The first rule of email prospecting

If you’re prospecting via email and not very concerned about your subject line, you are making a big mistake. It’s the single biggest determinant of whether or not the recipient will decide to open your email.

A lot of people don’t even think about email subject lines. They write something such as “Company overview” or “Update on what’s happening with our company.” And of course, the person who gets this in her email box will think “Why do I care about that?” If you have anything about your company in the subject line, I promise you your email will be deleted — unopened.

The second type of subject line that will get your email deleted is anything that’s sales-y. Things such as special promotions, 50 percent-off sales or new product announcements will get deleted quickly, too.

So, what works? How can you craft a subject line that will get your prospects to open your email? If you have a referral, you should automatically put that in your email subject line. “Bob Smith suggested I get in touch with you.” This always gets people to open a message.

The second thing you can do is reference something that is important to the company. You solve business issues. You help people with projects that are important to them. Put something in the subject line that would be relevant to your recipient.