Truncation Traps: 3 More Subject Line Lessons

Author:

Mark Brownlow

Source:

A recent post suggested space limitations in email and webmail interfaces might leave your subject line looking a little odd.
 
But this isn’t just about your subject line causing a wry smile or a little embarrassment when a word gets cut off in an inconvenient place. There’s more to it than that.
 
Here are three more “subject line traps” spotted in real emails.
 
1. Subject lines may end up shorter than you think Typical subject line advice talks about keeping subject lines under 50 characters. It’s not really total length that’s important, but what you put at the front.
 
You’re probably familiar with the idea of frontloading, where the words likely to have the biggest impact on response are put as close to the start of your subject line as possible.
 
Our typical 50 character threshold for these hotwords may not be enough, though. My Yahoo! Mail inbox, for example, has just 27 characters displayed.
 
A little laxity can see frontloading defeated...
 
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