How to Write Effective Email Subject Lines

Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. In this lesson, you'll learn how to write

effective subject lines, so people actually open the emails you send them,

because that is what you want, right? Why do we send email? Usually we send

email because we want someone to know something, or we want someone to do

something. And they can only do that and get the information you send if they

open it. So, this lesson will show you how to write the subject lines that help

your emails get opened. Now, of course, when you write to your family or

friends, they're going to open your email because they love you, they like

you, and they want to hear from you. But what happens in more businesslike

situations or more formal situations? There, you have a lot of competition. If

your email inbox is like most people's today, you're probably getting — I don't

know — 60 to 100 emails a day. Now, if you're a manager, they're getting about

300 to 200 to 300 emails a day, and high-level executives are getting 500 to

700 emails a day. So, if you're trying to get through, if you're trying to get

a job, if you're trying to make an application or a proposal, and you want

your email to be open — you need to get attention, you need to grab their

attention, when there's so much competition in that inbox. Right? So, in

this lesson, I'm going to show you an easy way to set up your subject line, so

that it can get the attention that you want. All right? Now, before we go any

further, let me just make sure that you know what I mean by a "subject line".

So, when we write an email, there are three parts to it. Right? There's the

"To", so what are you going to put there? You're going to put the name of

the person or the email address of the person that you're sending the email to;

that's the recipient. Then there's the subject line — the little, short summary

of what you're going to write about. That's called the "subject line" — it

tells the person what you're writing about, or why you're writing. Okay? And

last is your actual message. All right? So, there are three parts. So, in this

lesson, we're focusing just on this, because this is the only thing that is

seen on mobile devices, or also in your inbox. Right? And based on that, you

decide whether you should open it or not. All right.

Now, if you weren't sure what to write, or if you're thinking very casually, or

you just really didn't understand that it was so important to write an

effective subject line, you might have written or seen subject lines like this,

which are actually pretty useless in the business situations or business context.

Okay? For example: "Hi" or "Hello", "Good morning, how are you?" That

doesn't tell us anything. Right? Doesn't say anything about why you're writing,

or "Re" with nothing written after it. "Re" is actually short for "Regarding" —

you're supposed to put something there. If you don't put anything there, then it

doesn't say anything. "Ref" is short for "Referring to" or "Reference" something.

Again, if you have nothing there, doesn't mean anything. Some people

write: "Dear Fred". Well, if you're writing to Fred Jones, then Fred knows

that you're writing him; you don't need to repeat that in the subject line;

doesn't tell him anything. Or you say: "From Mary". But if you're writing and

your name is Mary, your name is already there; you don't need to repeat that

either. Or some people just don't know what to write, so they don't write

anything. So, automatically, it just says: "No Subject" and that's not going

to help you at all. What will happen if you write email like this in a business

context? It's very likely that your email will either be deleted or ignored,

most often; or just lost in that sea of emails that keep coming into our inboxes

and flooding our inboxes every day. And also, most important, it will stay

unopened and unread, and whatever you wanted to communicate didn't happen. So,

now, I'm going to show you what to do to make sure or to increase your chances of

your email messages being opened.

So, here's a simple system you can follow to write more effective subject

lines — I like to call it the "SIS Principle". Okay? Why "SIS"? Because

it's should be Short, Informative, and Specific — "SIS". Now, that doesn't mean

you write three subject lines, but you think through it this way, in order to

come up with the last one. Let's go through some examples, so you

understand. Okay? So, first, short: "What's the key message? What's the key

word, here? What's it all about?" It's a meeting, let's say. Okay? Then make it

informative: "Give them some more information about the meeting. Which

meeting? Where? What?" June Seventh Meeting. Okay? Now, you've made it

informative. All right? Next, make it specific: "What about that meeting? Why

are you writing about the June seventh meeting?" Tell them: "Cancelled" — then

put a colon — "June Seventh Meeting". Now, even if somebody's really in a

hurry, you will have conveyed a very important message to them in your very

effective subject line. Okay? Because you said so much. You see how this is so

much better than where we started? But even this is so much better than just

saying: "Hi", or "Good Morning", or "Dear John". All right? So, let's look

at some more examples like that. Okay? And try to think this way, so that we

come up with the best one here. Short, informative, specific. So, let's say you

ordered something from Amazon, but when it got to you... you ordered a glass

bowl, and when it got to you, it was broken. All right? So, you have to write

to ask for a refund. So, short: What's it about? Your order. Informative:

Amazon Order Number 625. Okay? You're giving a little more detail, there. And,

now, specific: What about it? What about that order? Refund: Amazon Order 625.

