I receive a lot of promotional emails. Not spam. These are email lists I've actually signed up for and (mostly) want to get from various retailers. There's two tactics, though, for the title that make me insane every time I see them.
The first one is starting out the title with Tick Tock. I know why they use it--they want to signify that the sale/opportunity is nearing its end--but I still hate it. It seems very childish, almost condescending in a way. As if I can't order something I want on my own before the sale ends. If I wanted to buy something from your store, I would have. Stop sending me reminders and definitely don't use the phrase Tick Tock. It's pretty much guaranteed to make me hit the delete icon.
And since I mentioned it, there are a few retailers that insist on sending me up to three emails a day. I get the first one early in the morning telling me about the sale, at lunchtime there will be another email (this one usually has my name in the title), and then comes the third email in the evening. This is the Tick Tock email. Seriously, once a day is too much. Multiple times a day? Knock it off!
The second email title that I can't stand is Treat Yourself! This is often found in the body of promotional emails even if it's not in the title.
This one tries to use psychology and it's irritating. Buy something, whether you really need it or not, because you deserve it. You've been working hard at your job, at your home. Maybe something stressful is going on in your life. Or maybe you earned a raise at work. It's time to whip out the credit card and buy the totally unneeded product to clutter your house.
It makes me think of those holiday commercials for Lexus where they try to convince you that you deserve a car for the holidays. Treat yourself. Snort. I treat myself whenever I want to do so and I'm not going to fall for the psychological BS.
You're probably thinking I should unsubscribe from all these promo emails and save myself the aggravation, but I don't want to. When there's a sale or a really good coupon, I want to know about it. I just don't want to know about it three times in one day. Tick Tock.
