15 Email Subject Lines That Increase Your Open Rate & Boost Sales

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Crafting the perfect email or an entire email sequence can be a time-consuming endeavor. Finally, you reach that crucial moment when you consider hitting the send button. However, there’s one vital element you can’t overlook: the all-important email subject line.

Will your subject line captivate the recipient’s interest, prompting them to open the email? Or will it lead the email straight to the trash folder?

Surprising research reveals that 47% of email recipients decide to open an email based solely on the subject line, leaving a whopping 53% who choose to delete it outright. Now, it’s time to reflect on your own email statistics.

If your data indicates that less than 53% of recipients are deleting your emails, congratulations are in order. However, if the numbers exceed this threshold, worry not.

In this blog post, you will discover the art of crafting effective email subject lines for your business, ensuring your emails are opened and not discarded.

Related: Ultimate toolkit for your online business

email subject line generators

How Many Words To Write?

How many words should you put in your subject line? Should you make it short or have a long phrase?

Business 2 Community did a study looking at characters of an email subject line. These are the results they found that subject lines that are shorter have higher open rates.

This has been put down to the fact more people are opening their emails on mobile devices. So if you’ve got a long subject line, it’ll get cut off. But keep it short and the recipient sees the whole email subject line.

But how many words should you have in a short email subject line?

Well, generally you should keep to 25 characters only. Here’s a list of email subject line statistics so you understand why 25 characters only.

  • 0 -5 words got a 16% open rate
  • 6 – 10 words got a 21% open rate
  • 11 – 15 words got a 14% open rate
  • 16 – 20 words got a 12% open rate
  • 21 – 25 words got a 9% open rate

As you can see from these statistics, shorter subject lines have higher open rates.

That might sound like a hard task to do. To get around this struggle, keep the main point to the start. If the rest of the subject line doesn’t make it onto your subscribers’ mobile screen, they are sold by those first words.

Should You Put The Name In An Email Subject Line?

Get a 50% increase in open rates when you personalize your email.

So just by adding the email recipient’s name increases your open rates? This is down to the psychology of marketing.

When you’re using a name, people feel warmer about that email. Feeling that it’s a message just for them. Even though they know deep down that you’ve sent the same email to many others.

But using their name does warm them up, this is why you ask for their name when signing up. So use their first name, make them feel special, and your open rates will increase.

What To Avoid In Email Subject Lines

If you put the wrong words in your subject lines, you could find yourself in the spam folder.

That’s a bad place to be as no one will ever see you there. That’s a complete waste of time for your email marketing efforts.

Don’t waste your time by writing the wrong words in your subject line. Avoid them at all costs with this list of words that you should be avoiding.

words to avoid in your email subject lines

Avoid these 20 words at all costs so you don’t end up in the spam folder.

Should You Put Emojis In Email Subject Lines? 😲

Emojis are those fun little pictures of smiling faces, symbols, or even a poo. They’ve become part of how we speak when texting or emailing friends and family. But should you use emojis for your business emails?

Search engine journal did a study on this and found that emojis simply don’t make any impact on your open rate. But restrict your use of emojis. Don’t use emojis to write the subject line or use too many. Use 1 or 2 emojis in your subject line at the start or end of the subject line.

Think about your email recipient, is it appropriate to send an email subject with an emoji?

Should You Use An Email Subject Line Generator?

If you’re not a great copywriter and are overwhelmed by all of the copywriting tricks, then an email subject line generator is the best choice for you. An email subject line generator either reads your content and creates the best subject line for you. Or you type in a few keywords what your content is about and a subject line is created.

There are many tools out there to create an email subject line. Just choose the one that fits what you need.

Check out these 11 email subject line generators that’ll boost your open rate when you’re suffering from writer’s block

email templates

15 Email Subject Lines With High Open Rates

You’ve created that lead magnet, now you need to start sending emails to those prospects. Use these 15 ideas that have high open rates when you’re crafting your email.

Check Out These 3 Secrets to More Clicks in Your Emails

sales funnel leads

Sales Prospecting

Choosing the right email subject lines for your sales prospecting is vital. It’s a make-or-break situation for your cold outreach campaigns.

If you’re running a freelancing business and want to get clients, use these effective subject lines for sales prospecting.

Here’s a list of the top 5 subject lines that you should be using in your cold outreach campaign.

  • X ways we can help
  • How do you deal with [pain point]?
  • I’ve got an idea for X?
  • I found you through [referral name]
  • A [benefit] for [prospects company]

Next time your cold pitching someone, consider one of these 5 ideas to increase your open rates.

email pitch

Following Up

You’ve cold-pitched someone, whether they replied to you or not you need to follow up with them. By following up you show that you really care about helping them.

Here are 5 ideas for you to write in your next follow-up subject line.

  • Here’s that info I promised you
  • I had this idea since we last spoke
  • Our next steps
  • X options to get started
  • Heres a plan to help with [pain point]

The money’s in the follow up, so be sure to follow up with a prospect after your conversation with them.

You know that conversation so you can learn more about them and know how to position your product to them. Position your product and make it more appealing.

email marketing mistakes

Urgency

Using language in your email that creates a sense of urgency will do one thing. It’ll push the reader to make a decision quickly.

Use urgency words when you’re now writing your third follow up email.

You want the prospect to act now and buy your freelance services. Words that create this sense of urgency include

  • Act now
  • Limited-time offer
  • Time sensitive
  • Deadline approaching
  • Don’t miss out

As you can see these urgency phrases are very short, 2 – 3 words only. Remember, you want a short subject line for those mobile users.

If you’re going to use urgency in your subject line. Keep the same tone of language throughout your email copy so you keep that sense of urgency.

Plus use a countdown timer in your email so you push that sense of urgency.

Conclusion

Using these 15 email subject lines in your freelance business throughout your email campaign, you’ll increase your revenue. You now know what subject lines to write for prospecting, following up, and sending that final email.

About Post Author

Alison Wolf

Helping you to build an online business so you have an extra stream of income or quit the day job. Don't forget to follow me on social media using the handle @heyalisonwolf