The engagement for your event email starts the moment it lands into the recipient's inbox.  This is where your subject line needs to do the work of enticing your potential reader into opening your email to experience the glorious work you have put into the email design, layout and most importantly the content, ultimately all this good work is a waste of time and money if the email is left unread.  

So it is fair to say the subject line is important, really important, using our top 5 tips you can dramatically improve the open rates for your event email marketing campaigns.

1. Get personal

You should write personally and try to be specific. For instance "Are your marketing campaigns delivering a good ROI?" is a better subject line than "Marketers! Deliver better marketing campaigns". Using your recipient's first name in the subject line can also improve open rate, for example - "Hey Jon, Are your marketing campaigns delivering a good ROI?.

2. Don't sell, sell, sell

Unless you have a special offer or giveaway, try not to push product in your subject line. A sales orientated subject line can have a negative impact on your open rates. If you insist on using the subject line to sell then ensure you sell the benefits not the product directly.

3. Create a sense of urgency

One tip that has previously worked well for a number of our event clients is to try to show your audience that they only have a limited amount time to react. There are many ways to make your subject line convey a sense of urgency.

"For 24 hours Only - Here’s a gift, on us!". Using a headline like this, you are telling the recipient they have to react quickly if they want to take up your opportunity. "Marketing Masterclass - Last few seats remaining". In this subject line, you are telling the recipient the product is scarce, so they should act quickly before it's too late.

4. Emoji

Using emoji in your event email subject lines can be an effective and attention-generating technique to increase your email open rates and get more people engaging with your email marketing campaigns.

Remember to test any emoji in your email subject lines before sending to avoid looking  in your recipients’ inboxes.

5. Stimulate emotions

Fear, curiosity, astonishment, love, and hate are just some of the feelings that you can play with in order to get your email opened. Try saying something your readership least expect: "Why you shouldn’t come to our event". Obviously subject lines like these have a time and a place so use carefully and proceed with caution.

Bonus. No Spam please

It probably goes without saying but these days email spam filters are pretty intelligent. You want to avoid using spammy words as much as possible. A few years back this was much more important than it is now but you should still pay attention to which words you use.  Conversational style not spam - talk to your audience.

So there we have it 5 + 1 great tips to help you get your event marketing emails opened and not fall flat at the first hurdle.  So experiment, test, refine, improve and work out what subject lines have the most positive impact on your audience and your open rates.