Best Subject Lines

What is your best subject lines that increase open rates?

💌 Cold Emailing
30
Bandido
Politicker
12
Client Director
no subject...really throws them for a loop
pumbaa
Good Citizen
1
Marketing Development
100% agree
bareknuckles
Valued Contributor
1
CEO of my kitchen table
I do this all the time
GuyBews
Opinionated
0
Director
This actually works pretty well
Penultimate
Opinionated
0
Mid-Market Account Executive
Couldn't agree more
courtchella
Praised Answer
10
SDR Manager
Subject: Dangerous to Assume...

Has my highest open and response rate at two companies I have worked for.  



When to use it: As the subject line at the end of your cadence/break-up email.  Gets the prospect who has been ghosting you to be open/upfront with their response.  You'll be surprised how many leads/prospects resurrect after this as opposed to closing it out or dropping into a nurture campaign.  
AEdaddy
Contributor
3
Account Executive
I am going to try this!

courtchella
Praised Answer
5
SDR Manager
Happy to help. Here's an example:

Subject: Dangerous to assume…

Name, 
I've tried you recently and it's dangerous to assume, but at this point:  You are busy with other initiatives for COMPANY Evaluating the YOUR PRODUCT partnership isn’t on the agenda

If the former, when would be a better time to reach out?
If the latter, you can access YOUR COMPANY's industry-leading strategists by downloading (insert collateral link here). This way you can keep up with new ideas surrounding exceptional customer experience and tips to get you started.
I look forward to speaking with you when the time is better.
Best,Name
Robot
Politicker
7
AE (Account Executive)
"Have you?"

I always send a follow-up email a day or two later after an intro to gauge their interest. It usually says the following:

Hi *prospect*,

Have you given up on this?

*sign-off and signature*
Robot
Politicker
4
AE (Account Executive)
This gets a reply 80% of the time and an open rate of 95%.
SaSSySales
Executive
2
Account Executive- Mid Market
I do that Chris Voss move- but throw out "have you abandoned this project?" 
AEdaddy
Contributor
1
Account Executive
Do they typically reply with one word saying yes?

Robot
Politicker
2
AE (Account Executive)
Normally this move helps qualify the lead to see if they engage with "we have not given up on this" and then you schedule another meeting or a quick "yes" which then disqualifies them. @AEdaddy 
Selichimorpha
Celebrated Contributor
6
Growth Executive
"{NAME} - Please Advise" has always worked well for me
CadenceCombat
Tycoon
1
Account Executive
Not bad. I like this @gondorcallsforaid
Haast
Notorious Answer
0
Account Executive
Please Advise is elite.
rekled
Opinionated
5
Strategic Account Executive
This is what [insert competitor name] is doing...
softwarebro
Politicker
4
Sales Director
"catching-up" 
T3Tony
Valued Contributor
0
Regional Sales MAnager
I like this one as well. Another good one to pair with it is "How have you been" @softwarebro 
DwightsEgo
Politicker
4
BDR Manager
Have you seen this? 

This should spark some thoughts..

This is for you 

Layer in some personalization and be intriguing....its friggin hard
LordBusiness
Politicker
4
Chief Revenue Officer
These days its all about personalization. whatever you are putting in the subject needs to be custom to that person.  I tell my team all the time if you are sending the same subject line to more than one person, I can easily replace you with a robot.   In B2B prospecting these days, you either stand out from the noise, or you are the noise. 
primesales
Valued Contributor
2
Outbound Sales
Thoughts on just putting <company> + <your company> as subject and then the actual email body being personalized?

With the scale of activities that are done, it's impossible to personalize everything - and if anyone's using Outreach to manage follow ups - it does not allow for changing email subjects in between. So it becomes a choice then
LordBusiness
Politicker
4
Chief Revenue Officer
For me, that subject line gets an automatic delete.  
primesales
Valued Contributor
0
Outbound Sales
Just curious, what audience do you sell to? 

