To Sell Is Human: Pitch

“Research has discovered that the reason some subject email lines are more effective than others is directly related to ‘utility and/or curiosity.’”

To Sell Is Human by Daniel Pink, page 167

Chapter 7: Pitch

Emails still play a very important role in many people’s lives, although the term “spam” is bandied about freely and directed towards a great percentage of incoming messages. It has become a daily routine to delete as many unwanted emails as possible in the least amount of time. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome may soon be over-shadowed by Delete-itis.

In fact, many emails are important and need to be read and internalized. The accepted way to manage incoming emails is to determine as quickly as possible whether they are worth keeping or deleting. This often boils down to two main criteria when interpreting the subject line:

(1) Does it appear that this message would be useful to you personally?

(2) Is there intrigue and mystery in what is being promoted?

If this is the criteria that people use to determine whether to read or delete your emails, then it is in your best interest to begin sculpting subject lines that shout out to the reader, “What you are about to read is going to prove extremely useful to you.” Or, at the very least, “This email is going to be pretty cool.”

Creating subject lines in emails that result in more “opens” is a skill worth developing. Like any other worthwhile skill, it will take time and focus to develop.

Trust me. It will prove to be worth the effort.