Summary

The subject line is the first piece of text that prospects see in their inbox upon receiving an email. It determines whether the prospect opens the email or not. This article from the multifamily lead nurturing series shares the best practices to create subject lines.

The post answers the following two questions:

• Why do subject lines matter?
• What makes a good subject line?

What does the series include?

• Multifamily Lead Nurturing: An Introduction to Multifamily Marketers
• Multifamily Lead Nurturing: The Nurturing Sequence
• Multifamily Lead Nurturing: 0th-Hour: The “Miracle Hour”
• Multifamily Lead Nurturing: Anatomy of an Email
• Multifamily Lead Nurturing: Crafting Subject Lines that Prospects Open
• Multifamily Lead Nurturing: The Power of SMS-Based Nurturing

Crafting Subject Lines that Prospects Open

333.2 billion! That’s the estimated number of emails sent and received daily^[1] in 2022.

You put your best efforts to create a perfect multifamily lead nurturing email. With overflowing inboxes, short attention spans, and skepticism, how do you ensure that prospects open and read your emails?

By creating subject lines that entice and engage the prospects.

Why do subject lines matter?

The subject line is the first line of text that people see in their inbox upon receiving an email.

Research shows that while 64% of people open emails based on the sender name, 47% ^[2] of prospects open them based on the subject line alone.

What makes a good subject line?

A good subject line grabs attention, intrigues, and urges the prospect to read further. Below are the best practices to create the most effective subject lines:

1. Keep it short and simple

A short and simple subject line is likely to grab the prospect's attention.

According to Adobe Email-Use US Report, 81% of people open emails on smartphones ^[3]. To avoid the email client truncating the subject line on mobile, keep it within 42 characters^[4].

For example, a subject line with 35 chars will appear correctly on mobile devices: A Place You Can Call Home @One J St

But a longer subject line will be truncated to 42 chars: Still searching? Here is the place that yo….

2. Make it personalized

A personalized subject line tends to have higher open rates. According to HubSpot blog research 2021 ^[5], message personalization (72%) happens to be one of the most effective strategies for email marketing after customer segmentation (78%).

You can personalize the subject line by including the prospect's name.

Which subject line do you think will work better?

Personalized: James, you will love this neighborhood!

Not personalized: Check out the neighborhood at One J St.

3. Make it specific

A specific subject line tells the prospects what the email is about, unlike a general one that fails to capture their attention.

Below are examples of general and specific subject lines:

General: Price change at One J St

Specific: Price drop for studio apartments at One J St

4. Leverage A/B testing

In A/B testing, you present two versions of the same variable (the subject line in our case) to a different set of audiences simultaneously. The outcome helps you determine which version creates the maximum impact.

Testing is a sure-shot way to determine which subject lines are well-received by your prospects. Research suggests that A/B testing of email subject lines can boost CTR by 26.96%^[6].

A/B testing for subject lines helps you improve open rates and collect further insights for your nurture emails.

5. Use power words

Hyly.AI Data Science team performed A/B testing on the subject lines and discovered which power words work for multifamily and which don't.

Power words are used in marketing to trigger a psychological or emotional response and persuade the prospects to take action.

A simple Google search will give you the conventional wisdom that amazing and perfect are clickbait words. But, for multifamily, these conventions do not work!

Power words that work best in prospect offer email subject lines are: ‘Perfect’, ‘luxury’, ‘amazing’, ‘dine discover’, and ‘limited-time offer’.

Example subject line: Still waiting for your perfect home, James?

But the following words perform poorly: ‘downsizing’, ‘great-deal’, ‘incentive’, ‘win’, and ‘tomorrow’.

Example subject line: Hurry up! The fee waiver ends tomorrow!

6. Utilize the preheader

An email preheader is a short sentence or phrase that appears immediately after the subject line when viewed in the email preview pane.

A well-crafted preheader draws attention and further encourages the prospect to open the email. This space can provide context to the email that you couldn’t fit in the subject line.

Example:

Subject Line: You will love this neighborhood, James!

Preheader: Check out our recently renovated apartments.

If you do not include a preheader, it will pull the email content to fill up the epace. This can be the first line or the mirror link for your email: "View this email in the browser."

The preheader could be 100-140 characters long. However, to show it properly in mobile preview, keep it under 80 characters.

Endnote

You should craft your multifamily subject lines carefully as they would be the first impression that prospects have. Creative and attention-grabbing subject lines will encourage the prospects to open the nurture email and bring them a step closer to scheduling tours.

In the next and final part of this series, we will discuss SMS-based nurturing.

Resources

1. 333.2 billion emails sent and received per day worldwide from 2022 (Statista)
2. 47% of people open email based on subject lines (OptinMonster)
3. 81% of people open emails on smartphones (Adobe Email Use US Report)
4. Mobile Client truncates subject line to 42 characters (The Orchard Agency)
5. Personalization is 72% effective email marketing strategy(Hupspot Blog Research)
6. A/B testing of subject lines led Skandium to increase CTR by 26.96% (Barilliance, 2021)