Chris Fenning shares a simple formula for work email subject lines: topic plus purpose. Lead with urgency when needed, and be specific like "urgent, budget needed by 5 PM" so your email actually gets read.
Work email tips you need to know, number 104. If your inboxes look like this, it's going to be really hard to make your emails stand out. The way people are going to be reading their inboxes are they're going to look for their boss's name first, then they're going to look for the emails that tell them what is needed and what the topic of their email is. This is how urgent, budget needed by 5 PM, new client, need a go/no-go decision today. This is clearer than forward, small issue, next steps, update. What do these things mean? If you want your emails to stand out, do these things. The simple formula for a great subject line is topic plus purpose. And if you really need to, you've got to add the urgency at the beginning. For more tips, check out my book, Effective Emails.
