The Definitive Guide to the Best Email Subject Lines That Stand Out

Written by Michael Cheney. Last updated on 6th January 2021

The best email subject lines are going to make your emails stand out, get opened, get read and get clicked on.

In this comprehensive training I'm going to give you lots of examples you can swipe and use as your own.

Many of these helped me bring in over $6 Million in sales over the past 20 years.

BUT - more importantly;

I'm going to show you the powerful formula you can use to create the best subject lines which get you increased open rates and click through rates (and sales).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A Quick Word About So-Called 'Email Marketing Best Practices'
I've Sold $6 Million Worth of Products via Email Marketing - Here's How To Stand Out
Why Your Email Subject Lines Are Almost the #1 Important Factor in Standing Out
Your Email Marketing Campaign Will Succeed If You Use "The Waterfall Process"
The Easy Formula Which Quickly Gets You 200% More Clicks
The Single Most Important Email Subject Line Best Practice
The #1 Most Powerful Word You Should Use in Your Emails
Why 99% of Small Businesses Are Using The Wrong Subject Lines in Their Email Marketing
Funny or Humorous Subject Lines
Be Controversial (in Short Doses!)
7 Reasons You Should Harness the Power of Numbered Lists
Curiosity Killed The Cat (But It's Great for Email Subject Lines!)
Do You Think Using Questions is Effective?
Being Specific and Using Statistics
Harnessing the Power of Help
Using The Personal and Personalized Approach
News and Announcements
Using Scarcity and Urgency to Power Up Your Open Rates
The 'Momma Method' for Making the Best Emails
Social Proof Subject Lines
Conclusion

A Quick Word About So-Called 'Email Marketing Best Practices'

You can easily search Google and find countless pages talking about the best email subject lines to use.

While I am going to give you some proven subject lines you can use in this training I'm going a step further and will actually teach you how to write the best email subject lines.

By the way - if you are brand new to email marketing and need a basic introduction this video will help you:

As the old saying goes;

This way you can walk away with the skills to get better open rates and click throughs with every email you send.

An article about email marketing on Forbes rightfully states that;

"Email marketing is still the most powerful tool to take your business to the next level".

So onto the first part of this training...

I've Sold $6 Million Worth of Products via Email Marketing - Here's How To Stand Out

People buy what they WANT, not what they NEED.

And they only buy things because of two motivating factors;

To avoid pain or to get pleasure.

Sure.

You can sub-divide further than that but ultimately your email subject lines need to appeal to people's desire to get something cool or their desire to avoid pain.

I should add -

"The driving force of avoiding pain is a far greater motivating factor for people than desire."

A simple story illustrates this;

Let's say you come home one day and desire a pizza...

You step in the front door and stand on a nail which goes through your foot (causing you quite a lot of pain!).

What is your priority now?

To eat the pizza or get rid of the nail?

Pain beats desire every time.

Bear this in mind when you creating your email subject lines.

Okay let's dive into this...

Why The Best Email Subject Lines Are *Almost* the #1 Critical Factor in Standing Out

Why not #1 you ask?

Because if your email does not even hit your prospect's inbox in the first place then you are in big trouble.

We'll come onto this in a second when we cover "The Waterfall Process".

But suffice to say -

If you can master email marketing engagement and manage to get your emails into your prospects' inbox then the next step is to stand out and be noticed.

I see too many businesses getting this totally wrong.

You want the subject line to be interesting enough to get opened but not so over the top that it gets spammed, trashed or reported.

It's a fine line you need to tread and I'll help you through it right now...

Your Email Marketing Campaign Will Succeed If You Use "The Waterfall Process"

If you get this part right you will be guffawing all the way to the bank.

Trust me.

Now, yes, I know this training is supposed to be all about Subject Lines (and it is) but there is a bigger picture here.

"Having a great subject line is only ONE of the ingredients to a successful email marketing campaign."

Put all of them together and you will have successfully created the "Waterfall Process".

