I hate lazy subject lines

Like most good copywriters and marketers, I’m subscribed to a lot of email lists.📧

Why?

So I can see what kind of email creatives and promotions are being sent out regularly, while also having a swipe file of emails to steal from if needed.😉

So I probably have about 30 email creatives hit my inbox per day…

And it’s always interesting to see how big of a difference there is between the quality of these email’s subject lines.🧐

When it comes to marketing emails, remember that the only point of the subject line is to catch the prospect’s attention and get them to open the email.😳

Usually, the best way to do this is with curiosity…

So you can share something contrarian like: “AVOID Avocados….”

Use a curiosity-inducing nickname for something like: ”Broccoli Belly”

Or perhaps go with something topical like, “Top Investor: Biden’s Ghost Gun Law Will Make the 1% Richer (Here’s How)”

Those are just examples…

But the point is, they’re interesting and have a good chance of getting the prospect to open.

And then once the prospect does open the email…

The body copy needs to:

1. Continue to be congruent with the subject line…
2. Keep inducing curiosity while also calling out the pain point of the market and promising a general solution (don’t talk about the product, talk about a new breakthrough or a discovery)…
3. And then finally, sell the qualified click (meaning we’re selling the click, but we only want it from people who have read the email and relate to it).

That’s how good marketing emails and creatives work…

But again, it all starts with the subject line.

That’s why when I see lazy-ass subject lines, it pisses me off so much.

This morning I saw one about “A limitless pill for the brain?” and I immediately rolled my eyes.

Why?

Because anyone who has been in the space for a while knows that the whole “Limitless” angle for brain supplements has been beaten to death.

Pulverized to death, really.

Like, the whole “limitless angle” has been killed…then resurrected as a zombie that was also killed…then brought back to life by a haggard old witch…before finally being thrown into a burning volcano where it should lie dormant for the next twenty-seven years minimum.

And it’s not hard to know this.

Because as a copywriter:

1. You should be subscribed to tons of other email lists.
2. You can google your ideas before turning them into email creatives.

The second one sounds simple, but it can save you from a lot of bombs.

If your big idea is, “what if I say this supplement is like the pill from the movie Limitless!”…

Then take a minute to Google “real life limitless pill” or something like that…

And see what comes up. If there are a bunch of ads for other products, articles, and websites using that angle…

Then you know the market has probably seen it a lot, and you should go with something else.

I hope that makes sense.

– SPG

P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link