Want people to read your newsletters? Work on your subject line

Chart of the Day: Why people aren't reading your emails but are still subscribed to them

The inbox of the average customer is a cluttered one. Every online store and brand they make a purchase from wants them to come back, meaning enticing offers, discounts, and sales are constantly being thrown at them. As a result, you may find the number of people receiving your e-newsletter and the number opening it are vastly different.

Yes Lifecycle Marketing polled 1,000 people who have made an online purchase in the last 12 months to learn what motivates consumers to engage with retailers. When asked why they may stay subscribed to emails that they don't read, most people (42%) said it was because they scan the subject lines in their inbox to see which emails they want to open.

Subject lines should be persuasive and summarise the contents of your email within a sentence. Having a compelling subject line that creates intrigue and encourages click-through is vital in order to win the inbox war with competitors also trying to gain your customer's attention.

Subject lines should stand out and offer relevant information your target segment is interested in. Depending on your database strategy and email communication ability, you should be sending targeted emails to different segments rather than a "batch and blast" strategy to everyone. getting your subject line to stand out means telling the consumer the value they get from opening your email.

Further into the report, 55% of respondents stated they ignore emails from retailers because they get too many of them. This matches findings from Adobe earlier this year that looked into what people thought were the most annoying aspects of branded emails.

• Source: Yes Lifecycle Marketing via marketing charts
• Sample size: 1000 consumers who've made a purchase within the last 12 months
• Recommended resource: Email Sequence Contact Strategy Guide