Here are all the stages of this -

It is the journey your prospect takes from the top of the waterfall (receiving your email) to the bottom of the waterfall (clicking your link and buying something).

The Waterfall Process

#1. Receive Your Email

#2. Read Your Subject Line

#3. Open Email

#4. Start Reading the First Line of Your Email

#5. Continue to Read the Entire Email

#6. Click Your Link

As you can see - there are many steps involved, so here's the low-down...

Your chosen subject line plays a very important role in all this.

The story or angle you choose for the subject line must be relevant and consistent throughout the entire waterfall process.

What this means;

Whatever makes your subject line stand out must also be referred to in the opening line of your email, the main content of the email and in the link or call to action at the end.

Most businesses get this completely wrong;

They use a subject line that might get opens but results in very low clicks and sales because they don't carry that idea through to the content of the email.

Ouch.

If you are not getting enough sales from your emails this is probably why.

The other big factor is:

To make sure your email reaches their inbox in first place.

You don't want to get spammed or junk filtered!

Beware - having the wrong subject line can cause this.

You need to have this waterfall process at the forefront of your mind as you are brainstorming ideas for your email subject lines.

And don't forget to start with the end in mind;

If you are sending prospects to a particular salesletter or offer then be sure to reflect that kind of language, wording and positioning in the email you send and subject line you use.

People don't want to be surprised.

They do not like feeling they have clicked one thing but are now being presented with something else.

Before I write a subject line I will often look at the offer or salesletter first to see which headline is being used.

Doing this means you can "mirror" this in your email subject line, opening line and call to action.

This gets you stellar results for your campaigns.

Okay.

Now it's time to discover;

The Easy Formula Which Quickly Gets You 200% More Clicks

This is a simple and fast formula which gets you great results with your email subject lines.

Take a look at the title of this section of the training that you just read and see if you can work out what it is!

Yes.

Easy. Fast. Results.

Nobody likes working their ass off for anything.

If there's a quick and easy way to get results then people want to know about it.

But look;

This is not about making stuff up, exaggerated claims or creating false promises.

If what you're selling cannot do this - you cannot talk about it in this way.

Hopefully though;

You do have an offer which gets results.

And ideally it makes people's lives easier in some way and can also save them time too.

The more specific you can be about the time it takes, just how easy it is and what the results are - the better.

Some examples;

Did you see how I even used the formula itself on the title for this section? 🙂

"The Easy Formula Which Quickly Gets You 200% More Clicks"

Okay.

Onto the next section of the training...

The Single Most Important Email Subject Line Best Practice

Tell a story!

What have humans been doing for thousands of years?

Sitting around telling stories to one another - it's hard-wired into our brains to respond to stories.

Before you start writing any email you should ask yourself;

"What is happening right now?"

Your email subject line, opening sentence, main content and call-to-action all need to reflect this answer.

There needs to be something that has triggered you to send the email.

The reader needs to be excited and interested enough to open, read and click.

You can only really achieve this by some kind of "event".

Examples of events include;

• Something in your personal life which impacts them
• Government policy change which affects them
• A change to your product, service or offer
• A story in the news which everyone knows about and can be linked to your product in some way
• New movie releases you can tie the theme into your offer in some way
• Showbiz or celebrity news you can link to a story about your product

You really can turn anything into an email.

Practice makes perfect.

I once wrote an email about how I wanted to beat up Peppa Pig.

My daughter was mad on Peppa Pig at the time and it was driving me demented.

So I turned it into an email rant.

At the end of the email I segued into an offer by saying I was fortunate to have several TVs in my house because I'd used product XYZ to generate good revenue.

And hey presto. 🙌

A simple everyday story turned into a winning email.

Of course, all of this is a lot easier once you know...

The #1 Most Powerful Word You Should Use in Your Emails

The simple, yet powerful, word is "you".

You will see I've used it a lot throughout this training already because it speaks directly to you.

Everyone wants to feel important - they want to be at the center of things.

Using the word "you" does this.

