Last Updated: August 8, 2025 // Originally Published October 3, 2022

How Do I Write a Subject Line to Engage My Audience?

Admit it! We all judge that book by its cover.  We all do it and that applies especially to the subject lines of your email marketing. 

In fact – 47% of marketers say they test several subject lines to optimize their email performance.

It is the very first thing your subscribers see when your newsletter hits their inbox. Ensuring that you have a compelling subject line serves as your golden ticket to: increasing your open rates, engaging with your audience, and standing out in a crowded inbox. 

Here are 5 tips that will help you create crafty subject lines for your newsletters. 

#1: Create a Sense of Urgency!!

 Communicating urgency in an email subject line can help entice your readers to open the email and even act on whatever your call to action may be. 

It is important though to use this sparingly, you don’t want to be known as “the brand that cried wolf” so make sure that you only use this when the newsletter actually does include a call to action such as a giveaway or contest (HubSpot).

Tip #2: Make Your Reader Feel Special

The psychology of exclusivity is powerful indeed – people want to feel special, they want to feel like they are a part of something and this often builds loyalty between your subscribers and your brand which can create higher open rates (HubSpot). 

You can do this by using words such as “for our beloved customers”, “a gift from us to you” – creating a sense of personalization that entices the reader to learn more and increase your click through rate.

You can also take it one stop further and show your subscribers that they are not just another name in your subscriber list and add their name to the subject line. Doing so, not only increases your open rates but also makes the reader feel special, as if you are speaking directly to them. (Emma Blog). 

Email marketing applications such as MailChimp provides users with the opportunity to use merge tags which can include each recipient’s name in the subject line (MailChimp). 

Tip #3: It’s Okay To Get Punny

 Our inboxes are often crowded with emails daily – stand out and make your subscribers laugh with a simple pun to encourage them to read more while also humanizing your brand. 

Most people enjoy and can appreciate a good pun, for example, JetBlue used the subject line “Land wander-ful low fares now!” in one of the email campaigns. (HubSpot). Creating punny subject lines helps to appear more conversational with readers and less spammy. 

Think of creative ways you can slip a few puns into your email – of course when it’s appropriate. Just make sure you are not over doing it – remember this email is not going to your personal friends and family but the company’s subscribers so it is important you do some market research prior to ensure that puns will land with your audience.

Tip #4: Use Emojis

In a crowded inbox, another way to stand out is with emojis!

Using a simple emoji can help to add some visual pizazz to your subject line, but there are some things you need to take into account before you crowd your subject line with your favourite emojis.

• Stick with one emoji at a time in your subject line – too many may come across as spam (MailChimp).
• Use them as a way to add to your subject line rather than replacing words with them to ensure your main message gets across (MailChimp).
• Test your emojis beforehand – ensure that your readers will understand the emoji and test to ensure it works across all operating systems as some will appear different (MailChimp).

Tip #5: Keep It Short and to the Point

It is important to keep in mind the length of your email subject line since when it is too long it will get cut off, especially on mobile devices. It is recommended that your subject line is 50 characters or less to ensure that your readers see the entire message (HubSpot).

Some great email marketing strategies to keep your character count low is avoid using words such as “update” or “newsletter” ; these words make it seem like a series of emails and that readers can just simply read the next one to keep in tune (HubSpot).

Another great way to limit your character count is to avoid overusing exclamation points and question marks. High-impact words like “best”, “very”, and “new” already bring the intensity. There’s usually no need to add more than that.

Not only do exclamation points paired with question marks make it appear that you are yelling at your reader but can also make your email appear to be spam – web servers will actually often flag emails as spam if they contain both a question mark and exclamation mark (HubSpot).

Some Additional Tips

• Make sure you are using a familiar sender name – try to make it as human as possible like yourname@company.com. It is important that it sounds like someone the reader would want to hear from, not like an automated message (HubSpot).
• Avoid at all costs the “no sender” name – not only does this make the email appear way less personal it also prevents people from wanting to add the email address to their contacts list and often send your email to their spam folder (HubSpot).
• Test your subject line before sending – email marketing services such as MailChimp offer tools such as subject line helper to help see whether your subject line follows their best practices (MailChimp).

Conclusion

In conclusion, making your newsletter subject lines with a sense of urgency, making your readers feel included, getting punny, using an emoji, and keeping them short and to the point are all great ways to engage with your audience, increase your open rates, and help you stand out in consumers’ inboxes. 

Keep it simple, and keep an eye on what others are doing! Follow us on your preferred platform for more tips and tricks for great email marketing (and much more!)