I know I’ve talked about this subject before, but it bears repeating. Your email newsletter competes for eyeballs from your readers. Unless you have a readership sitting at their computers waiting for just the right email from you, you have only a few seconds to get their attention before they hit the delete key.

Based on what I’ve been seeing in my email box, there are a lot of you who didn’t “get the memo” on this topic. During this month, I have received no less than ten email newsletters that have the subject:

July 2009 Newsletter

Yes, at least ten newsletters from different companies had that subject line. Not good. And worse than that, who cares? A boring title like that doesn’t entice me to open the mail and find out what you have to tell me.

Make the subject interesting so I want to open the mail and read what you have to say. Convio has a good post about what makes an email subject line successful. In a nutshell:

- Tell the reader what’s inside.
- Don’t use the same subject line for each issue.
- Don’t include your company name or date.

Always remember to look at your client / prospect communications from their perspective. If you do, it will help you spice things up a bit and get you more opens — which is one of the objectives in the first place.

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About the Author: Denise O’Berry is a small business expert who provides tools, tips and advice to help small business owners be successful. O’Berry is the author of “Small Business Cash Flow: Strategies for Making Your Business a Financial Success.” Her blog can be found at Just for Small Business.