Sales Prospecting Perspectives

Effective Email Strategies: It’s all about the Subject Line

  

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When I sit down on Monday mornings to pick a blog topic to write about, I typically reflect back to the previous week and focus on an interesting business challenge or event that occurred with a client. This week, I’ve decided to discuss an interesting scenario that a business development rep on my team stumbled across last week. This particular rep is really “in the know” when it comes to celebrities and music. Last week, while listening to a very popular Boston radio show, a topic was of particular interest to her, and she wanted to share her thoughts on the subject matter. In thinking about the thousands of listeners that were reaching out to the host via email and phone, this rep knew she really needed to differentiate herself in such a way that would get his attention. So what did she do? She used the training she had received over the past 6 months of working here to come up with an intriguing email subject line  to include the phrase “Personal Experience” to really grab the host’s attention. Well, out of hundreds of emails, the host chose to read hers, and she not only received an email response and a phone call back from him, but she was on the show for 5 minutes of air time the following day! The point is, when sending emails in your personal life or in the sales world, the subject line is key if you want to get a response.

When it comes to your inside sales team sending emails to prospects, it’s important to make sure they are utilizing subject lines that are going to spark some interest from their audience. Executives are receiving countless amounts of emails each day from companies just like yours, so that’s why it’s so important to place such a large emphasis on email subject line strategies. Here are a few of my favorite subject lines used by my team that elicit the best response rates:

• 5 Minutes?
• Please Reply
• Referred by Colleague’s Name

The subject lines above are not wordy at all, and are effective in leaving the prospect wanting to know more. All of these examples say nothing about the company that the rep is reaching out from – instead, these focus on a more creative approach to grab the prospect’s attention without coming across as “salesy” in my opinion.

What subject lines does your team use to keep email response rates high?