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499 Best Email Subject Lines To Boost Your Email Open Rates
499 Best Email Subject Lines To Boost Your Email Open Rates
Inside this report, you will discover the reasons Why You Need Good Email Subject
Lines, What Makes a GREAT Subject Headlines and most importantly… 400+ best
email subject line samples you can use right away to boost your email open rate and
conversion.
Its every email marketers joy to see high open rates whenever a mail is sent out. But then
a whole lot of marketers just don’t know how to tweak the headlines to increase their
email open rates.
Marketers with higher open rates do craft email subject lines that their subscribers
simply can’t resist. In this guide, I’ll share 400+ best email subject line examples that will
boost your email open rates.
Because this is a long guide, I’ve broken it down into sections. Just feel free to use the
table of contents below to navigate your way to a particular section…
Table of Contents
Before I begin to share this powerful headlines with you, its necessary to let you
understand…
Using an attention-grabbing subject line, however, is always one of the best ways
to achieve high email engagement levels.
Many mail owners receive hundreds of emails a day, and many of these will often
go unnoticed. The subject line is one of the first things a recipient will see, so it’s
essential that yours is the one that stands out and catches their attention.
3. Do some testing
● Try some A/B testing if you are you struggling to decide between two or
more subject lines.
● If you’re sending an email communication to 1,000 people, first send out
an email with subject A to 100 people, then subject B to another 100.
Whichever subject line performs best, use that for the remaining 800
emails.(just try it!)
4. Do not mislead your subscribers
● Always ensure that your subject line accurately reflects the content of the
email you are sending.
● It must not be used to make false promises as this will only encourage
recipients to unsubscribe or even complain.
● Make sure your subject line is as specific as possible so your audience
knows exactly what it is they’re about to read.
Don’t ruin your chances of the email being opened after you’ve taken a whole lot of
time to write an email with great content by not putting enough thought into your
subject line. By using enticing language and the tips I’ve shared earlier, you will see a rise
in your open and click rates!
The best way to write email subject lines for higher opens (instead of
being marked as spam) is by leveraging natural human tendencies and
psychological principles.
Here we go, it's time to share somebest email subject line examples that will
boost your email open rates.
John Annavil 4 99 Best Email Subject Lines to Boost Your Email Open Rates
One psychological principle that is practically impossible to resist is the fear of missing
out. You can use this fear in your subject lines by adding an element of scarcity (limited
availability) or urgency (limited time).
Let’s face it; nobody likes feeling they’ve been left behind.
In fact, subject lines that include words that imply time sensitivity–like “urgent”,
“breaking”, “important” or “alert”–are proven to increase email open rates.
Here are some great sample subject lines for emails that use the f ear of missing out…
2. Curiosity
Humans have a natural desire for closure– we don’t like having gaps in our knowledge.
You can leverage this desire for closure by leaving your subject line open-ended so
subscribers will be curious, like a cliffhanger that can only be satisfied by opening the
email.
If your subject line makes your subscribers laugh, then they’ll simply have to open it.
After all, have you ever read a subject line that tickled your funny bone and you didn’t
read it?
Being humorous requires a bit more thought and creativity, but it can really pay off in
terms of your open rates.
Here are some funny email subject lines to make your subscribers laugh.
12.“Look what you did, you little jerk…” (This one’s a reference to the movie
Home Alone. We hope.)
Vanity
Everyone has a bit of vanity. People love to be liked, accepted and even revered by
others. It’s just a part of being human.
That’s why some of the most clever subject lines use vanity to get you to open the email.
To do this, you can either promise something that makes the subscriber look better to
their peers, or invoke the fear of being shamed.
Here are some great examples of clever email subject lines that leverage vanity…
Greed
You may not think of yourself as a “greedy” person, but it can be really tough to pass up
a great deal… even if you don’t really need the item right now. That’s why sales,
discounts and special offers work really well in your subject lines.
However, be careful about offering really huge discounts– the higher the percentage,
the less reliable effect it has on your open rates (perhaps because consumers don’t
believe large discounts are real).
Regardless, you can usually expect to see an increase in your click rates whenever you
offer a discount in your subject line. That’s probably because the people who open
these emails are already interested in your offer, so they’re naturally inclined to click.
