Words to use and words to avoid to write more engaging email subject lines
Selecting the best subject line, headlines and content types for emails is a constant challenge for email marketers as they write copy for their campaigns and newsletters.
Which are the most engaging words on Facebook post headlines?
I recently found a good source of insight for words to consider by the excellent Dan Zarrella who analyses consumer Facebook behaviour. I hope this inspires you when you're next writing or reviewing email copy or trying to devise ideas for emails. Of course it should help with Facebook and blog posts too! These are the words that the research showed were popular for sharing.
Source: 7 Ways to Get Your Blog Posts Shared On Facebook
What can we take from this? Well, we have to remember this is an analysis across a massive range of posts and it is skewed to consumer preferences, but here's what I took from this analysis:
- Web users like to learn about the most popular topics - "most", "big" and "best" are popular - these are often used in blog list posts which we know are popular
- Help readers learn and develop - "how" and "why" are some of the most popular terms
- Make it personal can help engage - include "you" in the headline - email copywriters will know this also works well in the body copy
- Some content types are a turn-off - the analysis also shows that "poll", "review", "vs"
This analysis is part of a wider review of Facebook user preferences. This infographic from Dan Zarellas blog gives further food for thought - including the possibility of engaging consumers with email over the weekend - see my post on the best day of the week to send email.
Source: 5 questions and answers about your Facebook Marketing