Why your email subject line is so important
Email subject lines serve several important purposes. First, they tell subscribers what they can expect to find in the body of the email. As the name suggests, they give the subject of what’s to come.
Second, your subject lines should make subscribers want to open and read your email. Depending on what approach you take in a given email marketing campaign, the subject line should evoke anticipation, curiosity, excitement, helpfulness, or a sense of urgency.
Think of the subject line as a chance to pitch an idea to your audience. You’ve got a limited amount of time/text, so your message needs to come across directly and convincingly.
The third purpose of email subject lines may be easier to overlook than the first two. As short as subject lines are, they are still a form of content. This means you should pay careful attention to not only what you write but how you write it.
Let’s be real — not everyone will open your email.
Even fewer will actually read the body of your email. But most of your subscribers will read the subject line, even if unconsciously. Scrolling through inboxes, subscribers scan and take in three things without even opening an email: the sender name, subject line, and preview text.
Graphic labelling sender name, subject line, and preheader text in an email user’s inbox.
For the people on your email list, the habit of reading the sender name and subject line consecutively contributes to how they view your business, i.e., your brand image. While it may seem like a small thing, even your subject line plays a role in building and maintaining your brand image.
For this reason, making sure your subject line embodies your brand’s personality should be a top priority.
What does this mean in practice? Well…
If your brand is friendly, happy-go-lucky, and approachable, then your subject line should be that way too. Use emojis to demonstrate your up-beat energy. Make jokes to come across as easy-going and accessible. Tell your email list what this email has to offer in a direct and helpful way.
If your brand is more serious, exclusive, and list of norway cell phone numbers bespoke, emojis may not be what you’re looking for. Instead, consider personalizing your subject lines to address contacts by their first name. Try writing something that captures your subscribers’ attention and sparks their curiosity.
All of this is to say that email subject lines are worth spending some time on. Don’t be tempted to blow by this small yet important piece of content!
Related: What is an Email Preheader? Definition, Benefits, and Best Practices
Writing Email Subject Lines: Q&A
How long should an email subject line be?
In general, we recommend 7 marketing automation examples that will help you boost engagement subject lines be no longer than 60 characters, or 6-8 words. There is some flexibility here, as different email clients have different display limits for subject lines. Take a look at this table for specifics:
Email client Number of characters
Gmail 77
Outlook 60
Yahoo 47
Hotmail 45
How do I add emojis to a subject line?
Adding emojis to your email subject line is easy to do. Try using Emojipedia to find the perfect emoji. Copy it from their website, then paste into your email builder.
To make sure your email list sees the same version of the emoji(s) as you, it’s a good idea to run a test. Send yourself and some colleagues a test email and see how your content looks on desktop, mobile devices, and tablets as well as on different email clients.
What are good cold email subject lines?
Now, you may be looking to up your subject line-game to boost open rates for cold emails. And at some level, this makes sense. Cold emails are the least likely to be opened, but you can assume recipients will at least take a look at the subject line, right?
Not alway
Cold emailing and email marketing are two different things. Because cold emailing campaigns are not opt-in (recipients didn’t subscribe to your email list), you run the risk of damaging your sender reputation.
Email clients like Google, Apple, and Outlook use spam filters to block unsolicited content from reaching the inbox. They also flag the senders of this unsolicited content as unreliable or untrustworthy, meaning it’s less likely your future messages will reach inboxes.
Email marketing providers like Brevo bahrain leads typically don’t support cold emailing for this reason. It damages your email deliverability and it’s not fair to clutter the inboxes of unsuspecting email users.
That said, cold emailing is a legit practice, especially for sales teams. If you’re looking for more cold emailing content, take a look at this article. Otherwise, we’ll keep discussing subject lines for email marketing purposes here.
Try Brevo’s AI subject line assistant
Give your subject lines a fresh boost with the power of AI. Brevo’s AI Assistant is a free creative resource that makes email marketing that much easier. Available in our Email editor, learn more here.
