Your Email Subject Line Is ImportantIf you’re like me you get hundreds of emails every single day.  The subject line of those emails is the first thing you read.  When you’re composing an email PLEASE keep that fact in mind… if you don’t you may run into a situation like this.

I received this email the other day from Groupon.  As I normally do when I first login to my email, I scan the subject lines.  This one stood out to me… and not in a good way:

“Father’s Day deals for the man who gave birth to you”

Huh?  The MAN who gave birth to me?  I’m all for getting an early reminder that Father’s Day is coming up, and I’m definitely in for any gifts that I may receive because of it (hint hint kids) but unless I’ve been living under a rock recently and missed a huge medical breakthrough, dads don’t give birth.

Am I being nit picky here?  I sure am.  Is it the worst email blunder that a company could have made?  Not by a long shot.  But I think you see my point.  If I picked this out of my inbox as being a little silly, you can rest assured I’m not the only one who thinks so.  And when it comes to reputation management on the web perception IS reality.  Is it so far of a stretch to think that if Groupon doesn’t proofread their email subject lines before sending them out that they’re may be a couple of other things slipping through the cracks of their business?

Don’t get me wrong… this isn’t a crack on Groupon perse.  It’s just one (relatively silly) example of how your email subject line can adversely affect your marketing efforts on the web.

Here’s another example that I got the other day:

“A Vacancy For Greg Bellan”

At first glance, this is clearly an advertisement for real estate space whether it be someone seeing if I’m looking for an apartment or perhaps retail or office space.  Delving into the email a little further I learned that it was in fact a SPAM message for some false looking company called Design Bureau Corp.  They were letting me know that they’d found my CV on the “jobsearch website” and that I was the PERFECT candidate for their “US Financial Manager” position.  Um… first of all, my CV (resume for those of you not versed with the term) isn’t posted on the “jobsearch website”.  Secondly, if said person had indeed read my CV, they would have quickly noticed that I’m not at all even remotely qualified for a US Financial Manager position (nor would I want it).  Fail.

Hopefully these two examples will show you the importance of your email subject lines.  Whether you’re writing an email to a single person or planning your next email marketing campaign please don’t forget about your subject line!  If you need some advice please don’t hesitate to contact us!

4 thoughts on “Your Email Subject Line Is Important”
  1. I am glad that I am not the only one who caught this “blunder” from Groupon. Did you happen to catch the one today from Groupon? The subject line this time reads “Father’s Day deals for the man who felt you kick inside him for nine months”!! One mistake, Ok – it all happens. But TWICE Groupon has goofed this up?! The should re-evaluate their editor’s.

    1. @Jennifer – I DID!!! I’d like to think that with today’s version they’re trying to be clever. That said, if clever is what they were going for, they’re failing…

  2. Just as a follow up to the original Groupon Father’s Day email, I got this beauty as well:

    “Thank Dad for giving birth to you with Father’s Day deals” Not only that, but they followed that up with this line in the header of their email:

    “Happy Father’s Day
    Deals to celebrate the man who carried you around for nine months.”

    Maybe I’m just missing the brilliance here, but I think it’s absolutely stupid and makes Groupon look really silly.

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