70 Networking Email Subject Lines to Improve Email Open Rates

What is a Networking Email Subject Line?

The purpose of a networking email is to establish a new relationship. This means you would need to be extra friendly with your approach.

It should make use of a catchy subject line to draw your recipient’s attention and keep it. A network email subject line plays a huge role and determines whether your marketing efforts would be successful or not.

Here are some science-backed reasons why good email subject lines for networking is vital for your business:

• 47% of email recipients open an email based on the subject line alone
• 69% of email recipients report email as spam based solely on the subject line
• Emails with crystal clear subject lines result in 56% more open rates

70 Networking Email Subject Line Examples to Use

I know how hard it can be to come up with a subject line for networking email, especially if you have so much on your plate.

So, to make it easier for you, I’ve prepared 55 networking email subject lines and 15 follow up networking email subject line examples you can use. Feel free to tweak them as necessary.

55 networking email subject lines to establish relationships

Sending a networking email to establish a relationship can be tricky. Your recipient doesn’t know you yet, so your email should be convincing enough to make them open it.

Make sure your subject line looks valuable and authentic — after all, you never get a second chance at first impressions.

Here’s some email subject for introduction examples you can use:

1. Reaching out for some expert advice on [topic]
2. Hey [name]!
3. [Mutual connection] suggested I reach out
4. Saying hello, I have a quick question about [topic]
5. Congratulations on [recent achievement]
6. Referred by [name] to discuss [topic]
7. Fellow [your interest] who would love to connect
8. Loved your recent article in [publication]
9. Introducing myself
10. Do you know [mutual acquaintance name]?
11. Hey, [name], let me introduce myself
12. Could I ask you a few questions?
13. Fellow alum from [college] who loves [industry]
14. Interested in learning more about your recent article on [publication]
15. Just caught the interview you had with [name]
16. [Mutual connection name] suggested we meet!
17. Fellow [city] resident who would love to connect
18. About your work
19. Would love your advice on [topic]
20. Your recent [interview/story/article] blew me away
21. Looking for advice from an [industry] expert
22. I love that [idea/opinion] you shared on [publication]
23. Do you know [possible connection]?
24. Loved your contribution to [publication]
25. My opinion on [topic], let me know what you think
26. [Name], I see you like [type of product/service]
27. Completely agree with your thoughts on [topic]
28. I totally admire the [thought/idea/opinion] you shared
29. Happy [holiday/birthday/anniversary]!
30. Fellow member of [program] who would love to connect
31. Looking to learn more about [topic]
32. [Name], thank you for mentioning [your company/product/service] on [platform]
33. Aspiring [industry] professional looking for advice from the best
34. We met at [location or event] – following up
35. What a great post on LinkedIn
36. Hi, [Name], I think you’ll find this interesting
37. Aspiring [position] – would love to ask you a few questions
38. Referred by [mutual connection] – are you free to chat?
39. Saw you on Twitter
40. [Name], can you please help me with [topic]
41. I agree/disagree with your thoughts on [topic]
42. You were impressive
43. I have some great info about [topic]
44. Are you planning to go to [upcoming event]?
45. You surprised me
46. I’m struggling with [topic], can you help?
47. Can I buy you a coffee?
48. [Name], let’s collaborate
49. I follow you on [social media] – can we chat?
50. I’m a little lost
51. Feedback on your interview with [connection]
52. Free drinks?
53. Want to get lunch?
54. Free for dinner?
55. Biggest takeaways from [event]

15 networking follow-up email subject line examples

Once you’ve made your initial interaction with your prospect, you should never forget to follow up.

If you received no response, then it’s no reason for you to drop them prematurely. They might just be waiting for another email from you or simply forgot to respond.

Regardless of their reasons, it’s crucial to politely nudge them and try to keep the conversation going.

Here are some subject line for reconnecting email you can copy:

1. Hey [name], just following up on our [call/meeting] the other day
2. Nice meeting you, [name]
3. Re: [original subject line]
4. Loved our chat. Just following up from [place]
5. I really hope you enjoyed the [event]
6. Following up on [your post] on [publication]
7. Hey, [name], this is [your name]
8. It was great meeting you at [event]
9. [Name], did you have the time to think about our call from the other day?
10. A quick hello (and congrats on the [achievement])
11. Re: [post title] [site]
12. I enjoyed our meeting at [place]. I’d love to reconnect!
13. Hey, [name], just checking in since we last spoke
14. Let’s catch up!
15. Hello again!

