Although email marketing is not as sexy or hip as social media is to get your message across to your audience, if this marketing tool is not in your tool box you have eliminated a critical component to overall marketing strategy. With open rates of less than 20 percent for most e-newsletters or announcements, some would say it is not worth the time to develop content, images and a catchy theme, but the team at Conveyance disagrees. Instead of concentrating heavily on riveting content, there are only three lines that matter in increasing your open rate. After all, an unread email is an extinct email.

Did you know that 65 percent of all emails are first opened on a mobile device, according to the US Consumer Device Preference Report? Are you optimizing your email blasts to be seen and hopefully opened on a mobile device? If not, this could be why you have been marked as spam and worse, sent to the trash folder without a second thought.

Most if not all mobile devices show the first three lines of an email by default. Go ahead; check your phone. You will see the subject line, the first line of content and the from line. These three lines will make or break your email but are usually the ones given the least amount of thought.

Statistics from Retention Science show that for your subject line, there should be between six to 10 words. With this limited space, you have to edit yourself like you would on Twitter. The subject line should contain Prevalent Words. Incorporate current movies, songs, events or books into the subject line to increase your open rate. Make sure you use expressive words to instantly connect with your audience. Make sure they know the benefit to opening this email. Finally, make it personal. Use fun punctuation, slang terms, and always use their recipient’s first name.

Last but certainly not least, send your email from a person. Not a company. Or a brand. People want to connect with a person not support@yourcompany.com. The experts at Retention Science sate that 35 percent of people open emails based on the subject line only. Take the time to give these three lines careful thought to ensure your audience actually can get to the riveting content contained inside or you have just wasted your time and theirs.