Are you crafting the best email subject lines? Or are you using the same email subject lines you’ve always used, hoping they’ll work. Here are 14 of the best email subject line examples that increases your open rate and click through rate.
Email subject lines have to draw your recipients in, especially when you have a good deal of company emails reaching their inboxes every day. Your email must be stand out from the hordes of other emails they are reading, or they will simply move on to the next email without opening it. This is what makes your email subject line so important.
How to write great email subject lines
- Hook them immediately. Use interesting words, a compelling stat, a relatable phrase, or convey the value.
- Have fun with them. An ample amount of alliteration attracts! And rhyming. And song lyrics. And emojis. Those tiny little communication miracles of the metaverse.
- Write conversationally. Write like a human being. Even if your brand has a more serious tone, it’s still best to use a conversational style for readability and friendliness. For example, use contractions like “you’re” rather than “you are.”
- Call readers to action. It’s never a bad idea to try a call to action phrase in your email subject line. This makes it clear what your email is about and readers like that.
- Ask a question: Asking your readers a question, as opposed to a standard statement, immediately engages them. Questions enter an instant dialogue with users, making them more likely to be opened.
- Rough day?
- Are you making these X mistakes?
- Will you save 50%?
- Look at your own inbox. If you see great subject lines that you think will work for your business, snag’em! Tweak to your liking and adjust to your brand voice.
- Emphasize scarcity: We have a deep, inherent terror of being left behind, of missing out. That flock mentality was a survival instinct once, but now it’s just another way of adding urgency to our subject lines.
- Pay X for Y (48 hours only!)
- Ends today! 36-hours outlet sale. This is your last chance…
- 5 hours only!
- Use brackets and parentheses: These are a good way to call out important information without caps, or to organize lots of information.
- Use you/your. While name-calling is on the out, it’s still considered a best practice to use “you” and “your” wording to speak directly and comfortably with readers.
- Be specific. Even if you’re incorporating an element of mystery into your subject line, it should still give the reader some idea of what they can expect.
“We Saw You Checking Us Out 😏”
Sender: DollsKill
A clothing brand like DollsKill uses cookies to monitor what its customers have been eyeing. By sending an email subject line reminding them of items they admired can reel customers right back into their next purchase. The statement itself has a playful and conversational tone that comes off flirty, a reflection of its company branding.
The emoji also adds more fun and temptation to the message — reiterating that “you know you want to” feeling regarding items they have already clicked on before.
“Uh-oh, your prescription is expiring”
Sender: Warby Parker
Not too long ago, a HubSpot alum received this email two weeks before he needed to renew his prescription — talk about great timing. And when your eye prescription is expiring, it happens to be an excellent time to upgrade your glasses. By sending an email at the right time, Warby Parker increased its chances of this email getting opened.
But timing isn’t the sole reason we included this example. This subject line is brilliant because it appeared at the right time and with the right tone. Using conversational words like “uh-oh,” keeping the subject line sentence case, and leaving out the period in the end, the subject line comes across as helpful and friendly — not as a company trying to upsell you.
“The timer’s going off on your cart!”
Sender: King Arthur Flour
Similar to Warby Parker, this subject line makes use of urgency. If I don’t take action on my King Arthur Flour shopping cart — like actually buying the items — it will be cleared, and I’ll have to start all over again.
Okay, so maybe this is a low-risk scenario. But when it comes to my baking goods, I personally don’t like to take any chance of forgetting what I was going to buy. That’s where the personalization aspect of this subject line comes in: King Arthur Flour — especially its online shop — tends to attract both professional and home bakers who take all things culinary a bit more seriously than, say, someone who only buys flour on occasion from the supermarket. And wouldn’t you know? Those are the same bakers who probably don’t want to spend time building their shopping carts from scratch.
The moral of the story: Know your audience when you’re writing email subject lines. Is there something that they take seriously more than others? If so, incorporate that into your copy.
“What Did You Think? Write a Review.”
Sender: REI
I received an email with this subject line about a week after buying a portable stove at REI. I had just gotten back from a camping trip, too. It was perfect timing for them to ask me what I thought of it.
