The Internet has enabled brands to create conversations with customers. That conversation has created the opportunity to touch the lives of millions of people with ideas and visions. Email Marketing is a powerful channel to engage with potential customers at scale. A well-written subject line is a key to deliver your message and encourage your email to be opened.
When it comes to generating interest for your product or service, there's one thing that works more than anything else: your email subject line.
Online marketing is competitive, and to stand out in an inbox full of promotions from retailers, coupons from email service providers, and announcements from colleagues, you need to send emails with great “Subject Lines”. A good subject line is short, compelling, has some kind of benefit, and is accurate. The very best subject lines include all of these elements at once.
In order to write a great subject line, you need to know the psychology of what makes subject lines good. To know that, ask yourself these questions:
- Which product you are selling?
- To whom you are selling?
- What is your business goal?
- How to make them open the email?
- Are they know your organization before?
- Do you have any common business-oriented goals?
- Why do they want to open your email?
- Which subject lines made you open some cold emails?
- How do you know specific subject line has many open rates?
If you can able to answer these questions to yourself then you are in the right way – Go ahead!!!
Or else, first, take a note and write down the answers to these questions and then think about email subject lines.
Nothing will increase your open rate quite like a good subject line. Read this article for tips and techniques to write better subject lines for your sales emails. There are 10 proven email subject lines that give a more open rate:
Subject Line 1: Personalized Lines
As we knew the email open rate will boosts when we personalize the email for a particular person. Likewise, subject lines should also personalize as per person to make them open it. One should feel hard to not open your emails after they have seen the personalized subject lines.
The major likable subject lines are calling the recipient by a nickname. For example, consider the person's name called Rikki Willam– what an unusual name I took for an example??? Whatever, let’s see.
- Rikki…Rikkister…Like a Rockstar
- Hello Rikki Willam!
If you are a Rikki for a second. Which email subject line attract you?
Definitely the first one!
We are crazy humans who want to see some crazy things around us, including email subject lines. Calling someone with a nickname made them feel special about themselves and that will make them open the emails.
Some personalized subject lines:
- Can't decide, {nickname}?
- {nickname}! A gift is waiting for you.
- Hey {nickname}! I bring those things for you.
- Only the best for you, {nickname}!
- Seen something you liked, {nickname}?
- 1 Day only just for you, {nickname}!
- {nickname}, here is your new year's gift...
- {nickname}, ready to move on?
- You don't want to miss this, {nickname}!!!
- 70% off only for you, {nickname}!!!
Subject Line 2: Promotional Lines
If you are running a SaaS company, you are likely building an email list and promoting your products with good email campaigns. During peak days, as a lead generation company, we drive as many people as possible to our company website to promote ourselves, to stand out from the crowd.
If you are also like us, you are looking to get more emails opened then you can’t go wrong with promotional subject lines.
Promotional subject lines are effective when they are personalized, unexpected, and timely with often distinguishable by promises of savings and percentage reduction in price.
Some promotional subject lines:
- Items in your cart are on sale
- The product that your eyes on, now $5 off!
- It’s not a sale, it’s a celebration!
- Stop everything! Our products are on offer.
- Only $25 for all products!
- Your favourites are 50% off!
Subject Line 3: Creative Lines
“Hard work pays off” – it’s an old saying we all heard but I say “Creativity pays off”.
To get noticed, both online (Prospects inbox) and offline (In-person), you need to be creative and should think out of the box. Just don’t copy what other companies are doing for promotions.
Some creative subject lines:
- Meaningful emoji’s like surprise emoji, thinking emoji, and running emoji to express sale on
- Rum-Pum-Pum-Pump! The sale is on.
- A sale of ice and fire (during fall season)
- Ready…Set…Lead…!!! (for lead generation tools)
- Level up your level!
- Its techy-tech world…!
- LeadMine is a gold-mine for business leads!
Subject Line 4: Curiosity Lines
‘I first came to know Rikki Willam in Canada…’
‘The front door was open…’
‘I was standing outside the hotel. I heard someone screaming… maybe it’s her’
Now, what do the above sentences feel like? (Don’t say those lines are novel opening lines… those lines are mine). It creates some level of curiosity inside you to know more about it. Well, I am sorry I just wrote 3 lines to explain how curiosity works.
So, our curiosity drives our need to acquire new knowledge as a bridge between what we know and what we want to know. When you see subject lines, it should create curiosity inside you to open the email.
And also, remember the golden rule of writing curiosity subject lines, always deliver in the body of the email. No one wants to feel tricked by you to open the email they would have otherwise ignored.
Some Curiosity subject lines:
- You are invited
- Have you seen your sales are increased?
- When life gives you lead…
- It’s arrived.
- The sale is coming…
- You can’t win until…
- Your sales team missing something…???
- What was that?
Subject Line 5: Short Lines
How short that we are talking here? Well, a maximum of 4 words is known as short subject lines.
Like a wedding card, nowadays, it become small and short that has the groom and bride name, venue, and time. See, I told you, right?
