150 Best Email Subject Examples & Ideas in 2024

What does it take for someone to actually open an email? The most important part it’s the subject line. After all, it’s your very first impression of the email. From that first impression, you’ll do your best to judge the content inside.

Your email subject line is your first (and maybe your last) impression on users. In many ways, your email subject line is more important than your email body. After all, a great email newsletter is worthless if it never sees the light of day.

So what makes a good email subject line? It’s a message that conveys urgency, curiosity, personalization, and so much more. But it’s up to you to make that distinction of which fits best in your business offer and appeals to your audience.

In this article, you’ll find 150 awesome email subject examples that will help you think of subject lines specific to your industry and brand that your leads will want to click on.

Here is a list of 150 email subject examples divided into several groups, mostly by the type of emails and subject lines.

In this article

Personalized email subject examples

Making your subject line more personal increases your chances of people clicking on your email campaign and that’s a fact. But, simply including the first name of a person isn’t going to cut it.

People are already used to that kind of personalization, so you need to be a bit more creative and try to connect with the lead like you’ve known them for years. You can achieve that by being more casual, implying friendship, creating nicknames for your leads, or sharing something personal.

Personalized email subject templates:

Hey [First Name], do you remember me?
Check this out, [First Name]
How is it going with [Paint Point], [First Name]?
Don’t make the same mistakes I did, [First Name]
The time is right for [Company Name] to reach beyond its goals
[First Name]! Just a quick question
Where do you want to start, [First Name]?

Personalized email subject examples:

John Lee Dumas: “Are you coming?”
Influitive: “So I’ll pick you up at 7?”
Rent the Runway: “Happy Birthday Mary – Surprise Inside!”
Vinomofo: “Can’t decide, Mary? Get Shiraz & Co NEW mix!”
Fabletics: “Mary, this is so you and it’s 70% off!”
UrbanDaddy: “You’ve Changed”
(Fenty Beauty): “Only the best for you, Mary”
Revolution Tea: “Thanks for helping us”
Joybird: “We’d love your feedback, Mary!”
Fabletics: “Hey Mary, we picked these for you!”
ColourPop Cosmetics: “Mary, you don’t want to miss this…”
Essential Home: “The product of the week picked for you, Mary”
Aliexpress: “Remember that item you wanted?”

Pain points subject lines

To be able to successfully lead your leads to buy your products, you must know your buying persona. And that means that you know their interests, details about them, what they want to achieve, and most importantly, what are their pain points (which you solve with your product).

Use that knowledge in your subject lines and show your recipients that you have a solution.

Another way to look at it is to focus on your core value that makes your brand unique compared to others in your business niche.

Pain points subject lines examples:

Fiton: “No time to cook? 5 Easy Meals to try this week.”
Sephora: “Your beauty issues, solved”
Brabbu: “Discover the product that will upgrade your project”
IKEA: “Get more kitchen space with these easy fixes”
Guess: “Wanted: Cute and affordable fashions”
Evernote: “Stop wasting time on mindless work”
Derek Halpern: “How I Got 26,778 Subscribers In 13 Months”
Duolingo: “Learn a language with only 5 minutes per day”
Thrillist: “How to Survive Your Next Overnight Flight”
Derek Halpern: “7 deadly sales mistakes (new ebook, no charge)”
Derek Halpern: “Struggling to make more sales? Follow these 2 simple steps…”

As you can see, these companies and brands use their unique value to offer or at least indicate there is a solution to the pain point their target audience is dealing with.

You can also do that by using some of these email subject templates:

How are you dealing with [Pain Point], [First Name]?
Key challenges in implementing [solution].
Save [XX %] by employing [solution]
Can you help me out with [Pain Point]?
[Company name] X [Product Name] = Reached [Goal]
Why we love [solution]
Question about [Goal]
Resources to help with [Pain Point]

Funny subject examples

We all love to laugh! And when there’s a subject line that will make us laugh or at least smile and feel good, we are more likely to open it.

