You can make life just that little bit easier for the recipients of your email by ensuring that you use a meaningful subject line. This really can make a difference, especially if your recipient gets a lot of email. Good subject lines are especially significant when sending messages to email discussion groups and support staff but are important for personal email as well.
If you are sending an email to ask for help or make an enquiry, a well-chosen subject line can make it more likely that you will receive a timely response. A concise and meaningful subject line lets the recipient know immediately what the email is about. In an overloaded inbox, good subject lines can help the recipient process email more efficiently. Ultimately, an email with a decent subject line may well be opened and answered ahead of one that has a subject line that is meaningless, generic, or worst of all, non-existent.
Another bad habit that should be avoided is “hijacking” existing subjects. Unfortunately, people often start an entirely unrelated topic by replying to a previous email but neglect to change the subject line accordingly. If you wish to discuss a new and unrelated topic it is best to start a new email.
Using good subject lines can increase the effectiveness of your message as well as make you appear more professional.
