4 Cold Email Subject Line Best Practices For A 53% Opening Rate

In the age of social media, new marketers might believe that cold emailing is an ancient practice that does not work anymore.

They couldn’t be more wrong.

The practice might seem old, but it is far from being ineffective. In fact, 90% of marketers consider cold emailing their primary way of lead generation. 

To be successful in cold emailing, you gotta learn the best email subject lines best practices.

But what are email subject lines?

Email subject lines are the most important aspect of cold emailing.

To put it simply, email subject lines are that “preview” text the user sees before clicking on the email. As the name states, subject lines are the text that explains what will be the subject of that message.

That’s why the subject line is so important. You have to captivate the receiver of the email, while at the same time sounding professional and trustworthy.

Without a good subject line, the content of the email does not matter, simply because people won’t even bother to open it.

You gotta choose your words carefully, it’s not that hard to be seen as a scammer online, and we all know that email inboxes are filled with scammers trying to sell you “enlargement pills”… Right? 

Gosh, I really hope it’s not just me.

Without a good subject line, the content of the email does not matter simply because people won’t even bother to open it.

There are thousands of email subject lines examples out there, but ultimately, you gotta know what will work for you.

How to get people to open my cold emails?

Even if you’re following email subject lines best practices, you still need to have a couple of things in check in order to get satisfactory results with your cold emails.

There are several ways to get people to open cold emails. Several aspects like relevancy and the quality of the lead you’re messaging come into factor.

A subject line on an email directed to a high-quality lead will have a much better opening rate because the person you’re sending the email to is already interested in the subject.

A good quality lead will always is always your best bet. If you’re reaching out to people that you know are in need of your services or products, the chances of getting a deal are higher.

As for “relevance of the subject line”, we actually prepared a small list of how you can create relevant emails. I’m about to show you these email subjects get an 80 to 100% open rate, so definitely pay attention.

So here are a couple of email subject lines examples.

4- The referral subject line.

One of the best ways to make a person open your email is by getting a referral from someone they know. You will want to put that referral information in the subject line.

As an exercise, let’s say you’re selling something to John, and you got his contact information through his pal Mark Banannasville.

Subject line: Hey John, found you through Mark Banannasville.

And that’s it, simple and direct, right? Who wouldn’t want to open a message referred to from good ol’ Mark Banannasville?

You can get good referrals by asking your clients, or even other marketers that you know.

3- The “googling your client” subject line.

But let’s say you want to use this technique to contact someone but you have no connections to them.

You can always try to find online information about the company John works for if he’s ever done an interview about his work if his company was ever on the news.

To continue our exercise, John works as a lawyer and recently appeared on a local TV show talking about a case he was in. You can then try something like this:

Subject line: Hey John, congrats on the CBS interview!

Just make sure you talk a bit about that interview in the content of the email. Otherwise, it might seem like you were just looking him up online in order to try and sell him something, which in fact is exactly what you did, but John doesn’t have to know it.

3 – The generic but personal subject line.

What if John can’t be found on the news? Well, you can also send him a generic subject line that appears to be more personal than it actually is.

This is also a great option for mass mailing your leads.

Instead of a personal referral or information you found online, you can also refer to the company John works for. You will want to refer to his company and state your company’s name in the subject line.

In this case, John is an associate at a firm called “Lawyers ABC”. And you are a salesman for an office supply company by the name OSP – Office Supplies.

In this case, the subject line would be like this.

Subject line: Hey John, about “Lawyers ABC” and “OSP – Office Supplies.”

You can see how this is the best option if you’re mass emailing hundreds of companies right? It’s a very time-efficient way to send quality subject lines.

4 – Fully generic subject line.

I’ll be honest with you, this one is worse than the other three.

But, if you don’t have a good referral or any online information, and you’re too lazy to do the “Generic but personal” subject line, this one might be the way to go.

It’s just a greeting. Just say hello and people will get curious enough to open it.

Take a look.

Subject line: Hi, from Giovane!

I don’t know why, but that subject line works surprisingly well. I guess people ask themselves “who the hell is that guy?” and they end up clicking it out of curiosity.

If you’re actually going with this method, just make sure the actual content of your email is super high quality, detailed, and personalized for your lead. Otherwise, you will sound scammy, and we don’t want that.

Conclusion

These are some of the best email subject lines best practices that can get you around a 53% opening rate. Again, the first three steps have a way higher opening rate than the last one, but ultimately it’s up to you!

You can take a look at these email subject lines examples and maybe find out what works best for you. 

You will always be the best person to know what will work better for you and your business.