This subject line has surprisingly worked for Tech B2B Sales.
KingSlayer
Valued Contributor
0
Senior Account Executive
you can use personalization in out reach subjects i.e. name
LordBusiness
Politicker
0
Chief Revenue Officer
I sell into B2B marketing leaders.  I am more saying the folks who prospect into me.  If I get an email that has bullshit fake "personalization" that I know is automated robot Outreach garbage, it gets auto deleted. 
LordBusiness
Politicker
0
Chief Revenue Officer
If it can be automated, its not personalized. 
primesales
Valued Contributor
0
Outbound Sales
You're saying <Name> - <A Subject Relevant to them>

Correct?
vaibhav
0
VP Sales @KreativBricks
Oh this works for sure
Chep
WR Officer
0
Bitcoin Adoption Specialist
Great point. People like to feel special!!!
courtchella
Praised Answer
4
SDR Manager
Subject Line: Missed Call - Date - Your Name  

Start your email with "Hey Name - just tried to reach you"

That's the only context they'll have when they can preview the email before opening.  Gets the prospect to open since they don't know if you are a customer, partner, etc.

Make the rest of your email short, sweet, and personalized. Gotta remember people open lots of emails on their phone.  The longer, the worse.
SleuthstarSDR
Opinionated
3
Sales operations for SaaS Corp
From research/data I learned on a webinar from the cadence/email platform my company uses ... one word all lowercase subject lines have the best open rates. They also said never use a “?” . It was sooo counter intuitive my reaction was that there is no way that works. But I’ve been testing it and my open rates on emails have been noticeably higher than previous months and the other SDRs on my team . The exception to this is using thank you instead of thanks but that’s because of “professionalism”. Idk would love to hear other people’s thoughts . And I challenge others to try it out 
queenops
Opinionated
2
Maker of Sales
can you give an example? trying to think of what word I would incorporate
PaperTigerFighter
Good Citizen
2
AE (Account Executive)
have you tried the X dish at X (best local restaurant near them).



 And then "Besides trying to find good restaurants, my day job is helping companies do x...Can we talk about your food recommendations in addition to (how their business could potentially benefit from working with me/the product solution/etc...)" 

Highly personalized + injecting humor has gotten my highest responses and conversions.  It shows you did your research, a little tongue in cheek that you know about them and their location, and definitely can't replicate it at a high scale. 
ray
Executive
2
Head of Sales - EMEA Growth
Who's your daddy?
Incognito
WR Officer
1
Master of Disaster
Insurance Sucks! 
Molokomjolk
Politicker
1
Sales Director
I always use what I like to call a Trojan Horse. Depending on what I'm selling I try to think about a subject line that makes it look/sound like a colleague of the prospect could have sent it.  It has worked quite well for me in the past.

KingSlayer
Valued Contributor
0
Senior Account Executive
can you post an example
Molokomjolk
Politicker
5
Sales Director
Sure thing. So I basically try to use conversational language around a common pain that a colleague could have sent.

For example when I was selling scheduling/rostering software I used to have the subject line as: "Scheduling for the coming months" or "Potential scheduling issues". Both sound like something a colleague would send and it brings up common topics regarding the pains that we solved.

When I was selling Applicant Tracking I used: "Hiring Plan for the year", "Hiring Needs" or "Need more candidates". Again pretty conversational and also common topics regarding pains that we solved.



vlko
Good Citizen
0
Growth Marketer
selling lead gen tool, we used "New database, Linkedin leads"
AEdaddy
Contributor
0
Account Executive
Are you using anything like SalesLoft or outreach? They'll typically give you the stats behind subjects and emails etc.
Molokomjolk
Politicker
0
Sales Director
Had a much cheaper solution when I was doing a lot of outbound which didn’t meassure response rates but I was hovering around 70% open rates which I thought was pretty decent.
AEdaddy
Contributor
0
Account Executive
That is really good @Molokomjolk 
Molokomjolk
Politicker
0
Sales Director
Yes I was happy with it. Tried several variants before I got to 70% though. But I was never below 50% with that strategy.
GuyBews
Opinionated
1
Director
Anything but “quick question” —that goose is cooked and I will never open another email with that subject line.

seriously, make it something personalized that shows you did some research and it’s not a marketing blast.

mention their college, recent company news, mutual connection (if you’re confident they’ve actually met them in real life), coworker you know, competitor reference — all are gold, and keep it like 3-4 words max.
Cleopatra
Opinionated
1
Regional Sales Executive
I like “voicemail”
especially when I haven’t actually left one. 😂
T3Tony
Valued Contributor
0
Regional Sales MAnager
"Past Due"

It can be cringe worthy but when the prospect opens the email you elaborate on the fact that the conversation or connecting with them is "Past Due" VS an actual bill or invoice. 