That being said, there are a lot of different kinds of humor and you need to find out what works with your target group. You can try out different approaches or you can split test your emails until you are satisfied with the results.

Making funny email subject lines requires a lot of creativity and you need to be witty, too. If you are selling something a lot of other companies sell, being funny just might be the selling point for you that will differentiate you from others.

Being funny doesn’t necessarily need to be in the subject line, but it should be connected to it. For example:

Eater Boston: “Where to Drink Beer Right Now” (Sent at 6:45 am on a Wednesday)

Other funny email subject lines examples:

Huckberry: “Ahhhhhhh.”—Your feet
Thrillist: “Try To Avoid These 27 People On New Year’s Eve”
AYR: “The fresh pants of bel-AYR” (puns usually bring a smile)
OpenTable: “Licking your phone never tasted so good”
Groupon: “Deals That Make Us Proud (Unlike Our Nephew, Steve)”
Studio Neat: “Great, another email!”
Bonobos: “SAAALE! Extra 40%! Sorry for yelling!”
Baby Bump: “Yes, I’m Pregnant. You Can Stop Staring At My Belly Now.”
Warby Parker: “Pairs nicely with spreadsheets”
Derek Halpern: “Yep. I look ridiculous! It’s on purpose. Here’s why…”
Derek Halpern: “Matt Damon, Why I Hate College, and The Secret to Success”
The Muse: “We Like Being Used”
Ryan Deiss: “Oooh… CONTROVERSY”
Ryan Deiss: “Steal this campaign…”
Patpat: “Forget Your Troubles, Come On Get Matchy!”
Sunski: “It’s finally (mostly) sunny!”
Gozengo: “NEW! Vacation on Mars”
Beardbrand: “[True or False]: Your beard loves to lift, bro.”
The Hustle: “Look what you did, you little jerk…” (from movie Home Alone)

Just as you know, before opting to buy something online, people are going to check reviews, testimonials, and your product’s ratings. That is how your future customers check your quality, so creating an email campaign with a subject line emphasizing social proof is a great way to boost response rates, and reduce email unsubscribe rates.

You can collect the reviews, ratings, and testimonials from several places, like social media, Yelp, Google, or other review-specialized platforms.

But, in order to show your social proof, you need sales. Still, there are a few ways you can use social proof in emails and subject lines, no matter how many reviews you’ve got.

You can:

Include a testimonial from a satisfied customer
Share some statistically impressive numbers on your product or your brand
Include partnerships with influencers, celebrities, NGOs, other companies, government, etc.
Highlight any awards you got for your efforts
Include media appearances

Here are some examples of how you can stress social proof in subject lines:

“Word on the street…”
“They said it best: …”
“Everybody is talking about…”
“Rumor has it…”
Huckberry: “Want.” — everyone
Tuft & Needle: “Who ranked us #1? See the lists”
Framebridge: “Don’t just take our word for it.”
MeUndies: “Ten. Million. Pairs. ”
Neil Patel: “Be a Better Copywriter: 7 Lessons From 4 Legendary Books”
MAC Cosmetics: “Fans are getting REAL about new Studio Fix Stick ”
Derek Halpern: “97.3% of people said YES”
Beauty Bay: “Guess what Olivia Buckland is wearing? “
Birchbox: “We’ve partnered with the Female Founder Collective”
Origins: “Find Out Why This Fave Is Sold Every 10 Secs…”
Birchbox: “We’ve Heard Some Good Things… “

Subject lines that drive interest and curiosity

Writing something unusual or strange in the subject line will make people curious about what is inside the email. Giving them only a part of the information, asking them questions, sparking interest by promising something interesting are all great ways to induce curiosity and make more people click on your email.

If you decide to send out emails with curiosity subjects, make sure to answer recipients’ questions in the email body. Just imagine, you start a peculiar story in the subject line and then simply go on with promoting your products without any connection to the story started with the subject line.

That’s frustrating enough to lose your potential clients for good.