Here are some great email subject line ideas for hitting your subscriber’s
“greed” button…
Sloth
Another common trait among all humans is sloth, or the tendency to avoid work. Even
people who aren’t inclined to be lazy would prefer a silver bullet over the long and hard
route.
You can give subscribers an easier way to achieve their goals by offering a shortcut, or a
useful resource that saves a lot of time and energy. Here are some great examples of
email subject lines that satisfy sloth…
Pain Points
John Annavil 4 99 Best Email Subject Lines to Boost Your Email Open Rates
If you really understand your buyer persona, you should know their biggest pain points.
Use those pain points to get subscribers to open your emails by solving that problem for
them. Here are some examples of email subject lines that bring out the subscriber’s pain
points and offer a solution…
Retargeting
Retargeting emails are sent to subscribers when they fail to complete an action or a step
in your sales funnel (e.g. when they abandon their cart or fail to purchase after their free
trial). These emails serve to bring your subscribers back to your sales process.
John Annavil 4 99 Best Email Subject Lines to Boost Your Email Open Rates
You can write effective retargeting subject lines by overcoming objections, offering
something to sweeten the deal, or alerting them that something bad is going to happen
if they don’t take action. Here are some excellent examples of retargeting email subject
lines…
1. “How you can afford Your First 10,000 Readers (closing tonight)”
2. “Hey, forget something? Here’s 20% off.”
3. “The price dropped for something in your cart”
4. “Mary, your Envira account is on hold!”
5. “I’m deleting your Envira account”
6. “Offering you my personal email”
7. “Did you miss out on some of these new features?”
8. “Good News: Your Pin’s price dropped!”
9. “⚠ Unroll.Me has stopped working”
10.“We are not gonna Give Up on You!”
Personal
Email subject lines that are personalized by including a name boost open rates by
10-14% across industries. But including your subscriber’s name is only one way to make
your subject lines more personal. You can also use casual language, share something
personal, or use copy that implies familiarity or friendship.
John Annavil 4 99 Best Email Subject Lines to Boost Your Email Open Rates
Here are some examples of personal email subject lines that get attention…
John Annavil 4 99 Best Email Subject Lines to Boost Your Email Open Rates
Straightforward
When in doubt, make your subject line simple and straightforward. Contrary to what
you might think, these “boring” subject lines can actually convert really well.
The key to making this work for your list is to consistently provide value in all of your
emails. Don’t ever send an email unless you have something important to say: always
make sure your campaigns are packed with value. If you do this, you’ll train your
subscribers to open your emails no matter what the subject line says. Here are some
examples of email subject lines that get straight to the point…
…and these “boring” subject lines performed the highest out of 4 0 million emails, with
open rates between 60-87%…
There have been many studies analyzing the effectiveness of using specific email subject
line keywords. Use these keywords when crafting your own email copy and subject lines
to boost your open rates even further.
1. “upgrade”
2. “just”
3. “content”
4. “go”
5. “Wonderful”
6. “Jokes”
7. “Promotional”
8. “Congratulations”
9. “Revision”
10.“Forecast”
11.“Snapshot”
12.“Token”
John Annavil 4 99 Best Email Subject Lines to Boost Your Email Open Rates
13.“voluntary”
14.“Monthly”
15.“deduction”
1. “free”
2. “ICYMI”
3. “$ today, $$$ tomorrow”
4. numbers (e.g. “7-figure plan”, “212 ideas”, “60 minutes or less”)
5. [brackets] (e.g. “[EMAIL MARKETERS] $95 today, $995 tomorrow,”
“[In Case You Missed It] Our best-performing blog post of all time,”
“[NAME’s Last Reminder] Up to 90% off our best-selling products gone in
3…2…1…”)
Adestra analyzed over 2.2 billion emails, and found the following top subject line
keywords:
1. “free delivery”
2. “available”
3. “new”
4. “alert”
John Annavil 4 99 Best Email Subject Lines to Boost Your Email Open Rates
5. “news”
6. “update”
7. “summer”
8. “weekend”
1. “thank you”
2. “*|*|*|*|” (i.e. a subject line that has multiple stories delineated by pipes. For
example, “Headline 1 | Headline 2 | Headline 3 | Headline 4”)
3. “monthly”
4. “thanks”
5. “*|*|*|”
6. “bulletin”
7. “golden”
8. “iPhone”
9. “breaking”
10.“order today”
Finally, a report by Smart Insights looked at a random sample of 700 million emails, and
found that the top performing subject line keywords were:
John Annavil 4 99 Best Email Subject Lines to Boost Your Email Open Rates
1. “introducing”
2. “celebrate”
3. “buy”
4. “continues”
5. “get your”
6. “what…?”
