Email remains one of the most effective channels for B2B healthcare marketing. However, you can craft a compelling message (or series of messages), and if they aren’t made carefully, your campaign can still fall flat if the open rate is too low.
Getting your audience to open your message begins with a strong subject line.
Marketers, especially those in the B2B space, have often followed a rigorous set of rules for writing subject lines. Keep them under a certain character count, never use emojis, create urgency, and avoid questions. You can probably think of a dozen plus rules like these.
Today, many of those rules are being challenged, and for good reason. Recent research analyzed 4.6 billion emails and revealed that audience expectations don’t always line up with all of these rules. Here’s what you need to know.
What’s Changing and Why
Many traditional email recommendations came from studies conducted years ago, before mobile devices and AI-powered campaigns. User behavior is evolving, too, which has changed how people process email.
Current research suggests what you probably already knew. There isn’t a perfect formula for every campaign. Instead, the performance of your subject lines depends on factors like:
- How familiar the audience is with your brand
- Industry
- Buying stage
- Email purpose and intent
- Sender reputation
- Timing
- Previous engagement
However, researchers did find that a few standing rules held up under scrutiny. For instance, shorter subject lines performed better than longer ones, which means sticking to character count caps makes sense in most scenarios.
The biggest variable at play is your audience and their intent. A hospital exec evaluating health software has very different expectations from a consumer shopping online.
Research Is a Guide, Not a Rulebook
One of the biggest takeaways from recent studies is that you can’t treat benchmarks like universal rules. If you dig into the research on email marketing campaigns, you may find results suggesting:
- Short subject lines perform better
- Longer subject lines increase open rates
- Questions improve engagement
- Questions reduce engagement
- Personalization works
- Personalization has little impact
All of these findings can be true (or false) depending on the audience and context. Healthcare organizations have highly specialized audiences with unique information needs. You need to apply these insights in the context of your industry and goals.
Focus on Value Instead of Tricks
Today’s users recognize clickbait quickly. Don’t rely on tricks that overpromise or try to create a false sense of urgency, as it can disappoint your audience and decrease trust in your brand. Instead, focus on communicating clear value and structuring your email subject lines accordingly.
Ask yourself:
- What problem does this email solve?
- Why should the audience care?
- Is the benefit immediately obvious?
- Does the subject line accurately represent the email?
Clear, relevant messaging will outperform vague curiosity for professional healthcare audiences.
Subject Line Examples for B2B Healthcare
Here are a few examples that you can fine-tune to suit your marketing goals:
- 3 healthcare marketing trends worth watching
- What healthcare marketers should know about AI search
- What hospital leaders are prioritizing this quarter
- New data on patient acquisition costs
- A better way to measure campaign performance
- How one health system improved patient engagement
- Join our webinar on healthcare growth strategies
Each subject line example is clear and direct. The audience knows what type of information lives within the email, which makes it easier to decide whether they want to open it or not.
Always Test With Your Audience
The most important takeaway from recent research is that you should build your strategy around your audience. Track metrics like:
- Open rates
- Click-through rates
- Conversion rates
- Unsubscribe rates
- Reply rates
- Downstream engagement
Run A/B tests on subject lines while keeping other elements of your emails consistent. That’s how you discover what phrasing and style resonate with your audience, and what doesn’t.
Don’t Forget the Bigger Picture
Even the strongest subject line can’t overcome weak email content or a lacking marketing strategy. To build better campaigns, you need the latest insights and a repeatable process for connecting with your audience.
Explore Brivio Health Insights for useful information that can help you make an impact and expand your reach in the B2B healthcare marketing space.
