Guaranteed Results - a quick and easy tip that gets your emails read instantly

People read emails in this order:

1. Sender’s name 
2. Email title 
3. The email itself 

This makes sense:

• Get an email from someone important – a friend, your #1 customer, your boss – and you’ll open it immediately 
• But get one from someone who isn’t – a stranger, the Office Bore, the pestering salesperson – and you won’t open it now… or maybe ever 

You then read the title. And your eyes are drawn to the most interesting ones. For example, I’d always open an email titled “Making sure you get paid this month” before all the “Updates” and “FYIs”

And finally, if – and only if – the sender’s name and/or title interests you – you’ll open the email and read it.

So that’s what readers do. But what about writers?

Well, when writing emails, people spend most time on their content, and virtually none on the title.

But doing this means your titles might be boring. And this means people mightn’t even open your emails at all.

So include something eye-catching in your title. Not so it looks like spam. But have something that grabs attention. For instance, these words work well:

• Quick 
• Easy 
• New 
• First 
• Guaranteed 
• Surprising 
• Secret 
• Exclusive 

Or you might use a half-sentence that intrigues them, so they want to open your email to find out more. For example:

• Can I ask your advice about …? 
• A favour, to help with…? 
• A quick question to ask about… 

A few seconds ago, you opened this email for a reason.

A few seconds from now, you’ll be emailing someone. What reason will you give them to open it? 

Action point

When you write your next email, tweak your title so they want to open it. The words above will help.

Know people who'd enjoy reading this post? Please forward it on, and introduce them to our Blog :)

Written by NativeEnglish

Native English Spain is dedicated to make learning English simple, fun and affordable for Spanish people.