We recently provided some tips on email subject headers so thought we'd share an example of a great email subject line, which worked for us!
A few weeks ago I received a marketing email from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). I have to admit that I normally ignore emails from CIM but the subject line caught my attention so I opened the email.
The email subject was: "Not called Kate? This email is for you." and the content of the email was as follows:
Dear Alison
We’d like to apologise for the bug in our system that called you Kate – whilst this is a perfectly agreeable name, we don’t discriminate and embrace all names, particularly a fine name such as Alison. We’ve despatched a team to find said bug and are working hard to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
Our email was intended to tell you about a special event series we’re running in mid-November, exploring Lessons from today's leaders. I hope our database error doesn’t put you off checking out the events – it’d be great to see you there.
#notjustforkates
After reading the email I went back through my inbox and lo and behold there was an email from CIM addressed to Kate, which I'd completely missed!
The clever inclusion of the #notjustforkates hashtag sparked a lively discussion on Twitter and CIM got lots of profile as a result.
CIM insist that it was a genuine mistake but my suspicious mind thinks it was a deliberate ploy! Regardless, I thought it was great and without that subject line I'd never have opened the email. It definitely worked in CIM's favour to increase awareness of the event!