So, be consistent and follow through with a single concept on every level (subject line, email body, images, sending time…)

Subjects that drive interest and curiosity examples:

Shinesty: “You’ve never seen a suit this color…”
Refinery29: “10 bizarre money habits making Millennials richer”
Crocs: “They did WHAT with a pair of Crocs?”
Chubbies: “Hologram Shorts?!”
ESQIDO: “Shhh… Don’t tell anyone”
Digital Marketer: “Is this the hottest career in marketing?”
CopyBlogger: “LAST CHANCE: Discount for Pro Plus All-Theme Pack Ends Today”
“Let’s rethink your strategy.”
Function of Beauty: “Your hair care routine is missing something…”
Eat This Not That: “9 Disgusting Facts about Thanksgiving”
Gary Vaynerchuk: “I have four epic brand new videos for you guys (emoticon)”
Gary Vaynerchuk: “Ten of you will get 80% off of my next speaking event in NYC. Hurry!”
GrubHub: “Last Day To See What This Mystery Email Is All About”
Huckberry: “It’s Arrived.”
Mary Fernandez: “? a surprise gift for you! {unwrap}”
Glossier: “You can’t come in”
I was right.
Recess: “They said it couldn’t be done”
Thrillist: “What They Eat In Prison”
Allbirds: “Have You Seen Sheep Dance?”
Ryan Deiss: “You’re going to miss this?!”
Manicube: “*Don’t Open This Email*”
Away: “What you’ve been waiting for ”

Follow-up cold email subject lines

As you probably know, only a few people decide to buy something after only the first cold email they receive. Research has shown that the majority of customers buy products after the 8th follow-up!

That being said, you need to think about the follow-up email strategy and how to slowly convert your leads into becoming your customers.

How you will approach your leads will probably depend on how you got to their email:

By newsletter
By subscribing to a monthly subscription
By finding them on LinkedIn
By leaving their email so they get something for free from you
Etc.

Based on the previous behavior, you can adjust your follow-up email. For example, if you noticed that some people added your products to the cart, but then didn’t go through with the payment, you can send them an email reminding them that their cart is still saved and waiting for them.

Here are some of the great follow-up subject lines examples:

As promised – your materials
Let’s reconnect?
RE: Our last conversation
We met at the [Industry Event]
Tuft & Needle: “You Should Sleep on Big Decisions.“
Is this goodbye, [First Name]?
Fab: “There must have been a mistake, you left this behind”
Shinesty: “You left your stuff at our place…”
Your clients will love our latest research
Sock Fancy: “Still thinking it over? Maybe this will help…”
Sorry if I came on too strong, [First Name]!
Did you catch my last email?
Proven: “Your Place in Line is Going, Going…”
The Kewl Shop: “More about our Sweety Flared Bandage Dress”
AYR: “Just lookin out for you ”
Was it something we/I said?
I hope all is well, [First Name]
CopyBlogger: “Reminder: Lock in Monthly Billing for Rainmaker Today (Before It’s Gone)”
Care/Of: “Let’s make a plan”
Ryan Deiss: “Am I still welcome in your inbox?”
Vinomofo: “The 2nd rule of Vinomofo: never leave a wine behind.”
Bath & Body Works: “Trust your instincts.“

Time-based subject lines examples

Think about all the major events happening every year (New Year’s Eve, Halloween, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Black Friday, etc.) and seasons and how can they affect your sales.

If you find a way how to connect the time in a year with your products, think about the time when are people preparing for such occasions and create a time-based email marketing campaign just then.

There are several ways you can emphasize the time of the year, not only with words.

For example, you can use seasonally relevant emojis in your subject lines, or emojis with the season’s colors (be careful with the number of emojis, because if you overcrowd the subject line with emojis, your email might end up in the spam folder). Also, you can use holiday-specific words and turn them a bit around to help your brand reach more people (like using trick-or-treat – treat yourself around Halloween).

