The best subject lines for cold email

🤝 Please reply and let me know what you think of this shorter structure for the main story. I thought a more concise value-oriented format might be preferred over the usual deep dives

Less is more ethos aside, let’s dive in! 🚀

1. Newsletter News

2. Get Good Open Rates

3. Recommended reading

4. Inbox Banter

^{Write Killer Subject Lines Without Spamming}

The first, and arguably most important element of outreach, is the subject line.

I prefer a simple and honest approach, which is refreshingly also the most effective.

⌛️ 2 - 3 words, definitely under 5

🙌 A simple phrase that describes the topic and nature of the ensuing conversation. For example, if you’re a crypto newsletter, reaching out to crypto companies, the subject ‘Crypto Newsletter’ will do well.

👺 Keeping the line concise and relevant will also increase the likelihood of recipients opening it without initially thinking ‘Here goes another cold email’. Ideally you want the subject (and preview) to look ambiguously relevant and potentially confused with an internal email. The ‘Crypto Newsletter’ example could feasibly be an internal email at a crypto company.

🧱 Keep It Capitalised

TLDR: Concise, Relevant & Honest.

Plenty of smart people advocate for including the prospect’s name in the subject line, something like “Dan, Quick Question?”.

Whilst these do often have good open rates, personally I think they immediately scream ‘sales’ and set the wrong tone. Partly because it’s just overused now. What works today won’t work as well in 6 months as everyone and their dog incorporates it into their sequences.

Track opens, iterate and optimise. Just be sure that you have a large enough sample size for data to be relevant, which is much harder in sales than marketing.