7. “won’t…?”
8. “do…?”
9. “can…?”
10.“may…?”
11.“on orders over”
12.“orders over”
13.“off selected”
14.“your next order”
15.“available”
16.“brand new”
17.“latest”
18.“special”
19.“wonderful”
20.“great deals”
21.“sale starts”
22.“back in stock”
23.“stock”
24.“sale now”
John Annavil 4 99 Best Email Subject Lines to Boost Your Email Open Rates
25.“now in”
Even More….
This list was put together for one reason -- to provide you with a single source of
ideas for writing headlines.
The easiest way to come up with a good headline is to sit down and read a large
number of successful headlines. The idea is NOT to steal someone else's words,
but to develop a sense of what elements make a good headline.
I hope you find the words on the following pages a creative inspiration.
(The headlines are presented in alphabetical order.)
$80,000 In Prizes! Help Us Find The Name For These New Kitchens
161 New Ways To A Man's Heart - In This Fascinating Book For Cooks!
F17 Stocks You Should Dump Right Away
26 Days That Have Changed Thousands Of Lives
38 Fun And Easy Ways To Earn $500 Next Weekend
67 Reasons Why It Would Have Paid You to Answer Our Ad A Few Months
Ago
7 Steps To Freedom
7 Ways Long Distance Can Keep Your Head Above Water
7 Ways To Collect Your Unpaid Bills
A $500 A Day Writer's Utopia
A Surprisingly Simple Way To Get "Out Of The Rat Race (And Into the
Chips!)
John Annavil 4 99 Best Email Subject Lines to Boost Your Email Open Rates
A Wonderful Two Year's Trip At Full Pay - But Only Men With Imagination
Can Make It
Advice To Wives Whose Husbands Don't Save Money - by A WifeAgain She
Orders...'A Chicken Salad Please'
Alive with Pleasure
Amazing New Titanic Commemorative Is Mint Perfect And Even Bigger
Than A Silver Dollar
American Woman, Say Hello To Your Next Boss. You.
An Amazing Business You Can Carry In Your Pocket
An Educated Failure
An Open Letter To Everyone Who Drives A Truck On More Than $10,000 Per
Year
Another Show In Our Series About Improving Our Lifestyles.
Announcing...The New Edition Of The Encyclopedia That Makes It Fun To
Learn Things
Are We A Nation Of Low-Brows
Are You An Over Educated Under Achiever?
Are You Ever Tongue-Tied At A Party?
Are You Looking For Small Companies With Big Futures?
Are You Ready To Use Self-Hypnotism To Make Life Give You What You
Want?
At 6 For .99, You Can Indulge Your Fantasies This Month!
At Last Someone Has Unlocked The Secret Of Getting People To Fall In Love
With You!
Banking Secrets That Banks Don't Want Published
Because Someone Noticed Something, That Nobody Else Ever Did, The Most
Important Discovery For Success Has Been Made!
But What If You Could See Her Naked?
By This Time Next Month You Could Have A Global Data Communications
Network
John Annavil 4 99 Best Email Subject Lines to Boost Your Email Open Rates
California Lawyer Discovers How To Make Money At Home With The Help
Of The U.S. Government
Can You Pass This Money Test?
Can Your Child Read These Words?
Cash in on Your Vacation!
Check The Kind Of Body You Want
Chicago Man Reveals A Short-Cut To Authorship
Confessions Of A Disbarred Lawyer
Costa Mesa Man Swears Under Oath That His New 'Energy Pill' Does Not
Contain Cocaine Or Any Other Illegal Stimulant
Crazed Advertising Man Discovers Worlds' Sexiest Model!
Dare To Be Rich
Desperate Woman Loses 277 Lbs. With Amazing Diet Secret!
Did You Ever See A 'Telegram' From Your Heart?
Do You Make These Mistakes In English?
