The Ultimate List of Follow Up Email Subject Line Examples

Getting people to click on your emails is key to increasing sales conversion rates. Catching your prospect’s attention is half the battle, so the follow-up email subject line, although a seemingly minor amount of work, could be the difference between starting a new client relationship or saying goodbye to that person forever.

RELATED: EMAIL PROSPECTING VS COLD CALLING: WHAT’S BEST?

In this article:

1. Why is an Email Subject Line Important?
2. Email Statistics
3. How to Write a Follow-Up Email Subject Line
4. Email Examples
   1. State What Your Product Can Do for the Customer
   2. Social Proof
   3. Personalize Subject Lines
5. Emojis
6. Key Tips

Statistics and Examples to Help You Boost Your Email Open Rates

In an ever-evolving marketing and sales climate, you should never stop trying to perfect your subject lines, and what works for some prospects, won’t necessarily work for others. In good quality B2B email marketing, “one size fits all” doesn’t exist. Different customers have different concerns and pain points.

How much can you achieve in one short sentence, and how can you get it to perform in the best way possible? Read on to learn about why it’s essential to get your email subject lines right, what the statistics say, and check out some of our examples.

Why is an Email Subject Line Important?

• Follow-up email subject lines are important for many reasons.
• To show that your business is customer-centric. You should be sending trust-building emails, hoping that your customers will see that you are invested in customer service.
• The automated nature of sending emails means you might not have much involvement in the process, so when you do, they should cover particular scenarios.
• They help to increase conversion. Follow-up emails add value and support your customers through each step of their buyer journey.
• Sorting the suspects from the prospects. Emails designed to target engaged customers will sift out the ones who will never communicate.

Email Statistics

Statistically, most people won’t open an email – 67 percent will only open an email with a catchy subject line, so all your hard work creating the perfect email content can go to waste.

Email providers can use AI to shift emails into your Customer’s inbox or their junk folder. If your subscriber doesn’t regularly open your emails, they are likely to spam.

The typical open rate for emails is less than 18 percent. Optimizing your subject line will get you more traffic and conversions.

How to Write a Follow-Up Email Subject Line

Set yourself a goal before you start writing your email subject lines. Think about writing the subject line after completing the email content and CTA. This way, you’ll be able to ‘pen the line’ consistent with all the elements.

Types of follow-up email include free trial offers, rewards for subscribing, and post product sale.

You’ll likely want to gain information from your Customer, arrange a meeting to pitch a sale, reconnect with a lead, or to say thank you for your Customer simply.

Email Examples

State What Your Product Can do for the Customer

Showing your prospect what you have is all well and good, but this needs to be related to them and how you can help their needs. Being able to solve their problems and tackle their pain points is why they will open your email.

Try to summarize your solution or add an advantage to boost credibility.

Examples could include: –

“How to …”
Although a classic and some might say a boring way to attract attention, some top B2B sales companies use this method. An example from Salesforce is “How to grow your business faster in 15 minutes.” The guarantee is powerful, not just about the product, but it offers an opportunity to learn something.

“[X company’s] secrets on how to …”
The self-interest email generally works because people and businesses want to be ‘better’ than everyone else. Humans are bound to want the best return for the lowest output. Tapping into this psychological element should compel your prospect to find out more and open up your email.

Social Proof

You can warm up your introduction by using existing relationships. Use your current contact’s name to build trust based on the common ground. Of course, you’ll need permission to do this first.

Examples could include: –

“[Referral name] referred me to you”
Build trust-based on a common relationship.

“[Referral name] from [X company] suggested we speak”
Adding company specifics should increase your credibility and give your prospect a clearer picture of where you’re coming from.

“Recommendation from [Referral name]”
You can pique the curiosity of your prospect, enticing them to open and read your email.

Personalize Subject Linesples

The benefit of personalizing subject lines makes the prospect feel like they have been singled out to receive the email and that it’s 100 percent specific to them. In fact, open rates increase by up to 50 percent more.

To add the personal touch, consider adding your Customer’s name. This can increase open rates to more than 21 percent.

Examples could include: –

“Happy birthday [company name] / [customer’s name] – Here’s 10% off…”
This can work for B2B by acknowledging company milestones or anniversaries.

“It’s a pleasure doing business with you [customer’s name]”
The simplest way of acknowledging your Customer after a sale is to thank them.

Getting to know your audience can allow you to mix up your templates. Create alternative email subjects and adjust them for your client and prospects.

You could recognize accomplishments; an example of this would be to acknowledge any awards or milestones that are praiseworthy activities. For example, “Saw you at [event name]” could be used to start a business relationship.

Any personalization will signal to your prospect or Customer your will to go beyond general greetings and show that you are more attentive to details than your competitors.

Emojis

Studies have shown that emojis in subject lines boost marketing effectiveness because of the relation to emotion. However, in B2B marketing, there are mixed opinions.

Reports from a few years back showed that emojis did increase sales engagement, but the tide seems to have turned. A report in 2019 by Outreach, showed that reply rates decreased when emojis were used in email subject lines.

Key Tips

• Keep it simple
• Keep it real
• Keep it about them, not you
• Don’t be too ‘salesy’
• Don’t give away too much detail
• Always assess your figures
• Adapt to market changes

What examples of follow up email subject lines work best for you? Please comment in the section below.

Up Next:

• 6 FORECASTING STRATEGIES FOR MORE ACCURATE SALES [INFOGRAPHIC]
• 8 DAYS OF EMAIL MARKETING | GUIDE TO EMAIL SALES
• WHY EMAIL MARKETING IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR SALES PROCESS