cold email strategy

50 cold email subject lines for sales

By March 27, 2019 No Comments

Cold emailing is the newest and very effective way of sales marketing.

It is an effective way to market and sell products & services through emails.

A well-organized cold email campaign can increase sales and increase revenue six times more.

Email has become a preferred means of business communication.

The success of sales email campaign greatly depends on the subject line.

47% of emails are either opened or deleted based on their subject line alone.

The success of salespeople is directly linked to the success of their email campaign.

The subject line greatly influences the open rate of an email.

To be very successful in your sales email campaign, you need to give attention to your subject line.

Subject lines that create a sense of urgency and exclusivity can increase your open rate by 22%.

This is why you need to be very creative when writing a subject line for your sales email.

How to write sales cold email subject lines with examples

50 cold email subject lines for sales

Writing compelling subject lines is a strategy you need to take when writing cold emails.

You should be creative and think out of the box when constructing a subject line.

Here are some strategies to take when writing a cold email subject line;

  1. Personalized your subject line:

Personalized subject line increases open rates by 22.2%.

Personalize the subject line makes the recipient feel the email is sent directly to him or her.

Personalization easily catches the attention of the recipient and swiftly put the recipient into immediate action.

Personalization gets an email easily noticed and separated from the rest.

Most executives receive tons of emails every day and this is a major reason why most unknown emails are immediately deleted.

To get your email easily noticed and responded to, personalizing the subject line can increase your chances by a great percentage.

Personalization doesn’t only entails mentioning the name of your recipients or the company they work, it best work when you mention their recent activities, their blogs, social media pages and other avenues you knew about them.

Talk about them, things they do, their hobbies, personal interests, things they talk about and so on.

To get more personalized information about your recipient, do more research on them.

Examples of personalized cold email subject lines:

  • Hi! [name], Check this out!
  • Congrats [name]! You will definitely like this
  • Looking forward to meeting you at [event]
  • Did you see this? What do you think!
  • Yes, this actually works! Check it out!
  • Hi [name]! Can I have your thought on this
  • What do you think?
  • Your comment on [post] was very insightful and interesting
  • Check out this proposal!
  • As a sales director, this will greatly benefit you!
  1. Asking questions:

Asking questions is a smart way to get people to respond to you.

When you ask a question, you are expecting an answer. Question create an urge to provide answers.

Emails that include one to three questions are 50% more likely to get more reply as compared to the ones without any question.

The human brain works in a way that when someone is being asked a question, the brain develops an urge to answer the question or looks for an answer.

Asking the right question will urge your recipient to answer the question because it has created a form of curiosity in his or her mind.

Answering the question means replying to your email.

When asking questions, you should know the right questions to ask.

Ask questions that are in line with what is written in your sales email.

Ask questions that are of relevance and benefits to your recipient.

You can ask, how you can be of help, what can you do to improve their work and other questions that benefit your recipient.

To be able to ask relevant questions, you need to make adequate research about your recipients.

You can check their social media pages, check their website, their blog posts and so on.

This will give you a good knowledge of what they do and the areas you can improve on.

Examples of subject lines with questions;

  • Can I help you with [topic]?
  • Will you like to try out our product?
  • Great offer! Check out our free 3 months’ trial, will you?
  • Can I be directed to the right person?
  • Will you like our new specials?
  • It’s the winter season! Will you like to check out our new arrivals?
  • Great offer! Don’t you think?
  • Will you follow me for fishing?
  • I have a marketing event, care to attend?
  • Are you ready for our new season specials?
  1. Short Subject Lines:

Short subject lines can also increase the open rates of sales emails.

Subject lines with five or fewer words have an open rate of 16% and subject lines with six to ten words have an open rate of 21%.

Most people frown at subject lines that are too long and they simply ignore or delete the email immediately.

Your subject line should be concise and straight to the point. It should be very easy for your recipient to read and understand.

Reading a subject line should not take more than 3 seconds to complete.

With over 55% of working professionals using their mobile phones to read emails, long subject lines won’t fit on the screen of a mobile phone.

An average screen can only fit in 4-7 words, subject line more than 7 words can’t fit on the screen and that pose a problem.

Always make sure that your subject line is as short as possible so that your recipient won’t find it difficult to read and understand.

Even though your subject line is short, it should make proper sense to your recipient.

Examples of short subject lines:

  • Just a minute!
  • Sales promo!
  • Hey you!
  • Check this out!
  • Season Specials!
  • I will like to inform you of…
  • Cupcake! Cupcake!! Cupcake!!!
  • Let me tell you something
  • Check out our online store
  • Last Chance! Sales end tomorrow! 
  1. Subject lines that creates urgency and exclusivity:

Urgency and exclusivity is a smart strategy to get more response from recipients.