Quickly and easily.

You really can't overdo this.

The more you use "you" the more you will connect with your audience and make them feel directly spoken to and heard.

Make sure YOU adopt this best practice in your email subject lines 🙂

Now let's talk about...

Why 99% of Small Businesses Are Using The Wrong Subject Lines in Their Email Marketing

We've all seen this a thousand times in our inbox (especially on Black Friday!)...

"Buy This Now" - yawn

"Hurry This Is Your Discount" - snoozefest

"Coupon Inside" - zzzzzz

"Get 25% Off, Today Only" - kill me already

"Buy My Shizzle So I Can Make Money" - OMG fo realz? 🤦

Okay, I exaggerated that last one, but you get my point...

Trying to sell like this in email is a very bad idea.

Don't do it.

You know this because everyone else is trying to do it;

"If you follow the crowd in email marketing you will get drowned out in the white noise of the inbox."

I'm a kinda organized guy so I have maybe 3 unread emails in my inbox at any time.

Most people aren't like me -

They have maybe a few hundred (or thousand!) unread emails floating around.

If your email subject lines don't stand out in all that noise you are toast.

Instead;

Use story
Try using curiosity
Tap into current events

And also use...

Some of The Best Email Subject Lines Use Humor

I'm not gonna lie.

This is one of those tips everyone talks about but very few people can actually master.

We all have different senses of humor.

Jokes don't always carry too well in emails - they can be misunderstood or just fall flat.

You need to be careful.

"If you get this right you can  form a deeper connnection with your subscribers and even get people forwarding your email around to others."

I know one marketer who used to put out a weekly email which had offers and a bunch of jokes in it.

It was always his most responsive email of the week.

Now just because a lot of people opened it and replied to him with positive praise doesn't mean it put dollars in his wallet though.

This is where you need to be cautious.

Like many of these tactics - the idea is to mix and match and use them sparingly.

Here's some examples of subject lines I've used to raise a laugh AND raise revenue (each one linked to an offer of course which got sales);

Another way to get attention and stand out in the inbox is to...

Be Controversial (in Short Doses!)

This one is not for the weak-hearted...

It also does not suit every type of business.

But if you are running a business where you can position yourself as the spokesperson and people are getting to know you then it can work really well.

Many businesses are scared of offending anyone so they fall into the trap of just being "beige";

Safe for everyone but exciting to nobody.

The real trick to succeeding with email is to polarize - turn half the people off and half the people on.

Think about it;

Would you rather have 1000 people on your email list who think you are "meh" or 500 people who think you are AMAZING and pay attention to your every word?

This is what being controversial can do.

The trick is not to over-do it - don't push the line too far and don't use it too often.

You also need to make sure you can justify what you are saying and address the controversy as soon as possible when people start reading the email.

As my good friend and fellow email marketing expert Ben Settle says;

Here are some example of controversial email subject lines I've used to great effect;

Warning:

You gotta be careful with this stuff.

Make sure you can back up your claims - only say what you truly believe and stand for.

Don't be controversial just for the sake of it.

But if you can polarize people in a way which is authentic to you then you will build an army of super-supporters.

It's definitely worth doing.

This brings us onto the next part of the training...

7 Reasons You Should Harness the Power of Numbered Lists

Here are the reasons;

#1. People like collecting things and lists appeal to this mentality

#2. It really helps you create content easily

#3. It flows nicely and provides you with a handy structure for your emails

#4. Regardless of the content being listed it conveys a sense of authority and value

#5. Once people start reading the list they can't help but finish it to find out all the items

#6. It appeals to people's innate curiosity and thirst for knowledge

#7. It gives you an easy formula for creating subject lines by just describing the list of stuff

Here's some example subject lines for you;

And I'm also hoping you noticed that I used the numbered list idea and subject line in this section 😉

Okay great, onto your next lesson...

Curiosity Killed The Cat (But It's Great for Email Subject Lines!)

You know one of the best types of subject line?

