It could be the reason your email is opened, read, marked as spam or immediately ignored. For instance, if it’s too long, comes across as spammy or is just plain old boring, your open rates are going to decrease. When it comes to B2B marketing, your subject lines need to stay under 60 characters. This ensures that your message isn’t cut off. It also creates more intrigue for your prospect. In fact - prospects are 47% more likely to open an email with a short subject line. Our advice is to A/B test some short creative subject lines against some ambiguous one-word subject lines. Here are a few examples: A: [Company Name] ‘s outbound is a piece of cake? B: Introducing Subject line A breaks the 60 character rule. In this case, it’s ok to break the rules because cake will be cut off in your prospects’ inboxes. So all they’ll see is: “Your company’s outbound is a piece of...” Leading them to open the email to discover who would have the audacity to say such a thing... only to find out its cake! A: Webinar seats limited - sign up now B: Connecting While there’s nothing too interesting about subject line A, it does tell the recipient that they’ll miss out if they don’t open the email and sign up. Putting a deadline on things creates urgency and encourages your prospect to take action. The ANYTHING BUT BASIC guide to email marketing / 16