Are you searching for the best cold email software to generate leads, drive sales, and scale your business? However, with so many tools claiming to be the best, knowing which ones actually deliver is not exactly a walk in the park.

Recognizing how hard it is to find objective information, we’ve decided to give you some. Thus, we’ve tried a total of 21 of the best cold email software, evaluated them according to several criteria, and are bringing you our findings.

And if this is TL;DR for you, here’s a table for quick comparison.

However, if you’re curious to see which cold email software we ranked as the best and why, be sure to check out our hands-on experience with each one.

What is cold email software?

Cold email software is a type of tool designed to simplify and optimize the process of reaching out to prospects through email. It is commonly used by salespeople, marketers, recruiters, and agencies looking to connect with potential clients, partners, or candidates at scale.

What to look for in the best cold email software?

There are plenty of cold email software on the market, meaning the margin for error is high.

So, how do you choose the best cold email software out there?

It all boils down to the following:

1. Automation

Manual cold outreach is time-consuming, not to say exhausting. Thus, to save yourself more than 11 hours a week you’d spend on it, look for tools that do more than just send task alerts.

However, our advice is to go with a tool that has a Smart sequences feature, such as our Skylead. Smart sequences are outreach sequences that execute steps in a logical order according to the way your prospects' behave, thanks to if/else conditions. Using them, you can maximize touchpoints with leads to make sure your initial emails don't go to waste.

2. Deliverability

What good are your emails if they keep landing in spam?

That is to say, your software of choice should come equipped with features that ensure your emails make it to the Primary inbox. In other words, shop around for those with email warm-up, deliverability testing, blacklist monitoring, and similar functionalities.

3. Integration

For cold email software to be considered the best, it needs to work seamlessly with your existing tool stack (e.g., CRM, Slack, etc.). Otherwise, you are sure to experience workflow interruptions.

4. Personalization

Did you know that personalized email subject lines can see up to 20% higher open rates compared to those without personalized details?

For that reason, your best bet is to go with the software that lets you personalize your outreach. This may include the option to insert placeholders (a.k.a. variables) that auto-populate based on your leads’ information, such as first and last name and company name. The other handy feature is image and GIF personalization, which lets you personalize visuals with the text, logo, or name of your leads.

5. Analytics

You can’t know how good of a job the cold email software is doing without having insight into the data. Therefore, your go-to choice must have an Analytics dashboard that gives you the birds-eye-view of different metrics (e.g., open rate, click-through rate, reply rate).

6. Cost-effectiveness

The best cold email software for you is the one with the best price vs. feature ratio. In other words, a one-stop-shop tool that gives you the most value for your money. Simple as that.

Our testing methodology

So, you know what it is that makes a cold email software ‘’the best.’’ But you still need options. And options we’ll provide. Tried and tested ones, as a matter of fact.

But not before we’ve explained the criteria we used for the testing.

That said, we got hands-on with the most popular cold email tools to see what they’re really made out of, focusing on:

• Ease of setup - We signed up for each tool, went through the onboarding process, and tested how easy it was to get everything up and running.
• Key features - We poked around every feature to see if it actually worked as promised. Did the tools make life easier? Did they deliver on their big claims? We were bent on finding that out!
• Deliverability - We run actual email outreach campaigns to see whether emails would land in the Primary inbox or spam.
• User-friendliness - Some tools are so complicated they feel like they need a manual. Therefore, we made sure to assess how intuitive and easy-to-use each tool was.
• Price vs. features - Finally, we compared pricing to what each tool actually delivered. Our goal was to identify which tool was the best value.

The 21 best cold email software we tried

Now that you know what makes a great cold email tool and how we tested them, let’s get to the main event.

We’ve rounded up the 21 best cold email software on the market, carefully evaluating each one based on the criteria we laid out earlier.

With this in mind, for each tool, we’ll cover:

• User score
• Key features
• Pros
• Cons
• Pricing

And to keep it real, we’ll also share expert opinions—straight from the mouths (or keyboards) of actual users who’ve worked with these tools. 

So, let’s dive in!

1. Skylead - Best cold email software for salespeople looking for one tool that has it all

User score: ⭐ 4.7 / 5

Well, hello there! This is us! 🙂

Skylead is a LinkedIn automation and cold email software that’s consequently your one-stop-shop tool for all your outreach needs.

Key features

Why do we say Skylead is a one-stop-shop tool? 

Because it has everything you could possibly need for cold email outreach in one place and at one cost, including support for:

• Unlimited email outreach to send tens of thousands of emails at no extra cost;
• Email discovery and verification to reduce bounces and protect your domain;
• Image & GIF hyper-personalization to increase your response rate up to 76%;
• Email warm-up to keep your emails away from spam.

But what if we told you that, using our tool, you don’t have to settle for the email channel only?

Namely, Skylead is the 1st tool on the market to introduce Smart sequences. In other words, algorithms that combine if/else conditions with email and LinkedIn steps to form coherent outreach flows. Why? To find the fastest path to your leads.

It’s all thanks to Smart sequences that you can combine email automation with cloud-based LinkedIn automation.

Yours is just to choose a lead source from one of these…

…build your Smart sequence using these LinkedIn and email steps…

…and define your messages. While at it, you can even A/B test up to 5 versions of your subject lines, message copies, or CTAs and for email, LinkedIn messages, and inMails.

Thanks to an advanced Reports page, you can also easily evaluate the performance of all your campaigns in 3 modes (table, graph, step-by-step). 

Moreover, you can also review the performance of your A/B tests and see which version is performing best.

Here, you can also download reports in CSV and/or PDF. Or, you can push your leads’ data straight into your CRM of choice by integrating it with Skylead through Webhooks or API. The same goes for any other tool out there.

Finally, you don’t have to go back and forth between multiple mailboxes and LinkedIn accounts. You can keep track of all your messages in one place—our Smart inbox. This is also where you can write notes and label leads to, say, measure conversions and ROI.

Now, let’s get deeper into features that make Skylead one of the best, if not the best cold email software.

Unlimited email automation

With Skylead, you can connect as many mailboxes as you need, making it possible to send tens of thousands of emails a month at no extra cost.

There’s no cap on the number of active leads you can manage, either. That basically means you can reach out to as many leads as you want and expand your outreach without limits.

Curious how it’s possible to send so many emails? It’s all thanks to our inbox rotation feature, which alternates sending emails across multiple mailboxes that you connected (email accounts). This way, your email-sending volume is distributed evenly, which keeps your accounts within safe sending limits.

As a cherry on top, we have a handy guide that walks you through how to simply connect and set up your email account and get it ready for outreach.

Email discovery & verification 

Using email discovery and verification, you can find and double-verify your leads’ email addresses to reduce the chances of bounces that could harm your deliverability and sender reputation. But the best part? It won’t interrupt your campaign creation flow.

