It really does deserve as much time and thought as the message below.

I think one of the biggest “sins” is to be misleading. There are few things so annoying as to open an email on the promise it contains, only to find that you won’t get the answer unless you send $39.95!

A lot of the information in this article could be utilized for job searching and networking as well. During my professional career, I have interned or worked for people who have complained and refused to open e-mails that contain one word subject lines, subjects that beg for attention, or ones that look like an automated message. With the amount of e-mails some professionals and high executives receive per day, skipping over ones that come across as Spam or money solicitations becomes a lot easier if the subject lines are not clear. Sending out the same e-mail to multiple people (e.g. sending it out the same e-mail to 30 people) will often end up in Spam folders and will never be opened.

Someone asked how long your subject lines should be–somewhere (maybe Marketing Sherpa?) I know I picked up 35 characters is the max to shoot for

With all the preview pane readers these days the first two words of your subject line have become super important. So try to avoid starting with boring words like “the,” etc and make sure yours gets off to a strong start

Tracy

Last thing, if I made it past the subject line and opened the email, keep the information to the point of the subject line, concise, and with the specific information I need to get back to you. I work with one person who completely inundates her message with so much “related” stuff, by the end I don’t even know they are desiring a response from me. I have a lot of work and a lot more emails to get through. If you haven’t stated what you need early, I have moved on. Better yet, start with the request and then elaborate. I am more apt to read what you have to say for clarification in order to respond to your request.

Nicely done, with great information.
Thanks.
Layne

Oh, those were the newbie days. 🙂

I was making the mistakes #2, #4 and #5. But I did not realise that these three points could be mistake. I now agree with your arguments.

I tend to use good ol’ fashioned statement of the subect, as though it were the “RE:” on a printed memo. If it’s relevant and personal, it will be recognized.

Is it bad to have long detailed subject lines?

@vamsi – I am also curious about caps. Chris brogan mentioned he likes some caps in a email.

What do youthink about caps Daniel?

excITingIP.com

I’ll make sure I check each subject before ‘sending’ from now on.

Something to think about. Thanks Daniel.

@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker

Thanks for coming back and for the clarification.

I “autorespond” 4 advice type emails for every ‘sales’ type.

I now need to go through and check they all meet your guidelines!

Andrew

As a general rule, if you can spell out the benefits of the call to action, then that’s a good start.

Thanks for coming back to me.

I was thinking more around the setting up of x number of months of autoresponders when someone opts in for a giveaway or product.

Andrew

Must admit I have used some of those spammy keywords before.

What is confusing is some gurus say don’ use autoresponders, some say do. Daniel, what’s your take?

Thanks.

Andrew