A sales prospecting email is a crucial tool for generating leads and building relationships with potential customers. However, if your email subject line is not catchy, relevant, and personalized, you might lose the opportunity to get your message opened and read. In this article, you will learn how to optimize your sales prospecting email subject line using four simple steps.
The first step to optimize your sales prospecting email subject line is to know your audience. You need to understand who you are emailing, what their pain points are, and how your solution can help them. This will help you craft a subject line that speaks to their needs, interests, and goals. For example, if you are emailing a marketing manager who wants to increase their website traffic, you might use a subject line like: "How to boost your web traffic by 50% in 30 days".
Take out "I" statements and always lead with what is in it for the person reading the email. Nobody cares what you, as the salesperson/marketing rep, wants from this interaction. Always be bringing a value add!
Knowing your customers is always a data drive game - Cold calls, EDMs and direct mails always being ignored due to irrelevance. To achieve hyper personalised messaging to boost up the highest open rate & conversion, accurate data to scientifically break your customers into micro segments will be the first priority. In my experience of e-commerce. Most effective way will be based on customers” purchasing life cycles: i.e. source of channel funnelling (where they from to you website/App) , data of browsing categories and sorting logics (what products they searching, whats buy factors) etc. After forming at least 4-9 groups of segments eg. price or quality? time and thematics? Then we talk about the best sales content and headlines.
Getting to know your audience is the secret sauce! It steers us in the right direction to pinpoint those pain points. Understanding what they need is like the magic touch for creating personalized emails. Quick tip: spend 3-5 minutes on research and prospecting—it's the perfect recipe to kick off a great conversation.
The decision to open an email happens in just a fraction of a second, and it is mostly unconscious. Being relevant to your customer is critical if you want to write an effective email subject. And, to achieve such a relevance, you need to know your customer: What do they care about? What are their pains? What are their priorities? Sometimes we don’t have all this information about a specific customer, but we can always use information about the industry and/or other similar customers. The more specific the better. If you can’t answer those questions, you probably won’t be able to generate interest and therefore, the person on the other side won’t open the email.
Use subject lines that cut right to the core of the most pressing needs or pain of that recipient – that’s why it is so important to understand their world and role. “How to deal with ______.” “What to do about _________.” If you truly know your audience and are an equivalent subject matter in the space, you should be able to interact with them as a peer with an inside line. Your email subject line should set the tone for that interaction.
The second step to optimize your sales prospecting email subject line is to use clear and concise language. You want to avoid vague, generic, or spammy words that might confuse or annoy your recipients. Instead, you want to use specific, actionable, and benefit-oriented words that convey your value proposition and create curiosity. For example, instead of saying: "A great offer for you", you might say: "Save $500 on our premium package today".
Let's keep it real and straightforward. Using honest words is the way to go. Nothing's worse than causing confusion for the prospect. No beating around the bush—being upfront not only avoids misunderstandings but also lays the foundation for a genuine relationship that lasts.
Brevity is the KEY to a successful subject line, and email frankly. The average C Suite employee spends about 72% of their working day in meetings, 42% of which are one-on-ones. So assuming they never focus on any other tasks, take a lunch, bathroom break or moment to breath, they get a laughable % of their working day to check email. And if they are checking it while on a meeting, you get disqualified even quicker. The way to weed through that? - Accept that you more often won't. (Lower Expectations) - Be concise. (Brevity) - Add value. (Personal Interest) - Use specific language. (Break the inbox flow.) Bad example: Noticed your Q1 goal was [initiative] - we help orgs like yours. Good example: Q1 [initiative] help? - Roll Tide, Jon
The best advice I ever got was to "speak your customer's language". You are competing for attention; you will succeed if they find your subject line attractive. It's that simple, but it's not that easy.
Absolutely! Being direct and honest without using gimmicks is key to optimizing your sales prospecting email subject line. Avoiding vague, generic, or spammy words ensures that your message is clear and easily understood by your recipients. Using specific, actionable, and benefit-oriented language helps convey your value proposition and creates curiosity, making your subject line more compelling. By being direct and honest, you build trust with your audience and increase the chances of them engaging with your email. Remember, authenticity is always appreciated by your prospects.
Avoid unclear or spammy phrases that might puzzle your recipients. Instead, focus on clear, action-oriented language that shows what you're offering. For example, rather than a vague "A great offer for you," be specific like "Save $500 on our premium package today." This way, your message is easy to grasp, highlighting the benefits and making people curious to open your email.
The third step to optimize your sales prospecting email subject line is to personalize and customize it. You want to make your recipients feel special and unique, not like they are part of a mass campaign. You can do this by using their name, company name, industry, location, or any other relevant information that you have. You can also use segmentation and automation tools to tailor your subject line to different segments of your audience based on their behavior, preferences, or stage in the sales cycle. For example, if you are emailing a prospect who downloaded your ebook, you might use a subject line like: "Hi John, did you enjoy our ebook on sales strategies?"
Try using the prospects SSN. This will ensure you did your research which the prospect will respect, and will yield a near 100% open rate.
If you want your emails to be opened, you need to generate either interest or curiosity. Make it relevant, make it interesting and make it personal.
Add your own credibility and track record if possible, if they are remotely interested: 1. Make sure your own Linkedin profile is aligned to what your emailing about and you have a link to it available 2. Try to go a step further with your research about them and create value (Eg. Use GPT to summarise the CEO's comments in the last Annual report and link your solution to: The persons role, the goal and potential challenges) 3. Try to find common a connection if possible (eg. past companies, networks etc.)
