Quick Answer
The best email subject lines are concise (under 60 characters), focused on a single objective, and written to highlight value — not sell. Avoid clickbait, bullet-board overload, and full email summaries. Instead, tease the topic, speak to your reader’s outcome, and always test what works for your audience.
Be honest. How many unopened emails are currently sitting in your inbox?
The truth is, email inboxes are flooded with advertisements, and on any given day, over 70% of email advertising goes unread. So, how does a company cut through the noise and write email subject lines that actually get opened? We’re glad you asked.
Why Your Email Subject Line Matters
Your email subject line is more impactful than you think. In fact, a great subject line is often the most influential aspect of an email — even more so than its content. It is the one element that either cultivates a click or signals a scroll from its audience.
Remember, your subject line has one job: to get your email opened.
It shouldn’t be:
- A sales pitch.
- A bulletin board.
- An email summary.
- A clickbait attempt.
Your email subject should tell your audience exactly what they’ll gain by opening it — or what they’ll miss out on if they don’t.
The Do’s & Don’ts of Email Subject Lines (with Examples)
| ❎ DON’T | ✅ DO |
|---|---|
| Sales Pitch “Discover the #1 Gardening Tool on the Market, Now 50% Off!” | Highlight Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) “Cut Gardening Time with this Pet-Safe, Natural Weed Eliminator.” |
| Bulletin Board “Check out our New Arrivals, Upcoming Sales, and Store Events!” | Focus on One Objective “This Saturday Only: Your Chance to Score [Product/Service] 30% Off!” |
| Summarize the Email “The Top 5 Ways to Get Your Summer Glow Back” | Tease the Topic “Dehydration Isn’t the Only Thing Stealing Your Summer Glow.” |
| Use Clickbait “You Won’t Believe What We Discovered!” | Express Product/Service Value “Take Back Your Time: This Scheduling App Does the Prioritizing for You.” |
Now, this isn’t to say you won’t have success with writing subject lines similar to the Don’t examples — there will always be great products and services that practically sell themselves. However, for most company owners, email marketing is a game of trial and error. If you’ve been struggling with your email marketing campaigns, swapping your subject lines for something more impactful may just do the trick.
How Many Words Should an Email Subject Line Be?
A good rule of thumb for email subject lines is to use no more than 9 words or 60 characters. As with most rules, there are exceptions, but for company owners without experience in email marketing, it is important to remember that less is usually more. This is largely because most emails are viewed on mobile devices, and subject lines longer than 60 characters are often cut off or shortened.
5 Small Business Email Marketing Tips
1. Quality > Quantity
In 2026, there is a common misconception that marketing everywhere and often is the key to business success. Yes, consistency is crucial, but marketing with low-quality advertisements too frequently will do more harm than good — and the same goes for overly polished AI ads. Instead, focus on creating premium content your audience actually wants to read.
2. Create Drip Campaigns
Drip campaigns are a series of prewritten emails that automatically get delivered to a customer’s inbox when they perform a specific action, known as a trigger. For instance, signing up on a website will trigger an automatic welcome email to be sent to the customer. Drip campaigns can be highly effective at converting browsers into buyers.
3. Form & Build Customer Connections
Email is one of the most underutilized tools for building businesses. Many company owners hear the term “email marketing” and automatically think of sales — when they should be thinking of connections. Start utilizing your email strategies to build customer relationships by sharing brand stories, customer experiences, showing appreciation, and sharing insights around your niche. Remember, it’s not all about marketing for money-making purposes.
4. Become the Go-To Guru
This one builds upon tip #3. Don’t just use email marketing to build connections — become the go-to source in your business space. For example, let’s say you own a bakery. You can design an email strategy that includes sharing new weekly recipes, birthday decor ideas, holiday table setting concepts, and more.
5. Monitor Email Open Rate & Measure ROI
The last and most important tip is to monitor your email open rate and measure your email marketing ROI (Return on Investment). This is the most accurate way to determine the impact of your email marketing strategy and gain valuable insight into what is working and what isn’t. For more on this topic, read our blog on Email Marketing ROI.
What to Do When It Feels Like Nothing is Working
Nothing is more frustrating than spending significant time and money on your email marketing campaigns and seeing little to no return. The best thing to do in this situation is to try to remove or reduce your emotional connection to your email campaign’s success. Not seeing a rise in sales or a jump in email open rate does not equate to failure. In fact, this actually helps you gauge what your audience does and doesn’t engage with — and knowledge is power.
This is also a good time to mention that what worked in one season may not work in the next. If you saw great success with one email subject line the first time around but it flopped the following time, that is a good indicator to pivot. Consider A/B testing your email campaigns, or ask friends, family, and employees to gauge and record their reaction to various email subject line options.
The Digital Marketing Agency Advantage for Email Marketing
Hiring a digital marketing agency to manage and monitor your email marketing strategy will not only save you time but also eliminate the stress that comes along with this task. Email marketing requires significant time to plan, prioritize, and properly position your brand as the audience’s top choice. By delegating this task to a digital marketing agency, you can focus on your business day-to-day.
At Let’s B Media, our clients have the ability to be as hands-on or hands-off as they’d like in their marketing strategies. With all digital marketing avenues under one roof — email marketing, website development and maintenance, meta advertisements, Google Business Profiles, blog creation, and more — the Let’s B Media team can bring your brand vision to life. For more information, contact Let’s B Media.
Summary
Email marketing is one of the most underutilized tools for building a brand — not because company owners aren’t using it, but because they aren’t using it to its full potential. While many businesses think of email marketing as a way to make sales, they should really think of it as a way to form connections. By shifting from a financial focus to an educational, bond-building one, company owners will begin to see a dynamic change in customer behavior.
However, none of this is relevant if your emails are not being opened. The first step to improving your email marketing campaign is to master your email subject line. Avoid gimmicky subject lines that sound generic or too much like clickbait, and instead highlight the true value of your product or service. Remember: less is more. Keep your subject line to 60 characters or less.
Lastly, don’t get discouraged if your email campaigns don’t take off the way you envisioned. Growing a successful business rarely happens overnight, and it almost always requires multiple periods of trial and error. The same goes for email marketing strategies, which is why A/B testing your email subject lines is critical for designing a successful plan. If managing and monitoring your email marketing ROI feels overwhelming, remove the guesswork entirely by hiring Let’s B Media to tackle these tasks for you.