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If you've been struggling to earn sales - or even simply book appointments or demos - through cold email, it may be your subject line at fault.
You have a bulletproof prospecting system in place that helps you find the decision-maker emails of your ideal clients. You even have an amazing offer that you know your prospects want and need. But the one thing preventing you from getting that offer in front of them?
A dull, unenticing subject line.
The average person receives as many as 120 emails per day. What can you do to stand out in that decision-makers inbox, and ultimately achieve a high open-rate in your cold email campaign?
Well, it starts with the subject line. Crafting creative subject lines is what sets the best cold emailers apart from those who claim it doesn't work.
That's why today, we're going to teach you everything you need to know to generate creative cold email subject lines on autopilot. You'll watch in bliss as your open rates soar - which leads to more clicks, which leads to more sales. We'll cover why this piece of the cold email puzzle is perhaps the most important, and we'll share some of our favorite subject line examples from this year.
Then, we'll let you in on a secret that will allow you to leverage AI to generate high-converting subject lines with just a few clicks. This guide will change the way you do cold email forever - let's get started.
Why Does Crafting Creative Subject Lines Matter So Much?
This may not be news to you, but the subject line is the first barrier to entry into your client's world. You don't exist to them until they've opened your cold email and gotten the opportunity to meet you and see what you have to offer. More specifically, how you can help them.
Think about it like this:
Your cold email subject line directly affects your open rate - meaning the percentage of people who actually click on your email to discover what is inside. Of that percentage, an even smaller quantity of people will take action on your email.
That could be booking a meeting on your calendar, hitting "reply" directly, requesting a demo for your service on-site, or making a purchase on your e-commerce store.
Whatever it is you're trying to accomplish with cold email, you need creative subject lines to get your foot in the door and even have a chance at converting your prospect into a customer.
Other Factors Affecting Open Rate Besides Your Subject Line
We want to take a moment to mention that you shouldn't live and die by your open rate. This is just one of many metrics you have at your disposal in evaluating cold email performance. Click-through rate is just as important and can be optimized in its own regard.
Other things that affect your open rate will determine how successful you can be with cold email, too. For example, consider your prospects - are they really the right people for you to be conducting cold outreach to?
You also have to factor in the time of day, the sender's name, other emails in the recipient's inbox, and much, much more. So, take your open rate with a grain of salt - it may not be your most limiting factor.
However, if you're here to learn about creative subject lines, you are making a great investment with your time. If you can discover what truly makes a creative subject line and start crafting these with a high rate of success, you'll be leaps and bounds above your competition.
What Makes A Creative Subject Line?
So, you now recognize how important the subject line itself can be. Maybe you already knew this. But what you may not know is what makes a creative subject line. So, what makes attention-grabbing subject lines?
Keep in mind that there is no magic bullet. You aren't going to organize certain words in your subject line and magically hypnotize your prospects into opening your email and replying with their credit card number. With that said, there are some things you can do to stand out in their inbox and achieve higher open rates.
Personalization
First and foremost, you need to be personalizing your subject lines. This is a no-brainer - but so many cold emailers overlook it.
You can add the recipient's first name to the subject line. Or if you're emailing a decision-maker to try and promote your services for their company, you can add the business name in the subject line instead. Or, add both! You can split test to see what level of personalization works best for your audience and your offer. Whatever you do, though, don't disregard personalization!
Factor In The Email Intro Text
While we're on this subject, we also want to mention that you should be personalizing your intro text, too. This is displayed just after your subject line in the inbox.
You can set your own opening line in the same way you would set a subject line. Most email platforms make this simple. Otherwise, you can allow it to be pulled from the first line of the body text. Either way, you must factor in the email intro text!
Keep It Short & Sweet
The subject lines we see contribute to high open rates are short and sweet. Be concise in your wording - the longer your subject line, the more reading you're asking the recipient to do. All the while, their attention is being grabbed by the subject lines directly above and below yours.
Subject lines are typically long-winded and wordy. By simply keeping things short and sweet, you'll stand out in the inbox. Short subject lines are the way to go!
Leave Something To Be Desired!
Don't try and sell your offer in the subject line. We see an alarming number of cold emailers trying to promote their service in the subject line itself! Take this cold email we received, for example:
"Need email marketing for Quicklines?"
Right off the bat, we know what we're going to find inside this email: a sales pitch for email marketing services. Unless we were actively looking to hire email marketers, this subject line would be highly ineffective. This person never stood a chance - even if they used the perfect cold email template paired with an amazing offer.
This sales pitch in the subject line is an automatic red flag to most decision-makers, who will quickly archive your email or mark it as spam before they even open it.
The most creative cold email subject lines don't even mention a product or service. Sometimes they mention a problem - or a pain point. Or, something completely out of left field that practically forces the recipient to click the email out of pure intrigue.
Without any further ado, let's get into what you came here for. A list of the most creative subject lines for cold emailers to implement in their own sequences.
Some Of The Most Creative Subject Lines We've Seen This Year
We're going to share some of the best cold email subject lines we've been sent ourselves this year. We'll also showcase a few amazing subject line examples we found circulating Twitter, forums, Facebook groups, and our community.