3-4 words are enough to express what are you going to tell in detail. Likewise, short subject lines attract prospects to open an email from your company. Keeping your email subject line short makes the information seem more conversational and sales-driven. Most of the people opening their email on mobile phone so more open rate.
Some short subject lines:
- Need any help?
- How closer are you?
- Stealing our strategies.
- Follow the lead.
Subject Line 6: Casual Lines
It’s not an easy task to reach out to someone you don’t know and ask for a favour, whether it is in person or via email. If I was in those places I might be drowning in my sweats.
Just like keeping it short, you should also try to keep subject lines as informal as possible. Look through your inbox, you will find professional and structured email subject lines that have clearly explained those mails are for marketing and sales. Then the audience just marked those emails as spam.
Making your subject line stand out can be difficult but one of the easiest ways is to write casual subject lines like write an email for someone you already know - family, friends, or long-time work colleague, or try to start with a joke.
Some casual subject lines:
- Hi {name}, let me introduce myself.
- About your work.
- Here is your next step.
- Quick question for you…
- Do you work in a SaaS company?
- Looking to learn more.
- Are you missing the lead???
Subject Line 7: Opinion Lines
Do you think to take the safer path when sending out emails? Don't do that.
The easy and common way will never get your emails open. If you are trying to get everyone to open the emails then you have to go on the harder path.
You may come across a memorable subject line at once in your life. I have one, the subject line says, ‘Life is a risk, you must need us’, it’s from some insurance company. When I saw the subject line, it controls my subconscious mind and made me open it.
Their goal isn’t afraid me, but to bring me closer to them. They may lose some people in the process but in the long run, losing a few people that aren’t a good fit for your business is fine.
Opinions shouldn’t always be a serious matter, it can be related to food, movies, or books. Whatever that resonate with people and start a conversation.
Some opinion subject lines:
- Customers aren’t always right...!
- Failing in one method doesn’t mean you failed in all.
- Margherita pizza tastes good.
- Karate kid was a masterpiece.
Subject Line 8: Sarcastic Lines
People love jokes, so why not a joke as a subject line?
This technique can work awesomely for breaking the ice, but that it isn’t working on everyone. Make sure you are actually writing a funny subject line, for starters. If humour isn’t in your plate, then leave this technique to the professionals.
Accept it or not, most emails are opened or discarded based on their subject line. Knowing that people will judge your email content on this single factor alone must be hurtful thing but come to reality, people judge other people by their looks. It is not an indigestion thing to get worried about, instead, you have to got to get their interest right away.
Is there is another way to wake their curiosity than with a joke? Well, yes, you can open the email with a punchline, if you are a dialogue writer. If not, please don’t try. Let it go!!!
Remember, deliver the joke in the body of the email, so they don’t feel tricked. Joke setup isn’t an easy win.
Some sarcastic subject lines:
- Mom going to love this.
- Is it too late now to say sorry?
- Great! Another one.
- Ahhhhh! What?
- PASSWORD is a password?
- Since we can’t win the lottery, can we have coffee?
- Not good at advice, need sarcastic comments?
- Unicorns send the box!
Subject Line 9: Follow-Up Lines
If you are exactly like me, you tend to think of following up as something in LinkedIn after a job interview or meeting with a prospective buyer. But as we have learned after deleting the email in our inboxes, that’s how we realize the case isn’t the same all the time.
The people in B2B companies are good at following up with potential buyers that have or are at risk of falling through the cracks. There is enormous potential to follow up like overcome potential objections, and clinch on lost sales.
Some follow-up subject lines:
- Your chances are moving forward.
- Let’s make an appointment!
- You should take a big step.
- Maybe this will help you…
- There must be a mistake, you left this behind…
- Just take a look at it.
- You left some stuff at our place.
Subject Line 10: Last-chance Lines
If you are a B2B marketer writing an email to strangers, then you should know this technique for more opens, clicks, and conversions in their emails.
Did you ever notice? that the end sale in stores will get more customers than regular days. This is also a technique to got people into your business by selling products at end-sale.
When you send an email saying it’s the last chance to buy a product due to scarcity of availability, it nudges the buyers to make a purchasing decision.
Some last-chance subject lines:
- Say goodbye to your exclusive 25% offer.
- Clock’s ticking...
- Annual end-sale ends in a few hours.
- Say bye-bye to the coupon code!
- Good things are going to end...
- Don’t let your offer alone.
In conclusion
There is no genie from the magic lamp to help you in this, you have to work on it. Following these guidelines, run some test experiments to see which types of subject lines seem to resonate well with your customer or targeted audience and generate the most engaged subject line.
Keep in mind, if you wouldn’t open an email with the subject line that you were written, your leads won’t open either. Attract your prospects with great subject lines for sales email, which has to short, relevant, leads to the point, and something funny. And, you will see an improvement in your cold email response rate with new customers.
Are there any subject lines that have mind-blowing email open rates? Please, share it with us at LeadMine.
