Tip of the week 46- How to craft effective subject line? (Part-One)

Tip of the week 46- How to craft effective subject line? (Part-One)



Let us travel back to the time when the door-to-door sales were most prevalent, where the sales began with a knock on the door. Every sales guy on our door was unique in their own way. If salesperson A made us to slam our door then salesperson B pinched us with curiosity. Now, with whom did you end up buying their offer and what made you do that?


Yes! It was the salesperson B who created a great first impression with the way they introduced themselves and the product, that either made our doors open for a little longer or made us to shut it down within a second.

 

Even in the world of email marketing, the first impression stands as our key to open doors of success, by using a well crafted subject line.


Now let us dig in to know how to create an Inbox ready subject line that can push up your success meter!


1) Stay short but impactful 

Most of the email readers never read, but scan up the words. So, to catch up with the scanning mind of such readers, you should write a subject line which is both short and impactful.


Apart from this, most of the emails are viewed through smartphones, that means your subject line should play its game within that small space. So, it is always recommended to write a subject line within 25-30 characters and to maintain a word limit between 6 to 8 words.



 2) Brew-up curiosity


Curiosity never killed a cat nor did it kill any human. So, you can safely add a pinch of curiosity while creating the subject line. 


The best way to build a curious subject line is to use questionnaire format, that will make the email recipients become curious about the content of your email campaign or give a sneak peek about the introductory part of the campaign to convey about the content of the email through an incomplete story.


3) Personalization has always been the key

Who does not love attention? Every human at one or the other point would have craved for attention and when you shower some personal attention to your email readers, then there are plenty of chances that it will be read by them.


The subject line can be personalised by adding the readers' name and emojis. You can even go one step further and use the available data about the readers and research about their area of interest to draft subject line accordingly. On the whole, it all goes down to understanding your users and giving them the best.


4) Write like Romans, when in Rome


Spin-up a flexible subject line according to the likes and dislikes of your audience, by knowing your audience by their bones.


Some like a funny subject line, some love a pinch of movie references and some expect it all to be formal, so it is always safe and best to bend and write according to the likes of your readers. It is not easy to know the likes of your audience easily, so to begin with you can make use of A/B testing feature of Zoho Campaigns, to test and select the most loved subject line.


 5) Do play the game of how-to and numbers


The 'how-to' and 'listicle' content is very popular in digital space, as they are solution-driven and very easy to consume. These two big hits can become the star of your email campaign with a suitable subject line.


So, while phrasing the subject line for content that gives out 
business solutions, use 'how-to'.

For content that is set up in the listicles format, use numbers so that readers get an idea about the length of your content.




Fingers are ten, so for now, just store the above email marketing tricks in the tip of your five fingers and use the same for your next campaign until we come back with another five tips for you!


Cheers,

Vinaya M






    Access your files securely from anywhere









                          Zoho Developer Community




                                                • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                • Digest


                                                • Functions


                                                • Meetups


                                                • Kbase


                                                • Resources


                                                • Glossary


                                                • Desk Marketplace


                                                • MVP Corner


                                                • Word of the Day


                                                • Ask the Experts



                                                          • Sticky Posts

                                                          • Tip of the week 03 - Sending emails in batches

                                                            Today's marketers not only want their email marketing to be efficient, but also smart. For an email campaign, you may think you have all the essential elements for lead conversion—a big mailing list, an attractive template design, and the most-engaging message content, but after hitting the ‘send’ button, you may not get the expected conversions. Wondering why? Here’s one of the major reasons. Many marketers miss out on sending the email campaign the right way. Did you know that you should not be
                                                          • Tip of the week 04 - Know about your recipients' 'prime open time.'

                                                            In today's market, the importance of customer behavior is astounding, with a vast amount of research and resources going into finding how customers make decisions. The process of persuading your customers to open your email and click on your call-to-action becomes easy when you understand the psychology behind their behavioral traits. Time to turn into a psychologist! Let's get to the basics—you want your emails to resonate well with your recipients. So, what's the primary thing involved here? It's
                                                          • Zoho Campaigns Expert Diaries on SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube

                                                            Hi email champs,  As email marketers, we find great lessons in each other's works—be it the subject lines that worked good, the design that was received well, or the CTA that had the maximum clicks. Email marketing encompasses a wide variety of topics spanning everything from creation and design to development and deliverability.  Here's when we from the Zoho Campaigns team found the need to build an email marketing community comprising of seasoned marketers and email geeks who can help each other
                                                          • Email Deliverability Tip #3: Seal the deal with the preheader

                                                            In the last post, we learned about the subject line. Today we'll be learning about the preheader. A preheader is the short text that follows the subject line in an email. The preheader is designed to hint at what your email message is all about. A good preheader should act as a second subject line and convince your contacts to open the email. Now, let's learn the best way to craft a preheader. Your subject line and preheader should work together and accurately convey the gist of your email. Keep
                                                          • Tip of the week 15 - Add subscription-preferences option. Drive more engagement.

