On the Horizon: Subject Line Designers?

Given the lift in message engagement that’s seen in nearly every channel when you add an image to a message, it’s exciting that we now have limited use of images in subject lines. As I discuss in Salesforce’s 100 Inspiring Subject Lines, special characters like stars and hearts started appearing in the subject lines of marketers’ emails in early 2012, and then emojis began appearing in subject lines last year.

Currently around 2% of B2C emails include a special character or an emoji. Over the next two years or so I expect their usage to slowly rise—perhaps settling in around the 4% mark—as marketers become more comfortable with these new subject line elements and become assured that they don’t negatively affect deliverability.

While not a blank canvas, there are hundreds and hundreds of special characters and emojis that are appropriate for marketing use. That gives you a wide range of expression.

Let’s look at the three ways that visual elements can be used in subject lines and see them in action in some real-life examples…

>> Read the entire post on the Salesforce blog