Email subject lines for sales: How to write engaging and effective lines

The inbox is where the sales process begins. Your email has to compete with 65.5 other offers — an average of messages the prospect receives daily. In such cases, an eye-catching subject line can be your last chance to make an impression. So, how do you make it count and become one among 60% of sales professionals who are exceeding their goals this year?

This article will explore what makes great email subject lines and how the approach to selling differs for B2B and B2C business models. You will be offered compelling subject line examples to help your sales emails stand out from the competition in busy inboxes. 

What are sales emails?

Sales emails are targeted messages designed to engage, nurture, and move prospective customers toward conversion. Unlike email marketing subject lines, a sales email’s elements are tailored to each prospect’s pain points.

Depending on the business model, the approach to crafting sales emails differs, so we can move on and review the top types of selling:

1. Business-to-Business (B2B) sales: This refers to companies selling their products or services to other businesses. B2B sales cycles are longer and more costly, with a focus on ROI. However, since the purchaser is another business, the deals are more significant in cost.
2. Business-to-Customer (B2C) sales: B2C companies work with end users — customers — and thus its title. The B2C sales process is short, its focus usually on one-time purchases and their volume.

Challenges of writing sales emails

According to a recent report, 67% of more than 5,500 sales representatives do not expect to meet their goals this year. With 9.7 billion emails sent daily in the USA, it is a challenge, even for seasoned professionals, to catch prospects’ attention. 

Salesforce recently studied the state of sales and what buyers and sales teams think about it:

• personalization: according to 59% of businesses, sales teams do not study or address their pain points. This often means that sales representatives do not personalize their emails, making even the exclusive offer sound generic;
• data accuracy: around 47% of sales specialists in 2024 believed that inaccurate data was an obstacle to reaching their goals;
• low-quality leads: 42% of professionals agreed that the quality of the prospect lists was a challenge in 2024.

Since selling is becoming complicated, the role of each email element, including its subject line, also becomes significant. 

What is the role of subject lines in sales emails?

Effective email subject lines have a clear value proposition and action-oriented language to capture attention. It offers a glimpse of what’s inside and is sometimes the only element people pay attention to when choosing which email to open.

However, nothing underscores the impact better than polar approaches to sales emails:

• sales email without a subject line: To me, the “no subject” phrase almost equals “no point or effort.” Numbers prove this: 42% of 659 respondents mentioned that they open emails with a compelling subject line. In B2B, where deals are high in cost with lots at stake, every element of cold emails must be convincing. Not including a subject line is an opportunity wasted to get a prospect’s attention;

• sales email with a subject line: Unlike the previous message in the example, the following one has a strong email subject line that instills doubts and triggers emotions. It can also lead to impulsive purchases. The numbers are surprising: around 89% of shoppers have a history of impulsive buying, so having a proper subject line turns even a polite reminder to buy a return ticket into a sales tool.

(Source: Email from KLR Bus)

A subject line works as a perceiving element and, with proper creation steps, encourages purchase as much as the email text.

How to write subject lines for sales

It is now time to discuss the steps through which we can create effective subject lines — they go beyond picking the right words and instead focus on the audience. 

Let’s dive in! 

1. Choose relevant subject lines over creative ones

Creativity in subject lines is a good choice if your aim is to catch attention. However, if you play the long game, think of adding valuable insights and relevance to the prospect.

In fact, around 47% of recipients open emails only if the message carries relevant information, so ensure that every element, including a subject line, supports your offer. A catchy phrase may initially get the reader’s attention, but it is its relevance to your offer will make them choose you.

(Source: Email from KSD Publishing House)

2. Target specific emotions with subject lines

Sales email subject lines perform best when they trigger an emotion, which brings us to the next section — emotional selling. As a first point of contact in cold emails, subject lines can motivate prospects to engage with an email and intensify their feelings using action-oriented language.

I suggest that we review six emotions that companies should tap into when they create subject lines for sales:

• fear: “Who did you forget about?!” — that’s the perfect example of how quickly fear catches attention. It was the first subject line I noticed among the other 13 emails on my screen. Did I truly forget anything? No, but for a second, I had doubts, and sometimes that is all it takes to make an impulsive purchase;

(Source: Email from Ryanair)

• happiness: You can also tap into positive emotions. Adding positive elements to your email sales subject line may help potential customers associate your offer with their own success. You may mention positive outcomes that await your customers in your subject lines;

(Source: Email from Mailchimp)

• trust: Around 82% of sales professionals believe that fostering relationships is essential to the sales process. As a front line of your email, the subject line makes a good foundation for earning a prospect’s trust. To demonstrate your expertise in your niche, you could mention customer cases;

(Source: Email from Atlassian)

• doubt: Having doubts is natural, so instead of avoiding them, try to learn how to overcome objections right from the subject lines. Address a specific pain point or an obstacle that may be delaying the deal;

• excitement: If excitement is the emotion you are targeting, try to highlight the exclusive deal you offer and add an element of mystery to your email subject line;

(Source: Email from NYX)

• frustration: To address your customers’ frustration, you must study its main reasons and mention solutions in your subject line. Whether it concerns a high-cost or outdated interface, you may use your competitors’ weak spots in your email campaigns.