16 Tips on How to Write a Networking Email Subject Line

Once you’ve chosen a networking email subject line sample from the list above, you must keep the following tips in mind:

1. Keep it short

Your goal is to catch your recipient’s attention, so they’d open your email and read it. So, it’d be best to keep your networking email subject line specific and concise.

Perhaps you’re wondering why.

Well, for one, 41.9% of emails are opened using mobile devices. This means your prospect would find it hard to read a long subject line.

Also, long-worded email subject lines may trigger certain spam filters and come across as spammy — and you definitely don’t want that to happen. You spent a lot of your time crafting your email, and it would only be put to waste if your recipient sends it straight to the trash folder.

Lastly, a long subject line may not be able to communicate the real purpose of the email. If your prospect doesn’t understand your intent, they might send your email to the spam folder.

Pro Tip: Use a subject line checker to achieve the perfect networking email subject line length.

2. Personalize your emails

Personalized subject lines are 22% more likely to be opened. Therefore, it’s a great way to get noticed.

Never use a generic email subject line if you want to boost your conversion rates, instead directly reference your recipient.

You can mention their company name, their name, or their needs. This way, they’d get the impression that you crafted that email just for them.

As a result, you’ll find it easier to build a connection and get a response.

3. Conduct a quality check

What’s the first thing your recipient sees? Well, of course, your subject line — so make sure it’s perfect.

Check for spelling errors, grammar mistakes, and unclear information. Your subject line should be as flawless as it can be.

Like I mentioned earlier, you can use an email subject line checker to help you create a great cold networking email subject line. It can rate your subject line according to different factors like readability, engagement, and word length.

4. Time it right

Timing is important — you can’t start building a relationship with your prospect if they don’t see your email in the first place.

So, to ensure they’d take the time to open your message, you should send it during work hours which is typically from 9 AM – 5 PM. During these hours, your potential client may be opening their email to check for work-related updates, and they may also have time to check out your message.

Never send an email right before a holiday or at the end of a workweek. Most prospects are strict with their offline time. So, chances are, your email will be at the bottom of their inbox, unread, and unnoticed.

Or if they’ve read it, they might plan to respond to you at a later time and eventually forget it.

5. Ask for advice, not favors

When you create a networking email, you may be asking a favor from them — but never do it directly.

Sure, you want something from them. But don’t make it obvious.

Instead, use a slower and more organic approach. Let them know that you’d be honored to get their advice on a certain topic.

And of course, try to build a genuine connection with them. Doing so can have lots of benefits in the long run.

6. Be sincere

A networking email may only be a marketing or sales strategy, but you shouldn’t forget to be sincere about your intentions.

If you say or promise something, make sure to deliver it. Playing games with your prospects can ruin your reputation and won’t do your brand any good.

So as much as possible, make them feel that you’re happy to help and that you’re being serious about what you wrote in your catching up email subject line.

7. Avoid following the same formula

Did you find a keep in touch email subject line in the previous section that you really like? Or maybe you’ve tested a few and discovered that one works better than the rest?

It may be tempting to use a similar formula over and over again, expecting the same results — but no, that’s not the way it should be.

Avoid being too formulaic. When your prospects receive identical emails, your message may come across as robotic and cold.

On top of that, following the same practice would hinder you from trying new tactics. And in marketing, you must be flexible and open to new things.

8. Consider the situation

Your networking email subject line and the email body should be based on the current situation.

Therefore, you should include things like the following:

• Place where you met or discovered your prospect
• Prospects’ personality
• Things/interests in common

Remember that a custom-tailored networking email subject line has better chances to be noticed and opened than those generic ones.

9. Don’t overly depend on a subject line

Subject lines are important but don’t forget other things that can make your email networking efforts a success.

You should be reaching out to the right prospects. No matter how great your email is, it’d be put to waste if you send it to the wrong person or to individuals who aren’t even interested.

Also, you should be generating leads using various methods. One of the best ways is by using LeadFuze to automatically build a list of accurate leads.

And of course, don’t forget to craft a winning email body. It should be aligned to your subject line and should offer value to your recipient.

In short, you shouldn’t strongly lean on your networking email subject line. Make sure you’re taking care of other factors too.

10. Add value

Always offer something of value. But make sure not to overwhelm your recipients with a huge amount of information, links, and advice.

Yes, you need to come to the table with a dish — but it shouldn’t be the main dish. Instead, bring a light side dish with an interesting little offer.

It can be a resource, a free tool, or a single link to an article. Or maybe you can give them the contact details of a particular person who can help them with their pain points.

If you don’t have any of those, you can simply offer them your insights on a certain topic when you meet up.

11. Be prompt

If you’ve been to various networking events, it’s essential that you promptly reach out to your new contacts.