Can a good email subject line help with email deliverability?
Speaking of emails arriving in inboxes, now’s a good time to discuss deliverability and subject lines. Email deliverability is a large topic, and there are many factors affecting it.
Sender reputation, list hygiene, and soft/hard bounces all play a role in your overall email deliverability. Where email subject lines come into play is with spam filters.
Email clients use spam filters to identify unsolicited content 150 Email Subject Lines and block it from landing in the inbox. If your subject line reads like spam, it won’t do any favors for your deliverability.
To prevent your subject line triggering spam filters, try avoiding:
Extreme punctuation, multiple exclamation points and question marks, e.g., !!!???
All caps, e.g., ECOMMERCE SECRETS INSIDE
Over stylized fonts, e.g., A Special Gift for You
Overly promotional language, e.g., Flash sale! Buy NOW NOW NOW!
Basically, a good email subject line can help with deliverability insofar as it grabs the attention of your audience and not spam filters.
How can I boost open rates with good email subject lines?
Your subject line plays the lead role in boosting your email open rate, even more than the body of the email itself. (Your audience can’t read the email content if they don’t open it).
Much of the deliverability best practices we discussed above can help you get higher open rates. Be careful not to come across as overly promotional, spammy, or too good to be true.
Instead, aim to fulfill the three purposes of email subject lines we mentioned at the beginning of this article:
Tell subscribers what to expect in the email content.
Grab their attention without being over the top.
Embody your brand’s personality.
A catchy email subject line will get people to open the email for more cool content.
Pro tip: Not sure what subject line will get your audience clicking? A/B testing subject line ideas will give you a clear answer.
How do segmentation and personalization work with subject lines?
Before we get into the examples, we should also mention how segmentation and personalization can help elevate your subject lines.
Segmenting your contacts into sub-lists helps you send more relevant and targeted content. Think about grouping contacts into lists based on attributes like geographical location, age, job position, content preferences, or how often they’d like to be contacted. Discover more customer segmentation examples here.
Once you have defined segments of your email list, you can create different subject lines for each segment. The result is a more targeted message and, in theory, more email opens.
Email personalization allows for even more targeted content. Including subscribers’ first names in your subject lines is a great way to catch their attention and make your email stand out from the rest. As well, it helps your business come across as more personal and human than a generic marketing email would.
Keep reading for 150 examples of email subject lines that work to get your creative juices flowing!
150 of the best email subject line examples
Screenshot of an email inbox displaying various types of email subject lines.
Now that you’ve got some background on what makes a great email subject line, it’s time to share some examples! Most of these come from real brands’ marketing campaigns. They’re tried and tested. The rest come from the brains of the marketing experts at Brevo.
When reading through all these examples, it’s important to keep in mind that what works for one brand may not work for yours. It all depends on your brand personality, how you communicate with your audience, and how they view you.
Welcome email subject lines
To start off, here are some ideas for welcome email subject lines. To welcome new subscribers to your email list, you likely want to give them a friendly introduction to your business. Your subject line can help with this by picking up where you left off at the signup form or confirmation email.
Try thinking of welcome email subject lines as a quick follow-up to thank the new subscriber for joining your list. You may be surprised by how much this can help with maintaining engaged contacts. And the best part, email automation makes welcome messages like this a piece of cake.
Welcome to the crew!
Thanks for signing up. Here’s how to get started…
Today, you made a great decision.
It only gets better from here…
Nice to meet you, [name]!
Are you new here? We’re here to help!
Happy to have you in the fam
Everything you need to know about [business]
Check out our article about writing effective welcome emails to learn more!
Fear of missing out (FOMO) subject lines
Playing to your audience’s fear of missing out (FOMO) is a powerful subject line tactic. Of course, you don’t want to make anyone feel bad. Moreso, hinting at the idea of exclusivity and the possibility of losing your chance is a convincing way to get subscribers to open emails.