The Greatest Size for Your E mail Topic Traces

By Sean Tinney Might 17, 2024

The topic line is a very powerful a part of your advertising emails, bar none.

It’s so essential that 47% of recipients solely take into account the topic line when deciding whether or not to open an e-mail, whereas 69% report emails as spam based mostly solely on the topic line.

In just some characters, you’ve acquired to seize the recipient’s consideration and provides them a compelling motive to click on. So that you’re seemingly questioning: “How lengthy ought to an e-mail topic line be?”

To reply that query, AWeber’s in-house e-mail specialists analyzed 1,000 topic strains from 100 high entrepreneurs to grasp their strategy. Learn on to study…

• The typical e-mail topic line size
• The very best size for a topic line
• How lengthy is too lengthy for a topic line

…plus we’ll share a bunch of concerns and finest practices that can assist you craft must-click topic strains each time.

Let’s get into it:

What’s the common size of a topic line?

AWeber’s evaluation of 1,000 topic strains from high entrepreneurs found that the common e-mail topic line size is 44 characters (together with areas).

How lengthy is 44 characters? For perspective, the beneath topic line from theSkimm (a preferred day by day publication) is 43 characters in size:

Topic line: Each day Skimm: I’ve acquired the world on a string

Nevertheless, our analysis unturned a variety of character counts, with one in 9 topic strains measuring 20 characters or fewer, and about one-fifth clocking in at 61+ characters.

👉 Study extra: E mail Topic Line Greatest Practices To Get Extra Opens

What’s the finest topic line size?

The very best e-mail topic line size is from 30 – 50 characters and as much as seven phrases.

Right here’s an instance that hits the mark courtesy of the Content material Advertising Institute, containing seven phrases and 38 characters:

Topic line: How To Put together for the Knowledge Apocalypse

👉 Study extra: 100+ Wonderful Topic Line Examples

Can a topic line be too lengthy?

Sure!

With most e-mail suppliers, you possibly can technically create topic strains of as much as 988 characters. 

Nevertheless, that’s waaaaaaaaay longer than the purpose at which the topic line will lower off in your recipients’ inboxes. And if nobody’s ever going to learn all these additional characters, what’s the purpose in writing them?

Realistically, any topic line longer than ~100 characters might be truncated on the overwhelming majority of gadgets, whereas the Gmail app for iPhone doesn’t show something past 38 characters (extra on this within the subsequent part).

E mail topic line elements to think about

Now that you recognize the specialists write 44-character topic strains, preserve yours to 44 characters and also you’ve acquired the proper topic line, proper?

Clearly not.

There are just a few different elements to think about when creating your e-mail advertising topic strains. However don’t fear, we’ll cowl them right here.

The gadgets your clients are utilizing

Does most of your viewers use an iPhone to learn their e-mail? Or are they largely on desktops? The system your clients use to open and consider their emails is extraordinarily essential when crafting your topic strains.

The typical inbox shows about 60 characters on a desktop whereas the common cellular system shows solely 30 characters. Anything will get lower off. 

The e-mail supplier your clients are utilizing

Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo! Mail, or Apple? The platform your subscribers use for e-mail impacts what number of characters seem in your topic strains.

Machine + e-mail supplier

Now let’s do the maths: Combining gadgets and e-mail suppliers provides you a set of variables.

For instance, let’s check out the topic line character limits for Gmail on totally different gadgets:

So why does this matter? 

As an example, check out this instance displaying the identical e-mail topic line from PersonalizationMall, displayed throughout totally different gadgets and mail apps:

They did an awesome job creating urgency with the topic line: “Sean Your Triple Low cost Coupon Expires At this time”. 

However sadly I view most of my emails on my iPhone Mail App and didn’t see that the provide expired the evening I obtained the e-mail.

What might they’ve completed otherwise? You’ll discover out beneath once we discuss e-mail topic line size finest practices.

Wish to know which suppliers to care most about? A examine by Litmus analyzed the preferred e-mail suppliers, apps, and gadgets, with the highest 5 being: 

Greatest practices for e-mail topic line size

With so many alternative combos, how can anybody write a topic line that can stand out?

Let’s get again to our advertising specialists: 71.1% of the 1,000 topic strains we analyzed have been between 21 and 60 characters. 

To face out from everybody else, as a substitute of specializing in size alone, take into account different elements which will have an effect on your open charges.

1. Maintain your most essential data within the first 30 characters

Over 50% of emails are opened on cellular gadgets. Most e-mail shoppers, like Gmail and Yahoo!, cease displaying an e-mail topic line on cellular gadgets as soon as it reaches between 33 and 43 characters. The precise quantity varies from one e-mail consumer to a different.

