18 Follow-Up Email Subject Lines from Real Campaigns

Have you reached out to a prospect, colleague, or someone you recently met at an event but you still haven’t heard back from them?

We’ve all been there and know how frustrating it can be.

That’s why we’ve created a list of eighteen efficient follow-up email subject lines to save you some time when crafting your follow-ups.

We’re going to take you through the different subject line types based on various use cases such as:

• A follow-up after no response for content promotion
• A follow-up after a recent meeting
• A follow-up after having a chat with a mutual connection

Plus, plenty more.

All subject lines have been tested from us or Respona users for their effectiveness.

Feel free to choose the use case you’re most interested in from the navigation below or read through the whole piece to get inspired for your next follow-up.

Author’s Note: In all of our email template types in this post, the {braces} represent fields that’ll be adjusted automatically by Respona, called variables. On the other hand, the (parentheses) represent pieces of information that you’ll have to adjust manually when editing your cold email sequence.

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Why Are Follow-Ups So Important?

Business emails get lost in inboxes all of the time.

Whether your recipient simply forgot to reply, got distracted, your email went to spam, or got buried by newer messages – even with a perfect email, there is no guarantee that someone will reply.

So, there is no shame in following up, reasonably – which brings us to the next section.

How Often Should You Follow Up?

A good follow-up increases your chances by roughly 50%.

What a lot of outreach people (especially inexperienced link builders) seem to get wrong is that sending more follow-ups more frequently is bound to illicit a response.

This is not the case.

Sending a follow-up every single day of the week makes you look bad. Really bad.

Seriously, one or two messages with 3-5 business days in between them is fine.

Give your recipients some time – they’re busy people. Don’t be pushy – you will end up in spam.

Tips For Writing Strong Follow-Up Subject Lines

There are a few best practices when it comes to writing follow-up subject lines that get people to open your email.

Be Brief (But Not That Brief)

Most follow-up emails that come in separate threads than initial emails simply say “Follow-up”, “Following-up on [thing]”, and so on.

You don’t have to tell people it’s a follow-up. They know it already.

Follow-ups with 6-10 words generally perform better than ones that only have 1-5.

This is because in 6-10 words, you can provide context as to why you’re following up, who you are, and how you know the person you’re reaching out to.

Avoid Passive Aggression

Another common mistake done by junior outreach people is that their follow-ups simply sound mean.

“Friendly follow-up :)”, “Just a reminder”, “Any update?” is as passive-aggressive as it gets and immediately makes the other person want to never respond to you.

We will look at some examples of non-aggressive-sounding subject lines further along in the article.

Personalize

There isn’t really much personalization you can fit in 6-10 words of a subject line, but some good strategies are:

• Calling your recipient by their name or job title
• Referencing a recent interaction you’ve had (a call, a meeting, an unpaid invoice, a social media message)
• Asking questions
• Referencing your initial email
• Including social proof (such as your mutual connection)

Leverage FOMO

FOMO stands for Fear Of Missing Out. We all have it.

A good strategy is to try and leverage it in your follow-up emails to try and get a response.

It doesn’t have to be super-pushy, like “You don’t want to miss this!” – while it may work as a sales email subject line, it’s considered spam in “normal” business communications, such as a networking email.

Something like “Final check-in” is enough.

Use Case #1: After No Response for Content Promotion

The use case we’re going to discuss first and kick off our list of eighteen follow-up email subject lines from real email campaigns is one that you’d send after getting no response for content promotion.

According to WordPress, its users produce around 70 million new posts and over 75 million new comments every month.

These numbers, apart from being impressive, are also proof of just how much content is produced and posted on a daily basis across the globe.

Therefore, we understand that promoting your content is more important than ever before.

In other words, given that the market is competitive, if you want your content to stand out, you probably need to do your best by:

•  Producing killer content
•  Promoting your content in a consistent and efficient way

Using email outreach and follow-ups to do so is, in fact, a really good idea.

Have a look at this follow-up subject line:

First things first, we need to talk about this little emoji that opens up the subject line.

Research from a few years back showed that emojis might undermine information sharing, so if you’re going for this follow-up subject line, make sure it fits your email content and the relationship you have with the prospect you’re reaching out to.

In terms of the actual content of the subject line, there’s no doubt that it’s a short and sweet line that catches attention and prompts the recipient to open your email.

Author’s Note: This cold email subject line could work just fine even without the emoji.

Use Case #2: After No Response for Guest Posting

Similar to the use case we’ve just discussed, and since guest posting is a very popular reason for doing email outreach, we’re now going to share a good email subject line you can use when following up for guest posting purposes.

Before we get into the actual subject line, we probably need to mention that a good subject line to follow up for guest posting needs to be one that’ll allow you to actually start building a relationship with your prospect.

