Subject lines are an integral part of cold emails. According to FinancesOnline, ‘69% of email recipients report emails as spam after reading the subject line’ and ‘33% of email recipients open emails because of catchy subject lines.’
As you can see, an excellent subject line is a difference between your prospect reading your email and reporting it as spam.
In this article, we shall list out the 76 best cold email subject lines to guarantee 85% open rates.
What Makes An Excellent Cold Email Subject Line?
The best subject lines for cold emails have the following characteristics:
- They are relevant
- They add value
- They are short, simple, and tell the story
- They are personalized
- Triggers curiosity
Let’s discuss each characteristic.
Relevance
When you send a cold email to someone, you are essentially trying to sell them something (a product, a call, or anything else that gets them to take action) without ever having contacted them. That’s what makes your email cold.
So, when you send them a cold email, you need to have the answers to the following questions that the prospect might have:
- Why are you contacting me?
- How will this benefit me?
In other words, you will have to send them a cold email that they find relevant, and your subject line should reflect that.
Adding Value
This goes hand-in-hand with relevance. Ultimately, you need to convey why and how you can help them. Otherwise, they may not even open the email.
Short And Simple
In this age of reduced attention spans, people do not have the time or patience to go through all the emails that they get to see which of them are worth their time. Besides, many of them check their inboxes on their phones.
So, sending them long, chunky cold email subject lines is a sure-fire method to ensure they ignore your email.
Keep it short and let them know why they should open the email.
Personalized
Personalization is key if you want to get through to prospects and turn them into customers. They want to know that you can help them solve their problems. Be sure to do your research, find out their pain points, and craft an email and subject line that outlines how you can help them solve their pain points.
Triggers Curiosity
Hinting at your prospect’s pain point is an excellent way to get their attention. Be sure to hint and not give away all the details, thereby getting them to open the email to learn more.
You will find all these elements in play when we list out the 76 best cold email subject lines for you to use.
Types Of Cold Email Subject Lines (With Examples)
Here are a few types of cold email subject lines you can experiment with if you want to mix it up when you are cold emailing prospects:
Creating Urgency
Some of the best email subject lines for cold emails are those that create urgency.
Why?
Because FOMO.
It’s the fear of missing out that triggers curiosity. People want to at least find out what you have to say before they make a decision.
While you could send them something as generic as Don’t miss out!, you’re much better off coming up with custom cold email subject lines that speak to their pain points.
You can create urgency around something that they are interested in. This could be a pain point, an event, etc. Here are a few cold email subject line examples that create urgency:
1. Two weeks to go until (Event)!
2. Last chance to buy (product)
3. 24 hours left to (event, purchase)!
4. Don’t get left behind!
5. Have you booked your tickets yet?
6. Time is running out to (insert activity)
7. Limited time on (insert offer)
8. You’ve got time…but not much
9. Your discount coupon for (product) is going to expire!
10. Get ready for (event)
11. Last few seats for (event)!
Personalized Subject Lines
If you’ve spent enough time learning how to send cold emails, you’ve probably come across the concept of personalization.
Personalizing your emails is vital because it tells the customer that you are taking them seriously.
In other words, they get the impression that you are actually trying to solve their problems instead of compulsively selling them a product with no regard for their plight.
So, if you start by personalizing your email subject line, you’re going to better your chances of standing out in their inbox. Here’s a stat by Invesp to support this.
How do you personalize your emails?
RESEARCH. Lots of it.
If you want to tailor your solutions to each prospect, you’d have to know what their pain points are in the first place.
Here are a few examples of personalized email subject lines:
1. Looking forward to your speech at (event), (name)!
2. (Name), your piece on (topic) was excellent
3. Check this out, (name)
4. Can’t agree with you more, (name)
5. I love your content on LinkedIn, (name)
6. Congrats on your (insert event), (name)
7. Read your blog on (subject)
8. It was great meeting you at (event)
Subject Lines That Suggest You Have A Mutual Connection
If you have a mutual connection or a shared background, be sure to mention this. Mentioning a detail like this could turn your cold email into a warm email, increasing the chances of getting them to open the email and reply.
