Email subject lines are the most important part of any email you send. That’s because they’re the key to whether a reader opens your email, ignores it, orwhy they go to spam.
This blog will discuss email subject lines, their importance, email subject line best practices, and what to avoid while creating one.
But most importantly, we’ll also share 121 email subject line examples you can use toincrease open rates.
Plus, we’ll help you understand the psychology behind them so you can replicate their success again and again.
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Great Subject Lines Are Only Half the Battle
Even the best email subject lines won’t drive open rates if you’re sending them to the wrong audience.
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An email subject line is a brief preview or a one-line summary of the content of an email that appears in the inbox. The best email subject lines grab readers’ attention, provide value to the recipient, and encourage them to open the email.
Here is an email marketing subject line example.
It is usually the subject line that determines whether a reader would open your email or ignore it.
According toemail research by Zippia,47% of email recipients open an email based on the subject line alone. At the same time,69% of email recipients report emails as spammy based solely on the subject line.
In other words: your subject lines can make or break youremail marketing campaigns.
By using good email subject lines, you can increase open rates, which can help improve click-through rates and conversions.
Email marketing subject lines are important for several other reasons as well, such as:
The subject line is the first impression that the recipient will have of the email. It’s important to make it count.
Let’s see 121+ catchy email subject line examples and the proven principles that make them work.
One psychological principle that is practically impossible to resist isFOMO, the fear of missing out. You can use this fear in your subject lines by adding an element of scarcity (limited availability) or urgency (limited time).
Email subject lines that include words that imply time sensitivity, like “urgent”, “breaking”, “important” or “alert” are proven to increase email open rates.
Here are some great sample subject lines for emails that use the fear of missing out:
Humans have a natural desire for closure. We don’t like having gaps in our knowledge. You can leverage this desire for closure by leaving your subject line open-ended so subscribers will be curious, like a cliffhanger that can only be satisfied by opening the email.
You can make subscribers curious by asking a question, promising something interesting, or simply saying something that sounds strange or unusual.
Here are some great examples of curiosity-inducing subject lines:
If your subject line makes your subscribers laugh, they must open it. After all, have you ever read a subject line that tickled your funny bone and didn’t read it?
Being humorous and catchy requires more thought and creativity, but it can pay off in terms of your open rates.
Here are some funny email subject lines to make your subscribers laugh:
Everyone has a bit of vanity. People love to be liked, accepted, and even revered by others. It’s just a part of being human.
That’s why some of the most clever subject lines use vanity to get you to open the email. To do this, you can either promise something that makes the subscriber look better to their peers or invoke the fear of being shamed.
Here are some great examples of clever email subject lines that leverage vanity:
You may not think of yourself as a “greedy” person, but it can be tough to pass up a great deal, even if you don’t need the item right now. That’s whysales, discounts, and special offers work well in your subject lines.
However, be careful about offering massive discounts; the higher the percentage, the less reliable its effect on your open rates (perhaps because consumers don’t believe large discounts are real).
Regardless, you can usually expect an increase inclick-through rates whenever you offer a discount in your subject line. That’s because the people who open these emails are interested in your offer, so they’re naturally inclined to click.
Here are some great email subject line ideas for hitting your subscriber’s “greed” button:
Catchy email subject lines create excitement and encourage readers to open the email.
There are many different ways to grab your readers’ attention. For example, you can create an attention-grabbing catchy email subject line by being controversial, confident, or conversational.
You can also give readers an easier way to achieve their goals by offering a shortcut or a helpful resource (e.g., a lead magnet) that saves time and energy.
Here are a few catchy email subject line examples that capture the readers’ attention in one way or another.
If you understand yourbuyer persona, you should know their biggest pain points. Use those pain points to get subscribers to open your emails by solving that problem.
Here are some examples of email subject lines that bring out the subscriber’s pain points and offer a solution:
Retargeting emails are sent to subscribers when they fail to complete an action or a step in your sales funnel (e.g., when theyabandon their cart or fail to purchase after their free trial). These emails serve to bring your subscribers back to your sales process.
You can write effective retargeting subject lines by overcoming objections, offering something to sweeten the deal, or alerting them that something bad will happen if they don’t take action.
Here are some excellent examples of retargeting email subject lines:
Email subject lines that usepersonalization by including a name boost open rates by 10-14% across industries.
But including your subscriber’s name is only one way to make personalized subject lines. You can also use casual language, share something personal, or use copy that implies familiarity or friendship.
Here are some examples of personal email subject lines that work:
When in doubt, make your subject line simple. Contrary to what you might think, these “boring” subject lines can convert well.
The key to making this work for your list is consistently providing value in your emails. Only send an email if you have something important to say: always make sure your campaigns are packed with value. If you do this, you’ll train your subscribers to open your emails no matter what the subject line says.
