Crafting Engaging Cold Email Subject Lines

We’re in the business of helping you find verified email addresses. However, inputting email addresses discovered through Anymail Finder is only the first step. The next and arguably most important step is writing an engaging subject line.

What Are Cold Email Subject Lines?

Cold emails are a popular tool used by businesses to initiate relationships with potential clients. They are a type of outbound sales effort in which emails are sent to people who have little or no knowledge about your company, products, or services. The term cold refers to the fact that you are currently only at the awareness stage of the sales funnel - far away from making a sale.

The goal of these emails is to start a conversation (warm-up leads) and establish a relationship with the recipient that will ultimately lead to a potential business partnership. By taking a strategic approach and investing time and effort into crafting the right message, businesses can leverage cold emails to expand their network and grow their business. According to Right Inbox, if your cold email and subject line are done well, they can be incredibly powerful, yielding 8 times more opens and clicks and 6 times more revenue than any other type of email.

Now that we know exactly what a cold email is, the subject line comes easily. A cold email subject line is the subject line of the email you send to your prospects who have no idea who you are.

Crafting The Best Cold Email Subject Lines

A cold email subject line is your prospect's very first impression of your business. When not well written, the prospect is likely to see your email and delete it or report it as SPAM. Brafton Content Marketing and Tech Solutions shared that on average, you can expect about 20 to 25% of your prospects to open your message — if they’re personalized, relevant and timely.

So, to make a good first impression:

1. Personalize your subject line. Personalized copy generates high open rates because it makes the prospect feel relevant. It also eliminates the chance of your email going unopened as the responder might think they’ve met you before (and ignoring someone you have met is not the best business practice).

2. Address a problem that your business may be able to solve. You’ve spent all of this time gathering a list of quality prospects, now use your subject line as a way to engage them and let them know how you might be able to solve one of their problems. Who are you emailing? How can your products or services help them?

3. Humanize Your Copy. People want to know that it is a real person emailing them, and not a robot. Avoid sounding salesy or kitschy. The first cold email is about starting a conversation and building a relationship. It’s not about selling.

4. Keep it Concise. On average for mobile, desktop, and tablet devices, the maximum subject line is about 60 characters long before it gets cut off by the email provider. Campaign Monitor recommends a subject line of 41 characters so that each word in your subject line appears on desktop, mobile, and tablet devices.

5. Avoid clickbait. If you are able to have your prospect open your email, ensure that the subject line flows into the rest of your email. An opened email is as good as a deleted email if not read. If you are going to recommend a product in your subject line, make sure you discuss said product in the body of the email.

6. A/B testing your subject lines. Test subject lines that are interrogative and ones that are exclamatory. Try ones that offer solutions and ones that are aimed at connecting. All of the information provided above varies from industry to industry and A/B testing is a great way to find out what works for your prospects and how to deliver them content that is appealing to them.

Subject Lines That We Can Get Behind

There are a million and one examples of cold email subject lines floating around the world wide web. Here are a few that have worked on us:

This example is from Woodpecker.

Instead of:
Absolutely Hilarious YouTube Videos I Saw This Week That You Cannot Miss
Try:
Mike, you gotta watch this

From Close:

Instead of:
[Name], web design services 20% discounted
Try:
[Name], quick question about your book

From RingCentral:

“Hey, [name], we heard you’re the go-to person for [area of expertise]”

Each of these examples checks the boxes for a great cold email subject line. Personalized? Check. Addresses the prospects' problem? For the most part. To the point? Check. Human? Check, check, check. And because we think they are so great, let’s assume they’ve avoided click-baiting their prospect.

Anymail Finder does the work of finding prospects' email addresses for you so that you can spend your time focusing on sending a perfectly crafted cold email. Find verified emails or it's free.