Using something that tweaks their curiosity gland and makes it impossible for them to skip past your email in their inbox.

Of course;

You need to satisfy the curiosity pretty quickly inside the email and it needs to be a justifiable and provable claim or story.

Do NOT go with that old classic;

"Free Money. Okay great, now I have your attention..."

Incidentally -

Using the "..." after a subject line is a great way to get people to open up your email.

You can't use it every time because it gets old.

But every now and then put the three dots at the end and watch your open rates improve.

Here's some examples of curiosity-creating subject lines for you;

Okay, now it's time for me to ask you a question...

Do You Think Using Questions is Effective?

Yes.

You are correct!

Using any kind of question as an email subject line can reap rewards, here's why...

It makes the prospect feel you are speaking directly to them.

Like you are asking for their opinion. (Which you can actually do too - more on that in a sec).

Even if you're not actually wanting people to reply you can still use questions.

It gets people to engage with your emails more.

Examples include;

Being Specific and Using Statistics

Which subject line is best?

A: "Weird Method Leads to More Revenue..."

B: "New Method Leads to 157% More Revenue..."

C: "This Method Leads to $1982.43 More Revenue..."

Yes.

You're right - C is the winner. 🏆

Because it is the most specific one.

As humans we like to know unknown stuff. We like all the gaps to be filled in.

The more detail you can give (as long as it's relevant and interesting) in a short subject line, the more people are likely to open it.

This is half the battle.

To really get the most from your email marketing campaigns you should also be...

Harnessing the Power of Help

There is something inside us as human beings - we want to help others.

Too many business owners make the mistake of thinking they should always be preaching to their subscribers.

Like they are shouting from a pulpit and the subscribers should just be good audience members.

BUT:-

"The real power of email marketing comes when you start building this into a two-way interaction."

Yes you can provide your list with great value, content and offers.

But they can also help you out too.

Whether it's asking for feedback, getting ideas from them, getting them to vote on something or just asking them to take a look at a new article or web page you have -

Don't be afraid to tap into the power of your email list to do this.

You might be surprised by the response.

This also has the added benefit that your inboxing rate and deliverability will improve because email providers like Gmail will see that people are responding to your messages.

In fact, I sometimes run interaction campaigns exactly like this for this very purpose.

I call this "The Boomerang Boost" method.

Sadly, most businesses do the exact opposite of this and send emails out saying "do not reply".

Here's some examples of using The Boomerang Boost method;

Okay now let's talk about...

Using The Personal and Personalized Approach

These two are similar, but different.

They both rely on appealing to people's ego and sense of self.

With the personal approach you are letting them into your world and sharing something personal about yourself to make a deeper connection.

"Ultimately, people buy from people - you need to build a real relationship with your subscribers."

So unless you are a huge brand you always want to be letting people get to know the real you.

People will really get emotionally-involved with your emails if you keep telling personal stories and build up a detailed picture of your real life.

It becomes like a regular soap opera where they can't wait to hear what you're upto next.

The trick (and it takes practice) is to realize you can turn any event in your real life into an email subject line and then link it over to an offer you have.

People love stories, not promotions.

I regularly have people buy my products multiple times by mistake because my emails are so effective.

People also email me when if they lose one of my emails because they love receiving them and don't want to miss out!

99% of businesses don't have this problem because their emails are impersonal, promotional garbage.

Don't be like them.

You can also get great results by personalizing your subject lines (sparingly!).

You can do this by including the person's first name or other data you received from them with permission when they opted in to your mailing list.

If you have a range of products and services then you can tailor the emails to their buying habits or interests.

The more data you have on each person (and an understanding of how to use it), the better.

Most big autoresponders let you do this.

I highly recommend you use GetResponse because I do and they are great at this.

Are you ready for more golden nuggets?

Great!

Because it's time to talk about...

News and Announcements

There's a reason billions of people around the world are addicted to Facebook and watching the news;

It's part of human DNA to want to gather around the firepit and gossip.