Now, when Amazon receives that, they're going to know which department to send

it to, for the refund. Okay? And that's also more effective, because they can

find your email more easily because you've said why you've written, you've

given the order number, and it's much more... much easier for them to

reference it, and to find it, and to search for it, if necessary. All right,

let's look at this situation. This is a... let's say, in a university, you

want to meet your professor. Okay? Because you want to discuss something to

do with your thesis. So, you could start off with a basic, short message:

"Appointment". Then informative: "Requesting Appointment", which means

asking for an appointment. And, then, specific: "Requesting Appointment to

Discuss Thesis". Okay. Now, you might have noticed that, here, I wrote the

word "Appointment". Okay? But, here, I said: "Appt". Now, why is it important

to use these abbreviations? Because when I say "short", I mean really short.

Today, a lot of people are reading their email... emails on mobile devices. So,

what happens? You have very little space; very few words that you can use

to convey this information. Right? It's basically, on mobile devices, about

three to five words — that's it — that shows up or 25 to 30 characters.

"Characters" mean specific letters, plus the spaces. Okay? Those are

"characters". And if it's in a regular inbox, or on your computer, you might

see five or seven words, or about 50 characters, so you really want to keep

it short. All right? So, whenever you can, use a conventional abbreviation; it

will help. All right? Let's look at some more examples.

All right, so let's pretend you're applying for a job. Now, in that

situation — first, before you apply this principle, you should read very clearly

and carefully whatever has been written in the job advertisement, and... because

very often, they tell you what to write in the subject line, so they can find

the people who have applied very easily. All right? So, in that case, please make

sure to read the entire advertisement, and write exactly what they tell you to

write in the subject line. Okay? But if they don't tell you, then you can follow

the SIS principle to help you to write an effective subject line. So, again,

SIS stands for what? Short, Informative, and Specific. So, let's say you're

writing to apply for a job, so start with the word "Job", in terms of your

thinking, then "Teaching Job", and then "French Teaching Job Number 52". Okay?

All right? So, again, you've been very specific. Even if the person looks at

it, they know exactly: "All right, this is for the French teaching position",

and which one: "Number 52". Okay? That's the way to do it. All right. Now, let's

suppose again, another business scenario regarding a conference. Okay? But that's

the basic subject: "Conference" — short. Get a little more informative: Which

conference? "The Marketing Conference". And, then, why are you writing about the

marketing conference? What do you want to tell somebody or what do you want to

ask somebody? So, then get specific. You could say, for example: "Confirming

Attendance: Marketing Conference". Now, you see that I abbreviated the word

"Marketing" and I abbreviated the word "Conference", because, again, you want

to keep it as short as possible. Or let's suppose you wanted to ask somebody

if they are going to attend it, so you could say something, like: "Attending

Marketing Conference?" That's okay, too. All right? That's usually for a

colleague or somebody that we know pretty well, then you can be a little

bit more informal and just ask the question like that. Okay?

Now, here's another scenario where you're sending in your resume for a

position that maybe wasn't advertised, but you want them to have your resume or

your CV. So, you could start with the idea: "Resume", then get a little more

information into it: "Receptionist Resume" — that's the position:

Reception... Receptionist — that you're looking for, and then: "Receptionist

Resume: and John Grant". Now, you're asking me: "But you told me not to put

my name because they know my name." Yes. In general, it's true — don't write your

name. But when you're sending in your resume, I strongly recommend that you do

put your name, so it can be found, so it stands out, so people see your name, so

people remember your name very clearly — next to this subject. Okay? So, in

that particular case, do put that. Next, I'm giving you lots of vocabulary that

you can use for these kind of subject lines. So, here are some verbs and some

nouns that you can use, and that will save you time when you're trying to

write that very effective subject line. Okay? Here we go. "Cancelled",

"postponed". What does "postponed" mean? Delayed. Okay? So, suppose there was a

meeting, and now the time has changed from three o'clock to five o'clock, or

from Monday to Thursday, then you could write: "Postponed". And, again, with any

of these verbs, you could put a colon right after it, and then the

information; the specific information. "Confirmed", "booked", which means the

same as reserved. Okay? "Shipped", which means the same as sent. "Delivered"

means your package arrived. "Requested" means you're asking for something.