Simply add the Find & verify business email step to your Smart sequence, and the tool will automatically locate and double-verify your leads’ emails.

What sets this feature apart is its exceptional accuracy—one of the highest on the market. Plus, it’s unlimited and included in your subscription at no extra cost. That means you can use it as much as you need without worrying about additional fees.

Infinite Email warm-up

Cold email software can only bring desired results if the accounts used for outreach are ready for it. But to make sure that happens, they need to be properly warmed up. Otherwise, the risk of your emails landing in spam runs high.

And since we know how important email warm-up is to the outreach process, we decided to partner up with the email warm-up tool, InboxFlare, to bring you infinite email warm-up.

And yes, this is another feature you can use as a Skylead user at no extra cost.

With InboxFlare, you can:

• Warm up infinite mailboxes in 30+ languages
• Choose your own warm-up topics
• Perform regular deliverability testing
• Monitor blacklists

Once you’ve activated your InboxFlare seat, you’ll be able to connect it to your mailbox(es), be they with Gmail, Outlook, or another ESP. InboxFlare also lets you add custom SMPT. Once connected, it will use AI to craft a unique warm-up strategy.

Skylead pros

• Unlimited email outreach to send tens of thousands of emails per month at no added cost.
• Built-in email discovery and verification to reduce bounces and protect your sender reputation.
• Infinite email warm-up in more than 30 languages.
• Smart sequences combining email and LinkedIn to maximize getting in touch with leads.
• Image and GIF hyper-personalization to increase the response rate.
• Advanced reporting with export options and integration capabilities via Webhooks or API.
• Smart inbox to manage all email and LinkedIn conversations in one place.

Skylead cons

• InboxFlare isn’t built directly into Skylead.
• No native integrations with HubSpot, Salesforce, and other popular CRMs (integration is possible, though, through Zapier or API).

Pricing

Skylead is one of the few software that has one pricing plan to rule them all. That said, for just $100 a month per seat, you get all of the above features, plus a 1-on-1 onboarding call to get you started and a targeting support call.

What more could you ask for?

Expert opinion

‘’I’ve been using emails, InMails, and LinkedIn connection requests and messages altogether. But emails and LinkedIn messages are giving me the best conversion rate.’’

—Dennis Goyal, Co-founder & COO

‘’If/else conditions in Smart Sequences are also great. It's low code, so it's great because I'm not good at coding yet. I also like the Find & verify business email step, which finds email addresses most of the time. So you get, like, two ways you can get in touch with the client.’’

—Toine Boelens, Founder

2. Smartlead - Best for in-app email warm-up

User score: ⭐ 4.3 / 5

Smartlead is a relatively new software that automates and streamlines cold email outreach.

Key features

Smartlead comes with support for unlimited mailboxes, inbox rotation, and a built-in email warm-up feature that helps build a strong senders’ reputation. We found it very reliable while testing the tool.

The software also has a Subsequences feature, a.k.a. email sequences that get triggered once specific conditions are met (e.g., if a lead bounces, if they reply, etc.).

Moreover, Smartlead has a Unibox, which lets you keep track of all emails and respond to them from one place. 

Finally, they have an Analytics dashboard where you can keep track of your email campaigns’ performance.

Pros

• Good deliverability rates, courtesy of the built-in email warm-up feature with ESP matching.
• Support for unlimited mailboxes, as well as mailbox rotation.
• User-friendly interface that doesn’t overwhelm.
• Unibox to keep conversations organized.
• Native integration with HubSpot and 3rd party integrations via Webhooks and API.

Cons

• You can’t use it for LinkedIn lead generation because it lacks real multichannel outreach capabilities. Namely, you can add multichannel tasks into your sequences but need to perform them manually.
• No options for personalization other than variables, thereby positioning Smartlead alternatives like Skylead as a better option.
• Lack of email verification and discovery.

Pricing

Expert opinion

‘’Smartlead's email follow-up automation is a time-saver for crafting and delivering outreach sequences. Pre-designed templates are cool and a helpful advantage, especially for those new to cold emailing. The interface isn't the most intuitive. If you're new to cold email platforms, there might be a learning curve involved.’’

— Stephen O., Director of Sales Marketing

3. Apollo - Best for its built-in lead database

User score: ⭐ 4.5 / 5

Apollo is a powerful multichannel sales engagement platform that allows users to combine email, LinkedIn outreach, and cold calls in their campaigns.

Key features

Using Apollo, you can set up simple campaigns with automatic or manual emails while leveraging LinkedIn automation features to send connection requests and messages and engage with your leads’ posts.

Additionally, the tool integrates natively with platforms like Pipedrive, HubSpot, and Slack to provide seamless data synchronization.

It also includes A/B testing capabilities to optimize your campaigns and an AI-powered feature for crafting personalized outreach messages.

Lastly, Apollo boasts a database of over 275M contacts, which you can use to pull leads directly into your campaigns, along with an email verification and inbox rotation features.

Pros

• Multichannel support for email, LinkedIn, and phone outreach.
• Access to a large database of 275M+ contacts.
• Native integrations with Pipedrive, HubSpot, and Slack.
• A/B testing capabilities to refine your outreach strategy.

Cons

• Limited number of connected mailboxes (up to 15 for users of the most expensive plan).
• Multichannel sequences lack conditional logic, a.k.a if/else conditions found in Smart sequences.
• The tool uses Chrome extension to scrape lead information on LinkedIn, which could get your LinkedIn account restricted.
• AI functionality for crafting personalized messages is fairly basic, as we found.
• They integrate with Hyperise for Image & GIF personalization, which adds costs to the subscription (+$69 a month per seat).
• Lack of email warm-up feature.
• The tool also doesn’t have an integrated inbox, which was pretty inconvenient for us.

Pricing

Expert opinion

‘’Apollo is an easy go-to tool for generating leads and understanding the size of your market. The user interface is a bit clunky and not super intuitive at times, though.’’

—Zack P, CPO

4. Instantly - Best cold email software for its ease of use

User score: ⭐ 4.6 / 5

Instantly is a cold email software and email management platform that has quickly gained popularity for its scalability and user-friendliness, which we couldn’t help but notice the moment we set it up.

Key features

Instantly allows you to connect and manage unlimited email accounts, like Skylead and Smartlead, making it possible to scale your outreach significantly. While all connected accounts can be used in the same campaign, inbox rotation alternates sending emails from different accounts, so you can send more emails daily.

The software includes a built-in unlimited email warm-up feature. They also offer a B2B Lead finder, a database of 160M contacts, with filters similar to LinkedIn Sales Navigator filters (e.g., job titles, locations, industries, etc).

Using Instantly.ai, users can also conduct A/Z testing with up to 26 email variations.

What’s more, the software’s Unibox consolidates all email conversations into a single inbox for easy management. Meanwhile, its built-in CRM allows users to track lead statuses, make calls, and send SMS directly from the platform.

