Last week’s Tip was very popular! I explained how to change your email subject lines, so your contact opened them more quickly.
This week’s Tip is Part 2 – the best subject lines when emailing strangers.
Remember: the only aim of a subject line is that someone opens your email.
But this is especially hard when you’re emailing someone who doesn’t know you. Here are my three favourite subject lines for strangers…
#1 Using a mutual contact’s name
- If I want to email a stranger (assume she is called Sally), I find someone who knows both Sally and me (assume he’s called Michael Smith)…
- … I ask Michael if I can use his name in my email to Sally
- Assuming he agrees, my subject line becomes “Sally, I was talking to Michael Smith about you today…”
- Sally will open the email. She wants to know what her friend Michael has been saying!
#2 Refer to something the reader has written
- Another option: go on LinkedIn, to see if the stranger you’re emailing has recently posted anything (assume she posted something last week called “I Preferred Lockdown!”)…
- Email her, referring to the post’s title in your subject line - “Your Post ‘I Preferred Lockdown!’ – A Quick Question to Ask…”
- She’ll open this - because she’ll like that I’ve read her post, and will want to see what my question is
- Or… if she hasn’t posted anything recently, search her name and her company’s name on Google to see if there’s any recent news about them. And then put this recent news in a similarly worded subject line
#3 Use intrigue = a relevant topic + the word ‘new’
- If I can’t find one of her recent posts, some news about her or her company, or a mutual connection (and we almost always can find one of these)…
- …I then include two things in my email subject line – a topic they’ll find interesting and the word “new”
- For example, if I’m emailing a Head of Sales, the subject line might be “New Sales Best-Practices Your Sector Is Using to Maximise Sales”
- This often works well: the reader wants to know what the best-practices are. They want to see what their sector (in other words, their competition) are doing, and whether it’s better/worse than what they’re doing. The word “new” draws them in – they think “do they know this new thing?”
All three work. I find that 1 and 2 are much more reliable than number 3.
Which titles do you find work best?
Action Point
Next time you email a stranger, use one of these three options.
And if you have other techniques that work well, please let me know what they are!