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Increase your open rates with these cold email subject lines

August 22, 2025
Updated on November 27, 2025
PeopleImages.com - Yuri A // Shutterstock

Increase your open rates with these cold email subject lines

Your prospect opens their inbox and there it is: A message from a stranger (aka your cold email). She reads the subject line and decides in a split second whether to open it or move it to trash (or even worse鈥攕end it to the spam folder).

What will make the difference? The email subject.

If you don鈥檛 master the subject line, the rest won鈥檛 matter, because your potential customer won鈥檛 read the award-worthy sales pitch inside.

In this article, discusses the art of cold emailing and focuses especially on cold email subject lines for B2B sales.

Ready? Let鈥檚 go.

A quick review of cold emailing

A cold email is the written version of the cold call, an outreach email to a prospective customer who has not heard from you or your company, or who may have heard of you but doesn鈥檛 have a direct relationship with you.

Most sales reps send cold emails regularly as part of their efforts.

Here鈥檚 a reminder of a few cold emailing basics:

  • Make it about them, not about you
  • Stick to a few sentences max and make it interesting and mobile-friendly
  • Use conversational language
  • The smaller the ask, the easier it is for your recipients to answer (and the more likely it is you鈥檒l get an answer)
  • The more personalized, the better 鈥 reference their name, company, industry, and competitors, call out unique situations they鈥檙e facing, reference a real (relevant) use case of your product by a similar company, use language they use, and offer specific solutions
  • Follow up, and follow up your follow-ups

Sometimes it can be helpful to think about cold emailing like a first date.

Rather than telling your whole life story, bragging about your achievements, or dumping all your personal details on a new connection, you should approach the new relationship step-by-step. If you do this effectively, you鈥檒l have your target intrigued, curious, and willing to have a second date or follow-up. If you overwhelm them with information (or a long-winded email), you鈥檒l likely get rejected and ignored.

It鈥檚 not until the third or fourth interaction that you can really dive into your offering. You can start to use case studies, name-drop clients and success metrics, point out value, and try to convince them to take a chance. Getting them to take a call or demo is the goal.

Remember, setting up a successful relationship takes guided steps and isn鈥檛 a sprint to the finish line.

How to write cold email subject lines

Now the most important part鈥攖he email鈥檚 subject line.

What makes a cold email subject line great? Here are our top tips:

Personalize the subject line

When writing a cold email subject line, be informative, focus on clear value propositions, and make use of like {{first_name}} and {{company}} to be more personalized and targeted.

Try to get as specific as possible, even including a particular pain point, to increase your email open rate.

Here鈥檚 an example of a personalized subject line:

鈥渰{first name}}, we鈥檝e noticed you鈥檝e been searching for [pain point]鈥

Tip: Intent data can help you easily identify your prospect鈥檚 online activity鈥攑erfect for hyper-personalizing subject lines!

Test different approaches

Your target audiences may prefer different things.

Conduct with your cold email subject lines to pinpoint the exact message that resonates with your audience. Try mentioning a mutual connection, asking a question, using power words, or including emojis, then test which one gets you the best open rates.

Remember: You can split-test different versions of your email body, as well, but never at the same time. Testing both together will make it impossible for you to identify which factor leads to better engagement rates.

Use common sense

Put yourself in the shoes of your prospect: If you read the subject line and feel that it is too sales-y, then it is too sales-y (the same is true for the body of the email).

And do not use dishonest practices like using clickbait-type subject lines that are not related to the content of the email. If you don鈥檛 deliver on the promise of the subject or the subject is not connected to the content of the email, you may get decent open rates but awful responses.

And that鈥檚 not what wins you deals.

Cold email subject lines examples

Cold emails with a great subject line will not only avoid the spam filter but will help you stand out in your prospect鈥檚 inbox.

Try out some of the subject line examples below in your next cold outreach:

  • 鈥淟et鈥檚 connect {{first name}}鈥
  • "{{first name}}, I saw your post on [topic]鈥
  • 鈥淒id you find what you were looking for?鈥
  • 鈥淸topic] resources that can help right now鈥
  • 鈥淎 proven solution for [pain point]鈥
  • 鈥3 tips for [pain point]鈥
  • 鈥淎 great tool for {{company name}}鈥
  • 鈥淸Mutual connection] recommended I get in touch鈥

Whether you鈥檙e doing email marketing, conducting a cold email campaign, or simply writing a sales email, use subject lines to break through the noise and convince the email recipient to open the message. Try the proven examples above and start booking more meetings.

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