Instantly users can also verify their leads’ emails to reduce bounces and protect domain reputation.

Pros

• Simple and fast set-up.
• User-friendly interface.
• Unlimited mailboxes with inbox rotation to enhance deliverability.
• Unlimited email warm-up feature included.
• Unibox for streamlined conversation management.
• A/Z testing to optimize email performance.

Cons

• Basic reporting features may not meet the needs of users seeking detailed analytics. Furthermore, we didn’t like how you cannot export CSV or PDF reports.
• B2B Lead database and CRM cost extra.
• Lacks email-finding capabilities.
• Instantly is a cold email software only, meaning it’s not suitable for those relying on LinkedIn prospecting and outreach across multiple channels.
• Some users complain using Instantly damages their domain reputation, though we cannot say we experienced this while testing it ourselves.

Pricing

Expert opinion

‘’I am really happy with Instantly this far. It is such a well-rounded platform. You do have to pay quite a bit if you want to get the full experience, though.’’

—Niryen Z., CEO

5. Lemlist - Best for advanced personalization in email outreach

User score: ⭐ 4.5 / 5

Lemlist is a cold email software with advanced personalization capabilities. However, higher-tiered plans turn it into a multichannel platform.

Key features

We tested Lemlist’s most expensive plan. Therefore, we could create multichannel sequences combining email, LinkedIn, and cold calls. Additionally, conditions can be added to sequences to cover multiple outreach scenarios.

But what the software is best known for is its personalization features. Specifically, using Lemlist, users can customize images, intro lines, and even create dynamic landing pages. 

Lemlist also offers Lemwarm, a built-in email warm-up tool that’s meant to keep emails out of spam folders.

To aid lead generation, Lemlist includes an email finder and verifier, as well as access to a B2B lead database with over 450M contacts.

Pros

• Supports multichannel outreach with LinkedIn actions and calls.
• Advanced personalization features, including custom images and dynamic landing pages.
• Lemwarm email warm-up tool to enhance deliverability.
• B2B lead database with as much as 450M contacts.

Cons

• Limited email discovery and verification, even with the highest-tier plan. Additional credits cost extra ($1 for every 100 emails found and verified).
• The quality of leads in the B2B database is inconsistent, as we found.
• For those who’d like to go beyond their lead database, the tool offers a Chrome extension for LinkedIn prospecting. This disappointed us, though, as using Chrome extensions on LinkedIn can lead to account restrictions.
• Cannot connect unlimited email accounts. Namely, the highest-paid plan lets you connect up to 15 mailboxes maximum.

Pricing

Expert opinion

‘’Lemlist is better than many other tools because it gives you the tools to actually be unique and send emails in a slick manner. I WISH WISH WISH they had unlimited email accounts. That's the only thing I don't like about it, it caps you at 5 email accounts (15 with the pro plan).’’

—Zach Y., Founder

6. Reply.io - Best for AI sales engagement

User score: ⭐ 4.5 / 5

Reply.io is a versatile sales engagement platform built for teams who prefer handling their entire outreach in one place.

Key features

Although primarily a cold email software, over the years, Reply.io has turned into a multichannel platform. That said, you can use it to create sequences with conditional logic that combine emails with automatic and/or manual LinkedIn actions.

Email-wise, we loved that, much like with Skylead, Smartlead, and Instantly, we could connect unlimited mailboxes to the tool, and it would later auto-rotate through these while sending emails. There’s also no cap on how many emails you can send monthly.

Moreover, each Reply.io user gets free access to Mailtoaster.ai for email warm-up.

In terms of integrations, the software natively integrates with some of the best CRM for sales, HubSpot and Pipedrive. Nonetheless, the support for 3rd party integrations via Zapier webhooks is there as well.

We found their Analytics dashboard intuitive and noticed that it contains a lot more details than some other sales outreach tools.

The newest addition to Reply.io is Jason, their AI SDR agent who finds leads, creates outreach sequences, personalizes interactions, automatically replies, and books meetings.

They also provide a sales AI chatbot to turn website visitors into traffic, although we haven’t tried this feature and can’t objectively rate it.

Pros

• Support for multichannel outreach combining email and LinkedIn tasks.
• Unlimited mailboxes and inbox rotation.
• Free Mailtoaster.ai seat for email warm-up.
• Native integrations with HubSpot and Pipedrive.
• AI SDR Jason for automated prospecting and engagement.
• Detailed analytics dashboard for performance tracking.

Cons

• AI SDR Jason requires an additional subscription. Moreover, the price heavily depends on the number of active contacts. Moreover, it’s not as advanced and certainly can’t replace human SDRs, as they claim.
• Full access to their +1M B2B lead database requires a separate subscription, and so does the AI chatbot.
• Chrome extension (Findy) to find leads directly on LinkedIn can cause account restrictions,.
• Message personalization is scarce (despite AI assistance), and the option for image and GIF personalization is lacking.

Pricing

Reply.io has 4 main pricing plans, whereas multiple sub-plans are available.

In the meantime, if you’d like to use their AI SDR agent, expect to pay $299 for 1,000 active contacts a month. However, if your needs exceed this, the price can easily skyrocket as it’s volume-based.

Expert opinion

‘’Reply is very easy to use, with a straightforward UX design and plenty of features for base-level users like me. I started using Reply for outreach campaigns in my role, and getting over the learning curve was a cinch. Unfortunately, as I'm writing this, Reply does not have a direct integration with Microsoft Outlook, which might inhibit some of my use cases.’’

—Ian L, Customer Success Manager

7. Expandi - Best for ESP integration

User score: ⭐ 4.3 / 5

Expandi is a cloud-based LinkedIn automation tool that also extends its capabilities to the email channel.

Key features

As opposed to Reply.io, Expandi was originally a LinkedIn automation tool that added the email channel into the mix. Thus, now, you can use it to create Smart sequences combining LinkedIn messages, inMails, and emails in a single workflow.

While testing Expandi, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that the tool lets you connect all email accounts, whether from major ESPs (Gmail, Outlook) or a custom SMTP.

Personalization-wise, this software comes with predefined variables, though you can also add your own. Additionally, provided you pay for Hyperise, you can even enrich your emails with personalized images and GIFs thanks to their direct integration.

Finally, if you wish to connect Expandi with other tools, the good news is that you can do so through Zapier webhooks or API.

Pros

• Smart sequences for multichannel outreach.
• Predefined and custom variables for message personalization.
• Integrates with major ESPs like Gmail and Outlook, as well as custom SMTP.
• Zapier webhooks for third-party integrations.

Cons

• Focused more on LinkedIn, with basic support for email automation.
• You can connect 1 mailbox at a time. We found this rather limiting.
• 100 emails a day sending limit.
• Expandi doesn’t have an email warm-up feature, nor does it offer it through a partner.
• The tool can’t discover and verify leads’ emails. It can only scrape publicly available emails on LinkedIn and only if you’re connected with someone.
• Image and GIF personalization, while there, is possible thanks to Expandi’s integration with Hyperise. Thus, it costs extra. Moreover, our impression is that it’s inconvenient to use.
• The UX is confusing, which is especially noticeable during the campaign creation.

Pricing

Expandi, like Skylead, has a single plan that will set you back $99 a month per seat. 

Nonetheless, if you want to combine it with Hyperise, count on paying an additional $69 a month. This brings the total cost to $168 per 1 seat. For this reason, certain Expandi alternatives are proving to be better cold email software.

Expert opinion

‘’Great automation for LinkedIn. Easy UX. Constant webinars to learn. Tons of new features are always being added. Email outreach is very limited, though. I cannot see if the lead booked a meeting on a calendar to trigger enrollment - if they had this, I would use it for email as well.’’

—Jacob M., SDR

8. Hunter.io - Best for email discovery and verification

User score: ⭐ 4.4 / 5

Hunter.io is a popular email discovery tool. Nonetheless, it has expanded its services to include cold email outreach capabilities through its Campaigns feature.

Key features

Hunter.io's strength lies in its ability to discover and verify email addresses associated with specific domains or individuals.

However, with the introduction of Hunter Campaigns, users can now create and manage simple cold email campaigns directly within the platform. This feature supports personalized email sequences with automated follow-ups. It also integrates seamlessly with Gmail, Outlook, and custom SMTP.

The number of mailboxes you can connect to Hunter.io depends on the plan. Nonetheless, all plans support mailbox rotation.

Moreover, we couldn’t help but notice how simple Hunter Campaigns are to use. Not to mention, you get access to the Reports page to track your campaign performance.

For integrations, Hunter supports Zapier webhooks and has a public API, making it easy to connect with other tools in your tech stack.

Pros

• Great email discovery and verification capabilities.
• Direct Gmail and Outlook integration for sending emails.
• User-friendly interface suitable for beginners.
• Free plan available for users with limited needs.

Cons

• Email outreach features are scarce compared to other cold email software.
• Email sequences are basic and lack if/else conditions.
• No built-in email warm-up feature.
• Limited email discovery and verification credits. It’s possible to purchase more, though the exact rate varies by plan. Moreover, the tool, while accurate, isn’t as successfully at finding and verifying emails as Skylead.
• Theoretically, you could connect unlimited mailboxes to the tool. However, this would cost you $10 for each additional mailbox, which is a con if you ask us.

Pricing

Hunter Campaigns is available under all 5 paid plans.

Expert opinion

‘’Email verifier and Email finder come in very handy whenever I upload bulk leads. Also, the option to follow up in the same thread just by keeping the subject line blank is something I like. There are a few downsides. First up, the UX could be far better, it takes a while to find simple options like cloning the campaign. Moreover, the follow-up frequency is confusing- it never shows you the date of sending. All the sent mails are also visible in my gmail sent-box.’’

—Vinayak H., Product Marketing Associate

9. Saleshandy - Best cold email software for email tracking

User score: ⭐ 4.4 / 5

Saleshandy is a go-to tool for anyone who values unlimited email capabilities and reliable campaign tracking capabilities.

Key features

Saleshandy is considered one of the best cold email software because it allows for unlimited email accounts, sequences, and email tracking. 

The tool also offers email warm-up through its partner, TrulyInbox. However, the daily warm-up limit varies by plan. We also didn’t find it to be very reliable during our testing since our emails landed in spam, regardless.

Additionally, Saleshandy includes email discovery and verification, as well as mailbox rotation.

Meanwhile, direct integrations with CRMs like HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce allow seamless workflow automation.

The platform also offers A/Z testing and detailed email performance analytics to help users optimize their campaigns.

Pros

• Unlimited email accounts, sequences, as well as email tracking.
• Email warm-up through TrulyInbox integration.
• Mailbox rotation to send more emails daily.
• Direct CRM integrations with HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce.

Cons

• The number of active prospects is limited by plan, and so is the number of emails sent monthly.
• We realized their ‘’unlimited mailboxes’’ claim isn’t exactly true because you can use a maximum of 50 mailboxes per campaign. And that’s with the highest subscription!
• Email discovery and verification credits aren’t unlimited, either, as is the case with Skylead. Instead, credits are capped by the plan.
• The subscription also determines the number of warm-up emails exchanged daily.

Pricing

Saleshandy offers 4 email outreach plans.

Expert opinion

‘’The price is very reasonable and has many features like unlimited email warm-up, email automation, analytics, and many more. I hope there will be some improvement in email warm-up features in the future.’’

—Shamim Ahmed A., SDR

10. Snov.io - Best for its real-time sentiment analysis

User score: ⭐ 4.7 / 5

Snov.io is a sales engagement platform rather than merely a cold email software. It’s meant to help you automatically find leads and reach out to them to close more deals in less time.

Key features

Snov.io’s email campaigns are enhanced by smart triggers that adapt based on recipient behavior. The platform also has an A/B testing feature, which lets you experiment with multiple variations of your subject lines and email bodies.

One feature we really liked is the AI sentiment analysis, which detects a lead’s interest level in real-time and suggests how to adjust messaging.

If you're interested in using multiple channels for your outreach, the good news is that Snov.io even offers an optional LinkedIn automation add-on. However, we were surprised to find it costs extra.

Additionally, Snov.io, much like Skylead, Smartlead, Instantly, and similar tools, allows you to connect unlimited mailboxes. Similarly, it supports unlimited mailbox rotation. 

The platform also includes email discovery and verification and directly integrates with HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Calendly.

Finally, it has built-in email warm-up, email tracking (for Gmail), and deliverability testing features.

Pros

• Unlimited mailboxes with rotation.
• Built-in email warm-up to improve sending reputation.
• AI-driven sentiment analysis for real-time adjustments.
• Native integrations with HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Calendly.
• Multichannel support with LinkedIn touches (via paid add-on).

Cons

• LinkedIn automation, while there, requires an additional fee.
• Slight learning curve due to the platform's broad range of features.
• Limited email discovery and verification credits.
• The Starter plan lets you warm up up to 3 mailboxes.
• Given that the Pro plan has volume-based pricing, the cost can easily skyrocket.

Pricing

The add-on for LinkedIn automation costs an extra $69 a month per account.

Expert opinion

‘’Reliable outreach and research tool. I like the efficiency and speed of searching and validating emails, ease of use, and customer support. However, lots of emails are not really in the database. There’s also a lack of detailed statistics and dark mode.’’

—Denis B.

11. Klenty - Best cold email software for video personalization

User score: ⭐ 4.7 / 5

Klenty is a cold email automation platform that helps sales teams hyper-personalize their outreach.

Key features

While testing Klenty, we were really impressed with their Liquid email templates. These templates use dynamic formulas to automatically adjust email content based on when prospects receive or open your emails. As a result, they make each touchpoint feel extra personalized.

