Writing personalized subject lines can be the difference between emails sent straight to spam, or emails that are clicked on. Your wealth advisor prospects are just as busy as you are – and if you want prospects to notice and engage with your emails, you have only seconds to hook their attention. An average office worker receives more than 120 emails a day and doesn’t want to filter through junk mail to pick out the handful that really matter. Using creative email subject lines can help your prospect cut through the noise, and increase the overall CTA conversion of your emails.
Use these pointers below to write email subject lines that will fill your workflow with quality prospects.
Have a purpose and clear call to action.
Before deciding on your next email subject line, make sure it’s clear to you what the purpose of the email will be – what are you inviting the prospect to do? Express this clearly in the subject line and have it stand out from within a packed inbox. Present your call to action – whether you’re asking wealth advisors from your AdvizorPro lists to register for a webinar or schedule a brief 10-minute introductory chat. Whatever the end result needs to be, make sure to hook your prospects with subject lines that highlight the benefits only you can offer.
Word count does matter.
A recent study found that outreach emails with long subject lines have a 24.6% higher average response rate compared to those with short subject lines. Aim for a sweet spot of 36-50 characters for an ideal subject line length. Of course you should bypass flowery, complex language, but the longer your subject line is, the more opportunity you have to communicate the value of the email’s content and avoid seeming generic and ‘clickbaity’.
Distinguish your subject lines by personalizing.
This same study also found evidence showing personalized subject lines had almost 1/3rd more replies than those without personalization. Take a few extra moments to personalize the subject line – call out the prospect’s name, firm’s name, compliment them on a recent win, or point out a mutual interest. This shows you’re interested in building a human connection and not merely making a transaction.
In an overcrowded inbox, the email with a personalized message is instantly more inviting. Prospects want to know that they’re dealing with a person – not just a brand or a company. A friendly opening using a first name can help establish a trustworthy connection between you and the wealth advisor — showing them that you’ve spent some time learning who they are and what they need.
Don’t cry wolf.
Rather than scare your prospect into needing your services (especially when you’re just warming up relationships) by pushing too hard. Try using active verbs at the beginning of your subject lines to drive energy toward your goal. This way you’re inviting your prospect into the email’s content, prompting them to learn, watch, register, etc. The goal is to have subject lines that encourage your prospect to want to open the email, and ‘act’ quickly.
Save the smiley faces for Twitter. But do use numbers.
We all love a timely emoji, but it can look salesy and unprofessional in an email subject line – overusing punctuation can be distracting too. While one exclamation mark can draw positive attention or prove a point, multiple exclamation marks will be flagged and buried in spam. However, asking a question in a subject line is a great way to engage your wealth advisors and ask them to think about a pain point they’re experiencing.
RIAs love to engage with numbers or statistics. This is a very effective marketing best practice – offering concrete evidence for why they need you. A prospect will want to open this email to join the ‘over 300 conference attendees’ that your subject line boasts.
Always test drive your subject lines.
But before rolling out a new subject line to launch an email campaign – experiment! Perform an A/B test — sending out two subject line options to two subsets of your RIA, broker-dealer lists and see which subject line gets the most ROI. And, if you’re comfortable with an established client, ask for their qualitative feedback too.
To sum it up, email subject lines are literally the gateway for a match with a new wealth advisor. A strong subject line is the difference between an email being ignored or opened. And if your emails aren’t being opened, your company’s value isn’t being shared.
By using personalization, stats, and a clear call to action in your email subject lines, you can ensure advisors will want to open the emails you send them.