creates suspense and entices your audience to open your email to see what else you have to say.
Bookend Emojis
Many people believe that using emojis in your subject line will get your email sent directly into the spam folder, but this is just a myth. When you put emojis into your subject line that relate to your content, they can help your email be more engaging.
Oops…We Almost Forgot Something
The “fake mistake” is a tactic that can be highly effective in getting people to open your emails. Your audience wants to know how you messed up and will click to open your email just to find out.
Email Body Copy & Content
The body content is the “meat” of your email, and getting someone to open it is only half the battle. Once it is open, the content is what they will have to engage with. Creating strong, well-crafted content that is beneficial to your target audience is what keeps people opening your emails.
Tips for Crafting Engaging Email Content
“You-Focused” Copy
The content of your email should establish your role in your target audience’s life. Be clear on who you are, what you are offering, and why your audience needs you.
Pictures and Stories
Movies and books tell stories that viewers and readers connect to, and your email copy should be no different. Use pictures in your email to get your point across differently, and use the power of storytelling to help your audience relate to you.
An Enticing Call-to-Action
Be clear on exactly what action you want your audience to take, but make it engaging. Including a strong, well-crafted CTA in your emails will increase your clicks and engagement rates.
So…What is More Important?
In an effective email marketing strategy, both the subject line and body content serve important purposes. They both have the same goal: to get people to click and engage with your brand.
If your subject line is not enticing, your email will not get opened; however, if your body content is not well-crafted, your audience will not click or engage further.
The bottom line is that all parts of an email are important, and at Markentum, we craft emails that generate results. We understand how powerful emails can be for the success of your overall digital marketing strategy and work hard to write and send emails that help each of our partners reach their goals.
If you need help developing your email marketing strategy or want to learn more about how we do this, contact us or visit our website for a free evaluation!