The 7 Best Email Subject Line Categories Every Nonprofit Should Be Using

How to Make Your Subscribers Itch to Read Every One of Your Emails

Getting opened and read is not about email subject lines. It’s about email subject line categories.

In the never-ending quest to get your emails opened, you need a diverse blend of ideas for email subject lines you can count on.

Thinking in terms of categories allows you to alter your subject lines so you’re not doing the same thing all the time. No single type of subject line is best, because if you use the same type all the time, your audience will start skipping over them.

For instance, if every email you send has a subject line like “Elsa’s story will break your heart”, after a while your audience will get numb to the repetition. Even though that’s a very good subject line on its own.

So whatever you do – you MUST vary your subject line varieties.

There are dozens of email subject line categories we could explore, but today I want to highlight seven of the ones I’ve found to be very effective. Some of these work exceptionally well for nonprofit fundraising, but most of them work in any industry.

7 Subject Line Types for Consistently Strong Open Rates

1. Can You Believe This Really Happened? (Curiosity)

This is possibly the most powerful email subject line category. It’s like writing half an equation. You’re digging a hole, but not filling it back up yet. You’re offering something in your hand, but they have to take it.

These kinds of subjects beg to be opened because of our human need for closure. There’s something unsettling about not knowing.

And probably the easiest word to arouse curiosity in a subject line is ‘this.’ Because whatever ‘this’ is, that’s the thing that makes us click to satisfy our curiosity.

Examples of curiosity email subject lines:

• Have you ever seen anything like this?
• Something to show your kids
• This is what she said when her abuser got arrested

2. Get ‘Em While They’re Hot (Specific Offer)

Depending on the goal of your email, sometimes you are making a very specific offer. If that offer is compelling enough to make people want to learn more, put it in the email subject line.

Other times, especially with surveys, making a specific offer will motivate readers to take the action you want them to take.

The risk with putting your offer in the subject line is that it kind of lets the cat out of the bag. You’re showing all your cards by making it clear what the email is about. In effect, you’re putting your call to action in the subject line. So, if they don’t want what you’re offering, they won’t open it.

But that’s not always a bad thing, because if your goal is conversions, and if what you’re offering is appealing to a lot of your people, being clear about it up front will make some of them click on it. If you get fewer opens, but more conversions, you’ve still won.

Examples of specific offer email subject lines:

• Get 20% off auction tickets, this week only
• Win a prize by answering these 6 questions

3. Hey You! With the One Red Shoe (Personalization / Segment Callout)

If you’re not segmenting your email list, you are missing out on beastly open rates.

I’ve sent out numerous segmented emails using this method that have gotten open rates over 60% and 70%. You’ll never get rates that high sending to a general list. (see screenshot for proof)

The reason this works is because the email clearly identifies itself as being TO THEM. It’s not for everyone. It’s for me, because I’m in a special group. A segmented email subject line is relevant to the person who receives it. Relevance is critical, especially online.

Similar to segmented callouts are personalized emails. The simple way nonprofits and businesses do this is to include the person’s name in the subject line. This works extremely well in autoresponders, because the person just gave you their name, so using it in the subject makes you stand out.

But that technique is starting to lose effectiveness, because people have seen it enough. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still do it, but sometimes you can personalize better than that.

For instance, if you have good data, you might know the cities people live in, and could put out an email that appears to be only for people from that city.

If you have good donation data, refer to the amount someone gave last year in the subject line. That will get their attention, because it shows you know them personally and appreciate what they’ve done for you.

Examples of personalized and segmented email subject lines:

• [name], because you gave on Giving Tuesday last year…
• Special note only for our 3-year subscribers
• To all P2P ambassadors

4. Email Subject Lines and Kangaroos (Contrasting or Unrelated Ideas)

This plays off the curiosity idea (why that was listed first – it’s the single best emotion to trigger for high open rates).

What do email subject lines have to do with kangaroos? Nothing! So when you see these next to each other, you have to be curious what they could possibly have in common. The key is to find two elements that play a big role in whatever you’re writing about, and put those in the subject line.

Examples of contrasting or unrelated ideas in email subject lines:

• Chickens and semi-automatic weapons
• Old growth forests and Austin Powers

By the way, using pop culture references that most people recognize is also a good way to get open rates up. And using those references in creative ways like this doubles the impact.

5. Hurry Up and Jump Before the Bridge Collapses! (Urgency)

Urgency is best used when there’s a deadline approaching. But it only works if you’ve prepared your list to respond to it. This is important – here’s what NOT to do.

Don’t announce a deadline, send no emails for two months, and then send an “urgent” email two days before the deadline. It will fall flat, because your readers will be thinking, “What deadline?”

For deadlines to work, people have to know about them, and be aware of them constantly as they’re approaching. Many nonprofits (and businesses) send too few emails.

How many emails should you be sending? Find out here

But if you’ve properly prepared your list, urgency is very powerful. Just like the Principle of Momentum, which states that the closer you get to completing your goal, the more people will give to help you reach it.

So use these urgency appeals in your subject lines at the right time, and you will get more than just open rates that please you. You’ll get actions and conversions.

Examples of urgency email subject lines:

• 3 days left before ticket prices double
• We’re just $7265 short of the goal
• Last chance to reserve your spot!

6. Stop Being a Flibberdagibbit (Unusual Words)

If you never saw Meg Ryan play three different people in the vastly underrated Joe Verses the Volcano with Tom Hanks, you’re missing out. It’s by far her best film performance. That’s where I got the word flibberdagibbit and attempted to spell it. (Note: if the creator of this photo has a copyright issue with me using it, just ask and I will remove it).

I bring this up because every nonprofit and business has certain words they can use in emails that are unusual, and that most others wouldn’t even think of using.

I don’t have examples of this, because it really depends on what your organization does. This is beyond your general mission, or your big campaign goals. You’ll find these kinds of words in the minutia. In the details of someone’s story. In something from history that most people don’t know about.

And when you find yourself using unusual words in an email, put that word in your subject line. People will click on it. Why? Because that word makes them curious…

7. Whatever Dude (Being ‘Real’)

Expert marketers figured out a while back that one of the all-time greatest subject lines was the two-word phrase “quick question.”

Why? Because that’s the kind of subject someone you know would send you. Being “real” in email subject lines is about coming up with dry, boring, vague phrases that would be something a real person writing a note to another person would use.

To develop these, think about the subject lines you use when you write to coworkers on email. Or to family members or friends.

‘Real’ email subject lines will usually be very short, and will appear to be about just one thing.

The important thing is – don’t abuse this. If you say something like “quick question,” but in your email there’s no easy question and the email is 300 words long, now you’re breaking trust with your reader, and they feel manipulated. Do that one too many times, and they’ll dump you forever (and for good reason).

Examples of ‘Being Real’ email subject lines:

• need your opinion
• Thursday
• our meeting
• 2pm

Another note on these – notice the lack of capitalization. This informal way of writing is reflective of how people write subject lines to each other. You might consider using it if you try this type of email subject line.

The One Email Subject Line to Never Use

I feel compelled to say it, only because so many still do this.

Don’t say “June newsletter” for your subject line. Is that exciting, interesting, compelling, or curious? No. It’s boring, bureaucratic, and feels like a chore. Just because you call it a newsletter internally doesn’t mean your readers want to receive it that way.

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