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Your subject line is everything by Kevin Nunley Somewhere in the not so distant past, I remember reading each and every email I got. The Internet was still new and it wasn't uncommon to go entire days without receiving a single message. Now, if you have any visibility at all online, you get at least a hundred message a day from spammers and viruses. The real challenge is not to get carried away with the speed delete key and nuke the lovingly typed email from Mom . Her invitation to dinner could fly unnoticed into the trash bin along with the 57 identical offers to earn $17,000 in a weekend and the ALL CAPS pleas from a stranger in Africa wanting to share millions with you. The plain truth is we get SO MUCH email that it's tempting not to read ANY of it. That's why the subject line has become all important. If your subject line doesn't GRAB the reader, your email will never get read. Here are some simple ways to dramatically increase the results your messages pull...simply by making your subject line as effective as it can be. 1. Use the recipient's name at the beginning of the subject line. It's simple and it works. People open emails that have their name at the beginning. This even works with canned autoresponder messages. 2. Put the juiciest, most meaningful and exciting words at the BEGINNING of your subject line, instead of starting with less important words: Joni, here is an way for you to know if you have rabies. Notice how the important words appear so late in the subject line that they probably won't be included on the screen for the person who receives it. Instead, put the important words right at the beginning where they are sure to be seen: Joni, you might have rabies--how to know. Granted, your high school English teacher wouldn't approve of your sentence structure in the second example. But you will get far more response by putting YOU and RABIES somewhere near the beginning. 3. Leave out the ALL CAPITALS. Anything with ***, $$$, =>=>, or FREE tends to get deleted. If you're like me, you see it coming up the line in your side vision and you delete it without even reading the words. 4. Don't try to be cute. I was thinking.... reads the subject line. You have to open the message to see the rest of the sentence....that you would need my phone number to call me. Subject lines that aren't clear tend to get the axe. In fact, that works for any headline anywhere: in a press release, at the top of a web page, or at the beginning of an ad. You'll get far better response when your subject or headline gives a clear idea of what the message is about. Email is by far the most widely used tool on the Internet. It has an immense power to help even the smallest business get started and flourish. But experts are worried that the non stop barrage of spam and viruses are going to send millions back to fax and phone. Until new software gets the problem under control (and we're well along the way to doing that), get your message past the delete key with a headline that gets attention and communicates the importance of your message.
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