A great way to get there is through a personalized email subject line that possibly mentions the email recipient’s name, to both:

• Catch their attention
• Build a personal relationship

Here we go:

As you can see, our follow-up email subject line here is one that includes a question that’s addressed directly to the prospect by adding their first name to it.

That’s a great subject line example that can work great in terms of getting the prospect’s attention and making them want to know more about that thing they missed.

Use Case #3: After No Response for Digital PR

Digital PR is a process of information sharing for your business with a focus on your digital marketing strategies.

Many times when performing digital PR outreach, you might feel disappointed in the fact that you’re not always going to get a reply to your PR outreach emails.

With over 293 billion emails sent every day, a number that’s expected to increase to over 333 billion by 2022, we understand just how important it is for all professionals and marketers out there to follow up and make their emails stand out.

A good place to start could be this effective subject line here:

This subject line directly mentions your previous email, thus making it easier for the prospect to understand the reason why you’re reaching out to them.

We particularly like this one because it’s a keep it simple, non-spammy follow-up that shows the recipient that you value their time and you simply want them to get back to you when they get a chance.

Mentioning your first email can actually be very useful, given the high number of emails being sent out every minute.

We shouldn’t always assume that someone’s not getting back to you because they’re not interested.

Some emails simply get lost in chaotic inboxes and that’s why follow-ups exist.

Use Case #4: After No Response for Link Building

According to the Ahrefs Content Explorer tool, there are 1.8 million new pages created every 24 hours.

However, the impressive stat here is that 90.63% of all pages in the Ahrefs index get zero traffic from Google, which simply means that link building is super important if you want your page to get attention and traffic.

Without link building, many pages out there are doomed to be stuck in the last pages of the SERPs, getting from zero to only a few visitors per year.

Because no one wants this to happen with their content, our advice would be to be consistent with your content promotion efforts and make sure to follow up whenever necessary.

Following up with a follow-up subject line like the one that follows might increase your chances of hearing back from your link prospects.

Similar to other subject lines we’ve already discussed, this one is yet another line that’s simple enough but manages to make the recipient spend a few more seconds with your email, thus making it more likely that they’ll eventually open it.

We think that the reason why this subject line can be an efficient one is that it creates a sort of mystery around the purpose and topic of the body of the email.

With a subject line like this, fear of missing out (FOMO) might kick in and make the prospect want to know more about what you have to say.

Use Case #5: After No Response for a Specific Topic

With only 8.5% of all outreach emails getting a response, there’s no doubt that several times in your life, you’ll be in the position of a prospect not getting back to you.

There might be various reasons why you might want to reach out to someone and there are many for following up on them, too.

That’s why we thought that it’d be very useful for you to see how a catch-all follow-up subject line might look in case you want to follow up for literally any reason.

If your initial email talks about a specific topic, such as setting up a phone call, promoting a killer infographic, or asking for someone’s opinion on a topic, then the following subject line might be just what you need to start crafting a follow-up email that’s to the point and as clear as possible.

As you can see, this line simply consists of three words and a variable, which means that you can adjust the field with any piece of information you might want to talk about.

For example, if your first email talks about running an email marketing campaign, then you might want to give your prospect a very clear idea about the content of your email by referring to your topic – email marketing in this case – in your follow-up email subject line.

As simple as that!

Use Case #6: After No Response for Sales

If you’ve recently sent out a sales pitch email but got no response, then looking closer into your email subject line might help you get the answer that you long for.

According to iContact, 47% of email recipients open an email based on the subject line.

A percentage like this helps us understand just how important your subject line can be in terms of both your initial email as well as your follow-up email.

A nice cold outreach email subject line you could use to boost your sales process is this:

It’s a playful subject line that catches recipients attention, invoices curiosity and can be used by any salesperson out there when they want to make sure that their prospecting will get them some answers.

To get higher open rates for your emails and make sure that your follow-ups will get you the responses you want to close more sales, you need to have a subject line that’ll prompt the recipient to open your email and read the email body.

This follow-up subject line does exactly that by asking the recipient a question and making them want to at least open your email.

Use Case #7: After No Response for Influencer Outreach

Whether you’re a small business owner or you work for an enterprise, you probably know just how efficient it can be to find influencers in your niche and work with them in terms of promoting your brand, products, services, and content.

However, because not all influencers have enough time to get back to all the outreach emails they get, you need to make sure that you’ll send them an effective follow-up email subject line alongside a killer follow-up email.

That’ll help you maximize your chances of actually getting to work with them.

Here’s a follow-up email subject line you could use in such a case:

That’s a personal email subject line that shows the influencer that you’re really interested in working with them.

