When you’re writing a sales letter, one of the most critical pieces (if not the most critical piece) is your headline.
Bad headline = no intrigue = no one reads more = you sell very little.
Some of the world’s best copywriters have claimed to spend 10x longer on their headlines alone than the rest of the letter. That’s how important they are to getting a letter read.
When it comes to emails, the same can be said for your subject line.
Except it’s even a little more extreme when it comes to emails.
We all get so much email every day that we end up skipping over or deleting messages without even realizing it – and it’s almost strictly your email subject line that determine if your message falls into the "read RIGHT NOW" category, or the "piled under 300 other unread messages and completely forgotten/ignored" category.
I say "almost strictly" because there are a few other small factors at play (more on this in a moment) – but 80% of it is your subject line.
This week I’m going to go in depth on subject lines with you.
If you’ve been on my list a while, you know how deeply I believe in email marketing.
- If you’re an entrepreneur, your business lives or dies based on the health of your email list. I know a ton of 6 and 7 figure solopreneur businesses built nearly entirely off email alone (and even more 8+ figure multi-person behemoths).
- If you’re a freelancer, I personally think email copywriting is the single best gig you can get into at the start – and it’s especially lucrative if you’re a master who knows email inside and out. I know multiple talented freelancers making $500-$2,000 per 500 word email and their clients don’t bat an eye.
Subject lines are key to being an email master.
They always used to baffle me and seemed to take longer to write than the email itself.
But now it takes me less than a minute or two come up with something useable that I know will get opens, clicks, and ultimately deliver sales (if I’m selling something).
I’ve sent thousands of daily emails and spent years religiously split testing (only to give up split tests entirely on my own emails – more on this later). I’ve studied top direct response companies’ emails for a decade now, written an entire 50-day course on email marketing, and I feel I’ve cracked the code on subject lines, for my business.
That’s what I’ll be sharing with you this week.
It should take you roughly 15 minutes in total to read through all the emails I send you this week and I can just about guarantee they will level you up your subject line game by a factor of 10x or more… which means more money in your pocket whether you’re an entrepreneur or freelancer.
Here’s what we’ll be covering:
- (Tomorrow) Branded vs. Unbranded "From Name" Fields
- (Wednesday) The 4 "Attention Networks" and My Split Test Results
- (Thursday) Formulas & Swipes You Can Use Today
- (Friday) Putting It Altogether, Tricks & Email Subject Line Mastery
This’ll be fun.
Talk tomorrow!
- Derek