Network With Email…And Subject Lines!

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My 12 Done-For-You Email Scripts, available to all of my email list subscribers, turns your email inbox into a networking super-weapon. It’s the culmination of the last 5 years of my own training and hard-learned lessons in sending emails to generate opportunities. Most of these I learned from pros who had decades of experience in sales, business development, and fundraising.

I chose these scripts as the core content for subscribers because I consistently run into otherwise-ambitious people getting caught up over not knowing “the right people.” Meanwhile, we all have a universal address that allows anybody in the world to contact us. If a Nigerian prince who wants to give you 100,000 bitcoin can email you, you can email anybody else.

When discussing using email to land jobs, interview people, and get your writing featured in high-traffic site, somebody always comes back to this question:

“What about the subject line?”

At the risk of getting banished to email etiquette purgatory, I actually don’t think subject lines are all that important. So long as your subject does not sound spammy and conveys the core message of the email, you’re good to go. Most people who live in their inboxes will scroll through messages. That the message itself conveys your ask in 1-2 seconds is more important.

Nevertheless! I get this question often enough (and have seen enough truly terrible subject lines) that I’ve updated the 12 Done-For-You Email Scripts to include suggested subject lines. This at least gives you an idea from which you can build your own set of subject lines to use in the right contexts.

You can get the scripts through signing up for my email list at the bottom of the page. If you previously received the email scripts, the permalink has been updated with the newest document.

Before sending, ask yourself these questions:

  1. Does my subject line sound unique compared to spam? In other words, does it sound like you wrote it for this specific person, or does it sound like you’re copying and pasting messages to many people?
  2. Does my subject line appeal to that person’s interests? If you want to work for somebody, don’t make your subject line, “I love your work!” The person who needs to hire needs to hire. Appeal to solving that problem. If you want somebody to feature your work on their own social media, play to their ego and that you influenced them. If you want to send in a blog post, play to the fact that the blog editors need submissions to do their jobs. Don’t overcomplicate this.
  3. Does my subject line establish rapport (or possible)? If you have an icebreaker that you can include in the subject line, use it. If you’re emailing somebody because you both know a mutual person, use, “Per [mutual friend’s name].” If you’re emailing somebody because you love their work, use that (plays to 2, as well).

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I won't spam you. When I send you an email, I promise it will be worth it.