Best Cold Email Subject Line Examples & Tips From Experts

“Rather than outright offering your services, skills, or expertise, you're asking the recipient if they require your help. This tactic shows that you understand their situation but does not make any overt assumption about your ability to solve it. This slight change of using a question rather than a statement can make a positive difference in your open and reply rates.”

— Jar Kuznecov, Water Softeners Hub

“The subject line above has worked more than once. It sets me up right off the bat as someone who understands that they're busy, and they don't necessarily have all the time in the world for someone they don't know. I've gotten a bunch of replies from people who have said the subject line is what caused them to open and read the email.”

— Peter Shankman, Faster Than Normal

“This subject line indicates your understanding of the recipient's challenges. You'll have to do some research to make an informed guess at what challenges are most pressing to them. If you have that information, you'll be able to spark the prospect's interest in a potential solution.”

— Farhan Advani, Buy Here Pay Here

“When writing a cold email subject line, you want it to be personalized and engaging. 'Let’s talk about !' works great because you’re able to tailor your topic based on the interests of your prospect. It sparks curiosity in your reader and increases the probability that the email will be opened.”

— Andre Kazimierski, Improovy

“This subject line is perfect for when you know a prospect will be — or even might be — attending an industry event. It assumes a level of familiarity, which ticks that personalized box, and also shows that you share some of the same interests, which hits the mark for engagement.”

— Daivat Dholakia, Essenvia

“This subject line is very effective because it conveys to the recipient that you have conducted research on them as well as their competitor. Furthermore, you've brought to their attention the fact that their competition is doing something better, and you're telling them why. This piques their interest, and as a result, emails with this line always have a higher open and click rate for me.”

— Tony Martins, Profitable Venture

“You want to start with the word 'urgent' or 'attention' plus 'important information for,' then put in whatever type of consumer you are looking for. When a prospect reads words like that, it hits their subconscious and they are compelled to read and want to learn more about this information, which is exactly what the main body of your email should be. These are powerful psychological words. Think about a radio program — when they announce an 'urgent' weather issue, it captures your attention immediately.”

— Tim Connon, ParamountQuote Insurance Advisors

“It’s estimated that the average professional receives 126 emails per day, meaning they can’t read all of them, respond, and handle other pressing responsibilities. To attract responses, you need a tactic to pique the prospect’s interest by sounding relevant. Otherwise, your cold email will fail to generate the expected lead. Mentioning a mutual connection, such as a person or event, in your subject line is effective because it personalizes your email, establishes a sense of familiarity, and builds trust, thus increasing the chances of your email starting a conversation.”

— Ryan Yount, Luck Luck GO

“This subject line is extremely successful since it tempts every audience to look at it because it could be the answer to their problems. This subject line is best for those trying to start a relationship with a cold lead by sharing helpful content like ebooks, videos, blogs, and more. It simply means that you are willing to assist them. Remember that the more specific the challenge, the better.”

— Tyler Garns, Box Out Marketing

“This is likely best for B2C brands looking to get people onto their online website or into their store. This cold email subject line is convincing for the recipients to open the email because you’re addressing them personally with a voucher. Giving them vouchers will encourage them to shop at your business and use it as much as possible.”

— April Maccario, Ask April

“When in doubt, consider sending an assumptive meeting invite to a lead. It’s okay to let your first email be the calendar invite itself, especially if you’ve tried cold calling this lead with little success. Having an email paired to an invite showing up on their calendar that has a detailed agenda can be a quick way to get on their radar, and they'll accept it without too much thought.”

— Claire Francis, Insight Global

“When you use this, you create a sense of personalization and interest at a deeper level. It means that you have spent some time listening and reading their work, so this will result in a higher click rate and opening rate. It even has a higher conversion rate, so be as personal as you can!”

— Scott Hasting, BetWorthy LLC

“This makes it a lot personal and it signifies that you studied their account well in order to produce data. For instance, you can put their site's traffic and domain ranking/domain authority rating, then suggest ways on how to improve that. This way, it will result in high click and opening rates.”

— Craig Miller, Academia Labs

“Did you know that pain killers outsell vitamins every year? Talk about a sense of urgency! If you've done the necessary research and created rock-solid buyer personas, you'll know the top 5–7 pains for each customer. On average, it takes 5–7 cold emails to get the first open (NOT using this strategy), so what better way to accelerate your path to engagement than pain points. But don't just list the pain point; list the 'relief' with the pain. For example, 'automate non-selling tasks,' where non-selling tasks are the pain and automate is the relief.”

— Kyle Boerner, Veloxy

“For cold emails, think about it. If you use a close-ended question, you have a 50% chance of being wrong. With an open-ended question, you have a much higher chance at your desired result.”

— David Latimer, Petzyo

“Accentuate a subject line with words like ‘bizarre,’ ‘unusual,’ or ‘unbelievable.’ An example would be ‘5 bizarre marketing tricks you need to try.’ Most of us are curious by nature and will click on emails that have an odd subject line. Make sure you deliver by rewarding their curiosity with useful content!”

— Eric Ang, One Search Pro

“As a small online business owner, I send quite a lot of cold emails or proposals to my potential customers. And one tip that I always use is the benefit-driven subject line. Instead of telling them who I am or what I am selling, I use a subject line that shows some benefit they will get by reading my email. For example, 'How to speed up your computer with these 3 tricks.' That subject line shows you a benefit inside the email, so the audience is more likely to open it.”

— Yeremia Poco, Eggplain

“Adding numbers in your subject lines makes people want to click your email more frequently. They are anticipating the value they can get from your email. This is why this strategy works most of the time. Based on statistics, a headline with an attached number to it outperformed a how-to post by as much as 200%.”

— Christopher Liew, Wealth Awesome