What’s great about this is that it gives the impression of an already established professional relationship between your company and them, which definitely makes it easier for a real connection and a good collaboration to start between the two.

Use Case #8: After No Response to a Colleague

We’ve already talked about several use cases, most of which probably apply better to prospects that you don’t know personally.

However, that doesn’t mean that there’s no need for a follow-up to people that you already know and work with.

One of these cases is when you send an email to one of your colleagues or collaborators but you don’t get a reply.

In this case, you could start your follow-up with a subject line like the one that follows.

This subject line is exactly what promises to be, a friendly reminder to one of your colleagues that might have forgotten about your first email or didn’t get the time to get back to you.

In such a case you don’t need to mention a company name, job title, or any other piece of information in order for your follow-up to make sense.

The only thing you need to do is to actually tell your colleague that you’re reaching out to them because you want to remind them that they need to get back to you regarding a recent email that you sent them.

Use Case #9: After No Response for Collaboration

There might be many inspiring and influential people you know of in your niche and possibly want to work with.

Reaching out to them can be a great idea as this can be a starting point for a fabulous collaboration to happen.

However, even though starting a collaboration might be beneficial for everyone involved, sometimes, you might not get a fast reply.

That might happen because of the high number of outreach emails being sent out each day or simply because the timing isn’t right.

If that happens, you need to make sure that there is consistency in your outreach efforts.

There’s no better way to show that than by sending out a killer follow-up email to demonstrate that you still want the collaboration to happen.

Our follow-up email subject line here shows exactly that.

Our company needs someone’s help and we’re writing a follow-up to remind them of that in case our last email went unnoticed.

Simply saying that you STILL need someone’s help can be an efficient outreach strategy that’ll increase the chances of the recipient getting the time of writing back.

Use Case #10: After No Response for a Specific Project

There are several use cases for follow-ups depending on whether you’re sending your follow-up to someone you know, like a colleague or someone from your team, or a prospect you don’t have a relationship with.

However, there are some use cases that could work for both categories.

One of these use cases is the one we’re going to talk about here. It’s when you don’t get a response to an email that talks about a specific project.

It can be a colleague of yours, or a link prospect, a referral, a blogger, or anyone really, who you might not have a relationship with but definitely want to establish one.

This particular follow-up subject line is a quite professional and generic one given that it doesn’t include any personalization element, apart from the fact that it talks about a specific project.

It can work just fine when you need to follow up with a project’s stakeholders and talk about the project’s progress.

Use Case #11: After a Recent Meeting

This has probably happened to most people reading these words.

You’ve met someone at a meeting and had a really interesting conversation which can naturally lead to you reaching out to them to discuss something in relation to your initial conversation or simply to say something that you thought they would find interesting.

Following up on the conversation you had in a recent meeting is a great way to underline your connection and, in fact, establish it.

Here’s a subject line we’d use on such an occasion.

This one starts with a question which, in this case, is the attention grabber you need to remind the recipient about your meeting and get them to write back.

Plus, like some other subject lines discussed in this post, it includes the recipient’s first name which is a great thing to do if you want to connect with the prospect on a personal level.

In fact, adding the recipient’s name in your email subject line can increase the chances of your email getting opened and possibly answered by almost 20%.

No one can resist opening an email that has their name on it.

Use Case #12: After No Response for Pain Points

You’ve been following the company for a while now and have been able to identify some of their pain points.

A great scenario here is that you have a few ideas about how you could help them solve these pain points.

You reach out to them but you get no answer.

In such a situation, you definitely have to follow up and make sure that you show the prospect that you’re serious about it and that you indeed have a well-informed plan for how to help them.

The subject line that follows could be a nice place to start crafting your follow-up.

As we’ve already said, asking a direct question is a really smart way to grab the recipient’s attention and get them to want to read your email.

In case they’ve read your first email but forgot or didn’t want to answer, then this subject line is a nice and polite way to show them that you’re still interested in helping them.

On the other hand, if they haven’t read your initial email, which actually happens quite often, this subject line simply shows your genuine interest in helping them.

Either way, it’s a line that piques interest.

Author’s Tip: You could tweak this subject line a bit by including the prospect’s company name at the end of the sentence.

Use Case #13: After a Chat at an Event

After having an inspiring chat at an event, you might get a million ideas come to you which you’ll naturally want to share with your conversation partner.

If you already have a well-established personal or professional relationship with them, and you have their phone number, then you might want to give them a call or  even send them a text on their social media, like their LinkedIn account.

On the other hand, if your chat was with someone you don’t know well (or even at a virtual event), then an email would probably be the most appropriate channel of communication between the two of you.

However, that shouldn’t mean that your email needs to be overly professional or too cold and distant.

Quite the contrary; there are definitely ways of sounding friendly and direct when emailing someone for the first time or following them up.

