Our country is in more trouble than you think. Team USA needed a late shot to beat South Sudan in men’s basketball! #23 and #33 woulda never let that happen. 

Today’s lead into Monday’s Marketing News is the only email marketing case study you need. Me. What subject lines make me open emails? What propels me to click and make a purchase? 

Why am I the perfect case study to guide your email marketing campaigns? 

• I read very little email (30k unread)

• I’m a legit minimalist 

• I’ve been copywriting for 12+ years

That means the emails I do open must have epic subject lines, else I’d 100% ignore them.

The offers I purchase must be perfect because I don’t WANT any products (basic needs only). Lastly, I recognize most copywriting tricks-n-tactics, so I resist them easily.

Let’s get on with this one-man case study, starting with the…

7 Best Subject Lines I’ve Seen in July 2024

Sender and reason the subject line got me to open in parentheses.

1. 3 Lifetime Donations = Hero Status! ❤ (Red Cross played to my vanity)

2. Misdirects (Scott Galloway wisely uses one-word subject lines nearly 100% of the time)

3. Founder Finds: 🚀 0 to $5M Growth Hacks 🔗 How to Get Backlinks 🚫 Startup Pitfalls (Trends.vc piled on functional emojis as topic dividers)

4. Last Chance! Registration Closes Tonight! (Ray Edwards doesn’t let fear of “spammy words” keep him from rushing readers to respond & the email landed safely in my inbox) 

5. Data Is Plural — 2024.07.03 edition (Data is Plural is the sender & the subject line w/ that day’s date, making it timely)

6. You don’t want that (SMH News nudged the rebel in me open the message)

7. Why are cockroaches so hard to kill? (Smart Nonsense tackles stuff that doesn’t matter much but makes me curious enough to open their emails)

Words matter, but so do the visuals that stand out in the inbox before I click (visuals created mostly by words as you see below).

A third thing is as important in email marketing. A relationship between the reader and the writer of the email. I get it - you think that’s horse crap because, like me, you’ve read 500 articles fluffed full of talk about creating relationships with your readers. But the truth is, some marketers, brands, business owners really know how to do this.

Some of them purposely repel people who are not a fit, so the only subscribers remaining are the precise audience the business owner wants. Others just never stop creating content — I’ve been reading Ray Edwards’s emails for over 11 years! And some email marketers are simply… dog-gone good writers. I can’t teach you that (unless you’ve got $4,315 for a writing course I’ll put together right quick?😁).

Let’s get to what makes me click once I’ve opened an email. 

Three examples:

#1 Dru Riley puts together stuff you do not see elsewhere in his Trends.vc newsletter. He hits every angle of his topics without wasting words.

#2 Stacked Marketer is similar to Dru as they have new news and the crew answers emails you send them. They’re as friendly as they are informative!

#3 Professor Scott Galloway sells courses and they’re pricey. Yet, even I, minimalist cheapskate, consider buying from him. Despite 40% of his takes making me concerned about his TDS. Dude is the best writer in my inbox, period (caveat, I don’t read my own emails so…😅).

Send emails when people are in their inbox 

Imagine you pop open Gmail, and you have a long list of emails to go through.

A few seconds later, a new email pops into your inbox.

You're more likely to immediately open that new email. 

So, rather than send an email blast to your entire list at once, Inbox Mailers sends your triggered emails when your subscriber is actually in their inbox. 

This strategy can lead to open rates of 50-70% and improve overall deliverability. With better deliverability, you’ll see a higher sender score, better inbox placement rates, and increased email marketing revenue. Schedule a free test drive of Inbox Mailers.

Thanks for reading. Please forward this email to another Earth-shakin marketer.

Shane McLendon - Copy Kingpin, Inbox Hacking

P.S. Where else would folks need emo-support llamas but Portland?