Sell Like Crazy

Subject Line Length
Most email subject lines are between 41 and 50 characters. This is what I
call the ‘death zone’. Why? Because everything average is wrong, and
research shows this is the least effective character length for email subject
lines. These subject lines are often crafted by ‘email marketers’ who are
trying to cram as much info into 50 characters as possible.
According to data from Return Path, 65 characters seems to be a sweet spot
for email subject lines, which is about 15 characters more than the average
subject line. When subject lines are 61-70 characters long, they tend to get
read. However, I’ve personally found the best success from selling millions
through email, is that wherever possible, short and personal get the best
results.
For subject lines, from 1 to 20 characters is where the magic happens.
My own findings are backed up by recent research from Yes Lifecycle
Marketing. Their research also concluded that emails with shorter subject
lines tend to get significantly higher open rates and click rates.
The report was based on data from more than seven billion emails sent in
the second quarter of 2017 by Yes Lifecycle Marketing clients in a wide
range of industries.
They too found that emails with subject lines between 1 and 20 characters
in length have the highest average open rate (18.5%), unique click rate
(2.4%), and click-to-open rate (12.9%).
Compared with medium-length subject lines (21-60 characters), longer
subject lines (61+ characters) have slightly higher average open rates,
unique click rates, and click-to-open rates.

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In summary: Test short and sweet subject lines against super long subject
lines and see where you have the most success. But whatever you do, don’t
get caught up in between, in the death zone.