One of the most effective ways to find and attract top talent is through email outreach – but getting prospects interested in opening those emails is a constant challenge for recruiters. That’s why crafting an email subject line that grabs people’s attention and convinces them to read your email is a vital skill. A strong email subject line can help facilitate conversations with prospects and increase your email open rate.

To help you create more captivating prospect subject lines when sourcing candidates, we’re sharing our best practices and some pitfalls to avoid so you can start attracting great prospects and optimizing your email outreach. Check out these key tips on how to create enticing and impactful subject lines that will capture prospects’ attention:

1. Keep the subject line clear and concise

The subject line should be straightforward and clearly state your intention, especially if this is the first thing that prospects will read to decide whether to open your email and continue reading. Brevity is also key in creating an effective email subject line, and we’ll dive into that in a moment.

2. Mention the job’s location or if it’s a remote opportunity

It helps to specify the job’s location or mention if it’s remote in the subject line so the prospect knows whether the opportunity is suitable to them right away. This can help increase open rates, especially if the job opening is local to the prospect or if it’s a remote one that offers more flexibility.

3. Add elements of personalisation

The email subject line should always be personalized and include the prospect’s name, current job title or company. When an email is specifically addressed to someone that way, they’re more likely to open it than a generic email that doesn’t mention anything in particular about them.

4. Highlight relevant information

Since the subject line should capture the prospect’s attention and entice them to open and read your email, it’s fundamental to include information that’s relevant to them. If the prospect has a specific background or skill that you’re looking for in your open position, try using keywords that match their experience so your subject line resonates with them.

5.Test different subject lines to find what works best

Testing different subject lines is key to see which ones perform the best. While one subject line may attract some prospects, it won’t always be effective for everyone else. If you have multiple email campaigns, you’ll likely see different results across them depending on what your goals are for each campaign so it’s essential to keep testing and find what works best for you.

Subject line examples

Here are some effective email subject lines we’ve seen success with that you can start using in your outreach campaigns:

• Subject: Congrats [First name] on [A recent or relevant accomplishment, milestone or update the prospect shared]
• Subject: Remote [Job title] at [Your company]
• Subject: [Their company] to [Your company]
• Subject: [First name], about your LinkedIn post (or comment)
• Subject: [Department] opportunity @ [Your company] – let’s chat?

You’ll want to look at the open rates to measure the performance and success of your email subject lines. We recommend aiming for 50% or higher as the baseline for a good open rate for recruiting emails.