But don’t send emails a few hours after the event as it may come across as aggressive. Instead, do it within the day to ensure your name is still fresh in their memory. You don’t want them forgetting you — and you don’t want to forget what happened during the event as well.

It’s difficult to create a custom-tailored email if you don’t remember the details from the event.

12. Make a connection

A networking email can be a cold email, but you can always make it a lot less cold.

If you want to get more responses, you should craft emails that acknowledge themes like birthdays and special holidays, humanize tone, and personalize communication.

For instance, this subject line “Have you tried [restaurant name] yet?” can be useful if you know where your prospects live.

Thus, it’s important to do your homework. Find out everything you can about your recipient, so your message would appear genuine.

You can get some information from LinkedIn as your prospects are more likely to post the events they recently attended. In that case, you can include the name of the event or place of the event in your networking email subject line.

It’s also best to follow them on their social media accounts to gauge their interest. Chances are, you’d discover that you have a few things in common — and you can use those to your advantage.

Also, notice the stuff they mention or share the most. You can use analytics tools to determine their pattern easily.

13. Make it relevant

If your prospect is in the technology industry, you don’t send them an email that contains an irrelevant topic to their expertise. When you do that, you decrease your chances of boosting your open rates.

You must find a topic relevant to them — you can’t just choose a random topic and cross your fingers that it’d work.

For instance, if they recently got a promotion, you can congratulate them and talk about it in your email.

So yes, doing your research is necessary. It’s like going on a date, you have to know what your date likes to impress them.

14. Be yourself

Being polite and professional in your emails can bring you a long way. However, you shouldn’t forget to inject your personality into your networking email subject line and message.

Like your branding sets you apart from your competitors, your unique personality can also help you stand out from the rest of the crowd.

15. Be inquisitive

You might be wondering what to put in the subject line of a networking email to draw someone’s attention. It’s simple: ask them an interesting question. Typically, this strategy can increase your chances of getting a reply.

As you may have noticed in the networking email subject line examples in the previous section, most of the samples on the list are either asking for advice or asking for feedback.

16. Keep the long term in mind

Being prompt with your follow-up emails is great. But you should also keep in mind that networking is a long-term thing.

If you hear back from your prospects right away, then good. If not, then don’t take it personally. That happens — not just to you but to other marketers in the industry.

After all, people get swamped, and they may forget to respond. Or they just have a lot on their plate that they can’t make time for new stuff.

Moreover, most of your contacts wouldn’t be staying in touch forever. After a year, or maybe more, you can still reach out to them using the original thread where you had your previous conversation.

This way, they’ll easily remember who you are and appreciate you reaching out even if it’s been so long without contact.

How to Collect Leads for Your Networking Emails

Well, of course, a list of qualified leads should be in place before you can send out networking emails. Without it, your efforts of creating an effective subject line would be put to waste — I mean, you don’t have anyone to send it to.

Fortunately, LeadFuze can make things easy for you. This lead generation tool can offer you different services, but its main focus is to provide its clients with the best data for leads.

It aggregates professional data worldwide and delivers the freshest leads to you.

With the help of this tool, you can find your target market’s contact information, and it even allows you to build an entire list of leads just for you.

The data you collect can be sent to your automation tools, so you don’t need to manually enter lead data.

LeadFuze allows you to filter the leads according to different criteria such as

• Company news
• Whether they’re hiring or not
• Monthly Adwords budget
• Technologies used
• Industry
• Position/role
• Company location
• Company size

You can even use certain keywords to customize your search.

Moreover, with Fuzebot, you can automatically add new leads to your list without having to lift a finger. No more manual searching!

Some information you can collect using LeadFuze are the following:

• Email
• Full name
• Title
• Company name
• Website
• Social media profiles
• Education (degrees)
• Skills
• Interests

You can export these data anytime — and that’s pretty convenient!

By far, LeadFuze is one of the most advanced lead data search tools in the industry. It has a huge and well-segregated database.

When you enter very specific criteria, you’ll get hundreds to thousands of contacts to browse through. It’ll give you the type of superpower you’ve always wanted as a marketer.

It allows you to add negative search criteria, so you can exclude some contacts from your search.

If necessary, you can add some contacts to your “Ignore List” so you can avoid collecting data from companies you’ve already reached out to or avoid contacting people you don’t want to get in touch with.

Conclusion

When you’re sending an introductory or follow-up networking email, it’s important to come up with a catchy networking email subject line.

By doing so, you can capture your prospects’ attention and increase the likelihood of your email being opened. It will help you keep the conversation going and eventually build a relationship with your potential clients.