Subject lines and preview text

What subject line work is

Subject line work is writing the two lines an inbox shows before anything has been opened: the subject line, and the preview text sitting beside or beneath it. They are written as a pair, because every modern inbox displays them together and readers take them as one sentence. They are written in several versions, because the only honest way to know which line works on your list is to send two and count.

It is the smallest job on this site and the one where the fewest words decide the most. Everything else in an email is read only by the people those two lines persuaded. A careful issue behind a dull subject line is an unread issue.

It is not writing the email. If there is no email yet, there is nothing to put a line on, and the work belongs with the issue itself. It is not the web-page version of the job either; the advert that appears in a results list is title tags and meta descriptions, written for a different reader under different rules.

Who this is for

A business that writes its own emails, sends them reliably, and watches most of the list never open them. The writing inside is usually fine. The line on the outside was typed in the last thirty seconds before sending, and it says something like “October newsletter”.

The second case is a business about to send something that genuinely matters: a launch, an invitation, a price change, an apology. One send, one chance, and a reasonable wish to see six candidates rather than commit to the first one that came to mind.

You do not need this if your list has not heard from you in two years, or was collected without consent. No subject line rescues that; the work is a re-engagement campaign and, before it, an honest look at how the addresses were obtained. You also do not need it as a separate job if I am already writing your emails, because the lines come with them.

What I write

• The subject lines. Six candidates per send, in different registers: the plain statement of what is inside, the question, the specific detail, the number, the short one, the one that sounds like a note from a person.
• The preview text. Written to continue the subject line rather than repeat it, and long enough that the inbox does not fill the gap with “view this email in your browser”. Most lists have never had this written on purpose at all.
• The sender name. Whether the email comes from the company, from a person, or from a person at the company. It is one field, it is rarely revisited, and it changes who opens.
• The test plan. Which two candidates to run against each other, on which portion of the list, and what counts as a result. Written in the language of your own sending platform.

One caution, stated plainly because it is the part people want to skip. A subject line that promises more than the email delivers will be opened once and will cost you the next four. Curiosity that pays off builds a list; curiosity that does not trains people to stop looking. I write lines that are true, and if a line is true and still dull, the problem is the email and I will say so.

What you get

The candidate sheet. One page per send: six subject lines, the matching preview text for each, the character counts, and a note on how each will truncate on a phone. You choose, or you tell me to choose.

The standing settings. A short document covering the sender name, the reply-to address and the preview text default, written once and used on every send afterwards.

The test plan and the rules. One page describing how to run a split test on your platform, and half a page of rules drawn from your own sends: what your list has responded to, what it has ignored, and the words that reliably do nothing.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A Winnipeg bookkeeping firm sends a monthly email to about twelve hundred small business clients. The subject line every month is the month and the word newsletter. Opens have drifted down for two years and nobody has changed anything.

The first month produces six candidates for one issue about payroll deadlines. Two are tested against each other on the list: one naming the deadline date, one naming the penalty for missing it. The preview text is written for both, and the sender changes from the firm name to the name of the partner clients actually deal with. The standing settings and the rules page come out of reading the last eighteen sends: this list opens for dates, ignores anything with the word update in it, and reads on a phone where anything past forty characters disappears. Six lines, one test, one page of rules the firm keeps using after I have gone.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. How often you send, who is on the list, what platform you use, and what you have already tried. No charge.
2. A fixed price in writing. How many sends are covered, how many candidates per send, and whether the standing settings and rules page are included.
3. Inputs. Read access to your sending platform, or an export of the last year of sends with their open figures, plus the draft of whatever is going out next. One day.
4. The writing. Two to three working days for a single send. A month of sends, plus the standing settings and the rules page, takes about a week.
5. Delivery. The candidate sheet, one revision round, and the test set up in your platform if you want me in there.

What it costs

This is quoted as a fixed price in CAD after the half-hour call, and it is one of the cheapest things on this site, because it is a few hours of work on a small number of words. One send costs less than a month of sends; a standing arrangement where every email you write comes to me for its lines costs less again per send. The pricing page shows the four ways of working. The number is agreed in writing first.

What happens next

Better lines raise the number of people reading the email, which quickly shows whether the email was worth reading. Where it was not, the next job is the issue itself and its regular shape. Where the opens rise and nobody clicks, the problem is at the other end of the email, which is what the last line asks for. And where the sending has simply become erratic, the fix is an email calendar rather than more writing. This is complete work on its own, and nothing further is assumed.