One of the most important keys to the success of a marketing sales letter is a powerful, eye grabbing headline.

With email marketing, you have to go one step back and first create a snappy subject line in order to get your email opened.

That should be the only purpose of your subject line -- to get the email opened.

Internet users receive tons of email messages everyday not to mention all the spam in their inbox and it is up to you to create a subject line that commands their attention so that they do not scroll past your message.

With so much spam on the Internet, you should concentrate on making your emails *not* look like spam. Don't make outrageous claims or try to sell from your subject line.

The key is to make your email stand out from the rest.

One of the most powerful techniques to use is personalization. Everybody loves to see their name written out, so it commands their attention when they see it.

But putting the person's name in the subject line is still not enough to guarantee that they open you email.

One of the most powerful marketing strategies is stimulating curiousity in your reader. Curiousity is like an itch that cannot be satisfied until it is itched.

Creating a subject line with curiousity will dramatically improve the rate at which people open your email messages.

Why?

If you make them curious enough about the content of the email, they will want to open it and start reading it right away.

Here is an example of a lousy subject line:

"Hi, don't buy a new car until you get a reasonable auto insurance quote."

Here is an example of a great subject line:

"Hey Jake, don't make this mistake when you start looking for a new car."

Which would you open first?

People would open up the second email over the first because they will be curious to know what the mistake is and benefit from the information.

Some email mailing providers allow you to split-test emails to your list. You could easily test which subject line has a higher click-thru rate.

This is especially important if you have a number of emails in a follow up sequence on an autoresponder. You want to make sure you have the *best* subject lines for each email.

Another method is to send emails to yourself and see what subject line grabs your attention. It is much different to receive and see subject lines in your inbox compared to writing them.

Remember that in email marketing, the subject line is the first step to the entire sales funnel. If you get this step wrong, it doesn't matter how well the rest of your system is because your prospect will get a chance to go through it.

Gauher Chaudhry is editor of Cool Cash Multimedia Ezine, which reveals new strategies and tactics for making large profits on the Internet. His ezine is free to join - Free Marketing Tips