We can all agree that nobody likes being behind or oweing anyone money......
CadenceCombat
Tycoon
1
Account Executive
As far as getting email opens, I can see this working. Any annoyed recipients as a result?
T3Tony
Valued Contributor
1
Regional Sales MAnager
@CadenceCombat There are plenty of annoyed recipients that have expressed that to me many times lol. But with any outreach you will always have the few that see the cleverness in the tactic and those are who I like doing business with personally. 
CadenceCombat
Tycoon
1
Account Executive
Totally fair. Thanks for sharing.
ZebraStripe
Opinionated
1
Sr Sales Director
I would never haha
CuriousFox
WR Officer
0
🦊
Meeting.
ChunkyButters
Tycoon
0
AE
prospect name <> my company name
AutoSmiler
Arsonist
0
Account Executive
"any time for a quick question?"
AEdaddy
Contributor
1
Account Executive
Any time I see "quick question" in my inbox from someone I don't know I typically delete it real quick. 
TheLoneGun
Opinionated
0
Extremely Rad Product Offloading Specialist
Like some have already mentioned, short questions always seem to work best, "Seriously?", "Have you?" "'Name' Have you seen this?"   and my personal favorite "What Happened?"
GetAHobby
Arsonist
0
RVP Sales
I change it up a lot on the subject lines and can't identify one that is better than other, but I will say I hate the "Last Chance" or anything with the "Last ..." time I'm reaching out or whatever it is. You know damn well its not the last chance or last time you are reaching out. 
The_Sales_Badger
Notorious Answer
0
Account Executive
My open rate in Salesloft is higher than most.  When I am researching a company and prospect, I always find relevant content accessible for industry-specific accounts.  Webinars are by FAR the best if you have access to on-demand ones.  

i.e.  On-Demand (my company name) Webinar for (Prospect Name)

If you don't have access to marketing collateral like that, I've always had about a 50% open rate with 

Attn: First/Last Name - (My company name) & (prospect company) Meeting
DaveyDimes
Acclaimed Answer
0
Account Executive
The appropriate person?, Final Attempt, Company name (the product you sell)

Usual outreach is, general company info, ask about current and future products, 3rd party resources about your company, appropriate person, final attempt. Wait a month then send checking in.
OHC
0
VP
"Not now?" followed up by a very quick "it seems like this isn't a priority for you right now" breakup email. 
Wolf
Opinionated
0
Commercial Account Executive
I have been using [Name] - Quick Question a lot and it has received a higher open rate as they typically think it's just a colleague looking to ask a quick question
Chep
WR Officer
0
Bitcoin Adoption Specialist
Question for (prospect)
Captain_Q
Arsonist
0
Sr. Account Executive
Squeeze You In:

Hey Prospect,

I appreciate you getting back to me with your interest in my product.  I've tried to connect with you a few times over the past couple of weeks but we keep missing each other.     

My schedule is pretty booked but I should be able to take some time for this Friday at 1p for a discovery call.  I hope this works for you.   

I look forward to talking soon.

-CaptQ


You have to let them know that your time is valuable too!
JuicyKlay
Celebrated Contributor
0
AM
Covid Test Results - Urgent 
beermoney
Politicker
0
Business Development
I have good luck with:
> anything all lowercase 
> thoughts? 
> *industry here* innovation idea
    (ex. "iGaming innovation") as a first email 
> using *software we integrate with* at *account name* 
    (ex. "using Gong at Microsoft")  
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