Companies ask satisfied customers to write reviews of their business all the time. But when you specifically send these requests to the people who just purchased something from you, you’re being smart with your mailing list and reaching recipients whose interest is still warm.
Another reason this subject line works? It’s not expecting a good review. REI is genuinely asking me what I thought of the stove I bought. Maybe I hated it (though I didn’t). The company just wanted me to speak up.
Content promotion email subject lines
Sharing content via email can help drive traffic to your website and give exposure to content that your readers might not know to search for online. Remember, a great blog post title makes for a great subject line, so indicate the value of the content and quantify when possible to give the reader an idea of what to expect.
- How to Plan Your Move in an Hour or Less 🕑
- [Ebook] ⚡️ Speeding up the Development and Design of Websites ⚡️
- Steal our Marketing Hacks (Seriously!)
- 15 Business Card Templates Up for Grabs
- [FREE GUIDE]: Name of Guide
- Guide Inside! 8 Ways to [Achieve Benefit]
- How to Start a Business [Free Guide]
- 🙌 Finally—a cheat sheet to [topic]! 🙌🏾
- The last guide to [topic] you’ll ever need.
- Top Secret! 🤫 X Lesser-Known Ways to Improve Your [X]
- Name, X% of [compelling stat from or relevant to your content]
Customer appreciation subject lines
Engage your customers with customer appreciation emails, and not just on Customer Appreciation Day! (Changes annually, usually in April or May). You can send these emails whenever you want—on holidays, anniversaries or just because. Personalize these when you can, and do NOT use the words “valued customers.”
- Free gift. No catch. Just because. ❤️
- Our way of saying thanks…
- Hi Kristen, enjoy this token 🏆 of our appreciation.
- Customer Appreciation Day calls for a celebration…
- Customers like you deserve freebies like these
- Thank you for X years together! 🎁
- Happy [business name]versary! Grab your discount
Event email subject lines
Event emails should almost always come in a series: the invite email, the reminder, and the thank you/follow-up.
Invite
- Back by popular demand: [Event Name] Round II!
- It’s That Time Again…Annual [Event Name] April 12
- We’re in Town! Free Tacos in City Square 🌮
- Yappy Hour this Wednesday @ Bark Park!
- You’re Invited! Startup Success Breakfast (Come hungry!)
- Save Your Spot Now! SEO Webinar – Limited Seats 🪑
- Paul, join my June 8 workshop for designers.
- Monday: Pub Run at 6 pm!
- You’re invited: The Future of CMX [Spots limited!] 🏃🏾
- [Webinar]: Cut Your Costs in Half – in Half the Time!
- Don’t miss out…Game Watching Party!
- Let’s talk CAC – Q&A Session 5/28
- Meet the Author: Irma Haskin [TUESDAY @ 2pm]
Follow up
- So… how was it? Share your #hashtag pics!
- That was a blast! [Pics included!]
- Thanks for coming out!
- We loved seeing your face!
- Thanks for attending [event name]!
Follow up email subject lines
In some cases, a simple “Re: [original subject line]” works just fine for follow-up emails. If you’ve tried this to no avail or if this is part of a nurture series, consider these:
- [Name], did our guide help?
- Another resource for you, [Name]!
- Your recent download—any questions?
- Any questions on the quote we sent over?
- Touching base re: gutter cleaning estimate
- [Name] here, following up on your floor plan
- Hi [Name], checking in since our last chat
Holiday email subject lines
Call me biased, but LOCALiQ is holiday subject line heaven. It is also there that you will find a treasure trove of seasonal subject lines for every month of the year. Here’s the list:
- August email subject lines
- September email subject lines
- October email subject lines
- November email subject lines
- December email subject lines
- January email subject lines
- February email subject lines
- March email subject lines
- April email subject lines
You might also be interested in writing a holiday customer greeting email.
Conclusion
There’s nothing more important than a good email subject line — unless that subject line went to your Gmail promotions tab and didn’t even get opened.