For help with writing better emails, check out our post on19 quick and dirty tricks for writing better emails.
Here are a few examples of email marketing subject lines that get straight to the point:
And these “boring” subject lines performed the highest out of40 million emails, with open rates between 60-87%.
Sales email subject lines are specifically crafted to promote and sell a product or service to potential customers.
These subject lines grab the recipient’s attention and create a sense of urgency or exclusivity. They often use phrases like “limited time,” “exclusive offer,” or “sneak peek” to entice the recipient to open the email and take advantage of the promotion.
They often include a clearcall to action, such as “Shop now” or “Learn more,” to encourage the recipient to take action and purchase.
Here are a few examples of effective sales email subject lines that work very well:
Newsletter email subject lines are used to promote and share regular updates, news, or information with subscribers.
Newsletters, often sent regularly, such as weekly or monthly, are intended to keep subscribers engaged and informed about the latest developments related to the brand or industry.
Here are a few examples of newsletter email subject lines:
Learn more about newsletters in the following articles:
Follow-up email subject lines are used to remind or follow up with a recipient after an initial email has been sent. They are often used for cold emails in sales or networking situations, where a prompt response is needed to close a deal or establish a relationship.
Here are a few examples of follow-up email subject lines that work:
Cold email subject lines are used to outreach prospects or potential customers. They are often used in sales or networking situations where the goal is to generate leads or establish new business relationships.
These types of subject lines are designed to be personalized, brief, and intriguing. They often use phrases like “introducing,” “would you be interested,” or “let’s chat” to communicate the purpose of the email in a friendly and non-invasive manner.
They often include a clear value proposition or a statement of how the sender can help the recipient further establish the potential benefits of engaging with the email.
Here are a few examples of cold email subject lines:
Many studies have analyzed the effectiveness of using specific email subject line keywords. Use these keywords to boost your open rates even further when crafting youremail copy and subject lines.
According tostudies by Alchemy Worx, which analyzed 45 billion emails, some of the most effective subject line keywords were:
Based onDigital Marketer’s analysis of 125 million emails, some top subject line keywords to try are:
Adestra analyzed over 2.2 billion emails and found the following top subject line keywords:
In another study from Adestra, which looked at over 125K email campaigns, the top-performing subject line keywords were:
Finally, a report bySmart Insights looked at a random sample of 700 million emails and found that the top-performing subject line keywords were:
Did you know . . .
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Following theseemail subject line best practices, you can craft subject lines that grab your audience’s attention, increase open rates, and drive engagement.
When you’re creating that perfect email subject line, try to avoid the following mistakes:
Before choosing a subject line at random, remember these tips for the highest possible open rates.
Regardless of which of the above techniques you use, make sure your subject line is optimized for mobile users.
While mobile access to email saw a dip at the end of 2018, it’s still the preferred way people access their email.
You can use free marketing tools likeEmailToolTester’s subject line checker to see how your sender name, subject line, and preview text will appear on various popular mobile devices.
Simply enter your email details and select which device you want to view:
Then you can see exactly how your email will look in mobile inboxes:
Also, remember that being original is the key to sustainable success with your email subject lines.
The truth is subscribers get bored easily. If you want to engage first-time openers and long-term inactive subscribers, you don’t want them to read your subject line and think, “There’s that weekly newsletter again that I always ignore.”
You should keep things fresh and exciting. And writing good subject lines for emails is the best way to do that.
According to a report by Experian, using emojis in your subject lines canincrease your open rates by 45%.
We’ve also been testing this at OptinMonster, and we can confirm that the email subject lines with emojis beat the plain text ones!
Here are thetop 15 emojis by subject line appearance.
These aren’t necessarily the “best” ones but the most popular. You can get creative with emojis and emoji combinations for your email subject lines.
That’s it! We hope you found these 121 best subject lines for emails helpful in creating your next subject line. If you did, consider downloading the cheat sheet, so you can always have this guide handy.
Email subject lines are critical to any email marketing campaign, especially for those in the eCommerce industry. They can make or break the success of an email campaign, especially during peak sales events like Black Friday.
Now it’s your turn. Choose one of the subject line examples above to modify and make your own.
Consider incorporating top subject line keywords to boost your newsletter open rates even more.
Crafting compelling email subject lines is essential for increasing open rates, but it’s only part of the equation. No matter how engaging your subject line is, if your emails land in the inbox of someone who isn’t truly interested, your open rates will suffer. That’s where OptinMonster makes the difference.
With OptinMonster, you canbuild a high-quality email list by attracting the right subscribers using popups,slide-ins,floating bars, andgamified spin-to-win optins. Our advanced targeting and segmentation features ensure you’re capturing leads who are genuinely interested in your content, products, or services. You can personalize offers based on user behavior, location, time spent on the page, and more, ensuring the right people opt in to your list.
