The Finest Size for Your Electronic mail Topic Traces

By Sean Tinney Could 17, 2024

The topic line is crucial a part of your advertising emails, bar none.

It’s so necessary that 47% of recipients solely think about the topic line when deciding whether or not to open an e mail, whereas 69% report emails as spam primarily based solely on the topic line.

In just some characters, you’ve received to seize the recipient’s consideration and provides them a compelling motive to click on. So that you’re doubtless questioning: “How lengthy ought to an e mail topic line be?”

To reply that query, AWeber’s in-house e mail consultants analyzed 1,000 topic traces from 100 prime entrepreneurs to know their method. Learn on to be taught…

• The common e mail topic line size
• The very best size for a topic line
• How lengthy is too lengthy for a topic line

…plus we’ll share a bunch of concerns and finest practices that can assist you craft must-click topic traces each time.

Let’s get into it:

What’s the common size of a topic line?

AWeber’s evaluation of 1,000 topic traces from prime entrepreneurs found that the common e mail topic line size is 44 characters (together with areas).

How lengthy is 44 characters? For perspective, the under topic line from theSkimm (a preferred day by day publication) is 43 characters in size:

Topic line: Day by day Skimm: I’ve received the world on a string

Nonetheless, our analysis unturned a variety of character counts, with one in 9 topic traces measuring 20 characters or fewer, and about one-fifth clocking in at 61+ characters.

👉 Study extra: Electronic mail Topic Line Finest Practices To Get Extra Opens

What’s the finest topic line size?

The very best e mail topic line size is from 30 – 50 characters and as much as seven phrases.

Right here’s an instance that hits the mark courtesy of the Content material Advertising Institute, containing seven phrases and 38 characters:

Topic line: How To Put together for the Knowledge Apocalypse

👉 Study extra: 100+ Superb Topic Line Examples

Can a topic line be too lengthy?

Sure!

With most e mail suppliers, you may technically create topic traces of as much as 988 characters. 

Nonetheless, that’s waaaaaaaaay longer than the purpose at which the topic line will minimize off in your recipients’ inboxes. And if nobody’s ever going to learn all these additional characters, what’s the purpose in writing them?

Realistically, any topic line longer than ~100 characters will likely be truncated on the overwhelming majority of units, whereas the Gmail app for iPhone doesn’t show something past 38 characters (extra on this within the subsequent part).

Electronic mail topic line elements to think about

Now that you recognize the consultants write 44-character topic traces, hold yours to 44 characters and also you’ve received the proper topic line, proper?

Clearly not.

There are just a few different elements to think about when growing your e mail advertising topic traces. However don’t fear, we’ll cowl them right here.

The units your prospects are utilizing

Does most of your viewers use an iPhone to learn their e mail? Or are they largely on desktops? The gadget your prospects use to open and consider their emails is extraordinarily necessary when crafting your topic traces.

The common inbox shows about 60 characters on a desktop whereas the common cellular gadget shows solely 30 characters. The rest will get minimize off. 

The e-mail supplier your prospects are utilizing

Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo! Mail, or Apple? The platform your subscribers use for e mail impacts what number of characters seem in your topic traces.

System + e mail supplier

Now let’s do the maths: Combining units and e mail suppliers provides you a set of variables.

For instance, let’s check out the topic line character limits for Gmail on completely different units:

So why does this matter? 

As an instance, check out this instance displaying the identical e mail topic line from PersonalizationMall, displayed throughout completely different units and mail apps:

They did an awesome job creating urgency with the topic line: “Sean Your Triple Low cost Coupon Expires In the present day”. 

However sadly I view most of my emails on my iPhone Mail App and didn’t see that the provide expired the evening I obtained the e-mail.

What may they’ve accomplished otherwise? You’ll discover out under once we speak about e mail topic line size finest practices.

Need to know which suppliers to care most about? A examine by Litmus analyzed the most well-liked e mail suppliers, apps, and units, with the highest 5 being: 

Finest practices for e mail topic line size

With so many alternative mixtures, how can anybody write a topic line that may stand out?

Let’s get again to our advertising consultants: 71.1% of the 1,000 topic traces we analyzed have been between 21 and 60 characters. 

To face out from everybody else, as a substitute of specializing in size alone, think about different elements which will have an effect on your open charges.

1. Hold your most necessary data within the first 30 characters

Over 50% of emails are opened on cellular units. Most e mail purchasers, like Gmail and Yahoo!, cease displaying an e mail topic line on cellular units as soon as it reaches between 33 and 43 characters. The precise quantity varies from one e mail consumer to a different.

