Nobody wants to be treated like a number and your subscribers are no exception. If you want to make your potential customers feel valued, personalizing your email campaigns is the key. 

Whether you’re selling a $25 shirt or a $5000 premium leather bag, you have to make your customers feel appreciated for every dollar they spend on your store.

Personalizing your subject lines with details that are relevant to each subscriber helps your emails stand out in their inboxes.

To help you with that, I’m going to share six personalized subject line best practices that will invite your subscribers to open your email.

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Table of Contents

1. Use the Subscriber’s First Name

2. Celebrate Their Birthday

3. Send Relevant Promotions

4. Keep a Friendly Tone

5. Use Nicknames

6. Localize Your Subject Lines

1. Use the Subscriber’s First Name

Adding the recipient’s name to your email’s subject line is a proven method to increase your open rate.

According to a report by Campaign Monitor, email subject line personalization can increase your open rates by 26 percent.

Source: Campaign Monitor

I know I’d be curious if I see an email with a subject line that mentions my name. 

Here are two opposite examples of subject lines trying to create a sense of urgency by offering limited-time deals. 

Take this example by Tuft & Needle first:

Next, check out this email by Torrid with a personalized subject line:

Which one of the emails would you feel more inclined to open? Surely, the one that addresses you personally.

While both subject lines are doing one thing right by leveraging fear of missing out (FOMO) while promoting their deals, only Torrid gets the personalization part right. Tuft & Needle’s subject line sounds too generic and impersonal in comparison.

With the number of advanced email marketing tools available on the market today, it’s a matter of seconds to personalize your subject lines with the recipient’s first name.

2. Celebrate Their Birthday

“I don’t like birthday surprises,” said no one ever.

According to Experian, birthday emails have a 481 percent higher transaction rate, make 342 percent more revenue per email, and achieve 179 percent higher click rates compared to regular emails. 

Rent the Runway, an online business that provides designer dresses and accessories for rent know this well. That’s why the company sends special surprises on its subscribers’ birthdays. 

Their subject line reads: “Happy Birthday, [Name] Surprise Inside.”

Source: Shane Barker

The combination of the recipient’s first name and the promise of a birthday gift is an excellent way to catch your subscribers’ attention. The word “surprise” also evokes curiosity and makes you want to open the email.

If you want to use a similar strategy, you can offer subscribers a free gift or a small discount on your products for a day.

Here’s another example from J. Crew Factory with the subject line “Happy Birthday, [Name]! Here’s a gift.” 

Source: Emma

There are few people who can resist the temptation to open an email with a subject line like that. 

If you’re offering special discounts or offers for your customer’s birthday, similar to the examples above, make sure to mention it in your subject line.

3. Send Relevant Promotions

Let’s be honest: Your subscribers don’t really care about what you sell—they’re interested in solving their problems. Therefore, your emails should focus on the subscriber’s interests and how your products can contribute to their lives. 

Knowing your demographics is the number one step for this. For example, if you promote winter coats to subscribers living in an area with peak summers, you risk losing the subscriber for good.

Make sure to analyze your customers’ transaction history, location, and age group, and only send promotions that can be relevant to them.

Zalando does this the best in its personalized subject lines:

Rather than promoting new arrivals from different brands, the company highlights products from one brand that the subscriber previously bought from.

Since the subscriber is already familiar with the brand mentioned in the subject line, they’re more likely to open and click through Zalando’s email.

If you’re sending abandoned cart emails or wishlist reminders, make sure to use personalization in your subject lines too.

4. Keep a Friendly Tone

With a personal, heartfelt subject line, your emails have a better chance to stand out amid countless corporate emails that your customers probably receive.

After all, a friendly reminder email sent from a real person rather than a faceless corporate brand will resonate better with your subscribers.

To craft a friendly subject line, make sure to speak in a familiar tone with your audience and talk about something you know your audience is searching for. 

Here are a few friendly subject line examples: 

• “Hi [Name], I think you’ll like it”
• “Uh-oh, your prescription is expiring”
• “[Name], check out these hand-picked coats”
• “Hi [Name], I’ve got some great news about [Relevant Product]”

5. Use Nicknames

While using your customer’s first name in the subject line is a must-have, you can go the extra mile with this best practice.

You have to try something more unique and engaging if you actually want to stand out from the crowd. And what more can you do to appear more familiar, engaging, and unique? Try addressing them by nicknames. 

By nicknames, I don’t mean terms like pal, bud, champ.

Think: Georgy for George. Kathy for Kate. Ives for Ivor. 

Here’s how Chubbies does it: 

In this email they send to Rikke, Chubbies uses not just one, but two nicknames. This is as personalized as your subject lines can get.

Once you successfully evoke this sense of familiarity, your subscribers will trust you more easily. If nothing else, it will compel them to open your email. 

6. Localize Your Subject Lines

Brands send out millions of email campaigns globally, hoping to tap into broader global markets. But don’t expect to create your campaign in English alone for your audience and find success overnight.

Translating your subject lines into local languages is only the first step. You should make sure to include other local elements like events, themes, and seasonality in your subject lines.

Take Zara’s email campaigns, for instance. 

Although the company normally sends out promotional emails in English, they choose to translate this subject line to Danish because it’s about a sale that’s happening on the Danish online store, plus the local physical stores around me.

Even if your subscribers understand English, walk the extra mile to cater to them by translating your subject line into their local language. It shows that you value all your customers across different countries and regions. 

Look at your data and your target markets, and then proceed with localization.

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We’ve put together 11 email marketing resources to help you make more from your campaigns.

Whether you’re looking for good email examples or evergreen email subject lines, we’ve got something for you.

You’ll also get immediate access to 24+ other bonus resources, categorized in Notion for your convenience.

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Conclusion 

You can create the best email marketing campaign in the world and offer crazy discounts. But none of it matters if your subscribers don’t even open the email in the first place. 

In other words, your subject line can make or break your campaign.

The way to make your subject lines appear interesting, eye-catching, and relevant is by personalizing them as much as you can. 

Show your wit, your friendly side, sense of humor, and personality.