Ryan DohrnPresident/Founder, Brain Swell Media · Keynote Speaker - Emmy Winner - Billion Dollar Sales Coach - Niche Media Conference Owner - Media Revenue Strategist

Unlock Better Email Open Rates: Short, Intriguing Subject Lines #shorts

18 Sept 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:45

In this YouTube short, Ryan Dohrn advises email marketers and salespeople on crafting subject lines that boost open and reply rates. He explains that his team tests roughly 25 subject lines each year (25 for 2025, 26 for 2026) and continues testing into 2026, emphasizing the importance of systematic experimentation. The core recommendation is to keep subject lines short, intriguing, and ethical—avoiding giving the recipient enough information to decide without opening the email, which often leads to deletion. He warns against bait‑and‑switch tactics and encourages curiosity‑driven wording, offering the example of using the word “consider” to make the reader wonder what they should consider. Overall, the video stresses that concise, curiosity‑inducing subject lines prompt recipients to open the email, thereby improving open and reply rates.

Chapters

Friends, each year we gauge 25 subject lines for '25, 26 subject lines for '26, and we've already begun our tests here in 2026. Now, later on here in a couple seconds, I'm going to answer a listener question about brain loops, and that's related to subject lines as well. But just remember, if your subject line gives someone, a prospect, a client, all the information they need to make a yes or no decision, More than likely, if the answer is not yes, you're going to get deleted and moved on. So what I like to do is keep my subject lines really short, somewhat intriguing, always ethical. Don't ever think I'm trying to bait and switch people. But I want you to be thinking, what will this subject line do? Will it cause someone to open the email, or is my subject line so complete that someone doesn't need to open the email? In an effort to answer my email. If they can make a decision based upon the subject line and nothing else, they're probably not going to open your email. So friends, if you want to get a better open rate, maybe even a reply rate, use shorter subject lines that are intriguing, subject lines that would get someone to actually open the email. So for example, would you consider this as a subject line? It makes somebody's brain say, consider what? What do you want me to consider? Is this idea right for you? Well, it makes somebody— what, like what idea? What are you sharing with me? Now, if you listen to those 2 examples and you say to yourself, oh, those are so salesy. Uh, duh, you're in sales. Friends, keep those subject lines short, and I think you're gonna get further faster.