Hey, it's Chase and Jimmy here.

You can design the perfect email, write killer copy, and offer the best deal of the season...

but if your subject line flops, none of it matters.

The subject line is your foot in the door. It’s what decides whether your email gets opened, ignored, or sent straight to the abyss.

In today’s guide, we’re breaking down 8 subject line tips to help you stop the scroll and earn the click—from personalization and curiosity to tone, timing, and emoji etiquette.

Because if your email doesn’t get opened, it never gets the chance to sell.

Also inside:

✔️ How Lenny & Larry’s 11X Amazon Sales
✔️ Make your Halloween emails the ones people actually open
✔️ Quick Clips: This week's top eCom stories

👉 Let’s dive in.

How Lenny & Larry’s 11X Amazon Sales

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8 Subject Line Tips to Make Your Emails Impossible to Ignore

The subject line is your foot in the door.

If it’s not intriguing enough, your beautiful email might never get opened.

Luckily, writing a subject line that works is easier than it looks.

Here are 8 tips to get more eyes (and clicks) on your emails.

1. Make it feel personal

Personalization starts way before your actual email copy. Your subject lines can attract more attention if they’re tailored to each individual subscriber.

So, how do you personalize subject lines? Adding a customer’s name is a start, but the real lift comes when subject lines connect to customer behavior or interests.

Here are some examples:

• Abandoned cart email → “Still looking at that leather tote?”

• Re-engagement email → “Linda, your cookie jar is ready for a refill”

• Review request email → “Hey Alex, did you like your new mattress?”

Personalization works because it shows the email isn’t random. It ties the message directly to something the customer already cares about.

2. Keep it short

Most people check email on their phones. If your subject line runs long, it risks getting cut off. This can water down your message or make it look weird.

Aim for 5–7 words. That’s the sweet spot where clarity meets curiosity.

Here’s how to tighten things up:

• “Enjoy free shipping before it’s gone tonight” → “Free shipping ends tonight”

• “Start your day with this new morning routine” → “Meet your new morning routine”

• “This customer favorite is finally back! Don’t miss it” → “Back in stock 👀 Don’t miss out”

  

If you’re worried about losing context, use preview text to add more explanation or detail.

3. Lead with curiosity (and deliver on it)

The human brain hates an “open loop.” If you hint at something without telling the full story, people feel compelled to click. That’s the curiosity gap in action.

Here are some subject lines that build curiosity:

• “A surprise we saved just for you…”

• “You’re gonna want to see this”

• “Guess what’s back on the shelf?”

  

⚠️ The catch: never bait-and-switch. If you tease something, deliver it. Otherwise, you break trust, and people stop opening altogether.

4. Create urgency only when it’s true

Urgency and scarcity push people to act. But if you shout “LIMITED TIME!!” every other email, customers stop believing you.

Instead, be specific and honest:

• “Your 15% code expires in 3 hours”

• “Only 9 left, ships today”

• “Doors close at midnight tonight”

  

Urgency should sound like a favor, not a threat. You want to help them decide quickly.

5. Speak to problems, not products

Your customers aren’t sitting around waiting for a product pitch. They are sitting around annoyed by real problems like dry skin, messy kitchens, or cluttered closets. Subject lines that speak to those pain points instantly grab attention.

Here are some examples:

• “Still tossing and turning every night?”

• “Your razor burn fix is here”

• “No more ‘out of stock’ panic”

  

Pro Tip: Frame your preview text as the solution. The subject line calls out the problem, while the preview shows there’s hope.

6. Stand out in a sea of inbox robots

Your subject line is competing against dozens of other messages. Write in a natural, human voice to make yours stand out.

Here are some examples of conversational subject lines:

• “Hey, you forgot something”

• “Not another boring sale email”

• “Miss us? We’ve been busy 👋”

  

When you write like this, you sound different. It’s giving less ‘promotional’ and more ‘note from someone you know’.

7. Sprinkle emojis with purpose

Think of emojis as seasoning. Too much ruins the dish, just enough makes it better. One emoji can add context or emotion to a subject line.

Some examples:

• “Cozy season is here 🧣”

• “Your glow-up starts today ✨”

• “Holiday gift guide 🎁 just dropped”

Where brands go wrong: Stuffing in five emojis just to grab attention. Let the emoji support the message, not replace it.

8. Use AI to speed up brainstorming

Writing subject lines at scale is tough. That’s where AI comes in handy. It can draft dozens of options in seconds. But the key is to use it to amplify your creativity, not replace your voice.

For example, you could:

• Feed AI your past winning subject lines and ask for variations

• Give it a product name and ask for curiosity-based lines

• Test AI vs. human copy and see what your audience prefers

Remember: Your customers don’t care if the line came from you or a bot. They care if it means something to them or makes them click.

Wrapping it up

Getting the subject line right is half the battle. The rest is testing, tweaking, and learning what your audience responds to.

Here’s what to keep in mind:

✅ Make it personal and relevant. Use behavior, preferences, and timing to show you’re paying attention.

✅ Clarity beats cleverness. A short, direct line that makes sense will always beat a cute one that doesn’t land.

✅ Curiosity and urgency work best when they’re real. Tease something worth clicking or give a reason to act fast, then follow through.

✅ Test everything. One word, one emoji, one tweak can change how your audience reacts. Keep experimenting.

Strong subject lines meet people where they are and give them a reason to click.

👻 Make your Halloween emails the ones people actually open

If your Halloween emails are dying in the inbox graveyard, this is your revival spell.

Omnisend just released 101 Halloween subject lines that convert, with examples from brands that turned spooky season into serious sales.

Inside the guide:

• 101 tested subject lines you can plug and play

• Copywriting tips for tone, urgency, and exclusivity

• Free tools to test your open rate before launch

🗞️ Quick Clips:

• Amazon’s peak season checklist for sellers: At Amazon Accelerate, FBA leaders urged sellers to ship early, plan buffer inventory, and route to central or eastern regions to avoid West Coast congestion. Critical inbound deadlines for BFCM range from Oct. 9–30.

• Grind x Surreal launch tiramisu protein cereal: Coffee brand Grind and cereal disruptor Surreal teamed up for a high-protein, low-sugar cereal that tastes like dessert. Available online and at select UK retailers like Whole Foods and Selfridges.

• JiMMYBAR! launches creatine fudge protein bar: The new bar delivers 20g protein and 5g creatine in a grab-and-go format (no powders, no chalky taste). Already dubbed the #1 creatine bar in America.

• Lululemon founder blasts brand’s creative decline: In a full-page WSJ ad, Chip Wilson slammed Lululemon’s board for “GAP-ivizing” the brand by prioritizing short-term growth over creativity, product, and entrepreneurial risk-taking.

• 36 predictions for social media in 2026: From Threads surpassing X to AI-generated avatars on TikTok, Andrew Hutchinson outlines what’s next for Meta, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, and more. Expect AI integration, live shopping, and platform fragmentation to accelerate.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with Chase and me. Always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

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