You probably have a powerful provide, you shouldn’t be pressured to restrict your e mail advertising topic line size. To optimize it for cellular readers, put crucial data within the first 30 characters. This fashion, this message received’t get minimize off within the inbox.

2. Use the preheader to reinforce your message

The preheader is the extra textual content that seems subsequent to or under your topic line in an inbox. Preheaders assist praise your topic line and can be utilized as that additional piece of textual content which can in any other case get minimize off on the finish of a topic line.

👉 Study extra: Electronic mail Preheaders: Tricks to Rising Your Open Charges 

3. Don’t be too wordy

Simpler stated than accomplished. I’m personally somebody who rambles on and sometimes makes use of extra phrases than wanted when speaking about one thing.

How do I overcome this when writing topic traces? 

I begin by writing every thing I need to say in my topic line, then I cut back it by eliminating or changing sure phrases.

Right here’s an train:

Topic line thought: Rise up to 50% off Athletic Footwear this Saturday solely

This instance is 51 characters lengthy. How can I modify this to cut back the topic line?

How about: As much as 50% off Athletic Footwear on Saturday

This train lowered my topic line characters to 40.

4. Take a look at your topic traces

Each viewers is completely different. Attempt brief and lengthy topic traces along with your subscribers to see what works finest on your distinctive viewers.

Arrange an A/B break up take a look at, sending 10% – 20% of the viewers the take a look at with the successful variation receiving the remaining 80% – 90%. This fashion you maximize your open charges by guaranteeing the strongest topic line will get despatched to nearly all of your viewers.

👉 Study extra: Cease Guessing and Begin Testing: Enhance Your Emails with A/B Break up Testing

5. Personalize your e mail topic traces

Emails with customized topic traces see an common open charge of 35.69%, in comparison with simply 16.67% for non-personalized e mail topic traces.

However “personalization” can imply loads of various things, from including the recipient’s identify to your topic traces, to providing them a customized low cost or product suggestion primarily based on their shopping or buy historical past.

So which method is finest?

Right here’s the reply:

👉 Study extra: From Vanilla to Wow: Utilizing Customized Emails to Converse to Your Viewers 

6. Take a look at emojis in topic traces

Emojis add a pop of coloration to your e mail topic traces, which might help them stand out in a crowded inbox:

Or a minimum of, that’s the speculation. In follow, entrepreneurs have seen combined outcomes from together with emojis in topic traces:

👍 One examine discovered that manufacturers utilizing topic line emojis see a mean 56% enhance of their distinctive open charges…

👎 …however separate analysis found that topic traces with out emojis see barely greater open charges (at 52.94% vs 47.06%)

For that motive, we advocate A/B testing emojis to see how they play along with your viewers.

👉 Study extra: The whole lot You Must Know About Utilizing Emojis in Your Topic Line

Case examine: Must you think about shorter topic traces?

You may need to experiment with even shorter topic traces.

Brian Dean, founding father of website positioning firm Backlinko and one of many 100 prime entrepreneurs whose emails we analyzed, used to ship emails with longer topic traces. These topic traces instructed his subscribers precisely what they’d discover contained in the message.

The issue with that?

“It gave individuals no motive to truly open my e mail,” he stated.

Now, he sends topic traces with a mean of 15.1 characters. 

“After numerous testing, I’ve discovered that brief topic traces get a lot greater open charges,” Dean stated.

He attributes this to 2 elements:

1. Brief topic traces attain the inbox extra ceaselessly
2. Brief topic traces are extra mysterious

Listed here are just a few of Dean’s brief e mail topic traces. All are below 15 characters lengthy:

They offer the recipient a transparent image of what the e-mail is about, with out freely giving any details about the precise contents.

After all, in case you’re going to undertake this technique, you’ll nearly definitely must repeat a few of your topic traces, so they may lose their affect.

Brian will get away with it as a result of his subscribers know he all the time supplies distinctive, actionable insights — so his topic traces don’t must do an excessive amount of heavy lifting.

Write must-click topic traces with AWeber

Our evaluation exhibits that the common e mail topic line size is 44 characters, whereas the advisable size is between 30 and 50 characters.

However that may not be the proper size on your model.

As we’ve seen, Backlinko boosted their open charges by slicing the size of their topic traces. Perhaps your viewers will favor shorter topic traces, too — or maybe they’d be extra prone to click on in case you supplied some additional context?

The one method to discover out is to check, take a look at, and take a look at some extra.

With AWeber, you may A/B take a look at nearly any component of your e mail, from topic traces and calls to motion to colours, templates, preheaders, and extra. So that you don’t must depend on guesswork or trade benchmarks to put in writing topic traces your viewers loves.

Get began by signing up for your free AWeber account immediately!