How To Craft Powerful Email Subject Lines For Investors

How to craft powerful email subject lines for investors? The process of searching and getting investors to fund your start-ups and growth ventures has changed tremendously.

Like all other aspects of business, digitalization and technological innovation have transformed the way entrepreneurs would contact a prospective investor.

Gone are the days when people used to make phone calls or send their full business plans to potential investors. Now we rely on faster modes of communication like emails and instant messages.

Why Is An Email Subject Line Important

Undoubtedly email is one of the most effective ways of communicating with potential investors. Especially when we are talking about venture capitalists and professional investment firms.

However, the real challenge in this process is making the potential investor open and read your email. Getting their attention and ensuring that your prospective lead is tempted to open the email is among the first steps of funding your businesses.

As an entrepreneur, you’re faced with the question that lies here. With every investor receiving tons of emails every day, how can your email stand out among the crowd?

The key is the subject line. You need to have an attractive email subject line that makes you unique and compelling. And helps you differentiate from other unsolicited emails.

Subject lines like “best investment opportunity”, “invest with us”, or “great company to invest”, really typically do not bring you the results you are looking for.

They are vague, common, and somewhat saturated in this environment of growth and competitive sustainability. So, what should you do? In this article, we will be highlighting tips and strategies that are tried and tested. They’ll ensure that your investment-seeking emails get the right attention from the potential investor.

So, here are some tips and guidelines on how to craft powerful email subject lines for investors.

Write the Subject Line First

Many business professionals and entrepreneurs make the mistake of not writing the subject line at all. An email with a blank space is most definitely to go unread or get scuffled in the inbox clutter.

So, before you even write the email, do not forget to draft the subject line.

Keep it Short and Precise

An average subject line for an email should not exceed 60 characters. On a mobile device, only 30 – 35 characters are visible in the email subject line. It is therefore important to keep it short. And should be able to say it all in 5 – 6 beguiling words.

You should not give out too much information or draft long stories in your subject lines. Ensure to use catchy words that are interesting, relatable, and informational for the potential investor.

Too long a write-up will not highlight your core point of interest. It will fail to grab the attention of the investor because of an unprofessional outlook.
So, make sure to draft your email subject line in a short and precise manner.

Mention a company they are working with

Mention the name of a company that the investor has already worked with or is currently working with. For example, “your involvement in ABC company”. Here ABC company is a client that an investor has already funded.

By mentioning an existing client, you grab the attention of investors instantaneously. Your email body can then begin with attention-grabbing words. Like, “based on your investment in ABC company, we believe that you would also be interested in our company.”

Mention the Industry You Are Working In

A subject line like, “We are New in ABC”, helps you mention your industry or field of specialization as ABC. It facilitates highlighting your connection and link with a given industry or field of operations. For example, accounting software development or restaurant service provider.

A subject line on this pattern will help highlight exactly what you are doing right. That will be evident in the first connection between you and your potential investor.

Mention a Reference

Every investor gets hundreds of unsolicited emails every day. Sifting out between this overload of information and communication is quite difficult. With a shortage of time and busy schedules, they only open emails that require immediate attention.

If you have a reference source, then it is very important to mention this referral in your email subject line. A person or company that knows both parties can help build a connection that can materialize to be mutually beneficial.

Experts suggest that this tip is highly effective. And has shown to deliver the best results when it comes to seeking investor attention. Again what is most important here? It is to get a reliable and effective reference person or company that is important for the potential investor.

So you see, one of the first skills an entrepreneur must learn is how to craft powerful email subject lines for investors.

Keep in mind that in fundraising storytelling is everything. In this regard for a winning pitch deck to help you here, take a look at the template created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel (see it here) that I recently covered. Thiel was the first angel investor in Facebook with a $500K check that turned into more than $1 billion in cash.

Remember to unlock the pitch deck template that is being used by founders around the world to raise millions below.

Refer to Some Topic of Interest for the Investor

Many investors, who are successful and proficient in their works, often write their expertise and share their experiences with others. They contribute to blogs, magazines, journals, , and other channels of media and the internet.

You can draft the subject line of your email referring to such an article or blog post, that the potential investor might have written. It could be like, “comment on your post-ABC”, where ABC is an article or media content that the investor might have written or shared recently.

In the body of the email that follows, you can start by mentioning how the article or opinion of the writer inspired you or agreed with your own thoughts and then relate this expression with your company that needs investment.

Do Not Give Out Details

Your email subject line is a short and limited spatial opportunity used to grab the attention of the potential investor. So, use it wisely. Your first email and its subject line should be like a teaser making the potential investor curious to know more.

Giving out details of your investment requirements or your start-up company in the subject line or the first email content is not recommended by the experts.

The idea is to provide bite-sized information that is interesting and compelling enough to make the investor inquisitive about you and your company.

