a pitch isn’t a summary of your whole message but a starting point — a request for someone’s attention: An email, in its subject line is, hello, pay attention to me. Pay attention to me.

“Busy executives appreciate emails that include whatever immediate action you are requesting upfront ... tell your story —by far — via email is in the subject line. Period.

Writing a subject line that will inspire receivers to open an email can be a big challenge for professional communicators, especially if the same message is going out to a large number of people.

A colleague recently sent me a series of emails on different topics, none of which had a subject line. I had no way to tell which email related to which topic. Moreover, I was miffed that he had ...