The subject lines that’ll convert every single time

The FOMO effect

Let’s start with my least favorite. FOMO, the ‘fear of missing out’ is a thing, and brands can sometimes play on this to get you to click. Creating a sense of urgency to encourage you to click, or you’re going to miss out on something. Of course urgency is a legitimate tactic, and certainly has it’s place – think flash sales, limited stock notifications etc. However, I detest emails with subject lines full of multiple exclamation marks, peppered with words such as ‘quick’, ‘hurry’, and ‘ASAP’ – and don’t get me started on subject lines made up of all capital letters (which is a spam trap too).

I don’t want to feel like my inbox is shouting at me. Emails should serve you, not stress you out. Creating a sense of urgency is one thing, creating stress is another.

By tapping into your customer’s fear of missing out (FOMO), you can be sure to get a lot of opens, but it’s not something you should overdo. Unlike online websites which rely on a large volume of clicks to make money through placed adverts, a brand’s relationship with its customers is built on more than a quick fling. We’re building, hopefully, long-lasting relationships with our customers and to do that you need to respect them and value their time.

If you’re always pushing a ‘last chance’ message, people will get desensitized to it and you’ll find yourself struggling to get engagement. By all means convey urgency where there is some, but manufacturing urgency and sensationalizing your offering is only going to damage the trust between your brand and your customers, and lead to a higher churn rate.