Do You Sincerely Want To Be Rich?
Do Your Employees Work As Slowly As They Read?
Doctor Discovers The Cellulite Dissolver
Doctors Prove 2 out of 3 Women Can Have More Beautiful Skin In 14 Days
Does Uncle Sam Owe You Money You Don't Even Know About?
Don't Envy The Plumber - Be One
Don't Let Athletes Foot 'Lay You Up'
Don't Try This With Any Other Copier
Earn $4,000 per Month From Your Home With a Computer!
Earn $50,000 Yearly With Your Own Mail-Order Book Business
Earn $90,000 A Year Repairing Cracked Windshields
Elect A Better Future
Ex-Truck Driver Gets $21,108 a Month Doing What You Aren't!
John Annavil 4 99 Best Email Subject Lines to Boost Your Email Open Rates
Famed Physicist Proves That Sitting In A Pyramid Causes Unexplainable
Good Things To Happen
Fatten Your Bank Account
Financial Columnist Makes Unique Discovery
For The Woman Who Is Older Than She Looks
For Want Of A Pin...The Hat Was Lost
Fountain Of Youth Discovered By Little Known Civilization Over 2300 Years
Ago
Free Book Tells You 12 Secrets Of Better Lawn Care
Free Kit Tells How To Get Better Photographs
Full Time Minister Finds Part Time Goldmine
Generous Creative Businessman Wants To Find A Hot Sexy Woman With A
Good Sense Of Humor!
Get Out Of Debt In 90 Minutes Without Borrowing
Get Paid for Reading Books! $100 per book!
Greatest Goldmine Of Easy 'Things To Make' Ever Crammed Into One Big
Book
Greed And Gouging In The Stock Market
Guaranteed To Go Thru Ice, Mud, or Snow - Or We Pay The Tow!
Hands That Look Lovelier In 24 Hours - Or Your Money Back
Have You A "Worry" Stock?
Have You Ever Bowled A Strike And Said 'I've Got It!?'
Have You Ever Said 'I Just Can't Seem To Concentrate'?
Have You Ever Seen A Grown Man Cry?
Have You Ever Taken A Practice Golf Swing At A Dandelion?
Have You Got These Symptoms Of Nerve Exhaustion?
He Became Twice The Man At Half The Weight!
John Annavil 4 99 Best Email Subject Lines to Boost Your Email Open Rates
It’s a bit like looking at the Mona Lisa and then going back to your own blank
canvas with a box of crayons to create a masterpiece.
■ Target market
■ Results
■ Benefits Possible objections
■ Time take to get results
■ Product name
John Annavil 4 99 Best Email Subject Lines to Boost Your Email Open Rates
And then start experimenting and see what headlines you can create for your own
product or service.
25. Get your hands on this system that took one [target market] from [starting results]
to [end results] in just [time]
26. How I got [results] by making this unusual mistake.
27. Why some [target market] always have / get [results]
28. You can laugh about [problem] if you follow this simple plan
29. Five common [problems] faced by [target market] which one do you want to
solve?
30. What [industry experts] do when faced with [problem]
31. [industry] experts prove that you can have [results] and with this new [product]
32. Why it’s not your fault you have [problem]. And how to make it disappear in just
[time]
33. Thousands of [target market] can have [results] but never realise it. Don’t let it be
you.
34. Why [target market] are raving about this [product]. ([Results] is just one of the
reasons)
35. For just [cost] a day you can have [results] and [benefits] in [time]
36. To [target market] who want [results] by [time]
37. This new [product] will get you [benefits] galore
38. It’s not right that you don’t have [results] when so many [target market] do
39. The secrets of [target markets] that always get [results]
40. What the [industry] experts don’t want you to know about solving [problem]
41. Why do some [target market] have more [benefits] than others? The answer might
surprise you
The famous copywriter Joseph Sugarman would always say the job of a headline
was to act like “A slippery slope” in which the person would be:
…………and so forth.
John Annavil 4 99 Best Email Subject Lines to Boost Your Email Open Rates
It’s important to remember what the ULTIMATE job of our headline is:
Everything in your copy should be there to sell. And the key to a good sales
headline is:
John Annavil 4 99 Best Email Subject Lines to Boost Your Email Open Rates