Spring subject examples:

Birchbox: “Spring into this deal…Ready. Set. GLOW!”
Torrid: “ Time to spring forward ”
Bath & Body Works: “hand soaps. ✔️spring scents. ✔️self-care. ✔️”
Pura Vida Bracelets: “NEW now: spring florals ”
Cravory Cookies: “ Spring Treats ”
Bath & Body Works: “ spring—but bring it inside. ”
Too Faced: “April Showers Bring: SPRING MAKEUP”
Banana Republic: “30 Days Free: Your Spring Rental Wardrobe”

Summer subject examples:

Pull&Bear: “ + + ☀️ = Summer!”
Pura Vida Bracelets: “What’s hot this summer ☀️ ”
Pull&Bear: “Shorts + Tops + Sandals = Summer vibes ”
Estee Lauder: “Escape to Summer ☀️ ”
Philosophy: “Dear diary, this Summer… I’ll be a little style hunter! ”
Bath & Body Works: “on the calendar: summer & sale. ”
Crocs: “Florals are in for SUMMER ”

Fall subject examples:

Bobbi Brown: “Halloween Inspiration: 70s Glam”
KiwiCo: “Spooky Mystery Savings Have Arrived”
Miss Selfridge: “The Devil Wears Miss Selfridge ”
Cravory Cookies: “ Get Ready for Halloween – 20%OFF ENTIRE ORDER ”
MAC Cosmetics: “ Halloween faves look good on you, boo!”
HEMA: “something spooky’s going on | mystery discount | at least 10% off”
IGK Hair: “No Tricks, Just Treats”
Greetabl: “What do ghosts eat for breakfast? ”

Winter subject examples:

Too Faced: “Winter-Proof Your Skincare Routine ”
Patagonia: “Winter sale ends tomorrow”
Huckberry: “The Annual Winter Sale”
Origins. “Bye Winter-Weary Skin! Treat Overnight With AHAs”
American Apparel: “Winter Bottoms and Tops to Match.”
Anthropologie: “let’s pretend it’s not winter…”
Vrbo: “Winter isn’t over just yet…”
Prose: “Escape winter with Oasis”

How to write effective cold email subject lines

Certain rules should be applied when writing effective email subject lines, and, luckily, we have gathered them here.

Personalize the subject line

When people receive an email that is intended just for them, they are more likely to open and read the email. Personalization of the subject line doesn’t only include adding the first name to it. Check out the “Personalized email subject examples” section for more awesome tips.

Keep it short

People use their emails on different platforms and devices, so you can’t be sure at which point your subject line is going to get cut. Keep it short for the subject line to appear fully.

Stay on point

Even if you are writing a funny subject line, stay focused and be clear.

Keywords that can ruin your efforts

You should include some keywords in your subject line, but avoid using many keywords and spam trigger words like “free”, “special offer”, “***…***”, etc.

Use of Emojis

Depending on your target group and the occasion. Even though emojis have entered many pores of our lives, you should first check how your target group reacts to emojis and then decide whether to use them. It is not recommended to use emojis in a B2B environment.

Letter case

You can use sentence case (regular capitalization rules), title case (every major word is capitalized), or lower case (without any capital letters). Research has shown that the title case has the highest open rate, followed by the sentence case. Whatever you decide to use, before going big, do a split test on a smaller group of recipients to find out what works better.

Create excitement

Creating a feeling of excitement, fear of missing out, and urgency leads your recipients to act on your emails. You can do that by adding some of the keywords, like “limited offer”, “ending soon”, save xx% only today”, etc. Still, try not to sound like spam emails.

Use numbers

Numbers can tell a lot in just a few symbols, so use them to paint a picture in your recipients’ minds. Include only one number so the readers don’t get confused, use percentages and statistics, and, for some reason, people react better to odd numbers.

Wrap up

So, now you have a comprehensive guide on how to write effective subject lines that people will want to click on!

We know this is a lot to take just as you read it, so we recommend bookmarking these kinds of articles so you can come back to them when you need them.

Now you are ready to create the most interesting subject lines for your target group, yaaaay! Good luck with your sales!