Tips for writing a better follow-up email subject line.

When your website gives you leads, do you know what to do with them?

Most websites are designed to create more leads for the business investing time and money into its development. But like all lead channels, if a potential customer does not buy right away you still need a solid plan to keep them moving through your funnel. I know from experience, and my sales managers, that following up with my leads can do a lot to reach sales goals and increase profits.

It's a tale as old as time. Lacking follow up has doomed many salespeople, and will continue to be a huge factor of lost opportunities. I’ve been guilty over the years in my sales career of losing touch and losing sales. My list of excuses is a long one, but it was always something I actually had control over. Following up with sales leads and customers is very controllable, and in the case of email can be very low risk/high reward. 

What to say in the body of a follow up email is very dependent on a list of factors, but the email subject line is not. The email subject line is a huge factor in the open rate and priority of importance of the contact and deserves a little thought. You need to get the recipient's attention without sounding too pushy. Writing an effective subject line can improve your chances of getting your email opened. 

Here are a few tips I’ve learned and help onto that will help you write a professional follow-up email subject line that works. 

Be conversational. 

Subject lines are not to sound like a sales pitch. Leave the pitch for the email body. Use a friendly, helpful tone and keep it about them not you or your product. 

Make it brief. 

Shorter is better. Nothing generic like a simple “Following Up”, but don’t write a subject that will be truncated or so long it gets skipped. Keep it 6-10 words to make sure your hitting the mark. 

Peak interest. 

Don’t write the subject line that gives too much away. You do want them to read the email so grab their interest in a way that they want to see the email. You worked hard on the contents so don’t give them a reason to skip it. 

Personalize the subject line. 

Most of the time you should personalize the email subject line. This is constantly overused by spam emails and cold marketing so it’s not as effective as it was, but with you already having a relationship with them in some capacity you should still use their name and some form of personalized info if you can. 

Tie the subject to the email content. 

Don’t mislead the recipient, have an honest and clear tie in to the email body.  Build trust every chance you get, nobody likes to be fooled. 

And a bonus tip:

Optimize the snippet. 

Use the two lines of the email preview —the short amount of text that appears near the subject line in their inbox as a preview. This gives you a chance to add personalization and ask a meaningful question to further entice and open and response. 

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When developing the contact forms, email collection systems, and auto responders for the websites I create I have a few go to solutions that allow me to take control of the communication flows and incorporate subject line best practices to get the best repose rates for my clients and stay out of the spam box.

Static Websites: I use a customized version of PHP Mailer and hand crafted HTML styled emails.

Wordpress: Elementor Pro's Built in Contact Forms

Laravel: Statamic CMS's forms module