Creative Cold Email Subject Line #1 - The Simple, Personalized Question
"Question about [business name]"
This isn't necessarily the most creative subject line we've ever seen. But, we'd be remiss if we didn't highlight one of the most simple, effective cold email subject lines to date. It is short and sweet, and certainly generates interest in the prospect. Give it a try, and put your own creative spin on it for unbelievably high open rates. Here are some tweaks you can put on it:
"Question for [recipients name] at [business name]"
"Help with [business name]"
"Email at [business name]?"
As you can see, these are all incredibly simple and intriguing - many times, the recipient thinks a customer or potential client is reaching out for assistance. On the other side, they find that they are the ones being helped - as you highlight a pain point they have that can solve.
Creative Cold Email Subject Line #2 - A Relevant Connection
"We met at [connection event/location/platform]"
If you actually have a legitimate connection with your prospect, you can leverage this familiarity and relevancy in your email subject line for impressive results.
Maybe you hosted a live, virtual event and you now have a list of attendees, their business name, and their email - this cold email subject line wouldn't necessarily be a cold email subject line since there is some familiarity. Regardless, this is one of the best subject line examples we've seen. Here are some slight tweaks you can try specifically to your own offer and situation:
"Mutual connection with [mutual contacts name]" - for when you have a mutual contact with the prospect.
"Thanks for chatting on [social media platform]" - for when you respond to their post or thread on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
"Now that we've gotten acquainted..." - for when you connect on LinkedIn.
Creative Cold Email Subject Line #3
"re: your recent news"
The final email subject lines we want to highlight are those you'd use when a prospect has had exciting news recently. This can be a number of things: maybe their business secured funding or acquired a smaller company. Maybe they hit a huge revenue milestone. Or perhaps their business rolled out a new product or feature.
Whatever the case, you can easily find something to congratulate your prospect on in most cases. Simply look them up and see what news is circulating their business or person. People love being flattered - and incorporating this flattery into your subject line works wonders.
The example above is incredibly creative. If you simply congratulate them right in the subject line, they may not be inclined to open. When you just reference recent news, they are intrigued by what you have to say about it. But this is just one of many ways you can use this type of cold email subject line. Here are some other email subject line examples that feature a congratulatory element:
"Congrats on [achievement] - what's next?"
"You killed it at [event they spoke at, performance, etc.]"
"Always impressed by you."
"Thoughts on [recent speaking panel, publication, new feature, etc.]"
Using These Cold Email Subject Lines Effectively: Tips & Tricks
Now, we don't recommend you copy and paste these subject lines above into your own cold emails. This is laziness, and a sign you're not going to make it in the cold email game.
Instead, use these as inspiration - tweak them to fit your offer or audience. One of the biggest reasons people fail with cold email is due to disconnect somewhere in the funnel. This can be a disconnect between the subject line and your email body copy. Or, it can be a disconnect between the body copy and the landing page you take the recipient to. Make sure your entire funnel is in sync, so nothing feels "off" during your prospect's journey to becoming a customer.
We also encourage you to come with your own subject lines using similar tactics to the one above. Take a look at the subject lines that captivated you the most, and figure out why they captivated you in the first place. Chances are, you'll find fundamentals that you can go back to time and time again.
Different subject lines work better in different situations. You'll have to go through some trial and error on your journey to figure out what works.
In saying that, you should split test your cold email subject lines to figure out what works and what doesn't. Don't just take the examples above and replace your existing subject lines - run a split test and see what works. Once you've found a winner, tweak it and split test again! You can always seek improvement and come up with the best cold email subject line for your unique offer and prospects.
Create Personalized Subject Lines & Intro Text Through AI!
If you're struggling with cold email, that doesn't mean you can't see results from it with a little tweaking. You just need to work smarter, not harder. And there is no better way to do this than by using AI to help you craft creative subject lines and intro text!
These days, technology can write better than we do. There are marketing tools that can help you scale your business with ease.
Sound too good to be true? It's not - there is software that allows you to sit back and relax while producing high-converting subject lines and intro text on autopilot. Introducing: Quicklines, the #1 AI-powered email writer online.
How Quicklines Will Help You Get More Out Of Cold Emailing
Quicklines uses deep social scraping and trained AI-powered generation to develop new lines in under 3 seconds. With just a few clicks you can generate personalized cold email subject lines and body copy that converts your prospect into a lead. And, we've got results to back it up.
Our clients have generated over $4.7 million in revenue using our software. On average, you can expect a 150% increase in positive responses, a 4.3x increase in meetings booked, and a 333% connection request acceptance rate increase on LinkedIn.
With Quicklines churning out highly personalized and creative cold email subject lines, you're free to scale your business. You'll spend less time writing, more time on sales calls closing deals. This software is faster and cheaper than the competition, helping you get more done for less money. What more could you ask for?
Ready to get started? Head over to our site and create your account. Upload a list of prospects, and we'll give you 10+ lines for each prospect. You can save and send in just a click - it's really that easy. You're moments away from unlocking creative email subject lines on autopilot - don't wait any longer.