                                                            If crafting content for emails, getting creatives done, and running email campaigns is your love, then unsubscribes are the heartbreakers.  You can save your emails from being unsubscribed/trashed by adding a proper subscription-preferences option in your emails (works best at the time of signup). Giving subscribers the option to choose what they want to receive from you and decide how often (frequency of the emails) your emails should hit their inboxes will increase the reach of your campaigns manifolds. 


                                                          Manage your brands on social media



                                                                Zoho TeamInbox Resources



                                                                    Zoho CRM Plus Resources

                                                                      Zoho Books Resources


                                                                        Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                                                                          Zoho Projects Resources


                                                                            Zoho Sprints Resources


                                                                              Qntrl Resources


                                                                                Zoho Creator Resources



                                                                                    Zoho CRM Resources

                                                                                    • CRM Community Learning Series

                                                                                      CRM Community Learning Series


                                                                                    • Kaizen

                                                                                      Kaizen

                                                                                    • Functions

                                                                                      Functions

                                                                                    • Meetups

                                                                                      Meetups

                                                                                    • Kbase

                                                                                      Kbase

                                                                                    • Resources

                                                                                      Resources

                                                                                    • Digest

                                                                                      Digest

                                                                                    • CRM Marketplace

                                                                                      CRM Marketplace

                                                                                    • MVP Corner

                                                                                      MVP Corner







                                                                                        Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                        Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                        Get Started Now


                                                                                          Zoho Show Resources

                                                                                            Zoho Writer

                                                                                            Get Started. Write Away!

                                                                                            Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                                                                                              Zoho CRM コンテンツ






                                                                                                Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


                                                                                                    ご検討中の方







                                                                                                            • Recent Topics

                                                                                                            • Per Level Approval for admins

                                                                                                              We need Process admins like Zoho CRM in Zoho Books for per stage approval Currently in books, admins only have the option for Final Approval But for example, in cases like when an employee is on leave, we can't just approval one level we only have option
                                                                                                            • Need to set workflow or journey wait time (time delay) in minutes, not hours

                                                                                                              Minimum wait time for both Campaigns workflows and Marketing Automation journeys is one hour. I need one or the other to be set to several minutes (fraction of the hour). I tried to solve this by entering a fraction but the wait time data type is an integer
                                                                                                            • Feature enhancement: Highlight rows based on a cell value

                                                                                                              Hello Sheet users, We're excited to announce a new feature enhacement, shaped directly by your valuable feedback! As you might know, conditional formatting is a great tool for anyone dealing with large data sets. Previously, if you’ve ever wanted to draw
                                                                                                            • Updating custom fields in Zoho Projects

                                                                                                              Hi I am wondering if anyone has experience with custom fields in Zoho Projects. I am struggling to update the field using either deluge or the api endpoint. My code is: //custom_Map = map(); custom_Map = {"UDF_DOUBLE_1":"0.27"}; update_Map = map(); update_Map.put("custom_fields",custom_Map.toList());
                                                                                                            • Markdown for Desk?

                                                                                                              Hi, my company wants to use markdown for formatting text in Desk (in all modules there, especially Tickets and Helpcenter). Zoho already offers use of markdown in several products (see https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/backstage/microsite-guide/formatting-with-markdown/articles/formatting-with-markdo)
                                                                                                            • Change Currency symbol

                                                                                                              I would like to change the way our currency displays when printed on quotes, invoices and purchase orders. Currently, we have Australian Dollars AUD as our Home Currency. The only two symbol choices available for this currency are "AU $" or "AUD". I would
                                                                                                            • Calendar not working

                                                                                                              Are we the only ones. On any browser we cannot click on any of our calendar appointments and get them to open. They just make the browser loop. WE have reached out and have been told they are working on it. The office staff are really stuck. The point
                                                                                                            • Tip of the week #16 - Search and filter threads based on criteria

                                                                                                              Zoho TeamInbox lets you search and filter threads with any information that you have about the thread. You just have to input the criteria and Zoho TeamInbox will list all the threads that match the condition.   Firstly, there is a global search you can
                                                                                                            • WhatsApp Message Template Quick Reply Buttons