Start from subject matter should be personalized to grab attention to the portential client and they have to open the mail after seeing the subject. This is the first level sucess for email campaign.
You want to make it sound as normal as possible. When was the last time you received an email with your first name in the subject line and the sender wasn't trying to sell or get something from you? Can you use insider language that only someone in your industry would know? A Head of Product Partnerships at a tech company will likely open an email that says "API Integration with company X" vs "Partnership opportunity" Why? Because the first one is highly specific, the sender understands the type of partnership they are doing and what the recipient's role covers. Both are partnerships and do mean the same thing. The first one clearly understand what the recipients is doing, the second is too broad and could be anything.
The fourth and final step to optimize your sales prospecting email subject line is to test and optimize it. You want to measure the performance of your subject lines and see which ones generate the most opens, clicks, replies, and conversions. You can use tools like A/B testing, analytics, or feedback surveys to compare different versions of your subject lines and see what works best for your audience. You can also use best practices and benchmarks to guide your optimization process. For example, according to HubSpot, the optimal length for a sales prospecting email subject line is between three and seven words.
By following these four steps, you can optimize your sales prospecting email subject line and increase your chances of getting your email opened, read, and responded to. Remember, your subject line is the first impression that you make on your prospects, so make it count.
Once you've crafted your sales email subject line, it's crucial to test and improve it. Testing helps find the best-performing lines that attract more people to open, click, reply, and convert. Tools like A/B testing, analytics, or surveys compare different versions to discover what resonates most with your audience. I follow tips from experts like HubSpot, aiming for subject lines of 3 to 7 words, using these benchmarks to optimize and improve my emails for better results.
One of the key benefits of the digital world is the access to data, it is almost effortless and instant. Learning how to test and optimize is important because what works today may not work tomorrow. What works for an industry may not work for another industry. Do you want to be a leader or a follower? Keep in mind that you are competing for the customer's attention and even a small detail can make an enormous difference. When creating a campaign, you must have a measurement plan in place: define a goal, a benchmark to beat and a timeline. I suggest using the SMART methodology. If you learn how to do that consistently (measure -> learn -> optimize), you will always be one step ahead.
This allows you to measure the performance of your subject lines and make data-driven decisions. By testing different versions of your subject lines and analyzing the results, you can determine which ones generate the most opens, clicks, replies, and conversions. This helps you understand what resonates with your audience and allows you to make improvements based on their preferences. Additionally, by following best practices and benchmarks, such as the optimal length suggested by HubSpot, you can further refine your subject lines for maximum effectiveness. Ultimately, this final step helps you increase your email's chances of being opened, read, and responded to, making it a crucial part of the overall sales prospecting process.
Conventional email wisdom in 2023 says - make it sound like the email originated internally. That is par for the course today. However, you need split test aggressively. Different people from different geographies open similar subjects drastically differently. Back in the day, when “John, quick question” was in vogue - we saw open rates varying between 15% and 70% based on the persona and geo being targeted. - HR in India was 15%. - HR in the US was 30%. - Sales in India was 70%. - Sales in the US was 55%. Make it sound internal, but test extensively. At least 300 prospects per Subject, ideally higher.
A/B testing as suggested is a very important activity while testing Subject lines. Open rates and response rates are the key indicators of subject lines getting the approvals
Use internal language or customer language to make a subject line that sticks out. When creating a subject line for a sales email to a person who has never spoken to you before, create subject lines that could be similar to what a colleague or a customer could have sent them. Never lie in the subject line with click bait but use 2-3 words to create curiosity around what could be in the message.
Here are a few tips to consider: 1. Personalization: Address the recipient by their name to show that the email is tailored to them. For example, "John, an opportunity you don't want to miss!" 2. Urgency: Create a sense of urgency by using words like "limited," "exclusive," or "ending soon." 3. Benefit-driven: Clearly state the benefits or value proposition in the subject line to catch the recipient's attention. 4. Questions: Pose a thought-provoking question in the subject line to engage the recipient's curiosity. 5. Short and concise: Keep your subject line concise and limit it to around 5-7 words to make it easily readable. Remember to test different subject lines and measure their open rates to see what resonates. Happy hunting!
There isn't a secret formula, and what works today may not work tomorrow. Rather than having a "set of rules", for example: keep it short, no numbers etc... I rather have the following principles: I am competing for the customer's attention. How can I generate interest? - Who am I talking to? What do they care about? What are their pains? What are their priorities? How can I personalize my message? What did I learn from my previous campaigns? What can I do better? - What worked and what didn't? What can I do differently this time?
As an IT Professional, I would avoid any conversation that could come across as spam or phishing. With the plethora of scams these days, many Users I have found will block or delete any emails they are not expecting, or that mention money when it comes to buying or selling. Cold Calls are often associated with scams in the IT world. Any words mentioning time sensitivity does this too. I would simply keep these emails short and simple and only be used to break the ice prior to an actual video or phone call with the user.
The content of your follow-up emails is equally significant. Inject value into each follow-up, whether it's a new insight, a relevant article, or additional information about your proposal. This ensures that each follow-up not only serves as a reminder but also as a valuable piece of communication. Applying these techniques has the potential to improve your response rates to cold emails. Follow-ups demonstrate your persistence and sincere interest, sustaining the conversation and enhancing the chances of turning your cold email outreach into meaningful dialogues. Be mindful of the frequency and timing of your emails. They shouldn't become intrusive.