Studies have shown that 1 in 3 emails are opened based on the subject line alone. It's astonishing to think that so many recipients don't even look at your full email. You have slaved over getting every element right and optimizing everything down to the most minute detail, the least they can do is take a quick look right?
It's always going to be a tough task to get everyone to open your email but there are some really good things you could be doing to optimize your subject line. You first need to concentrate on catching the attention of your reader with a selection of strategic first words. Words that have been known to bring attention to your email are things like "Sale, Save, This, Weekly, Daily, Free". We all love free things, things on sale and a great offer or voucher, so an example of a subject line might look something like this "Save 50% on your lattes this week only". You can see that it starts with an offer, talks about something the consumer loves and tells them when they can have it.
Another thing to be aware of is the length of your subject line. Getting to the point and being clear as to exactly what you are trying to say is key. If you make the subject line too wordy and you don't immediately get the consumers attention you are setting yourself up for a fall right from the get-go. Cheesy I know but keep it short, sweet and right to the point.
Something else to try is A/B testing on your subject lines. Try and adjust your subject line ever so slightly, maybe changing 1 or 2 words and see how much of a difference that makes to your open rate. It really is this type of detail that can make quite the impact. I would go as far as to try 3 variations of 1 subject line and analyze the results to see which one is most optimized for your consumers.
So, catch their attention, keep it short & sweet and test a few variations. You'll be getting better open rates in no time!