Best Newsletter Email Subject Line Examples & How to Write Them

Imagine a world where every email newsletter you set had a 100% open rate? Is that even possible? Well, probably not to be honest. But that doesn't mean you need to accept newsletter open rates of less than 10% as your lot.

In this article, we are sharing a list of some of the best email subject line examples for you to gain inspiration from. We'll also share our top tips on how to write high performing subject lines with you too.

What is an Email Subject Line?

An email subject line is the short introductory piece of text that people see first when they get your email. This one little sentence is what your entire email will be judged upon, and determines whether they will open or delete it. Your email subject line creates that all important first impression and you want to do all you can to avoid your email being marked as spam...

Best Email Subject Line Examples

We've hunted high and low for examples of great email newsletter subject lines. Here are a few of our favourites:

The timer's going off your cart!
What did you think? Write a review
Rock the colour of the year
Don't open this email!
What can you afford?
As you wish
The deals that make us proud (unlike our nephew, Steve)
Top 10 under $10
Introducing our latest (product, service, feature)
Rough day?
Make room in that closet
This disappears at midnight
How to (do something)
You're in our family. Now let's be friends
We finally did it..we finally...
A new product you won't pass on
Steal these ...
Since we can't all win...
Quick favour?
Invitation from (company name)

Yes, you can take any of these and use them for your subject line. But what would be better is knowing how to create your own fabulously unique ones yourself.

Top Tips for Writing Email Subject Lines

The list of subject lines above all have a few things in common: they are attention grabbing, honest, brief, attack pain points, spark curiosity or promote fear of missing out. A great subject line is one to which the recipient responds positively to, and does what the sender wants them to do.

To increase your newsletter open rates, you may want to consider some of these characteristics of high open rate subject lines:

Urgency - make people act fast by using limited time wording
Brief - many readers check their email on a mobile, so 50 characters or less is best practice
Call to action - tell readers what to do next
Single word - a single word is edgy and different, so gets noticed
Specific - focus on one or two things
Numbers - when numbers are used with words
Trust - deliver exactly what you offer in your newsletter to build trust and increase open rates next time
Question - get your readers thinking
Funny - people love humour
Clever - wit and nods to well-known references are always appreciated
Offers - what can you offer the reader?
Personalisation - use their name, their preferences and their location to your advantage
Relevant - they signed up to your subscription list for a reason: send them emails related to that reason