And if plain text isn’t cutting it, Klenty lets you take it a step further with video personalization. Namely, you can embed videos into your emails with custom elements to further stand out.

We also appreciated Klenty’s flexibility when it comes to sequencing. You can reorder steps, adjust delays, and even clone successful sequences to save time and replicate winning campaigns.

Klenty also provides deliverability insights to help you understand how many emails land in the primary inbox, like a warm-up tool that you can use with Skylead.

Additionally, the tool includes email verification, supports unlimited mailboxes with inbox rotation, and has email tracking to keep you informed about engagement levels.

Lastly, the platform can be integrated with other software via API or Webhooks.

Pros

• Liquid email templates for advanced personalization.
• Video personalization to stand out in inboxes.
• Flexible email sequencing.
• Detailed deliverability insights to optimize campaigns.
• Email discovery and verification based on prospects’ name and company domain.
• Integrations via API and Webhooks.

Cons

• No monthly pricing plans; only quarterly or annual payments are available.
• LinkedIn automation, albeit there, relies on a Chrome extension, rendering it unsafe.
• If your bounce rate is high (which can happen if you’re using their tool to verify emails, as we experienced), the campaign won’t automatically stop.
• You can connect unlimited mailboxes to the tool, as we discovered, only if they share the same domain. You can add more domains if you’d like, but only if you pay an additional $30 per domain.
• There are no 1-on-1 onboarding calls. And seeing that the platform isn’t easy to navigate, this is definitely a disadvantage.

Pricing

Klenty only has quarterly and annual plans, with the latter being up to 20% cheaper.

That being said, there are a total of 3 pricing plans available.

Expert opinion

‘’I liked the ability to run campaigns through Klenty using salesforce data. However, I didn’t like that Klenty does not automatically stop a campaign if an email is bouncing.’’

—Matthew D., Distribution Manager

12. Woodpecker - Best for teams prioritizing email deliverability

User score: ⭐ 4.7 / 5

Woodpecker is a cold email software designed to maintain optimal email deliverability.

Key features

Woodpecker is best known for its focus on email deliverability. The platform includes a built-in email warm-up feature, auto-reply detection, and email verification (powered by Bouncer), which ensures your emails avoid the spam folder.

The tool also supports A/B testing, allowing you to experiment with up to 5 variations of subject lines and email content.

The good news for teams managing multiple email accounts is that Woodpecker also offers unlimited mailbox connections with auto-rotation to spread your sending load and protect your domain.

It also fits right into your tool stack through native integrations with HubSpot and Pipedrive, along with Google Sheets and Calendly.

Speaking of integrations, it can be expanded into a multichannel outreach platform through the integration with Dux-Soup, a LinkedIn automation tool.

Pros

• Built-in email warm-up for improved deliverability.
• Auto-reply detection to better manage follow-ups.
• Unlimited mailboxes with auto-rotation.
• Integrates directly with popular CRMs, plus Google Sheets and Calendly.

Cons

• The subscription limits the number of prospects you can contact, and costs can escalate quickly if you need to scale.
• The number of mailboxes you can warm up, and emails you can send monthly is capped. Unless you’re paying for the highest subscription.
• No built-in LinkedIn automation.

Pricing

Woodpecker offers 4 plans, albeit pricing depends on the number of contacted prospects, mailboxes warmed up, and emails sent. 

That said, prices start from:

Expert opinion

‘’Over the years, I have used all the major players, from the large SEPs to platforms with similar functionality and costs to Woodpecker. Woodpecker stands out for me due to the fundamental fact that it has deliverability at the forefront of everything it does. Nonetheless, the Hubspot integration is basic and does not allow activity tracking at the contact level. Moreover, the warm-up feature is new and works, but it needs more ability to monitor and control settings.’’

—Oliver K., Head of Sales Development

13. Mailshake - Best for its AI email writer SHAKEspear

User score:⭐ 4.7 / 5

Mailshake is a cold email software with support for multichannel outreach.

Key features

One of Mailshake’s unique selling points is SHAKEspeare AI Email Writer, which is included for free with every account. Its job is to help you write personalized emails at scale.

However, using Mailshake, you’re not limited to automating cold email outreach only. The tool supports outreach via multiple channels (LinkedIn and phone), although only under its Sales Engagement plan. This means you can seamlessly switch between email, LinkedIn, and direct calls within the same sequence. Still, these sequences are simple, as opposed to Skylead’s Smart sequences.

The platform also offers unlimited email warm-ups and mailbox rotation for better deliverability. Moreover, we found its A/B testing to be particularly helpful for testing different variations of messaging.

Finally, the tool integrates directly with Salesforce, Pipedrive, and HubSpot and supports over 1,000 additional integrations via Zapier webhooks. Therefore, it’s rather easy to fit into your workflow.

Pros

• SHAKEspeare AI Email Writer is included for free.
• Unlimited email warm-ups and mailbox rotation for improved deliverability.
• A/B testing to keep track of what’s working, as well as what’s not.
• Direct integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive.
• Supports more than 1,000 integrations via Zapier webhooks.

Cons

• SHAKEspear AI, though useful, can be easily replaced with Chat GPT for sales copywriting.
• The Starter plan doesn’t support multichannel outreach.
• There is no built-in email verification (you’ll need a 3rd-party tool).
• You can connect up to 5 mailboxes maximum. And that’s only if you’re subscribed to their most expensive Sales Engagement plan. Other than that, you’re left to work with only 2 email accounts.
• LinkedIn automation operates through a Chrome extension.
• Analytics can be hard to comprehend, in our opinion.
• Frequent bugs.
• Annual billings only and no free trial.

Pricing

Expert opinion

‘’Easy to get started and use, high deliverability, and great customer support team. Several cons are limited analytics, the fact that you can't create bespoke email sequences based on an action (e.g., a click,) and you can't upload lists for bulk deletion.’’

—Ayrton E.

14. Outreach.io - Best for enterprise-level sales engagement

User score: ⭐ 4.4 / 5

Outreach.io is a sales execution platform built for larger teams looking to scale their prospecting and closing efforts.

Key features

Outreach.io goes beyond your regular cold email software. In fact, it’s a full-fledged platform that you can use to engage prospects through email, phone, and Sales Navigator—all from one place. Moreover, its smart automation features make it easy to schedule, track, and analyze sequences for maximum efficiency.

While exploring the tool, we really liked its AI-powered insights, which provide recommendations for the best times to engage with prospects and suggest improvements to your messaging based on past performance. Additionally, Outreach.io’s predictive analytics help sales teams identify high-potential leads, forecast outcomes, and focus their efforts on deals most likely to close.

The platform also includes CRM integrations with Salesforce and HubSpot.

Not to mention, Outreach.io’s reporting and analytics capabilities provide a detailed overview of sequence performance to help teams optimize their outreach strategies.

