Sales Prospecting

[Video] How To Write Effective Email Subject Lines


If you’re doing email prospecting and not concerned about your subject line, you should be. It’s the single biggest determinant if somebody opens your email - or not.

A lot of people don’t even think about email subject lines. They just put something like “Company overview” or “Update on what’s happening with our company.”  And of course, the person who gets this in their email box thinks, “Why do I care about that?”

If you have anything about your company in the subject line, the email gets deleted - unopened.

The second thing that gets deleted is anything that’s salesy. Things like special promotions, 50% off sales, or new product announcements get deleted fast too.

But what works?

If you have a referral, you should automatically put that in your email subject line. “Bob Smith suggested I get in touch with you.” It always works to get people to open the message.

The second thing you can do is reference something that is important to the company. You solve business issues. You help people with projects that are important to them. Put something in the subject line that would be relevant to them.

For example, I might use something like, “Quick question regarding new client acquisition.” Or, I might mention something about new product launches and how their competitors have increased sales of their new product. Mentioning competitors is something that helps too.

You need to think about what's interesting about what you do from your prospects point of view. Put that in the subject line. It’s only about them – that’s all they care about. They don’t care about your company or anything you say about yourself.

When you do that, you’ve bought yourself a little bit of time. Now they’re going to read the first couple of sentences of your message where you have another chance to capture their attention and pique curiosity.

But first things first. You subject line matters most. Spend time crafting a good one – it’s that critical.Email subject lines

After a successful career in the sales world, writing five books, and speaking internationally, Jill is now tackling an even bigger challenge. She's focused on bringing the "millions in the middle" together to solve some of the biggest issues facing our country and the world. Jill truly believes so much more is possible if we can work together.