Not a big fan of using questions as email subject lines.
But there is one kind of subject line question that makes me want to torture my Swedish second cousin’s hamsters.
Before I get to that, I get why questions are an easy go-to.
A question brings clarity to the what to expect in the email.
The email answers this question.
So, what’s the big deal?
I will demonstrate the big deal:
Here is the (mocking) inner dialogue of an email writer who is a splits expert.
“I just wrote an email about how to do the splits. Hmm, what should my email title be....’Are the Splits Really Possible?’ Perfect! Send.”
Seems like a good idea, right?
It’s clear.
I know what I am going to get when I open the email.
Something that makes me believe that EVEN I can do the splits.
But if you signed up to his email list to learn the splits, have even bought his training, and then see this email… it is doing something else?
It makes me want to torture my uncle’s God daughter’s baby chicks.
Why?
It is so patronizing, that it not only deserves not to be clicked, but I want to boycott opening all future emails because this extremely groin-flexibe expert thinks I am an idiot.
One more.
A classic “favorite” is one that Christian apologists do all the time in their subject lines. Something like this:
“Does God Really Exist?”
DAaaaoorrrffff!
It hurts to even try to explain my petty yet passionate hatred of this.
Mrs. Apologist, you have a list of 99.99% Christians. Do you think that any of us are honestly asking this question? Do you think that WE think you are asking this honestly? Do you know how many baby animals are going to be water-boarded because we cannot bare to take this subject line seriously?
“Ok. Ok. We get your point, Blair. What should we do instead?”
Glad I asked for you.
I created a little comic strip a while back that answers this.
Check it out:
https://www.outofthinblair.com/p/how-to-bark-like-a-dog-4
Blair
P.S. I am a big fan of apologetics.