Pros

• Multichannel engagement through email, phone, LinkedIn, and more.
• AI-powered insights for improving outreach strategy.
• Seamless integrations with Salesforce and HubSpot.
• Advanced reporting and analytics for performance tracking.
• Enterprise-grade scalability for large sales teams.

Cons

• Outreach.io lacks many features found in the best cold email software. This includes email warm-up, email discovery and verification, and inbox rotation.
• It’s impossible to connect more than 2 mailboxes to the tool.
• Pricing is on the higher end, making it less accessible for smaller teams.
• Steeper learning curve compared to simpler cold email tools.
• The integration with HubSpot doesn’t work very well.

Pricing

Outreach.io doesn’t publicly disclose its pricing. What we can tell you, though, is that connecting even 1 email account is expensive, way past $100 per email account. Moreover, there’s no monthly subscription, only annual, and they have no free trial.

Expert opinion

‘’It makes it very easy to manage a lot of prospects and keep track of who is being reached out to. I like that it enables you to be flexible and set up a lot of integrations. There are some functionalities that don't work as well as they should. For example, being able to edit steps of a sequence when emailing, having a small drafting window, and syncing activity.’’

—Benjamin S., Owner

15. QuickMail - Best for its customizable Analytics

User score: ⭐ 4.7 / 5

QuickMail is one of the best cold email software that stands out for its customizable Analytics dashboard.

Key features

Every QuickMail account includes free email warm-up via MailFlow to help keep emails out of spam folders. 

The platform also supports LinkedIn outreach (through a Chrome extension) via multiple LinkedIn accounts, as well as inbox rotation for email, which evenly distributes email loads across multiple inboxes to protect your domain.

Speaking of multiple inboxes, QuickMail allows you to connect up to 50 mailboxes on the highest subscription plan.

Moreover, it integrates with Hyperise to add custom images or GIFs to your emails. The option to customize the Analytics dashboard any way you look is another nice touch, in our opinion.

Finally, the software integrates directly with HubSpot and Pipedrive, supports Zapier for additional workflows, and allows you to import prospects from Google Drive or CSV files.

Pros

• Free email warm-up via MailFlow is included with every account.
• Inbox rotation to protect your domain.
• Customizable analytics dashboards.
• Native CRM integrations with HubSpot and Pipedrive, plus 3rd-party integrations via Zapier.

Cons

• Email verification is available through 3rd-party integrations and costs extra.
• LinkedIn outreach relies on a Chrome extension and requires higher subscriptions.
• Image and GIF personalization is outsourced through Hyperise, as is the case with Expandi. Thus, it costs extra.
• Limited to 50 mailboxes on the highest subscription.
• Capped monthly email sends and active prospects.
• The tool isn’t the simplest to set up.

Pricing

QuickMail has 2 plan types: Single & Agency.

Expert opinion

‘’All you have to do is write email copies and build prospect lists and Quickmail manages everything else such as inbox rotation and measurement of the campaign's results along with recommendations. Nonetheless, Quickmail is difficult to setup in the very beginning and would require some assistance if your team is not very technical.’’

—Nico Chiong M., Marketing Manager

16. Close - Best for its CRM with basic cold email functionalities

User score: ⭐ 4.7 / 5

Close is primarily a CRM but comes with built-in cold email functionalities.

Key features

Close simplifies email outreach by integrating it directly into its CRM. With it, you can create and use email templates and schedule emails with follow-up reminders to ensure timely communication with prospects.

On top of automating workflows, you can use Close to send bulk emails to multiple recipients at once. Additionally, the tool allows teams to create and share email snippets with each other.

Close supports A/B testing for subject lines and email bodies, much like many other cold email software on the list.

You can also track performance through the Sent Email Report page, which provides insights into open rates, click rates, and more.

Close integrates with HubSpot, Calendly, ChatGPT, and many others, making it a good choice for sales teams with extensive tool stacks.

Pros

• Combines CRM and cold email functionalities in one platform.
• Built-in A/B testing for subject lines and email content.
• Sent Email Report for performance tracking.
• Bulk email sending with team-wide email snippet sharing.
• Extensive integrations, including HubSpot, Calendly, and Chat GPT.

Cons

• Primarily a CRM, meaning the email functionalities are not be as advanced as in standalone cold email software.
• Bulk email sending lacks more sophisticated automation features like smart sequences.
• No email warm-up feature.
• No inbox rotation.
• Lacks advanced personalization features, like image and GIF personalization.

Pricing

Expert opinion

‘’I love how easy it is to use Close. I had never used it before in my current role, and it has been very simple to learn. I have found it's not as easy to create templated emails as I would like, and it's harder to include attachments in emails, though.’’

—Brianna G., Account Executive

17. Yesware - Best for automating cold email campaigns straight from your inbox

User score: ⭐ 4.4 / 5

Yesware is a cold email software with direct Gmail and Outlook integrations.

Key features

Yesware integrates directly into Gmail and Outlook through a Chrome extension. Once installed, you can send emails as usual while benefiting from Yesware’s tracking and engagement tools.

Moreover, Yesware enables users to create automated follow-up sequences to stay top-of-mind with prospects who don’t reply. The tool also supports multichannel campaigns that combine emails, calls, and social touches.

The platform offers email templates that can be personalized and saved for future use. You can also use placeholders (a.k.a. variables) to personalize emails at scale.

The email tracking feature notifies you when recipients read your emails, click on links, or view attachments, allowing you to focus on the most engaged prospects. Meanwhile, the Analytics dashboard gives you a weekly overview of your email performance.

Additionally, Yesware includes a B2B contact database with over 100M contacts for lead generation. However, this feature comes at an extra cost.

Pros

• Direct integration with Gmail and Outlook through a Chrome extension.
• Pre-defined email templates..
• Automated follow-ups for improved prospect engagement.
• Multichannel campaign support with emails, calls, and social touches.
• Detailed email tracking and engagement history for each contact.
• Weekly performance insights through Analytics dashboard.

Cons

• Does not track email deliverability rates.
• The B2B contact database is a paid add-on.
• Lacks email warm-up feature.
• Limited to Gmail and Outlook users.
• We noticed that Yesware is often buggy.
• The interface looks very outdated if you ask us.

Pricing

Yesware has a free plan that offers basic functionalities.

Meanwhile, there are a total of 4 paid plans:

Expert opinion

‘’Yesware makes it easier for me to track my emails and it also scans for viruses when I try to upload any files. The UI can be better. I mean, seriously, tools like Mailchimp have a much better UI.’’

—Johnson T., Senior Account Executive

18. HubSpot Sales Hub - Best for its connection to HubSpot

User score: ⭐ 4.5 / 5

HubSpot Sales Hub is a sales software that works seamlessly with its namesake CRM.

Key features

Using HubSpot Sales Hub’s automation features, you can connect up to 200 inboxes. You can use these to schedule emails and follow-ups at scale. Alternatively, the platform allows you to set reminders for manual actions, like:

• Sending LinkedIn invites
• Emails, 
• Or making calls.

Thanks to the A/B testing feature, you can fine-tune your messaging to maximize lead engagement. HubSpot also enables users to turn their best-performing emails into templates that can be optimized, personalized, and shared across the team.

Additionally, HubSpot’s email tracking notifies you when prospects open emails or click links to help you prioritize the most engaged leads. It also comes with email health reporting.

Meanwhile, the platform’s integrated dashboard lets you score deals, assign tasks, and monitor your pipeline in real time, so no opportunity is missed.

Pros

• Supports personalized, automated email sequences.
• Email tracking to monitor engagement.
• Run multiple A/B tests to refine email sequences.
• Create, optimize, and share team-wide email templates.
• Integrates with HubSpot CRM for end-to-end deal management.

Cons

• Not a full-fledged cold email software since features like mailbox rotation and email warm-up are missing.
• No email discovery or verification features are available.
• No image and GIF personalization.
• Pricing can be steep for small teams.
• We experienced lots of lagging while using the platform.

Pricing

Expert opinion

‘’It is very user-friendly, and dashboards and integrations are really easy to use even for people that have never used it before. I think the cost is a little bit high.’’

—Diego P., VP of Engineering

19. GMass - Best for beginners

User score: ⭐ 4.7 / 5

GMass is a cold email software that integrates directly with Gmail through a Chrome extension.

Key features

GMass allows users to send emails directly from their Gmail account. 

With its mail merge capabilities, you can customize emails using data from Google Sheets, making for more efficient and targeted outreach.

The platform supports automated follow-ups and email tracking to notify you when emails are opened or links are clicked. It also has a deliverability testing feature to check where your emails land in recipients’ inboxes.

GMass also includes tools like email verification to clean your list and reply detection to help manage responses.

Additionally, GMass integrates seamlessly with Google Workspace, meaning no external apps or complex setups are required. At the same time, you can connect GMass to other software via Zapier.

Pros

• Direct integration with Gmail for ease of use.
• Personalized bulk emails with mail merge from Google Sheets.
• Automated follow-ups to maintain prospect engagement.
• Email tracking to monitor opens and clicks.
• Integrations with 3rd-party software via Zapier.

Cons

• Limited to Gmail users. Therefore, it isn’t suitable for those using other email providers.
• You can use it on one email account at a time.
• No advanced cold email features like inbox rotation or email warm-up.
• Bulk email sending is capped by Gmail’s daily sending limits. Your account could get flagged if you try to ‘’bypass’’ the limit.
• Makes the Gmail interface seem kind of ‘’all over the place’’.

Pricing

GMass has Individual and Team plans.

Expert opinion

‘’It's better than mass email senders (i.e., Mailchimp/Hubspot) for sending organic emails directly from your Gmail. But it's not a substitute for mass email senders because it doesn't have all the features they do.’’

—Alejandro S., Executive Director

20. Mixmax - Best for teams after seamless email productivity tools

User score: ⭐ 4.5 / 5

Mixmax is an email productivity platform that integrates with Gmail, much like Yesware and GMass.

Key features

Mixmax offers features designed to make email outreach more efficient. Its email tracking provides real-time notifications when recipients open emails, click on links, or download attachments, giving users insights into engagement.

Mixmax allows you to use custom templates and insert dynamic fields to customize messages for recipients at scale. The platform also supports sequenced campaigns to automate follow-ups and nurture leads effectively. Moreover, you can add manual multichannel tasks into campaigns, including calls, LinkedIn connection requests, and inMails.

Another standout feature is Mixmax’s calendar scheduling, which lets users embed their availability directly into emails for easy appointment booking. This is complemented by the platform’s polling and survey tools, which gather feedback directly in email threads.

Mixmax integrates with Google Workspace and CRMs like Salesforce, thus allowing users to easily sync workflows and track leads. Finally, advanced users can leverage its rules and triggers feature to automate repetitive tasks and set conditions for outreach.

Pros

• Real-time email tracking for opens, clicks, and downloads.
• Calendar scheduling is embedded directly into emails.
• Automated sequenced campaigns for follow-ups.
• Dynamic fields for personalized email templates.
• Integrates with Salesforce and Google Workspace.

Cons

• The least expensive plan has no automation.
• The least expensive plan also lacks email personalization.
• Multichannel sequences are available to teams under their most expensive Scale plan. On top of that, multichannel tasks need to be executed manually.
• Its extension for Gmail and Outlook slowed our browser.
• There is no email verification, email warm-up, or inbox rotation available.

Pricing

Mixmax comes with Individual and Teams plans.

Expert opinion

‘’I've been using Mixmax almost every day for a while now, and it's been a game-changer for my workflow. This tool has significantly helped me automate my outreach campaigns, saving me a ton of time and effort. I'd like to be able to download reports for my different campaigns. It would be very helpful to have information on a target by target, especially to re-contact them if they haven't replied in a certain time, or if they never opened my emails.’’

—Ana A., Business Development Associate

21. Salesforge - Best cold email software for outreach in 20+ languages

User score: ⭐ 4.7 / 5

Salesforge is a cold outreach platform combining human effort with AI to manage email campaigns and personalize outreach at scale—in as much as 20+ languages.

Key features

Salesforge streamlines cold outreach with its Forge Ecosystem, which includes:

• Mailforge: A distributed email infrastructure with automated DNS setup.
• Infraforge: Customizable private email architecture with multiple IP addresses and domain masking for better deliverability.
• Warmforge: Automated, unlimited warm-up for Gmail and Outlook mailboxes.
• Agent Frank: An AI-powered SDR that handles everything from prospecting and outreach to booking meetings.

The platform allows users to connect unlimited mailboxes with smart rotation to guarantee even distribution of email loads. In the meantime, email verification protects your sender's reputation by verifying emails directly within the dashboard.

Salesforge also integrates with Slack, Clay, and other tools via Zapier webhooks, thus providing seamless workflow automation.

Pros

• AI-powered email personalization in more than 20 languages.
• Unlimited mailboxes with smart rotation.
• Automated email warm-up and email validation.
• Native integrations and those made possible through Zapier.
• All-in-one dashboard to manage mailboxes and sequences.

Cons

• Advanced features such as Infraforge may be too technical for beginners.
• Plans limit the number of active prospects.
• The maximum number of emails you can send monthly is 50,000 on the highest plan.
• Email verification credits are limited to 1,000 maximum, as well.
• Agent Frank, Mailforge, Infraforge, and Warmforge cost extra.

Pricing

Expert opinion

‘’Love how they utilize the power of AI to craft unique emails as well as increase delivery rate. It's a new product, so some features are missing.’’

—Simonas D.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

What is cold email software and how does it differ from regular email marketing tools?

