The thought of cutting through the noise and opening your cold emails is daunting, at the least. In fact, studies show that an average profession professional is greeted with at least 122 emails in a single day. So, then how to get your cold emails opened instantly in this sea of emails? If you cannot get your emails opened or read, you will always have a stream of prospects but no leads, customers, or contacts. Therefore, accomplishing the first step leads the way for your lead generation. And one crucial determinant that ensures your cold emails is to open your email subject line. So, the question is how to craft great cold email subject lines. The kinds that not only generate clicks but something that begins a more worthwhile connection.
Thus, powerful email subject lines get your recipients to read and take action. So, today we have covered some of the best subject lines that assure click-throughs and conversions through emails.
Let’s dig in.
Now, the idea is first to understand how the subject lines work. So, before we dive into the practical scenarios and examples of different situations, here are some practices for you to start with. This way, you will realize how to put together some of the best subject lines for your cold emails.
These are some of the practices for you to master right away:
A report by Convince& Convert shows that nearly 70% of people mark emails as spam depending only on the subject line. So if you want to stay out of the spam folder, steer clear of clickbait subject lines.
Online communication is based on making promises. This is because every time you represent yourself online, whether through creating content or cold email campaigns, you are, in fact, making a promise. Here, the promises can be anything- from how they manage their workload better to how they can improve productivity.
Henceforth, the subject line you craft deliver what promise or value you want to bring to your recipient.
An effective cold email subject line does not only lead someone to open your message. Instead, you want them to read the entire content and then take action. The readers feel good after they finish the email rather than feeling betrayed or tricked. When recipients open an email with a clickbait subject and find it irrelevant, it snaps off the road for any further communication. Tricking them will only send your emails to the trash bin.
Long subject lines are often unnecessary. Since 55% of professionals skim through emails on their cell phones, your long subject line will ultimately disappear into oblivion. The average screen size fits a set of 5-8 words in one subject line. A short and precise message can attract your reader’s attention better.
There is another aspect here that contributes to improving the email opening rates.
Friends and colleagues have shorter and more conversational subject lines during email communication. On the contrary, salespeople have lengthier subject lines.
The trick to ensuring your emails are opened is by emulating emails similar to what they would have received from the former group. That way, it appears less threatening and more welcoming.
If you are applying for jobs using cold emails, a short subject line is your best bet as well.
Why should your email recipient even think of opening and reading your message? They have nothing to gain, right? Ultimately, your goal is to create value for your customers. And you can easily use this as bait to lure in prospects. All you have to do is, make your subject line an irresistible offer.
Therefore, offering readers value makes them want to read your entire message. Add some statistical evidence as well. It manifests how your offering can help them by bringing worthwhile results.
An enticing subject line encourages readers to open your email. It can also lead them to take action if you deliver well.
So, try to focus and highlight what you can do for the person. Then, base your subject line on this enticing factor, persist on the promise in your email, and you are gold.
These subject lines appear more genuine than click baits, improving responses and conversion rates.
We have already covered the ground rules for composing the best subject lines, so let’s look at some examples. Note that these ideas are here just for inspiration; you are the ultimate craftsman here.
You know your target audience and the value proposition, so just navigate through your style amongst a few of these ideas.
Mutual connections immediately foster a sense of familiarity and warm up a sense of bondage. It offers a promise that you are a credible source. There may be only certain times when you can use it. However, it is also one of the vital subject line strategies.
Nearly 92% of people rely on personal network recommendations. Therefore, hitting on this soft spot increases the chances of your emails being opened.
Examples may include:
Not having a mutual connection is most often the norm for cold email senders. Thus, the way to improve the personal connection is to mention something relevant. Something that benefits them or excites them in any way. Aim to keep the value proposition as relevant as possible.
Did you know that the Digital Marketing Association (DMA) reports that segmented cold email campaigns generate nearly 760% more revenue?
A great way to ensure quality content consistently is by using Outreachbin. Moreover, the software allows you to personalize your messages. And personalization does wonders for your emails as it makes your readers feel special. In fact, personalized messages have almost six times higher closing rates. So, personalize your subject lines. It makes all the difference. Identify relevant topics and add that to the subject line.
This can include:
Generating the first touch with cold contacts is tough, especially when there are no mutual points or relevant connections. There are certain times when you have very little information about a prospect.
You can then try grabbing your recipients’ attention through humor, mystery, or suspense. On the other hand, sometimes, a personalized subject line with names can be enough.
A lot of similar strategies can be used to initiate the first touch. Most importantly, generating even an affirmative response here goes a long way. So, prepare your message in a way that entices a busy person to hear you out.
Directly proposing the value you want to bring to your prospect is quite an effective strategy. It breaks through any unwanted exchange of words. It also gives your recipients a break from wading through thousands of other emails.
A relevant value proposition to your target audience is alluring, especially if you want to sell goods and services.
The concept of scarcity here is only to create a sense of urgency. A sales tactic as old as time, this is a tested mechanism to get your emails opened.
In fact, reports suggest high urgency subject lines have a nearly 22% higher open rate.
Your focus should be on building an authentic relationship. Thus, offer your subject line a time-sensitive / limited availability stamp that expresses urgency. It should work like a charm and help you craft the best subject lines for cold emails.
For cases where your value-based subject lines failed to have direct responses, you can try something like this:
"3 days left.." after an initial exchange of "you only have a week left." Mentioning how your schedule is filling up conveys an urgency to the readers. That way, if someone is interested, they can respond before the event.
Yes, we know. Not generating responses to the first few emails is not a very pleasant feeling. But it's also not the end of anything.
In fact, a Harvard Business Review published that the peak chance of your contact making a move is after the 6th attempt.
Nonetheless, no one likes to feel the cold shoulder. If your next move is to shift a particular no-response recipient to the "no response" list, here are a few last efforts for trial. Sometimes they work out well as they generate responses, even if someone is disinterested. That way, you know for sure who is not a worthy prospect.
Lastly, note that these subject lines are exclusively for instances where the rate of follow-ups is declining. Hence, these can be the 7th/8th approach after the six touches have been made.
Outreachbin is one such email automation software that makes your jobs extremely easy. The platform acts both as an email warm-up tool and a cold email tool that hyper personalize all your emails.
An easy way to save the hassle is to try the A/B testing feature on Outreachbin. It lets you send different subject line variations of the campaign to different sets of subscribers. Thus, you can ultimately narrow down which variations give the best results for each of your segmented recipients.
The best part here is the flexibility of testing different email templates against one another. You can then simply cross-match to compare which ones have higher click-through rates.
If you are ready to open your emails and generate some responses, you are already a step closer to Outreachbin. Start composing some of the best subject lines for your cold emails on Outreachbin.
Then focus on maximizing deliverability rates and enabling the A/B testing feature to ensure you are already a step ahead with cold email subject lines.
Thus, Outreachbin offers some excellent benefits for your cold outreach, especially by promoting email marketing.
Sign up today to boost your outreach campaigns today!