Do Not Start “RE:” Tone

Many entrepreneurs and business professionals make the mistake of starting their email subject line with “RE:” notation. It is a false misconception that the potential investor might take it as a reply to a previous conversation.

The reality is that this tip might grab the attention and interest of the potential investor and he or she might be compelled to open the email, but once they realize that it was a false claim of continued conversation or simply a cold investment email, they will stop to show any interest in your investment proposal.

Hence avoid using this “reply” notation technique in your email subject lines. It promulgates the loss of trust and reliability of your communication.

Start With the Most Important Words

In today’s digital world of the internet and smart devices, most of the emails are read on mobile phones. The visibility of the email subject line is somewhat compromised when you are viewing it on the mobile phone screen.

Keeping this into consideration, it is very important to place the words that are important and significant in the first positions.

Not exactly knowing how much of the subject line will be viewable to the potential investor you need to act wisely and draft words that provide the requirement compelling information in the very beginning.

Be Specific and Remain Focused

With so many entrepreneurs and business professionals flooding the inboxes of potential investors and funding sources, you need to be clear and specific about what your email is about.

Many investors often scan through their inboxes and prioritize the emails they want to read. By highlighting your core specialization, you are able to get yourself the attention that can be effective in funding your business needs.

However, you should also be offering a focused point. You, yourself, should also prioritize your requirements and communicate to the potential investor categorically rather than offering a huge load of investment opportunities and information. And, the one way to do that is to learn how to craft powerful email subject lines for investors.

Use Keywords for Systematic Filtering and Search

Owing to the large amounts of emails they receive each day, many investment professionals use filters and folders for email management. It is therefore very critical to select relatable and effective keywords that help rank your email higher and according to the topic of interest.

Highlight Value and Interest

When you are sending an email to a prospective investor for the first time, your subject line should be able to communicate the value they are going to get through this proposal.

Mentioning the return or benefit they can get from your offer, can add a substantial amount of attractiveness and interest for the investor in your email.

Telling them about what they are getting in return makes this email more about them rather than you. It indicates a sense of opportunity for them instead of highlighting your own needs and requirements of funding.

Incorporate Urgency or Time Bar

It is human nature to act in urgency. Adding words that highlight a dateline or date for acting fast, may grab the attention of the potential investor with a heightened level.

It can motivate people to act fast without thinking about any other things in perspective.

So, you can add a time deadline or urgency date, to ensure that your email gets prioritized among a large number of emails.

Add an Attachment

Looking at the subject line that is accompanied with an attachment intrigues interest and curiosity in the recipient. It will help spark a higher level of inquisitiveness to see what’s inside the attachment and compel the potential investor to open up and see. That’s why it is critical that you understand how to craft powerful email subject lines for investors.

Summarized

It is quite normal for potential investors to get overwhelmed by the volume of emails and messages they receive each day. As a consequence, they are persuaded to make quick decisions about whether an email from an unknown person is important or relevant enough to be opened or deleted without being read.

It is here that the subject line comes into play. It is the reflection or first impression of your contact with the potential investor.

They make quick decisions looking at the email subject lines and thus enhance your need to draft it carefully and considerately for effective development of potential investment relationships.

Email subject lines that trigger curiosity and heightened interest of the potential investor are essential to communicate your investment plan and business prospects.

You need to emphasize the returns of the proposal to create a sense of opportunity for the investor rather than making it look like a call for help by the entrepreneur or business professional. Make that opportunity stand out by understanding how to craft powerful email subject lines for investors.

Understand how to use the tips and tricks noted above.

Following the above-highlighted tips and guidelines about how to craft powerful email subject lines for investors, you can effectively grab the attention of the recipient and ensure your investment leads to a mutually beneficial relationship in the future.

Subject lines should be optimized with relatable and powerful keywords that make sense but also remain focused on the core area of interest for the investor.

Adding a call to action or question can enhance the curiosity of the recipient and compel them to get answers by reading the email.

Heather Morgan in the Follow-up blog writes, “Every word and sentence of the email must command the prospect’s attention and carry them to the next part of the email until they reach that last sentence, which should compel them to hit reply”.

You may find interesting as well our free library of business templates. There you will find every single template you will need when building and scaling your business completely for free. See it here.

In the video below How To Craft Powerful Email Subject Lines For Investors I go into it in detail.

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FULL TRANSCRIPTION OF THIS VIDEO:

Hello, everyone. This is Alejandro Cremades, and today we’re going to be talking about how to craft powerful email subject lines for investors. Before we get started, make sure that you hit that Subscribe button, and this way, you will never miss out on any of the videos that we roll out every week.

The emails that you send to investors are ultimately what are going to separate you from the money. If you nail, you’re going to get that money in the bank that is going to help you to get that money that your company needs in order to take things to the next level. Right now, there is so much noise out there that is setting you apart from everyone else. It is critical when you’re trying to get into the inbox of absolutely anybody, especially those investors that have their inboxes about to explode.