Mentioning a mutual friend could potentially increase their trust in you.
Why?
Social proof.
If a good friend of theirs (whom you also know), endorses you, it means you can be trusted. Cold email subject lines where you mention a mutual connection, are in fact, personalized.
Here are a few examples:
1. (Mutual connection) asked me to contact you
2. (Mutual connection) suggested I say hello
3. We were in the same (college, company)
4. Hello, fellow (common interest or background)
5. (Name), I’m in your (Facebook or any other social media group)
6. Something I learned about your (profession, or other common interest)
7. Do you know (mutual connection)?
8. How do you know (mutual connection)?
9. Fellow (university) graduate here!
10. (Referral name)
Short Cold Email Subject Lines
These cold email subject lines are short and to the point. They are typically 5 words and convey the story – which is perfect for anyone (most people, actually) who reads emails on their phone.
If you want to keep your subject line short, primarily mention the crux of the email. Here are a few short cold email subject line examples:
- Requesting to connect
- Hey!
- I forgot to tell you
- I forgot to mention
- You still have time
- Can’t decide?
- You won’t regret it
- Not a sale
- 30 seconds or less
- 15 mins this week?
- Had this idea since we last spoke
- Thought about what you said
If you’ve noticed, a lot of these subject lines are short and personalized, which is what makes them relevant and valuable to the prospect. These also arouse curiosity.
Value Proposition
As the name suggests, this kind of subject line for a cold email tells the customer what value you can offer them. In other words, you need to highlight the benefits of your product or service in your email and subject line.
Before that, you need to know how each prospect can gain from what you have to offer and create a value proposition email accordingly.
Be sure to include a benefit in your email subject line. Here are a few cold email subject line examples to illustrate this:
- Resources to help you with (pain point)
- Three ideas to solve (pain point)
- Stop the guesswork and do (solution) to solve (pain point)
- Tips to solve (pain point)
- How I solved (pain point) in 6 steps
- Struggling with (pain point)? Here’s how I solved it
- Here’s how (prospect’s competitor) solved (pain point)
- Have you tried these tips to solve (pain point)?
- Hit your (goal) with our (service or product)
More Cold Email Subject Line Examples
The types of subject lines mentioned above can boost your chances of getting your foot through the door. However, if you want more examples, here is a mix of humorous, socially-proofed, and follow-up cold email subject lines you can add to your arsenal:
- Where is the love?
- Are you all right?
- Your netflix password?
- It’s not you, it’s me
- Feeling blue? Like baby pandas?
- Please DO NOT open this email
- Should I stay or leave?
- Moving on…
- Getting tired of salespeople who don’t give up?
- Oh no, not this guy again
- We’re ranked number 1
- (Famous influencer) says hello
- We got featured on (publication, website, channel)
- Anything I can do to change your mind?
- Are you coming?
- We missed you
- I’ll make this short
- Cutting to the chase
- Where shall we begin?
- I’d love your feedback on that meeting
- Confirming our call on (date)
- Our next steps
- You are not alone
- Here’s how we can get started
- Here’s that information I promised you
- Thought you might like these blogs
- What would it take?
- Here’s what I will do
- Don’t tell my boss
- Talk on (day, date, time)?
- You deserve the best just like these folks
- We just beat our own record
- Quick question regarding (project, topic)
- Can I get your opinion on (topic)
- Mind helping me with (topic)?
- Hey (name), check this out
Conclusion
There you have it – the 76 best cold email subject lines to guarantee 85% open rates. We’ve already discussed the fundamentals of cold email subject lines in another article. So, make sure you give that a glance as well. Use some of these 76 email subject lines (in the right context), and you will see those open rates shoot up before you know it.