"Rescheduled" means the timing of something changed. All right? And

"approved" means somebody gave their okay. All right? Here are some nouns

that you might find useful when you're writing professional or business email:

"Arrival", "interview", "introduction". Very often, today in business, we're

introducing one person that we know to someone else that we know, who we think

would be helpful for them to get to know each other for business reasons, or for

some other reason, so we introduce them. So, you can write "Introduction", you

can put a colon, and you can put the name of the people or the person.

"Referral". Again, sometimes you're referring somebody or recommending

somebody for a position or for a job. "Follow-up". It's a very good idea,

after your interview, for example, to write a short email to say: "Thank you",

and you could say: "Follow-up Interview, January 20th", or something like that.

Okay? Just a little thank you, a little follow-up, so they remember you. Okay?

And that can score you some good points. All right? "Inquiry" — in case you're

asking information about something, or "proposal". Okay? In case you're making

a proposal to a company regarding something. All right? So, those are some

vocabulary words that will help you.

And besides that, let's just go over a few more points so that you can really

zero-in and write the best subject lines possible. So, sometimes you'll see that

people write: "Important" or "Urgent". Right? Now, of course, when it is

important or urgent, then use it; but don't abuse it. Don't use it all the

time, because after some time, nobody will pay attention if you write:

"Important" or "Urgent". Okay? So, only use these words when something is really

important or urgent. All right. Next, do not write in all caps or all capital

letters. So, I wrote: "No all caps", because when you write in all capital

letters, then it's like you're shouting at that person; it's too much. Okay? So,

just don't do that. Even if it's important or urgent, very rarely, they

will write "important" in all caps. Okay? But that's the most, then. Next,

what happens if you are replying to someone? Okay? Because you say: "Yeah,

Rebecca, sometimes I'm writing a letter, but sometimes; lots of times I'm

replying." Right? Sure. So, what happens then? Then you just hit "Reply", and

whatever subject line that person wrote to you is now going to continue with a

"Re" before it. So, let's say that person wrote: "Proposal". Okay? He

didn't watch this lesson, so he doesn't know how to write a really good subject

line; you do. But suppose, initially, he said: "Proposal", when you reply, it

will say: "Re" — dot, dot, which is colon — "Proposal". And it'll keep going

like that every time, and it'll say: "Re, Re, Re, Re". After a while, what

are you going to do? Sometimes there are seventeen messages from that one subject

line. Is that effective anymore? Not really. So, what should you do? Well,

you can do one of two things. If the subject you're talking about is still

the same, then you can keep that subject line. Okay? So, everybody can find the

email related to that subject. But once the subject starts to change away from

"Proposal", and you start talking about the marketing conference or some other

subject, then change it. Change the subject line, so that, later, you and

that other person can find the email related to the real subject you're now

discussing, and not to the original subject that you started off discussing.

Okay? So, that's kind of the rule you can follow. All right.

Now, when should you write your subject line? Should you write it before you

write the email, or should you write it after? There are advantages to both.

Usually, I recommend that it's helpful for you to write it before because it

helps you to focus on the content of your email. But after you finish the

email, just make sure to go back and check that the subject line is still

about what you wrote because, sometimes when we start writing, we write more

than we had planned to write. So if there's more, then maybe you want to go

back and modify, or slightly change your subject line to match the content of

your email. All right. And last, remember, again, to keep it short,

informative, and specific — all right? — so that you can get that job, get that

customer, and get that next opportunity and make the most of it. Okay? Now, if

you really want to master this process of writing effective subject lines, go

to our website at www.engvid.com. There, you'll find a quiz on this subject. Of

course, you'll also find about 1,000 other lessons on all kinds of subjects

that have to do with English, so you can look around there as well. And subscribe

to my YouTube channel for lots of other useful messages and lessons in English

that will help you to learn English faster and more effectively. Okay?

Thanks very much for watching. I know you care, and I know you're going to

make a big difference in your English. Bye for now.