It’s no secret that I am always looking for email subject lines that are clever and compelling. Why are subject lines so important?

If they’re not opening your email, you’re not delivering your content.

Well, Fountain Bookstore owner Kelly Justice stopped me mid-sentence today. No kidding. I was in the middle of a conversation and left three people staring at me while I stopped everything to open the email I’d just received from Kelly. This was the subject line:

Kevin. Kevin. Kevin. Kevin. Kevin.

Then I made those three wait even longer while I opened the email to read this note from Kelly:

So…I’ve got a problem.

No matter who I’m talking to, no matter how often I repeat it, I keep calling our feature author for Tuesday’s event Brian.

His name is Kevin.

I am certain I am going to do this in his introduction.  

My brother’s name is Kevin. (Yo, Bro!) You’d think I could remember this guy’s name, but you can ask my staff, my sales reps, his fans that have called…for whatever reason, I can’t get “Brian” out of my head or stop it from coming out of my mouth. This is not normally an issue with me. But for whatever reason, I can’t seem to shake it. So if you see me around the store for the next few days muttering “kevin, kevin, kevin, kevin, kevin” under my breath, just ignore me.

There are several reasons I love this. One, it was a great stop-in-your-tracks subject line. I had to open it immediately to find out more. Two, the message was personal. Kelly felt comfortable enough to share her ‘problem’ with me. Three, she tied her message to an event in the store. Even though I will not be near Richmond on Tuesday, I still wanted to learn more about Kevin and his upcoming event.

Even though I already mentioned it once, it bears repeating. Why are subject lines important? If they’re not opening, you’re not delivering.