Here’s a subject line that can totally work in terms of following up on a chat you had with someone at an event.

This is a fantastic subject line that invites the person who receives the email to get back to the topic, project, or conversation they’ve probably already found interesting in the past.

As we’ve already noted, including the recipient’s first name in the subject line plays a significant role in terms of getting higher response rates; it shows that your email is direct and exclusively addressed to the recipient.

Use Case #14: After a Presentation

You recently gave a presentation and want to make sure that you haven’t missed any important points.

The best way to find out is to actually follow up with some of the attendees that you really trust and value their opinion to ask them directly.

It can be a colleague of yours or someone from your team that you’ve collaborated with on various projects in the past and you know that they’ll give you constructive feedback.

Alternatively, this subject line could also be relevant for job candidates that gave a presentation during a job interview.

No matter the case, writing to someone who saw your presentation and asking them if you forgot anything important is a great way for you to make sure that you actually didn’t, to get feedback, and to establish a relationship with them in case of a job interview.

The subject line states exactly what we’ve described in the lines above.

It’s a simple question that asks the recipient to tell you if you’ve missed any points or if you forgot anything they think would be valuable and useful for the flow of your presentation in the future.

Use Case #15: After No Response for Setting Up a Call

Yet another reason why you might need an efficient follow-up is when you’ve reached out to someone to set up a call to discuss a project or topic but haven’t heard back.

The recipient might be a prospect you’ve already started establishing a relationship with, or potentially an existing colleague.

In all cases, sending a follow-up to remind them of your call or to ask them if they’re still available for having one can help you get an answer and set up that call as soon as possible.  

It doesn’t get more straightforward than this!

This particular subject line is, as you can see, a direct question that almost immediately prompts the reader to get back to you with an answer on whether they are available to have a call or not.

A reason why many emails go unanswered is that the recipients might not have enough time to get back to the senders.

However, with a subject line like this, you are saving the recipient valuable time and giving them a very clear idea of what your email is all about without even having to actually open it – which they will hopefully eventually do.

Use Case #16: After a Conversation

We’ve already discussed this use case a little further up in this post, it’s about the follow-up that comes after a conversation.

This time, we’ve got yet another follow-up subject line you can use when reaching out to someone after having a conversation with them.

Like the previous ones, this subject line is a rather engaging one that can definitely pique the prospect’s interest and get them involved.

Have a look:

This specific follow-up subject line is great for when you want to share additional points and pieces of information with the prospect you had a recent conversation with.

It is, without doubt, a straightforward line that helps establish a relationship between the sender and the recipient of the email.

The fact that you’re using the possessive pronoun our in the line, means that you’re putting yourself closer to the prospect and showing them that your email is actually an email that will resonate with them.

Use Case #17: After Having a Chat with a Mutual Connection

As we’re reaching the end of our list of eighteen follow-up email subject lines from real campaigns, we couldn’t miss giving you a subject line you could use after having a chat with a mutual connection.

As you can probably imagine, having a mutual connection with the prospect is a really strong card you should definitely use when reaching out to them.

This can increase your chances of getting a response and possibly start establishing a professional, long-term relationship with them.

The subject line you could use on such an occasion is:

Similar to what we said about using the recipient’s name in your subject line, adding the name of someone they know is another attention-grabbing tactic.

Doing so will make it more likely that the prospect will want to read what you have to say since you know someone they also know and have a relationship with.

Use Case #18: After a Meeting with Your Team

The final use case we want to share with you is a follow-up email subject line you can use after having a meeting with your team.

The email you’re going to send your team right after your meeting needs to be one that summarizes the main points and highlights of your discussion.

For that reason, your subject line should state exactly that:

As you can see, this subject line is a very simple one that gives recipients a very clear idea of the content of your email.

Overall, we think that this line can be very effective in terms of following up on a meeting or recent conversation with your team in a casual way.

We’re now done discussing the eighteen best email subject lines we wanted to share with you.

Let’s wrap this up and close with some final thoughts.

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Now Over to You

That was it!

If you’re one of those people who usually struggle with writing engaging follow-ups, we hope that these lines have made your work a little easier.

Bottom line, the subject line you’re going to use will always be in relation to the use case, which is basically the reason why you need to reach out to someone.

Keeping that in mind will help you create emails that are relevant to the person you’re reaching out to.

To help you make the most of the outreach software and automation tools out there, allow you to create efficient touchpoints that’ll prompt your email recipients to get back to you, and make sure that your email won’t end up in the spam folder, we’re inviting you to test out Respona.

Feel free to start your 7-day free trial and get access to all our email templates, alongside great subject lines you can use to save both time and money when doing your outreach efforts.

Thanks for reading!