Email Marketing for Funeral Homes 1: Writing Subject Lines That Work

We’ve said it before: Email marketing can spawn mad ROI. It’s 122 percent or more on average, depending on which study you look at.

Yet many clients come to us because they’re not getting this type of return on their funeral home email marketing investment. That’s because many deathcare firms aren’t following the right best practices when it comes to email marketing.

In this four-part blog series, we cover some of those best practices to help you get more out of your email marketing efforts. And the first step to great email marketing is high-quality subject lines.

Five Tips for Writing Email Subject Lines That Work

1. Keep them short. Half or more of your subscribers check emails on mobile devices, and there’s not room for unwieldy subject lines on smaller screens. Plus, most people simply don’t have time for that. Keep it short and punchy when possible.
2. Create time sensitivity. Add a deadline or words that create time urgency to help ensure people open and read your email when they receive them. Words such as soon, today, this week, or limited can create urgency.
3. Don’t add special characters or too much punctuation. “Preplan your final arrangements today!!!!! Save $$$ and get peace of mind!!!!” This may be a legitimate message, but the format makes it look spammy. That can increase the chance people pass it over or that email filters toss it into the spam box.
4. Use personalization. People’s attention is captured by their own name. Use email software to add their names into the subject line occasionally.
5. Provide instruction. Use subject lines as a CTA. “Find out how to save on final arrangements by opening this email…”

This list is far from comprehensive, but it gives you some great places to start in sprucing up those funeral home email marketing subject lines. Come back next week for some advice about the body of your email.