Ryan Dohrn breaks down email subject lines that actually get opened. Over 60 percent of opens come from the subject line alone. He recommends short, curious phrasing like "Your thoughts?" and warns against stuffing it with your company name. Test each variation with 20 to 25 sends, not a handful.
What's going on, friends and fans? Ryan Dohrn here, your friendly neighborhood sales coach, and we're talking sales strategies. This week we're really focusing in on testing subject lines. Now, email has just become a part of our sales life. Now, I know all the bosses out there— bosses— all the bosses out there want me to tell you, pick up the phone, pick up the phone, get off email. And I can't disagree. There's a lot of factual data out there, empirical data that tells us If you pick up the phone, you're a lot more likely to have great conversations that result in sales. Now, let's— you're welcome, by the way, to all the sales managers and owners out there. All right, let's set that aside for a second and let's talk about email, because email has become a part of our sales lives, right? It just has. So the Wall Street Journal and so many others have reported that 60-some percent of people open emails based on subject lines and nothing else. So we've got to be asking ourselves, what subject lines are we using? Are we testing them correctly? Are we monitoring them correctly? And are we rinsing and repeating correctly? And really, are we sharing the ones that work with the rest of the team? All right, so let me give you a couple of subject lines that you might consider, or the formatting of these subject lines. Anytime I put a question mark in a subject line, I feel like I'm doing the right thing to somebody's brain. So if I put a subject line that said, your thoughts on this? The reader of the email's brain is going to say, oh, my thoughts on what? New idea for you as a subject line. It makes somebody's brain go, what's the idea? They have to open it. If I use a date that I want to meet with somebody, like I want to meet with them on May 29th, It's my birthday, by the way, wink wink. May the 29th. That's all the subject line is. May the 29th, question mark. It makes somebody's brain go, May the 29th, you know, what did I miss? When I'm creating subject lines and writing subject lines, I'm asking myself, what can I put in front of someone? What can I put in brain think? Now what? Now what? Now what is that? What do I need? I need, I need more information. See, a lot of your subject lines don't require a second step. You put everything somebody needs to know in the subject line so they don't have to open the email. A lot of you out there make a very common mistake. You put the name of your company, the name of your product, the name of your service inside the subject line. Why would someone open up an email about your product, your name, or your service? Sometimes I'll put points of relevancy, things that make sense to the customer that I'm emailing, like the name of their product. The name of their product, the name of their company, the name of their service. Those are the kind of things that make somebody go, now what now? And open it up. Now here's the problem though, the fundamental problem that if you just wrap your head around it, it'll change your sales life. You don't do certain subject lines or use them because you don't like them. See, it's not about whether I like something or you like something, it's about Does it work? Okay, say it with me. It's not about what you like. It's not about what I like. Does it work? And I'm telling you right now, questions, question marks in a subject line evoke a certain response from somebody's brain. Now, you might say, well, it sounds so salesy. Well, of course it does. You're in sales. Your antenna is wired to pick up sales things. Now, one of the reasons that I love what I do, and I'll probably never have a lack of customers, and it's not because of my wit or my smile, it's because people are not trained. So if you're thinking to yourself that somebody receiving your email is gonna know that it's quote-unquote salesy, that's, that's kind of in your mind. Now the next step of this is find subject lines that are thought-provoking, make the brain do a little bit of a leap, right? The second piece is what's a good test? I had someone the other day that emailed me like, well, I tried a couple of your subject lines and those lines didn't work. And I wrote back, how many times did you use the subject line? Well, I tried at least 3 or 4 and it just didn't work. Okay, that's not a good test. That's like swinging the golf club 3 or 4 times and that's it. Like you're going to be Tiger Woods or you're gonna be Scottie Shuffler, 3 or 4 swings. Like a good test is 20, 25 emails using different subject lines, but use them for 20 or 25 times to see what type of response you get. Trying various times of send, different types of subject lines. And friends, you've gotta really ask yourself, what's a good test really mean to you? 3 or 4 attempts, that really isn't a very fair test in the grand scheme of things. So as you think about subject lines, one of my favorites right now— and I'm going to give full props to my marketing favorite marketing person out there, Christy Dougherty— and you know, the shortest email you're going to read today. I love that subject line, Christy. The shortest email that you're going to read today. That subject line, I've used it at least 20 times this week, and I use tracking tools to test my open rates and response rates. It got a great open rate. I mean, just over 80%. It was unheard of. I absolutely love that subject line, so I stole it. I gave credit where credit is due, and I'm moving on. You should use it, but don't try it once. Try it 15, try it 20 times on different people at different times in different circumstances. Give yourself a chance to be successful, friends. When it comes to subject lines, the shorter the better. Use a question mark. Test it extensively before you come back to me and say, "Hey Ryan, I just really don't know that it didn't work." All right, my favorite subject lines. We've talked about them before, so let me end with that. New idea for you? Okay, that doesn't have a question mark, by the way. Just new idea for you. Have you considered this? Question mark. Would you consider this? Question mark. Your advice on this? Question mark. Your advice? Question mark. Your thoughts? Question mark. Your thoughts on this? And now my new favorite is the shortest email that you're going to read today. Now, if you use that one, make sure your email is like literally one sentence, otherwise you're just a liar and nobody wants to be that. Friends, never forget, if this job was easy, like if sales was easy, everybody'd be doing it, and they're not. It requires a different level of strategy, friends, if you're going to be successful. Some of that strategy though could comes through training, and that's what I am here for. So reach out to me over at ryandohrn.com. Love to come into town and train your sales team and get everybody all pumped up. All right, friends, get out there and sell something to make us proud, would you? All right, we'll see you next week.