                                                                                                              Hello, I created my first Message Template to overcome the 24-hr messaging window and it was approved by WhatsApp/Meta. When I go to Meta, I also see that template brought from Zoho Desk, and used it via Zoho Desk IM. However, I notice that when in Meta's
                                                                                                            • Account in Quick View Filter

                                                                                                              I have a report that I often run against a specific Account. Every time, I have to go into the edit menu and change the Advanced Filter. I would prefer to use the Quick View Filter, but it does not allow me to use the one and only field that makes any
                                                                                                            • Collapsible Sections & Section Navigation Needed

                                                                                                              The flexibility of Zoho CRM has expanded greatly in the last few years, to the point that a leads module is now permissible to contain up to 350 fields. We don't use that many, but we are using 168 fields which are broken apart into 18 different sections.
                                                                                                            • Set Display for Numbers/Currency/etc with Client Script/Customization in Canvas List Page

                                                                                                              Is it possible to set a display mask for a number/currency field using Client Script or customization? I have custom fields that I would like to keep the decimal places for calculation purposes, but do not need them displayed to the user. So 101.3568
                                                                                                            • 136.143.188.51 blocked by spamcop

                                                                                                              Zoho mailserver seems to be blocked by spamcop. Cant send mail to my customer. Not sure what to do.
                                                                                                            • 🚀 WorkDrive 5.0: Evolving from a file sharing app to an intelligent content management platform: Phase 2

                                                                                                              Hello everyone, WorkDrive's primary focus has always been to provide an intelligent and secure content management platform, simplify collaboration, and be the central repository of files for all Zoho apps. In our previous announcement, we unveiled the
                                                                                                            • Sync desktop folders instantly with WorkDrive TrueSync (Beta)

                                                                                                              Keeping your important files backed up and accessible has never been easier! With WorkDrive desktop app (TrueSync), you can now automatically sync specific desktop folders to WorkDrive Web, ensuring seamless, real-time updates across devices. Important:
                                                                                                            • I'm unable to send mail pthrough Zoho SMTP programmatically

                                                                                                              This has been working for years, but today it's been offline all day long. I see nothing anywhere on your site about this. I'm not the only one experiencing this. Downdetector has a spike of reports today
                                                                                                            • i keep see there is a connetion issue connecting 3rd party api on zoho when using zia

                                                                                                              hi there , i have set up open ai api to zoho zia (copied and pasted to zoho zia) but I keep getting notificaiton "there is a connetion issue connecting 3rd party api on zoho" when using zia on top when click zia and try to type in word there
                                                                                                            • Can no longer send email via Django site

                                                                                                              This was working fine as of 11/7/25. Now I am unable to send user verification emails from a Django site on a AWS lightsail sever. When a user attempts to register the following error occurs. I have also attempted to send a test email via the shell and
                                                                                                            • Deleting Fields in CRM Deletes Views in Analytics

                                                                                                              Hey friends! I'm having some issues when we modify some fields within ZohoCRM. There are times where we need to sunset a field and eventually completely remove it. In these instances, it seems like a lot of views are removed in Analytics. This ranges
                                                                                                            • Booking outside of scheduled availability

                                                                                                              Is there a way for staff (such as the secretary) to book appointments outside of the scheduled availability? Right now to do this special hours must be set each time. There should be a quicker way. Am I missing something?
                                                                                                            • IMAP error message in Zoho mail

                                                                                                              I cannot send emails today. Everything fine for years until today. Get a message: "You are yet to enable IMAP for your account. Please contact your administrator". Does anyone know how to correct this?
                                                                                                            • unable to send email but able to receive email

                                                                                                              my email address is info@securityforceservices.ca
                                                                                                            • Zoho Desk Android and iOS app update: Access multilingual templates on the IM module

                                                                                                              Hello everyone! We have introduced multilingual templates on the IM module of the Zoho Desk mobile app allowing you to send IM template messages in translated versions. iOS: Android: Please update the app to the latest version directly from the App Store/
                                                                                                            • Login to server failing

                                                                                                              When trying to retrieve my mail, I am getting this error message -- Login to server pop.zoho.com with username (my email address) failed. It gives me the option to retry, enter password, or cancel. Then I get this message -- Sending of username did not
                                                                                                            • Does Zoho offer a full WhatsApp Marketing Platform (like WATI / GallaBox)?