We like to know what's going on.

We don't want to feel we are missing out on anything.

"This sense of immediacy and of something happening RIGHT NOW is what you are tapping into by using this strategy."

Lots of small businesses screw this up.

They think that releasing a product is news. (It's not).

Or they think that lowering their prices is news. (It's not).

What we're talking about here is something which would genuinely get people to sit up and take notice.

Something that would stand out in their over-crowded inbox.

Here's a couple of examples for you...

Some other news-related words you can use in your subject lines include;

• Alert
• Update
• New
• Breaking:

The close-cousin of the news-type-email is coming up right now.

It's time to talk about...

Using Scarcity and Urgency to Power Up Your Open Rates

These two often get confused with one another so let's sort that out...

Scarcity is when there is a limited supply of something.

Urgency is when there is an impending deadline.

Using the two of these together is a very powerful marketing strategy -

e.g. "We only have 9 units of this left and at midnight tonight the price is going up by 200%"

Here's the rub;

These tactics get massively abused in certain marketing circles by douchebags who would rather make a quick buck than do run their business with integrity.

People start whacking deadline countdowns on every salesletter and it becomes meaningless.

Unless you are legitimately closing something down or increasing the price don't do this because it will backfire and kill your credibility in an instant.

Now, I said early in this training that you don't want to use boring old promotional subject lines or subject lines about prices and offers.

This is true.

But there are genuine occasions when a real and true deadline or case of scarcity warrants it.

A case in point being if you are running out of a physical stock item.

Of if you raising the price on something after a certain time.

In these cases then you definitely want to use this type of subject line.

Don't overuse it though:-

You risk annoying your email list and it not being effective.

Some example subject lines I've used to convey scarcity and urgency include;

Now let's move swiftly onto...

The "Momma Method" for Making the Best Emails

Now I know this isn't strictly about subject lines, per se, but you do need to think about the content INSIDE your email too... there are lots of email marketing do's and don'ts you need to consider.

It's easy to get the tone and content right;

Just imagine you are writing to your Mom.

Would you send an email to your Mom that included embedded images, videos, weird fonts, different colors or all caps?

Noooo.

So don't do it with your prospects either.

"If your email looks promotional you are already putting your prospects on the back foot."

Write your emails as if you're writing to your Mom and you won't go far wrong.

Be direct, personal and authentic.

Use plain language that you use everyday - just write how you talk.

Simple.

Notice also how all the example subject lines I've given you are lower-case;

No capitalization of the first letter of each word.

No real person writes emails like that!

Can you imagine?

SUBJECT: HEY JOHN. FANCY GOING TO THE BAR TONIGHT?? (LIMITED TIME OFFER)

Here's a quick summary for you of the Momma Method

• Don't capitalize things in the subject line
• Don't offend
• Be concise
• Use natural, everyday language
• Remember that your momma doesn't take any nonsense
• Don't use promotional language or formatting
• Be direct and straight to the point

Now it's time to talk about one of the most powerful types of subject line known to man...

Social Proof Subject Lines

Social proof is when you can show a prospect that lots of other people like them have already taken action on your offer.

People hate feeling stupid.

They want to remove as much risk as they can in all their decisions.

Especially when it comes to buying things online.

By demonstrating social proof you remove a lot of the perceived risk for your prospect.

He/she will feel safer and more happy to go ahead and buy.

Using it in a subject line also makes your offer and angle more real and tangible.

"Your prospect loves to know they are not alone."

They want to know other people just like them have gone ahead with the offer and succeeded.

Some examples of social proof include;

• Testimonial quote from a customer
• Stating the number of buyers an offer has had
• A story or case study from one of your subscribers

The subject lines you use for this will, of course, depend on the type of social proof you can get your hands on.

But here's some examples of ones I've used;

Conclusion

Okay my friend - you made it to the end, congrats!

I sincerely hope you got lots of value from this training.

Now watch this FREE VIDEO on how to turn your emails into money;

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