Email Subject Line Ideas That Will Increase Open Rates

As a small business owner, you want to ensure your email marketing is strong. And a part of that is ensuring your audience is opening and enjoying your emails. Let’s walk through 57 email subject line ideas that you can implement right away to increase your open rates.

If you are new to email marketing, click here to begin learning my best email marketing practices. An engaged email list is invaluable to your business. It is also the #1 strategy I use for both starting and scaling any small business. 

The first step you will want to take is to sign up for an email service provider. This is a tool you will use to send off your free downloads automatically and send emails to your subscribers on a regular basis. Sign up for Flodesk here and save 50% your entire first year.

How Often Should You Email Your List

Email marketing is meant to foster a relationship with your list. It is important that we build a relationship inside the inbox, and not just on social media; because the inbox is where we want to sell. 

We don’t want to rely on social media to be our selling platform. This is not a platform we own. Therefore we cannot control who sees what content. 

Every business is different and will have a different email strategy depending on the offer you sell. However, you should be emailing your list at least once per week. I recommend emailing your list 1-3 times per week on a regular basis (when you are not actively promoting something).

The Goal of Each Email

Not every email has the same goal. But that doesn’t mean there are some emails less important than others. We want to ensure that our email subject line ideas convey clear messaging. This lets the subscriber understand what the email is generally about.

Email subject lines are always a creative strategy to infuse our personality and create an enjoyable inbox experience for your subscribers.

• Educational: these are emails meant to provide your list with free education and valuable information. They also paint you as the subject matter expert.
• Personal: these are emails that begin establishing a personal connection between you and your subscriber. This way they get to know the person behind the email and want to continue opening.
• FOMO (or fear of missing out): these are emails that lead the subscriber to feel as if they may miss out on value. Therefore they are meant to drive action.
• Sales: these are emails that invite subscribers to purchase or inquire about an offer.
• Create urgency: these are emails that aim to speed up the subscribers’ buying decision or to take action. These are typically associated with a timely sale or promotion.
• Poll: these are emails that aim to extract valuable information from your subscribers. Examples: current pain points, offer feedback, desired solutions, language they are using, etc.

Educational / Value-Added

1. 5 ways to grow your BLANK today
2. Looking for BLANK? I have the answer
3. [OPEN ME] to start seeing BLANK results
4. Top tips for BLANK
5. My secret weapon to/for BLANK
6. Which of THESE are you working on?
7. FIRST NAME, are you making THESE mistakes?
8. Finally! A cheat sheet to BLANK
9. The #1 way I stay consistent with THIS
10. OH. I forgot something.
11. Why BLANK never fails
12. Avoid THIS if you’re looking for THIS
13. What BLANK doesn’t want you to know…
14. Before you BLANK, read this.
15. Best way to avoid BLANK
16. How to BLANK

Personal (showcasing the person behind the email)

1. # photos that sum up my MONTH
2. I haven’t told anyone about this yet…
3. I never thought I could pull myself out of THIS….
4. 3 lessons MONTH taught me (by surprise)
5. I need a sign. You too?
6. The question I get asked the most
7. I can’t believe I never thought of this
8. I gotta hot take for you….
9. HOT TAKE! But I stand by this…

FOMO (Fear of missing out)

1. Did you catch this….?!
2. Did you see what I posted?!
3. FIRST NAME, I don’t want you to miss out on THIS
4. I saved YOU a seat to this…!
5. Not cool friend…
6. Whoops… I meant to send you this earlier
7. Wait, what?!
8. [HAPPENING TODAY!] Save your seat to BLANK
9. You can sit with us FIRST NAME. BLANK happening today.

Sales

1. Hears what my clients have to say about BLANK
2. HOLIDAY NAME is here early!
3. On the fence FIRST NAME? Let me answer some questions
4. Here’s that discount you wanted
5. Never struggle with THIS again. THIS is here.
6. It’s finally here! But it won’t last long…
7. You asked… I delivered. THIS is finally here!
8. The secret is out
9. I’m sending this to you first, FIRST NAME.
10. BLANK is back for one day only!

Creating Urgency

1. Uh-oh…. your BLANK is about to expire
2. [LAST CALL] BLANK is closing
3. [DOORS ARE CLOSING] This is the last call
4. FIRST NAME, are you in or out?
5. It’s decision time. Let’s do this.
6. You coming or no?
7. This is it! BLANK is closing

Polling (asking your list the questions that matter)

1. Penny for your thoughts FIRST NAME?
2. Coffee on me!
3. Did you know this about BLANK??
4. Are you still on track for GOAL?
5. Coffee giveaway in exchange for your feedback!
6. I’m doing research FIRST NAME. And YOU’RE my subject,

Flodesk For Email Marketing

Email marketing is a game changer for small businesses. However before we can truly begin selling to our audience, we must first nurture them, providing value and showing who are. These 30 nurture email prompt ideas can kick-start that for you. 

And if you haven’t taken the first step and signed up for an email service provider yet, I cannot recommend Flodesk enough. Flodesk is my email service provider of choice and allows me to create beautiful email campaigns and easy-to-understand workflow. Sign up and save 50% off here.