An Email Subject line is Your Pitch's 1st Impression. Is Yours Working for You or Against you?

Our simple recipe for NAILING the email header game. Every. Single. Time.

Happy Friday Top Tier Consulting Community.

Sending this a day later this week in respect of Juneteenth. Hope your week is going well and that you have some fabulous weekend plans.

This week we’re diving into all things email subject lines.

Ahh the never ending debate about how publicists should handle email headers.

It’s probably one of our most commonly asked question. And honestly, as two writers who open TONS of email pitches every day, there is not a day that goes by that we don’t have lots and lots and lots of thoughts about the email subject lines that we see.

So let’s talk email headers…

Should they be clever?
Funny?
Punny?
Short?
Long?
Keyword-packed?
Witty?
Including words like “exclusive,” “time-sensitive” or “breaking news?“

Here’s the truth: Subject lines are the make-or-break moment for your pitch. It’s your one shot to convince a busy writer that your email is worth opening.

If you’ve ever thought “Ugh, I worked SO hard on this pitch, why didn’t I get a response?” — odds are your subject line might be to partially to blame.

Let’s break down exactly why subject lines matter more than you think, and what makes one land… or land your email in the trash.

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First Off, Why Writers Hit Delete Without Reading

Writers aren’t ignoring you to be rude — we’re busy. We get hundreds of emails a day. And because we’re scanning fast, subject lines help us filter.

Here’s when a subject line gets you deleted on arrival:

• It’s something we don’t cover (Nicole doesn’t cover CBD anymore—“New CBD Supplement” = auto-delete)

• It’s geographically irrelevant (Event in NYC pitched to an LA-based writer? Bye.)

• It’s too vague or confusing to be worth investigating.

• It doesn’t deliver anything of real value in the header that makes us eager to dive in thinking it could lead to an assignment for us

Writers make split-second decisions on what stays and what goes, and when our inboxes are insane — without even opening the email.

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🚩 Real Subject Lines That Make Writers Run

We’re not just making this up. Publicists really send these:

• “Final notice”

• “Editorial request”

• “Can I pick your brain?”

• “Coverage request”

• “What are you working on?”

And let’s not forget the classics:

• Anything with our name spelled wrong

• Anything unrelated to our beats

• Anything that feels like spam or MLM energy

• Anything that is so confusing that we just can’t even figure out what this email will be about

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✅ What Actually Works

Here’s the secret: Clarity wins. Every. Single. Time.
Your subject line should answer: