E-mail subject lines in 8 words or less

Short and punchy is the way to persuade a reporter to open your e-mail

The subject line of your e-mail pitch may be the most important piece of writing you create in your media relations work—and the shorter it is, the better. Given the attention spans of your media targets (right up there with gnats), and the tidal waves of e-mail that come flooding into reporter mailboxes, the onus is on you to be brief and clever.

So, how to convey the timeliness and brilliance of your pitch—in no more than seven or eight words, and preferably fewer? Here’s how several PR professionals managed the job.

“Why my acquisition failed”: Shawn Whalen, senior VP at Schwartz Communications in Waltham, Mass., used this subject line in a bid to woo reporters covering management issues. The client, XcelleNet, was acquired by another company but the deal hadn’t gone well. XcelleNet was eventually spun off from the parent company.