OptinMonster’s exit-intent technology detects when visitors are about to leave your site and presents them with irresistible offers, turning abandoning visitors into engaged subscribers.
Why settle for low open rates when you can grow an email list full of people who actually want to hear from you?
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Mary can you please help me write a great introductory email to several new clients? I am in the transportation/logistics industry.
Thank you!
We’ve got some great examples ofpromotional emails, Alejandro. Hope this helps. 🙂
For any brand today, yearning for an effective online presence, it is must have to increase the email open rates. And without a doubt, an eye catching email subject lines is one such way to grab the user’s attention which make readers prompt to read emails.
I feel that is among the most significant information for me. And i’m happy studying your article. However wanna commentary on few normal things, The site taste is great, the articles is really excellent : D. Excellent job, cheers
I’m learning how to write catchy subject lines, and this article was very helpful. Thank you!
When asking a company for something like a donation or samples of their products what is the best thing to say in the subject line of your email?
Hi, Kelly. Great question. We’ve got an article onhow non-profits can use email marketing to increase donations that you might find useful. Don’t forget to follow us onTwitter andFacebook to get more tips on email subject lines and other marketing topics.
Hey Mary,
Your blog is excellent. However, Subject lines mentioned in your blog doesn’t suit at professional level. Could you please help me in figuring out subject lines while sending a professional email to a stranger asking for a favour?
Thanks in advance.
Hi Vereendra, you’re right; this article is about email marketing, rather than writing letters. Maybe this article where people dissect theirmost successful subject lines will provide some inspiration? Hope that’s helpful, and pleasefollow us on Twitterso you’ll know immediately when we publish something new on this topic.
Glad you found it helpful, Novelyn. Check out our post on running anemail marketing campaign for more tips. 🙂
Hey there! Thank you for all of the information on your site! I’ve found a lot of it helpful, as email marketing has been very challenging for me, but I did notice that there’s some contradicting info in this article with another from your site. In the above article, there are several examples that use words that are also said to flag spam filters in the article titled “11 Reasons Why Your Emails Go in the Spam Box (and How to Make Sure They Don’t)” and in the “this comprehensive list” link under the #10 heading of that article. Can you clarify for me? I have very low open rates with my emails and I want to make sure I’m understanding what I’m getting wrong. Your expertise is much appreciated! Thanks again for the time spent gathering all of the info in your articles and for your advice! 🙂
Hey Katie, great question! It’s true that it’s smart to avoid certain words that can be associated with spammy emails. However, using those words won’t necessarily automatically flag your email as spam – rather they’re just one of many signals that email services look for when deciding whether or not an email is spam.
If you’re writing good subject lines, followingdeliverability best practices, and keeping youremail list cleaned, and still seeing low open rates, it could be that your emails aren’t targeted towards your subscribers’ interests. For example, if someone signs up for vegan recipes and starts getting emails with hamburger recipes, they aren’t likely to open them. That’s an extreme example, but the more targeted your emails are to your subscriber’s interests, the better your engagement will be. That’s one reason why it’s important tosegment your list.
Hope that helps!
Mary,
These subject lines are awesome. U copied some of them so I can use for email marketing. This is like a gold cave for email marketers. Thank you.
Hmm it appears like your site ate my first comment (it was super long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I wrote and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I too am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still new to the whole thing. Do you have any tips for beginner blog writers? I’d genuinely appreciate it.
Hi Larry! Glad you’re enjoying the blog. Our friends at WPBeginner have written a comprehensive guide to starting a blog:https://www.wpbeginner.com/start-a-wordpress-blog/ Hope this helps!
Wow, what an incredibly detailed and informative guide on crafting effective email subject lines! The breakdown of different types of subject lines, along with numerous examples, really helps illustrate the principles at work. I particularly appreciate the emphasis on understanding the psychology behind subject lines and how they can influence recipient behavior.
Your inclusion of various strategies, from leveraging FOMO to using emojis, provides a comprehensive toolkit for marketers looking to optimize their email campaigns. Additionally, the best practices and common mistakes sections offer valuable insights for ensuring that subject lines not only capture attention but also deliver on their promises.
Overall, this post serves as an invaluable resource for anyone looking to improve their email marketing efforts. Thanks for sharing such valuable tips and examples!
Hmm I’m curious, is there any hidden tips when it comes to SEO?
Because, my business has not been performing well lately.
We have several articles that can help you with your site’s SEO. Here are a few to get you started:
•SEO Beginner’s Guide: Learn the Basics + Top Tips
•10 SEO Ranking Factors
•15 SEO Tips for Instant Traffic Boost
•On-Page SEO Checklist: 10 Steps to Better Search Rankings
•What Is Off-Page SEO? 15 Proven Tips
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