In Lesson #1, I mentioned that one of the things people get wrong with cold email is that they don’t capture attention quickly enough.
Your subject and opening lines are where you make this happen.
As you probably already know, your subject line is the “title” of your message. It’s what’s visible in your recipients’ inbox when you message them.
What you might not know is that:
33% of email recipients open email based on subject line alone. (Hubspot)
69% of email recipients report email as spam based solely on the subject line. (Hubspot)
Basically, it’s in your best interests to get your subject line right. How do you do it? Keep the following seven best practices in mind:
One variable you can play with as you write your subject lines is length. According to Hubspot, subject lines with 30 or fewer characters have an above average open rate.
You won’t know for sure if this statistic applies to your unique audience until you test it. Include a few short subject lines in your future tests to see if it holds true.
Hubspot reports that personalized subject lines are 22.2% more likely to be opened.
If your mailing service supports it, test different personalization options in your cold sales emails:
In the case of cold emails, subject lines that create a sense of urgency and exclusivity can result in a 22% higher open rate – that is, if you use them right.