How to Get 80% Open Rates (My Top 5 Subject Lines)

Email Marketing, Launching

Today, I don’t give a 💩 about whether or not your emails are any good.

Because if we don’t nail your subject line, it doesn’t matter.

I know you spend so much time on the newsletter/sales email/WHATEVER–but are you babying the subject line too?

Subject lines are the equivalent to a “good hook” for your Reel or social media caption.

It’s doggone crucial you nail it.

Let me show you 5 times I nailed mine last month, then show you how to do it too.

Here’s my quick & dirty checklist:

  • Drop the titlecase.
  • Be a lil tease, aka make it intriguing.
  • Break punctuation/grammar rules.


Subject Line: This email is only 25 words long 😱
Open Rate: 81.8%
Why it worked:
Yes, the email was actually that short!

This subject line made people wonder why it was so short, and what I possibly had to say that wasn’t long-winded.

Subject Line: Your email platform + my cake pops
Open Rate: 78.5%
Why it worked:
really like picking 2 random elements of my email and throwing them into the subject line with a “+” sign. You could try using & instead.

It’s informal and random. The kind of thing a pal would put in a subject line just to keep it from being empty for an email they’re casually sending at 2 am.

They don’t need to get creative because you’re buds! They know you’ll open it, random or not.

And I know that too.

Subject Line: Copy + queso
Open Rate: 75%
Why it worked:

Again with my lazy “Pick 2”-style subject line. Maybe I need to trademark this? Try it out.

This one could’ve been better, though! It was my first sales email for Personality Profits.

If I were to give this another whirl, I’d try out “I have performance anxiety 🍆”

Intriguing? Check.
Emoji? Check.

If a subject line could make a Karen gasp, I’m using it.

Subject Line: Boring people are more relatable.
Open Rate: 75%
Why it worked:
I’m not 100% sure on this one, but here’s my theory:

“Boring people” are the first 2 words. It’s attention grabbing and a controversial opinion in our world of side-boob influencer girlboss Reels.

A common misconception is that you can’t pull off storytelling in copy if you have a “boring” life.

This might have made it kinda… relatable?

Subject Line: No shade but…
Open Rate: 72.7%
Why it worked:
DRAMA. We’re wired for it, us nasty humans.

It’s clickbait-y.

It’s short.

And if you read my emails regularly, you know I actually do vocalize things that make folks blush and text me screenshots with: “I can’t believe you said that 🤣”

WARNING:

Don’t cry wolf.

If being a problem isn’t part of your brand, don’t pretend in the subject line. This applies to more than being a sasshole.

If your subject lines consistently contradict the style of your content, your open rates will plummet.

Don’t make a liar out of yourself.

Know thyself.

Write better subject lines for thyself.


ps – 1 more thing: Always send yourself a test email and look at your subject line on mobile. You can’t have it running off-screen into an abyss of “…”

Go write some bangin’ subject lines and send me your best 1 or 3 or 5!

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Humor Marketing Coach for creators, service providers, coaches and your mom.

And you SHOULD, which is why I use humor to help creators get their edge in tHe SpAcE.

Humor makes us human and helps us connect with others, which is the underlying foundation of brand building – and sales!

Humor is serious business, and how you can charm and disarm their way to profit and authority.

I’m Emelie—aka the head honcho

Everyone and their mother’s cousin’s guinea pig is trying to sTaNd OuT.

 I ain’t a guinea pig!

And with all these beige blob brands, it shouldn’t be that hard…

But you've been fed “cLeAr > cLeVer” marketing advice through a feeding tube since your business was born. It’s bullsh*t. And it doesn’t work.

You can be clear AND clever.