The subject line database

100 podcast pitch subject lines that get opened.

A generic subject line gets a pitch deleted unread. These 100 are organized by the strategy underneath them, with a note on why each one works, built from 15 years of sending pitches and screening them for shows my agency manages. Ten strategies. One free line from each below. Subscribers get 60. The full annotated 100 lives in the PitchLite library.

Every line under 62 characters. [BRACKETS] are your fill-ins. Never send one verbatim; steal the strategy.

Catalog-gap lines

Name the episode their show almost made. Requires 2 minutes with their episode list, and it's the strongest opener that exists.

The [topic] episode you almost did

Names a gap in their own catalog; creates an itch only opening the email scratches.

Your [topic] series skipped the awkward part

Promises the missing chapter of something they already built.

Episode [N] ended on a question nobody answered

Proves you listened to the end; hosts rarely believe anyone does.

+ 7 more in this category for subscribers

Respectful disagreement

Hosts get flattered forty times a week. Getting usefully disagreed with is rare enough to stop the scroll.

Your [topic] guest was half right

Confident, bounded disagreement; 'half' does careful work.

I think your take on [topic] breaks at scale

Names the limit of their position, which is a whole episode.

The advice from episode [N] fails one group

Specific, checkable, and instantly generates the guest list of one: you.

+ 7 more in this category for subscribers

Number-led lines

A specific number in the subject is proof a specific person exists. Round numbers read as marketing; odd ones read as true.

31 renewal sequences, 2 lost money. Lessons.

Odd numbers plus an admitted failure: instant credibility.

What 44 price raises taught me about keeping clients

Volume of reps promised up front.

19 of my 34 restaurant clients died. Same 3 numbers.

Grim, specific, unforgettable.

+ 7 more in this category for subscribers

The confession

Leading with the fact against your interest. Nobody fabricates their own mediocrity, so everything after it reads as true.

This would be my first podcast. Worth the risk:

Converts the silent objection into the premise.

I got this wrong for 6 years. Here's the turn.

A complete arc promised; humility plus payoff.

My biggest client fired me. The lesson was better.

Failure with a bow on it; hosts can hear the episode.

+ 7 more in this category for subscribers

The Monday promise

Name what the listener does differently the day after listening. Hosts hear their audience in their heads while screening.

3 numbers your listeners can check tonight

Immediate, small, and executable; the purest listener promise.

The 10-minute audit that finds the leak

Time-boxed value; specificity makes it credible.

One email your listeners should send Monday morning

Concrete action, zero cost to try.

+ 7 more in this category for subscribers

Author lines (anti-book-tour)

Every host has been burned by launch-month guests. Disarm the objection in the subject and you're ahead of every publicist.

Not a book-tour pitch (I have a book, ignore it)

Names and defuses the objection before it forms.

One chapter disagrees with your favorite guest

The book as ammunition, not product.

The research my book couldn't fit

Offers the overflow; positions the episode as exclusive.

+ 7 more in this category for subscribers

Narrow-niche claims

The smaller the claimed territory, the more believable the expertise. Own an acre, not a continent.

Shift workers can't use your sleep advice

Narrow audience, real stakes, implied fix.

[Broad advice] fails for exactly one kind of freelancer

Precision of the exception implies mastery of the rule.

The pricing model that only works under $1M ARR

Bounded claim; the bound is the credibility.

+ 7 more in this category for subscribers

Pattern-from-volume lines

You've seen a hundred of something. The pattern is the product. Screening-side and service businesses live here.

Every failed [project type] I've seen broke the same way

One cause behind many failures: catnip for hosts.

The sentence that shows up in every losing proposal

Absurdly specific pattern claim; must be opened to be believed.

200 discovery calls, one three-minute stretch sinks most

Volume, precision, and a mystery.

+ 7 more in this category for subscribers

Counter-consensus with data

The room agrees on something. Your evidence doesn't. Creator and marketing shows live on this friction.

Your last 3 guests said [tactic]. My data disagrees.

Names the consensus precisely, then breaks it.

Lead magnets churned 3x faster in 21 of my 27 tests

The finding IS the subject line; nothing withheld but the why.

The popular advice that quietly wrecks deliverability

Hidden-cost framing; 'quietly' does the work.

+ 7 more in this category for subscribers

The generous close

Give something in the subject itself: promotion, an easy exit, work done in advance. Generosity is rare enough to be a hook.

An episode idea + I'll do the promo work after

Offers distribution as a given, not a bargaining chip.

Pitch inside. If it's not a fit, no reply needed.

The easy out, promoted to the subject line.

One-page outline attached. Delete freely.

Work done in advance plus permission to pass.

+ 7 more in this category for subscribers

Unlock 60 of 100, free

Subscribe and the next 50 lines land in your welcome email.

Join "Deleted at Second 3," the free newsletter on what's actually working in pitching. Your welcome email contains the private link to lines 1-60 with all the strategy notes. The final 40, plus line-by-line annotations and when-to-use guidance, are part of the PitchLite playbook.

Get the 60-line list free → No spam. One issue a week. Unsubscribe anytime.

The whole database

Buyers get all 100, annotated, forever.

Every line with when-to-use guidance, the full 500-character framework it plugs into, 20 annotated pitch composites, and lifetime updates as new lines earn their place. One payment.

See what's inside PitchLite · $149 →