In today’s video, we’re going to be giving you some tips and a step-by-step guide as to how to come across with a bang when you’re trying to get in front of an investor via email. So with that being said, let’s get into it.

Why is the subject line so important? The subject line is critical because right now, we live in a world full of noise. You wouldn’t believe the inboxes of investors. They end up daily with hundreds and hundreds of emails that they leave unread. By crafting a great subject line, you’re ultimately going to increase the chances of having that investor open your email.

Some of the subject lines that you want to stay away from could be any of the following:

• Best Investment Opportunity
• Invest with Us
• Great Company to Invest
• Selling X, Y, or Z

Ultimately, what all the really awful subject lines have in common are that they’re very vague, they’re very open-ended, and it looks like you’re selling them something. Investors are tired of that. You need to do it with a different approach. It needs to be more personalized, a more high-touch type of approach, and that’s the only way that you’re going to get them to open your email.

What you want to do when it comes to the subject line is to make it catchy. It needs to be super catchy and short. It needs to be something that maybe they have an interest in, whether it’s on their investment thesis or whether it’s one of their hobbies that maybe you throw in there in the subject line. But you always want to limit it to no more than 60 characters. If you go more than 60 characters, then that subject line is going to be cut off during the preview or the way that the preview is being shown on their own inbox, whether they use Outlook, Gmail, or whatever platform. It needs to be a subject line that, on the preview, they can read it right away.

Something that you can do is mention a company that they’re working with. This would help them to right away know that’s an email they want to open because investors are always going to be on top of their portfolio companies, meaning those companies that they have invested in. Maybe you can use a company that they have invested in very recently. You bet that they’re going to be opening that email. 

Something else that you could do is mention the industry that you’re working with. If this is an investor that has an investment thesis that is specifically oriented in investing in your industry, where your company is operating, you can use that in the subject line because that’s going to be of interest and is going to spark the curiosity of the investor in order to open your email.

You should also mention a reference. Maybe there’s someone that referenced you to this investor. Maybe you can put them in the subject line, Joe Schmo, or whatever the first and last name of that person is. That is always social proof. You want social proof in the subject line because what you always want to do is increase the chances of having that investor getting that curiosity and clicking your email. By having names that they recognize, that is going to allow them to take it to the next step and open your email. This could be like a professor that you have, a colleague that you have, a friend, family, and they have a relationship with this investor that you’re looking to target.

In the subject line, you don’t want to give too many details. You want to keep it high level, and, again, you want to spark their curiosity. If you’re trying to throw everything in the subject line, not only is it going to be cut off with the preview but then also, it’s going to diminish the potential curiosity that you want to get from the investor. Again, you want to keep it short, sweet, and simple.

Don’t start with the “Re:” What Re: means is you’re responding to an email that they sent you. You’re tricking the investor. You don’t want to do this because an investment, when they finally invest in your business, is going to come from a position of trust, whether that is building the relationship with you, whether you’ve been delivering on your word, and they got excited, and now they want to make an investment in your business. But by misleading them, by trying to trick them into opening your email, ultimately, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Yes, they may open your email, but ultimately, it’s not going to come with an investment.

Start with your most important words first. Especially when they’re looking at the email on their phones, the preview is going to get even shorter versus being on a desktop. For this reason, you want to always start with the most powerful words so that the other words coming may not be as important, but even if those words get cut off, it won’t be that big of a deal.

You should also use keywords for their filtering and the way that they search. This could be either for sifting through all the emails that they already have in their inbox or perhaps if they want to go back to the email that you sent them so they could re-review the conversation that you were trying to initiate or like an exchange or anything. But you need to be able to stand out from all the emails that they have in their inbox and use specific keywords that are pertaining to you and to your business so that they can identify you and see you right off the bat.

Don’t talk about returns, the value, anything like that because then they’re going to think you’re sending them a coupon offer. Don’t talk about money in the subject line. Also, just so you know, spam filters are going to get triggered when you’re putting in any dollar amount or any special offer or returns or things like that. In addition, you could get in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission from a securities perspective because it could be viewed as you making a promise and assuring a certain type of return, and that is a big No-No.

You should also incorporate an attachment because when you incorporate an attachment, the symbol of an attachment that you put in the email is going to also appear on the preview in the way that they’re reviewing the email. This is going to add more value and perhaps more credibility toward the other emails that they have in their inbox.

Hopefully, you liked this video. Hit a Like. Leave a comment below, as well, and let me know what you’re up to. Subscribe, as well, to the channel so that you don’t miss out on all the videos that we’re rolling out every week. And if you are raising money, send me an email at [email protected]. I would love to help you out with your fundraising efforts. Thank you so much for watching.