When you’ve got a powerful provide, you shouldn’t be pressured to restrict your e-mail advertising topic line size. To optimize it for cellular readers, put a very powerful data within the first 30 characters. This fashion, this message received’t get lower off within the inbox.

2. Use the preheader to boost your message

The preheader is the extra textual content that seems subsequent to or beneath your topic line in an inbox. Preheaders assist praise your topic line and can be utilized as that additional piece of textual content which can in any other case get lower off on the finish of a topic line.

👉 Study extra: E mail Preheaders: Tricks to Growing Your Open Charges 

3. Don’t be too wordy

Simpler stated than completed. I’m personally somebody who rambles on and infrequently makes use of extra phrases than wanted when speaking about one thing.

How do I overcome this when writing topic strains? 

I begin by writing every thing I wish to say in my topic line, then I cut back it by eliminating or changing sure phrases.

Right here’s an train:

Topic line concept: Rise up to 50% off Athletic Footwear this Saturday solely

This instance is 51 characters lengthy. How can I modify this to scale back the topic line?

How about: As much as 50% off Athletic Footwear on Saturday

This train lowered my topic line characters to 40.

4. Take a look at your topic strains

Each viewers is totally different. Strive quick and lengthy topic strains together with your subscribers to see what works finest in your distinctive viewers.

Arrange an A/B break up take a look at, sending 10% – 20% of the viewers the take a look at with the profitable variation receiving the remaining 80% – 90%. This fashion you maximize your open charges by guaranteeing the strongest topic line will get despatched to the vast majority of your viewers.

👉 Study extra: Cease Guessing and Begin Testing: Enhance Your Emails with A/B Cut up Testing

5. Personalize your e-mail topic strains

Emails with personalised topic strains see an common open fee of 35.69%, in comparison with simply 16.67% for non-personalized e-mail topic strains.

However “personalization” can imply quite a lot of various things, from including the recipient’s title to your topic strains, to providing them a personalised low cost or product advice based mostly on their shopping or buy historical past.

So which strategy is finest?

Right here’s the reply:

👉 Study extra: From Vanilla to Wow: Utilizing Customized Emails to Communicate to Your Viewers 

6. Take a look at emojis in topic strains

Emojis add a pop of shade to your e-mail topic strains, which might help them stand out in a crowded inbox:

Or at the least, that’s the speculation. In observe, entrepreneurs have seen combined outcomes from together with emojis in topic strains:

👍 One examine discovered that manufacturers utilizing topic line emojis see a median 56% improve of their distinctive open charges…

👎 …however separate analysis found that topic strains with out emojis see barely larger open charges (at 52.94% vs 47.06%)

For that motive, we suggest A/B testing emojis to see how they play together with your viewers.

👉 Study extra: Every little thing You Must Know About Utilizing Emojis in Your Topic Line

Case examine: Must you take into account shorter topic strains?

You may wish to experiment with even shorter topic strains.

Brian Dean, founding father of search engine optimization firm Backlinko and one of many 100 high entrepreneurs whose emails we analyzed, used to ship emails with longer topic strains. These topic strains informed his subscribers precisely what they’d discover contained in the message.

The issue with that?

“It gave individuals no motive to truly open my e-mail,” he stated.

Now, he sends topic strains with a median of 15.1 characters. 

“After a lot of testing, I’ve discovered that quick topic strains get a lot larger open charges,” Dean stated.

He attributes this to 2 elements:

1. Brief topic strains attain the inbox extra steadily
2. Brief topic strains are extra mysterious

Listed here are just a few of Dean’s quick e-mail topic strains. All are underneath 15 characters lengthy:

They offer the recipient a transparent image of what the e-mail is about, with out gifting away any details about the precise contents.

In fact, should you’re going to undertake this technique, you’ll nearly actually need to repeat a few of your topic strains, so they may lose their influence.

Brian will get away with it as a result of his subscribers know he all the time offers distinctive, actionable insights — so his topic strains don’t need to do an excessive amount of heavy lifting.

Write must-click topic strains with AWeber

Our evaluation exhibits that the common e-mail topic line size is 44 characters, whereas the advisable size is between 30 and 50 characters.

However that may not be the proper size in your model.

As we’ve seen, Backlinko boosted their open charges by slicing the size of their topic strains. Perhaps your viewers will favor shorter topic strains, too — or maybe they’d be extra more likely to click on should you offered some additional context?

The one method to discover out is to check, take a look at, and take a look at some extra.

With AWeber, you possibly can A/B take a look at nearly any aspect of your e-mail, from topic strains and calls to motion to colours, templates, preheaders, and extra. So that you don’t need to depend on guesswork or business benchmarks to write down topic strains your viewers loves.

Get began by signing up for your free AWeber account as we speak!