As sales professionals, one of the biggest challenges we face is trying to connect with a new prospect. With so many different touchpoints, it’s easy for a prospect to avoid or ignore your voicemails, emails, texts, or LinkedIn request.

If you want your message to stand out, it’s critical that you have a solid valid business reason (VBR) that establishes you as trusted and valued. However, it’s equally important to ensure you have a strong email subject line. You can have the best valid business reason on the planet, but if the email is never opened by the intended recipient, what good is it?

Email Subject Line Best Practices

HubSpot reports that 75% of recipients don’t open an email from people they don’t know. However, 35% of recipients say they will open an email from someone they don’t know if it piques their interest.

With this in mind, pay less attention to average open rates and more attention to creating a subject line that evokes curiosity and relevance.

3 Tips for Subject Lines That Will Increase Email Engagement and Connect You Faster

How do you write a good subject line? Regardless of your goals, these are the three essential elements that your subject line should possess:

1. Timeliness

Acknowledge a possible pain point you can ease or an opportunity you can help maximize. Based on industry trends and your VBR insight, you could choose to tease your insight, touch on a hot industry topic or buzz word in the category or pose a potential problem or opportunity as a question.

2. Curiosity

Using names in the subject line is known to pique interest and increase the chance of your email being opened. Do your best to find the name of the decision maker or influencer(s) you are attempting to connect with. 

You can also consider adding question marks or exclamation points, both tactics, when appropriate, can attract interest and yield greater results.

3. Undeceiving

No matter what you choose, make sure you are not misleading the reader. While using someone’s name, punctuation, and timely content are all great ways to stand out, don’t risk devaluing your valid business reason by being misleading.

Always make sure the subject line ties back to your email content. Even with a compelling subject line and great VBR, it’s also important to pay close attention to the quality and representation of your email content.

Pro Tips for Email Content

• Consider using bullet points and a logical structure with short paragraphs so that you can “get right to the point.”
• Always spell and grammar check and beware of auto-correct.  Don’t mess up what could be your first impression with typos.
• Grammarly is a great tool to help with grammar. There’s a free version online, but the site also offers more check tools so that you can choose which are best for you

Keep in mind that most decision makers and influencers give no more than two seconds to determine whether or not to open an email, so you have nail both the subject line and preview text. When done right, email can be a powerful and effective way to connect with prospects.