                                                                                                              lm exploring WhatsApp marketing and I’d like to understand what options are available within the Zoho ecosystem. Currently, I see: Zoho SalesIQ has a broadcast option, but it seems very limited — for example, it doesn’t support uploading contacts via
                                                                                                            • IMAP stopped working today

                                                                                                              Hello! I've been a paid customer for more than 10 years, IMAP was always working fine. But today this is the error I've got on my iPhone: I've tried toggling the IMAP for my account (Mail -> Settings -> Mail accounts) off and on again, but that did not
                                                                                                            • Custom buttons

                                                                                                              Getting Error "You can only create 10 custom buttons per module" ! I already have more than 10 for 1 module before trying to create another. Is this a new restriction brought about by the all knowing what's best for businesses Zoho guru ? It would be
                                                                                                            • The Social Wall: October 2025

                                                                                                              Hello everyone, As we head toward the end of the year, we’re bringing you a few updates to help give your social media efforts a strong finish. This month, we’re rolling out new enhancements across both the web and mobile app. Post Preview Have you ever
                                                                                                            • Client Script | Update - Support for List Page (Canvas) and Notes

                                                                                                              Hello everyone! We are glad to announce two exciting updates in Client Script. Client Script support for List Page (Canvas) Client Script support for Notes These open the door to more dynamic and interactive customizations! 1. Client Script support for
                                                                                                            • Trouble Connecting Zoho Mail via IMAP in n8n – Need Help

                                                                                                              Hi everyone 👋, I'm trying to connect my Zoho Mail account to n8n using the IMAP Email Trigger node, but I'm facing issues getting it to work fully. ✅ Here's what I’ve done so far: ✅ IMAP access is enabled in my Zoho Mail settings ✅ I’m using the correct
                                                                                                            • Pincode Based Pricing

                                                                                                              We want to give extra discount to customers within city limits because our shipping and packing costs are less. My proposal is assign list of pincodes to price list and assign the price list to customers whenever they sign up with pincodes. Also show
                                                                                                            • feature question: lookup field in Projects task layout

                                                                                                              Hello, Below we have interface to configure a custom task layout, however, we need a lookup field to let pickup data from other apps, such as Zoho CRM Products module, is that possible or already in your roadmap? or a workaround to achieve it? Thanks in advance.
                                                                                                            • Can we do Image swatches for color variants?

                                                                                                              We want to do something like the attached screenshot on our new zoho store. We need image swatches instead of normal text selection. We want to user to select an image as color option. Is this doable? I don't see any option on zoho backend. Please h
                                                                                                            • What's New in Zoho Analytics - October 2025

                                                                                                              Hello Users! We're are back with a fresh set of updates and enhancements to make data analysis faster and more insightful. Take a quick look at what’s new and see how these updates can power up your reports and dashboards. Explore What's New! Extreme
                                                                                                            • Zoho Analytics & SQL Server - Live connect

                                                                                                              Below are the steps I did Created a fresh database and table in my own virtual server Created a new data source connection with live connect I was able to select the tables and created the data source successfully I am getting the error when I try to
                                                                                                            • Explore the Redesigned Quotes Module in Zoho Billing

                                                                                                              Dear users, We’re excited to introduce a refreshed look for the Quotes details page in Zoho Billing! This update brings you a more efficient user interface experience without changing your existing workflow. We've enhanced layouts with organized tabs,
                                                                                                            • Latest updates in Zoho Meeting | Create departments, Share PDF files

                                                                                                              Hello all,   You can now create departments to group team members within your organization. This will make it easier for you to organize department-level meetings and invite members. In webinars, use the Share material feature to share PDF files directly
                                                                                                            • Unify All Zoho Video Meeting Experiences into One Standardized Platform

                                                                                                              Hi Zoho Team, We would like to share an important user experience concern regarding the current state of video meeting functionality across the Zoho ecosystem. The Problem Within Zoho, there are multiple ways to initiate or schedule a video meeting: Zoho
                                                                                                            • [Free Webinar] Product Updates: Quick Catch-Up Session - Part I - Creator Tech Connect

                                                                                                              Hello Everyone! We welcome you all to the upcoming free webinar on the Creator Tech Connect Series. The Creator Tech Connect series is a free monthly webinar featuring deep-dive technical sessions designed for developers, administrators, and app builders.
                                                                                                            • Project expenses in Zoho Books

                                                                                                              Just the way timesheet is used to calculate labour cost for a particular project, how do i record other expenses against a project such as materials and consumables used for the project? So that under report, I can view the total amount expended on each
                                                                                                            • Next Page