Email may not be the #1 platform you think of, when marketing to Gen Z. You likely think of TikTok first, then Instagram or Snapchat, and that’s fair. All of those individual platforms are used by over a third of the Gen Z population. 

When it comes to shopping, however, email is still critical when selling to them. In fact, 63% of Gen Z consumers made a purchase as a direct result of an email over the last 30 days. Additionally, 57% say they prefer to hear from brands via email.

With $360 billion to spend in the U.S. alone, and despite their silly sounding slang and passion for fashion that older generations would rather forget, Gen Z is no group of consumers to scoff at. Crafting very targeted copy with the assistance of AI will result in the best email subjects for connecting with them.

Join us at 11 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday May 28 to learn how. Our webinar titled Rizz It Up for Gen Z: Email Marketing to a New Generation will provide a deep dive into their shopping habits, then offer actionable insights into crafting email content that gets them to click through and convert. 

Sign up here and check out a preview below of what we’ll explore throughout the session.

The Best Email Subjects Are Built With Selective Syntax

In the context of email marketing subject lines, syntax refers to the structure, format, and arrangement of words and characters used to convey a message. 

As with any generation, when targeting Gen Z consumers via email, understanding their communication preferences and cultural nuances is crucial. However, this generation has very unique—and honestly, quite different—ways of communicating. This is due to their increased exposure to a variety of cultures and dialects, paired with shorter-than-ever trend cycles, as a result of consistent Internet use.

In our webinar, we’ll cover how this impacts the very structure of phrases and sentences that Gen Z resonates with. We’ll dive into their subject line preferences for:

• Preferred character and word counts 
• Sentence case vs. ALL CAPS
• Slang words, terms, and phrases
• Which emojis to combine with which words

We’ll also go through other preferences that result in effective email subject lines for all other generations, in case Zoomers aren’t quite your target audience. 

Emotional Examples of Email Subjects for Gen Z

While Gen Z is definitely up for some fun, they experience their fair share of challenges too. They’re the loneliest generation, with 73% reporting that they feel alone sometimes or always, and 43% reporting that they feel burned out. They’re generally very empathetic as well, resulting in a varied group of people who have one big thing in common—they resonate with emotionally-fueled content.

In our own research, we see that Gen Z is the generation most impacted by subject lines that contain emotional sentiments within them.  

In the webinar, we’ll explore this further. We’ll take a look at the full spectrum of emotions and zero-in on which ones resonate most with all generations. We’ll explore how using a combination of AI and natural language processing can better help you send emotionally impactful, and highly effective email subject lines to your subscribers.

How To Build Authentic, Branded Email Content

Lastly, we’ll explore the right slang words to use, the right emojis to include, and the very careful balance brands need to strike, in order to come across as authentic and appealing. Authenticity is key to Gen Z, and they can suss out when retailers are faking it, well, instantly.

In the last section of our webinar, we’ll dive into how AI helps people be more authentic, creative, and human-focused communicators, no matter which generation they’re communicating with. 

We’ll discuss:

• How to avoid the “over-optimized” generative AI trap that squashes authenticity
• How Gen Z-beloved brands are optimizing their outputs to send the most effective email subject lines
• A competitive creative analysis of brands across the beauty industry, with a focus on what content works and what doesn’t
• How you can use Backstroke’s email subject line generator to craft the very best email subjects for your specific campaigns

If you like what you see—and you’ve read this far—you can sign up for our webinar here.

Join us at 11 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday May 28 to see how AI will help you become a true rizz whiz.