Whatever emotion you target, an email subject line is enough to trigger it. With enough personalization, you will have two aces up your sleeve as we move further.

3. Personalize subject lines

Personalization is another factor that separates great subject lines from ineffective ones. The good news is that static variables still work, so if you are new to email selling, it can be your starting point. 

Let’s look at what kind of email subject line personalization works best according to a recent study:

• customer name: To my surprise, subject lines with customer names worked best, gaining a 43.41% open rate compared to 16.67% of those without;

(Source: Email from Hubspot)

• company name: Email subject lines that had the company name received a 35.65% open rate, while subject lines without it only got a 16.67% open rate;

• pain points: Addressing customers’ pain points increased the open rate to 28% — another great result. If you include a number of successful cases, you may strengthen your email subject line even more.

(Source: Email from The Ordinary)

4. Create subject lines with AI

Writing cold email subject lines can be challenging. They need to strike a balance between personalization and determination and, not to forget, carry value and capture attention. 

What happens when the sales specialist faces writer’s block? It could prove to be a disaster, but with artificial intelligence, the approach to creating email subject lines has changed. 

The Stripo team is no stranger to AI, so we’ve developed an AI subject line generator to help our users. Below, I offer a brief overview of the features our generator has:

• subject line style: Whether you’d like your email subject line to be a question or whether you want elements of validation, our generator can handle it;
• capitalization: The Stripo AI subject line generator features options for sentence, title, or random case;
• usage of emojis: If you’d like your email subject line to be formal, you can exclude emojis by turning off the toggle;
• language: Since your subject line should speak the same language as your prospect, you can pick any language from the generator’s drop-down list.

Once the subject line’s requirements are shaped, you may enter the prompt into the text field and hit “Enter.” In just a few seconds, the AI generator will generate a list of subject lines for sales.

You can copy, preview, or improve the generated email subject lines or ask the generator to provide even different subject lines. The best-fitting options are a good foundation for our next section — A/B testing.

5. A/B test subject lines

A/B testing is a great way to check multiple subject-line hypotheses and find the one that resonates with the audience best. Proper approach to testing and prospect list choice are essential elements of getting accurate results, so I suggest we review the steps you may go through:

• set goals: Start by clearly outlining what you want to accomplish. If your target is the open rate, set realistic goals to measure your success;
• choose the element for testing: It can be the tone of voice, emotion, or question mark in your subject line. However, the key is to test one element at a time;
• segment the audience: You need to conduct subject line tests on a particular group of prospects to study their reaction better and adjust your future campaigns accordingly;
• use accurate data: If you try to test different types of personalization in email subject lines, ensure the information is relevant and up-to-date;
• try automation: Automation tools can evenly split contact lists and provide live-time reporting. This way, you can see each subject line’s progress and analyze the least effective variants.

20 examples of effective subject lines

With the A/B testing steps in mind, we can now study the email subject line examples and review the different variants for both the following business models.

B2B sales email subject lines

B2B sales emails often target decision-makers, so you must craft subject lines that demonstrate your expertise, service relevance, and value. Such email subject options tend to be rather formal, without excessive punctuation, so the examples below could be today’s inspiration. Ensure that you fill them with relevant data, and you will be all set!

1. “[Customer name], let’s transform your Q1 strategy.”
2. “How can [prospect’s company] reduce costs by 20%?”
3. “See how [competitor’s name] achieved [specific result] in 3 months.”
4. “5 ways [your product] makes [specific task] effortless for [industry].”
5. “[Prospect’s company], ready to cut costs by 25% this quarter?”
6. “[Customer name], increase your team’s efficiency with our [name of the feature].”
7. “Maximize your ROI with our custom [feature or product].”
8. “Achieve [improved metric] in 3 months with our proven strategy for [industry].”
9. "How [industry leader] improved their [metric name] in 4 months.”
10.  “Let’s discuss [customer pain points] for [prospect’s company].”

B2C sales email subject lines

Unlike B2B, B2C subject lines for sales can be more casual and engaging and can include emojis and target emotions, such as curiosity or happiness, which are standard picks. Personalization is still a pivotal player, but a less strict email subject structure allows more space for creativity.

Here are a few catchy subject lines for B2C businesses with elements of personalization:

1. “Customers love this [specific product], and you can find out why.”
2. “[Customer name], we hand-picked your next favorite [product].”
3. “Are you ready for a [seasonal-related solution]? Check out our bestsellers!”
4. “Join thousands of [your company name] fans and get 20% off!”
5. “New arrivals are here — don’t miss out!”
6. “Why [new arrival] is perfect for [customer pain point].”
7. “[Customer name], the secret to perfect [desired outcome] is a click away!”
8. “Have a look at personal recommendations for [customer pain point].”
9. “Your first-anniversary gift: 20% off the next purchase.”
10.  “Find out how [bestseller name] can help with [customer pain point].”

Wrapping up

A good email subject line for sales must go beyond loud promises to stand out in busy inboxes. It must show immediate value, intrigue the prospect, and encourage them to not only open the email but also reply to it.

This article has revealed the selling struggles and best practices regarding the creation of email subject lines for sales. We hope your next subject line opens the new year with improved response rates. Good luck!