Email marketing is an integral piece of the ASK Method strategy, and knowing what content to create and send out to your subscribers is a big part of its success. You need to make sure you grab your subscribers attention and have them open and read your email, to have them get the full benefit of the content, and potentially profit from the interaction.
The first step to doing this is through your email subject line.
Ryan Levesque, the creator of the ASK Method has shared his 20 best and most successful email subject lines that he has used to market the ASK Method, and how he tests a subject line he wants to send out.
Ryan’s most successful subject lines:
1. The Insanity of NOT Using this Technique
2. Eureka!
3. That’s IT! We’re Going Down to the Basement
4. This almost had me in tears (NEW interview)
These first four subject lines use highly emotive words, which he found prompted more people to open the email.
5. Deep Dive Survey: No list? Do this…
6. Do this ==> Make money. Seriously.
7. 3 easy ways to use ASK in emails
8. How to use ASK based on your type
9. The #1 list building strategy I use (works in every market)
These are ‘guide’ subject lines for people who are looking for specific advice or tips. The subject teases the reader into opening the email and learning something that can potentially help them in the future.
10. THIS is a Test
11. Life happens
These subjects are very short and work by playing on the subscribers curiosity and imagination.
12. My Secret Buzzfeed Experiment
13. Ryan’s Secret to Success? These 2 Words…
14. The “secret ingredient” in all my survey funnels is…
15. What I Left OUT of ASK
These subject lines convey that the email is going to let the subscriber in on a secret. Most people can not resist the urge to find out what is perceived as unique information.
16. Does my profanity bother you?
17. Do you hate Donald Trump?
18. Why I Hate Black Friday
19. Hey, Look at Me, I’m Throwing a Tantrum!
These subject lines play on the strong emotion of hate, which tends to get a response from most people. The subjects are also on topics that are current and on everyone’s lips. Subscribers will most likely read this because it may resonate with them personally or they are curious in the topic and want to know your opinion.
20. Do You HATE Me?
This is Ryan’s most controversial subject line since it is the most shocking. The topic and the rest of the email serves to ask your audience why they did not buy your product or accept your offer. In the email it would provide a link for the subscriber to click and be taken to a survey that asks for their opinions on the product. This lets you know what they didn’t like about the product or service that stopped them from buying it or opting-in.
The key with this subject line is to make sure your audience knows that you are being more tongue in cheek than serious. The suggestion that the subscriber hates you should prompt them to leave you a response, which you can use to improve your email marketing strategy in the future.
How to Test your Subject Lines:
1. Keep an archive of your best performing subject lines.
2. Analyse those subject lines for trends. Do they use common words, structure, formatting, length, or punctuation?
3. Test a subject line against something radically different. Constant A/B testing will assist you in understanding what your audience responds to best and help building up a file of the most successful performing subject lines.
Trends that your discover from testing your subject lines can then be applied to ads, sales pages, and landing pages as a way to test different ideas.
Where to get Inspiration for your own Subject Lines:
- Create a ‘swipe file’ email account, where you subscribe to top marketers and copywriters in your niche. Use and be inspired by their ideas.
- Magazine headlines.
- Look at what is trending on Buzzfeed, Reddit and Alltop.