Titles, Subjects, and Headlines: Short Stories For Marketing
Successful marketing relies on awesome introductions: your business thrives on first impressions.
Subject lines and headlines need to be just as fantastic as the content they announce, to ensure readers actually bother checking out the email campaigns and blog articles you pour your heart and soul into writing. Once you take into consideration that titles and subjects should also be short, snappy, and SEO ready, you might start wondering how your efforts stack up.
Luckily, the Original Ginger team knows digital marketing inside out, and we want to share our expertise with you! Keep our list of subject power words and headline helper styles at hand to make sure that your content is grabbing (and keeping!) attention, right from the start.

What Effective Subjects and Headlines Do: The Six Word Story
When you create a stunning email campaign, or write an engaging blog article, what you are really doing is storytelling. No one wants to have a hard sales pitch shoved in their face, to try and slog through a dry 10,000 word piece, or to read all about how extra super great and amazing your brand is. Just like in face to face interactions, the most effective communication is a story with a focus on emotion that will engage you, a narrative that will pique your curiosity, or a topic that will resonate with you personally. Boring writing that is too long, borders on bragging, or is overly aggressive in sales tactics just won’t tell a good tale about your business.
Once you’ve written your ‘story,’ there’s still a chance it won’t even be read- which is why your email subject lines and article headlines need to be on point! Try boiling the essence of your piece down to about six effective words: between five and eight is the optimal sweet spot for subject and title length. Make sure you check the amount of characters too — anything between 60 to no more than 65 characters works best for SEO. There’s a lot of crossover when it comes to writing the best leading lines for emails and articles, so let’s go over them now.
Power Words For Email Excellence
What makes this list so darn powerful, you ask? We’ve chosen these hardworking words because they do double duty for your email subject lines: they’re captivating, emotional, and compelling, and they won’t trigger spam filters or firewalls by sounding like junk. Use them in your headlines too – break up the monotony of clichéd vocabulary and find new, more exciting ways to present your creative.
powerful
popular
enormous
useful
colossal
colorful
vibrant
attractive
mammoth
innovative
astonishing
revealing
sensational
remarkable
daring
informative
reliable
proven
unusual
quirky
Urgent Words
suddenly
exclusive
latest
just arrived
revisited
last chance
bonanza
quickly
last minute
back in stock
limited
available
expire
please
just
alert
essential
future
should
the truth about
Pricing Words
affordable
competitive
bargain unsurpassed
profitable
promotional
reduced
worthwhile
features
benefits
value
bundle
service
extra
inexpensive
luxurious
unlimited
blowout
break
bonus
Action Words
imagine
celebrate
spotlight
announcing
emerging
invited
enjoy
check out
hack
presenting
recommend
deserve
waiting
steal
upgrade
go
remember
tell
behind the scenes
seize
Emotional Words
delighted
flattered
love
passion
proud
bored
charmed
thrilled
confident
genuine
honest
insane
witty
inspire
creative
responsible
cheerful
intelligent
surprise
Special Styles as Headline Helpers
Once you’ve got your story written and the best words to describe it, consider using one of these proven headline types to pull everything together.
Use Numbers for Impact
Numbers visually stand out from lines of text, quantify value, and as an added bonus, will help keep your character count down.
[#] ____________ You Need To ___________Example: 20 Free Stock Images You Need To Download to Spice Up Your Blog [#] ___________ That Will _____________ You
Example: 5 Powerful Words That Will Inspire You [#] ____________ _____________ To Try Right Now
Get ____________ With [#] _____________
Offer Advice or Reasons Why
People respond well when they can immediately understand how reading your creative will directly help them.
How To Create ______ That Gets _______
[#] Foolproof Tips For __________Why _______ Will Help You _________
What To Do With _________
Ask a Question
Nothing engages a reader like a question that they feel compelled to discover the answer to, or that they feel seeks their opinion.
Can ________ Make Your _______?
Your ________ Is _________: Now What?
Will Your ________ Be _________?
Do You Think ______ Is The New ______?
Try a Little Mystery
Readers will be fascinated if you give just enough detail to whet their appetite, without being too vague or click-baity.
[#] Secrets Of ________The Strange Ways Your _______ Is ______
[#] Things Your _______ Doesn’t Tell YouAre You Making This _______ Mistake?
Create Some Scarcity
We are inherently worried that we will miss out on… something. A sense of urgency (without being too pushy) is a great way to engage your readers.
Last Chance To _______ Before ________
[#] _________ To Try Right NowYour _______ Will ________, Today Only
These [#] ________ Will Expire Tonight
Try mixing and matching some powerful words into our clever headline styles to create super effective titles and subjects for your digital marketing. By leveraging unexpected vocabulary and some helpful headline starters, you’ll have no trouble perfecting your articles and increasing your open rates.
You may find it helpful to use a tool like BuzzSomo to research the topic(s) you want to write about. This tool provides insights on similar topics trending on the internet and their engagement across various social media platforms. It’s a great way to find out what your competition is doing and how successful they are at doing it. At the very least, it can provide some inspiration when crafting your headlines, whether it be for a blog post or an email campaign.
If you still need some pointers, or would rather focus on running your business without stressing over marketing, Original Ginger can help you discover and share your brand’s story with the world. Give us a call at 778.298.1966 or Toll Free at 1.855.298.8650. You can also contact us by completing our online form.