90 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 ninety 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.

Key Takeaways

• A strong email subject line is the biggest driver of email engagement and reply rate
• Follow up emails work best when they reference your previous email without sounding pushy
• Using a personalized subject line can help capture your recipient’s attention and improve response rate
• Keeping your subject line clear and relevant to the initial email increases your chances of getting a reply
• Testing different subject line variations is one of the best practices for improving email marketing performance

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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 these follow-up subject lines:

First things first, we need to talk about the lack of emojis that open up these subject lines.

Research from a few years back showed that emojis might undermine information sharing, so if you’re going to use one, 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 a short and sweet line that catches attention and prompts the recipient to open your email.

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 lines, 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 lines here include a question that’s addressed directly to the prospect by adding their first name to it.

These are great subject line examples 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 one of these:

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

We particularly like these because they are keep it simple, non-spammy follow-ups 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 one of these might increase your chances of hearing back from your link prospects.

Similar to other subject lines we’ve already discussed, these are simple enough but manage 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 these subject lines can be efficient is that they create 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 lines 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, these lines simply consists of a couple 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.

Some nice cold outreach email subject lines you could use to boost your sales process are:

These subject lines catch recipients’ attention, invoice 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.

These follow-up subject lines do 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 are follow-up email subject lines you could use in such a case:

These are personal email subject lines that show 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 one of these.

These subject lines are exactly what promise 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 lines here show 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.

These particular follow-up subject lines are quite professional and generic, given that they don’t include any personalization element, apart from the fact that it talks about a specific project.

They 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 are subject lines we’d use on such an occasion.

The first 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 lines that follow 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 these subject lines are 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, these subject lines simply show 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 are subject lines that can totally work in terms of following up on a chat you had with someone at an event.

These are fantastic subject lines that invite 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, these subject lines 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.

These subject lines state 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!

These particular subject lines are, 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 batch you can use when reaching out to someone after having a conversation with them.

Like the previous ones, these subject lines are rather engaging, can definitely pique the prospect’s interest and get them involved.

Have a look:

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

They are, without doubt, a straightforward set of lines 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 line use cases 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 lines 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 set 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 set is a very simple one that gives recipients a very clear idea of the content of your email.

Overall, we think that this line set 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

Writing a good subject line is what separates ignored emails from replies.

But even the best follow up email subject lines will not work if your outreach process is inconsistent.

You can manually handle your cold email campaigns, write every follow up, and test different subject line variations… or you can simplify the process.

Instead of managing everything yourself, you can place an order and let the team handle prospecting, outreach, and follow ups for you.

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You stay focused on the outcome while everything else is handled for you.

If you want better engagement, stronger reply rates, and consistent results from your outreach, place an order and start scaling your email outreach the right way.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What are follow up email subject lines?

Follow up email subject lines are the subject lines you use when sending a follow up email after your initial email.

They help remind the recipient about your previous email and encourage them to open and respond to your message.

How important is the subject line in a follow up email?

The subject line is one of the most important parts of any email.

A compelling subject line can improve your email open rate, increase engagement, and help capture your recipient’s attention even in crowded inboxes.

What makes a good follow up subject line?

A good subject line is clear, relevant, and aligned with your previous conversation or initial email.

It should avoid spam triggers, feel natural, and include enough context to remind the recipient why you are following up.

Should I use different subject lines for follow ups?

Yes.

Using a different subject line for each follow up can help improve your response rate and avoid getting filtered by spam filters.

It also gives you the opportunity to test what works best across your email campaigns.

How many follow ups should I send

Most cold email campaigns perform best with one to three follow ups.

Sending too many emails can hurt your sender reputation and reduce engagement over time.

Do follow up emails actually work?

Yes.

A well timed follow up email can significantly improve your reply rate compared to sending only an initial email.

Many recipients simply miss or forget the first email, so following up gives you another chance to get their attention.

Should follow up emails be personalized?

Yes.

Personalized emails with a personal touch tend to perform better because they feel more relevant to the recipient.

Even small details, like referencing a previous conversation or specific topic, can improve engagement.

Can follow up emails affect sender reputation?

Yes.

Sending too many emails or using spammy subject lines can hurt your sender reputation.

It is important to follow best practices and avoid spam triggers when writing your follow up subject lines.

What is the best length for an email subject line?

Most effective subject lines are between 6 to 10 words.

This gives you enough space to provide context without overwhelming the reader.

How can I improve my email response rate?

To improve your response rate:

• Use clear and relevant subject lines
• Personalize your emails when possible
• Follow up at the right time
• Keep your message concise and easy to understand

Consistently applying these best practices will help you get better results from your email outreach and follow up emails.