Data from Invesp has shown that subject lines that create a sense of urgency and exclusivity can increase open rate by 22%.

This shows that subject line that creates urgency and exclusivity is very effective if you want to increase the open rate of your sales cold emails.

People respond more swiftly when they feel they are missing out on something and that thing may not be available anymore in the future.

Creating a sense of urgency in the mind of your recipient and making him or her know that this is an opportunity that may not be available again is a smart move in increasing response rate.

These are marketing strategies to attract customers so you can make more sales.

Creating a sense of urgency could be using sales, limited offers, new deals, end of year bonanza and so on.

All these have limited time and deadline; hence customers will want to take advantage of the opportunity.

Examples of subject lines that creates urgency and exclusivity:

  • Limited Offer!
  • Only few a seats available!
  • Summer Sales is On!
  • 50% Off! Ends Soon
  • Bonanza! Bonanza!! Bonanza!!!
  • Only one week remaining until the end of sales!
  1. Subject lines referencing a mutual connection:

Referencing a mutual connection in your subject line builds trust and this increases your open rates.

When there is a mutual connection between you and your recipient, there is already a link, which means you and your recipient are no longer strangers.

Mutual connections could be friends from the same Facebook group, LinkedIn group, sports group, school, attended the same event, Twitter page, blog posts and so on.

Any group that you and your recipient are in, you can get a mutual connection from such groups.

A mutual connection shares similar interests with both you and your recipient.

Referencing a mutual connection will get the attention of your recipient, it will put his or her mind at ease and instill trust in the mind of your recipient.

Examples of subject lines with a mutual connection:

  • A mutual friend [name] told me that you may be interested in this
  • [Mutual friend] ask me to get in touch with you
  • Met you at the [event], thought you will like this!
  • I know you like chess, check this out!
  • I am a follower of your blog post. Take a moment of check this out!
  1. Subject lines with humor:

Creating funny subject lines will make people feel more at ease and trust you more.

Humor has a way to make people feel better and happy.

Someone that reads your subject line and laugh will definitely want to check through your email and also respond to it.

Creating a humorous subject line is a smart strategy to get people to laugh while reading your sales email.

Most people are bored in their offices, they have a lot of work to do. Making them laugh could just be what they need to relieve their stress and boredom.

Everyone appreciates a good joke or humor.

Most people that send cold emails don’t apply this strategy and this is where you can make your email stand out.

Make your email stand out of the rest by adding humor to your subject line.

Your recipient will easily notice an email with humor more than email that does not have any humor.

Creating a humorous subject line entails getting the right joke or humor that perfectly suit your email.

Don’t just write anything because you think it is funny. If it is not relevant to the email, it might get your recipient angry.

Choose your jokes carefully and know more about your recipient.

Some people find jokes annoying when they are stressed out. It is also important to know the right time to send your email.

Examples of humorous subject lines:

  • Hello from the other side…
  • I got the good stuff. Hit me up!
  • This is really funny…I literally LMAO
  • I bet you, this is going to make you laugh
  • Try not to laugh…Check this out!
  1. Subject lines with solutions or benefits:

Some people won’t respond to your email if they don’t have anything to gain or benefit.

When you write a subject line that includes benefits, gains or proffer solutions, you will definitely get more response.

Even though this is a sales email and you are trying to sell your product and services, there should be a way that your recipients can also benefit something from you.

Create value for your product and let your recipient know what they stand to gain when they use your product.

Provide good offers that your recipient can’t resist.

Examples of subject lines with benefits:

  • This will definitely benefit your company
  • Great skin care product to rejuvenate your skin
  • Take a look! You will be glad you did
  • How can we be of help?
  • Take a look at our product benefits 
  1. Subject lines that create curiosity and suspense:

When you create a sense of curiosity in the mind of people, they will want to know more.

Suspense and curiosity works hand-in-hand.

Creating a sense of curiosity in the mind of your recipient will increase your open rate because they want to know what is in the email.

If you have seen the trailer of a movie, you will agree with me that the next thing on your mind is where and how you can watch the full movie.

This is exactly what creating curiosity and suspense in the mind of your recipient can do in your sales email.

Create a subject line that will make your recipient eager to know what you have in stock in your email.

Let your recipient feel the need and be eager to go through your email to know what exactly they are missing.

Examples of subject lines that create curiosity and suspense:

  • Do you want to know more about [topic]? Check this out!
  • Have you heard the latest?
  • Frankly, I don’t believe this!
  • Can you imagine!
  • Check this out and see for yourself

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