Is it good to use first names in the subject line of your solo ad?
The subject line of a solo ad is extremely important.
That is the first point where you risk to lose the reader’s attention. If what’s there is not attractive, the reader may not even open your solo ad and simply delete it.
Now here are two important technical features of any email software: the subject line has a limited lenght and its part that is visible without actually opening the email is in many cases (depends on the email software) not equal with the total lenght of the subject line.
This means that a long subject line will not be seen entirely without opening the email. If the visible part doesn’t have any meaning (because it may be only a part of the whole subject line) or the attractive point of the subject line is not visible, that’s it, the email may be deleted.
First conclusion? Don’t write very long subject lines and be sure to include the attractive point at the very beginning of the subject line.
Now let’s look at the question from the title of this article. If you use the first name of the reader in the subject line, then you use it at the very beginning of the subject line, right?
Like this:
John, do you know what’s happens when you use the first name in the subject line?
By using the first name of the reader in the subject line … you only diminish the visible part where you can get the reader’s attention. That’s not good. Readers are no longer attracted when they see the first name in the subject line. It has to be something more attractive there to make them read the email.
Some ezine publishers still use the first name of their readers in the subject line but … I hate to see how many times they use a wrong code and instead of my first name, I see in the subject line something like FNAME or FIRSTNAME. When I see that someone
is calling me FNAME, that email suddenly becomes not important for me and I delete it.
You don’t want this to happen to your own solo ad, do you?
For these reasons, I highly recommend you to NEVER use first names in the subject lines of your solo ads.