Cold email software is specifically designed to help businesses reach out to leads who may not have prior knowledge of their company. Unlike regular email marketing tools, which typically send bulk campaigns to opt-in subscribers, cold email software focuses on personalized, 1-on-1 emails to build connections and drive conversions. 

Is it legal to send cold emails?

Yes, provided that you adhere to regulations. In the US, the CAN-SPAM Act requires you to include an unsubscribe button, avoid misleading subject lines, and identify your email as an advertisement if applicable. Meanwhile, in the EU, GDPR requires a legitimate interest or prior consent to contact individuals.

How does cold email software help with email deliverability?

Cold email software includes features specifically designed to improve deliverability and keep your emails out of spam folders. These typically include features such as email warm-up, deliverability testing, inbox rotation, and domain authentication, among others.

Can I integrate cold email software with my existing CRM?

Generally speaking, most cold email software support integration with popular CRMs. These integrations enable you to sync contact data seamlessly, track engagement directly in your CRM, as well as manage follow-ups and tasks in one place. If a native integration isn’t available, tools like Zapier or API access can bridge the gap.

How do I personalize emails using cold email software?

The best cold email software allows for both basic and advanced personalization. In other words, most let you use placeholders (variables) to insert first names, company names, etc., to personalize your emails dynamically. Also, some cold email software, like Skylead, lets you personalize images and GIFs for greater impact.

What is the best cold email software?

Still here? Great! That means you’re probably wondering, What’s the best cold email software out there?

If you asked us, we’d say Skylead—and no, it’s not just because we built it. It’s because it truly checks all the boxes.

But truth be told, there's no single answer to this question, simply because you yourself best know your needs.

So, how do you figure out which software is right for you? You make a top 5 out of 21 on this list and test them out—just like we did.

For example, start with Skylead—our ultimate LinkedIn automation and cold email software that has all the essential cold email features you need. In one place, at that!

So, sign up for our 7-day free trial now, explore everything Skylead offers, and who knows? You might not even need to look anywhere else.

At first mention, cold outreach tends to have a bad reputation. 

It's no wonder, as no one likes unsolicited emails, LinkedIn messages, or calls. 

However, real cold outreach is not useless or annoying. On the contrary, it helps your and your clients' businesses grow and builds strong, lucrative, and long-lasting relationships. 

It starts with thoroughly researching the ICP and Buyer Persona, defining a precise outreach strategy, writing sales messages and follow-ups in advance, predicting objections and preparing for objection handling, and much more.  

That's why, in this blog, we will dive into a detailed explanation of:

• What cold outreach is;
• How sales, marketing, and recruiting can benefit from it;
• Best practices for successful cold outreach;
• And will give you a list of resources with ready-to-use cold sales message templates. 

What is cold outreach? 

Cold Outreach is a form of outbound marketing. It implies contacting prospects with whom you had no prior relationship and introducing them to your product/service. It can be conducted via LinkedIn, email (cold emailing), phone (cold calling), or by combining these channels (multichannel outreach). 

Companies with a business-to-business work model mainly use cold outreach. For optimal results, each cold outreach campaign should be based on a well-thought-out outreach strategy. This strategy should aligns with the company's needs, goals, and possibilities. 

Cold outreach VS warm outreach 

Cold outreach, as mentioned above, implies reaching out to prospects with whom you had no prior relationship and who most likely have little or no awareness of your product/service. 

On the other hand, warm outreach implies contacting prospects who know about your product/service and have expressed interest in it. The communication channels can be the same as cold outreach strategies - via LinkedIn, email, call, or combining several communication channels. However, the approach is, of course, different. 

Cold outreach strategies in marketing, sales, and recruiting 

Cold outreach is a form of outbound marketing and sales. It is a traditional form of marketing in which a company initiates contact with a potential customer. 

Since cold outreach is mainly implemented by companies with a B2B work model, these potential clients are other companies that could benefit from their products/services the most. 

The most common forms of outbound marketing are:

• cold outreach (cold emailing, cold calling, cold messaging on LinkedIn),
• billboards,
• events,
• advertising through TV or radio,
• print,
• online,
• in-person contact, etc. 

This chapter will discuss the role of cold emailing, cold calling, and cold messaging on LinkedIn as a cold outreach strategy in sales, marketing, and recruiting. 

Cold outreach strategy in marketing 

Network with industry peers 

LinkedIn networking with industry peers positively impacts the exposure of your business. Furthermore, it brings meaningful connections, and provides additional insights into different marketing trends and practices. 

What once was reserved for in-person business events only today is happening on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a social media platform aimed at building B2B relationships that gathers over 810 million professionals worldwide. In other words, it allows you to find and network with all your industry peers from all over the world in one place. 

Connect with thought leaders and influencers

Word of mouth is the best marketing tool, especially from industry experts. 

LinkedIn is also an excellent place to connect with thought-leaders and influencers. This way you can talk about your product/service reach your target audience through their content or mention. 

Also, you can get in touch with their followers through the Sales Navigator filter Connections Of. Or, use a LinkedIn automation tool, such as Skylead, to scrape LinkedIn members who reacted to specific posts and reach out to them.

Invite top speakers to participate at your event 

Whether a startup or an established business, having high-profile speakers at your event (webinars, in-person conferences, seminars, etc.) puts your company in the spotlight. It is an excellent way to gather people from your industry and potential customers in one place. 

Additionally, top-level speakers usually have a broad audience and many followers on social media. As a result, they could attract professionals from an industry branch you didn't consider initially. This gives you a significant insight into the direction your business can take.

Submit your content to be published on external resources / Generate backlinks for your website 

Create cold outreach campaigns to get in touch with platforms or other brands that could go hand-in-hand with yours.(obviously, skip your competitors!). In return, be open to hosting their content or exchanging backlinks. 

Having your content published or backlinked on other places rather than just on your gives your brand significant exposure, whether a startup or an established business. Furthermore, it places you and your team members as field experts. 

Send out press releases 

A new software release, reaching a business milestone, announcing a new product/service, or anything worth mentioning should be publicly announced. Use cold outreach to get in touch with online magazines relevant to your industry and get extra publicity. 

Cold outreach strategy in sales 

Simply put, sales represents the group of activities that lead to exchanging goods or services for money or other assets. 

Not long ago, the entire sales process, from lead generation to the pitch, was reserved for face-to-face contact. Then, unsolicited calls to prospects without prior contact, known as cold calling, became a crucial part of sales teams' cold outreach strategies. This way, teams managed to reach geographically more distant clients. 

Today, with the internet becoming available to almost everyone, sales reps are using more and more social media networks to understand their customers and to reach out to them. However, the social selling process is far more complicated than that.

There are over 63 million decision-makers on LinkedIn. You can now offer your product/service to the entire world, but so can everyone else. That's how social selling was born. It is a sales and marketing strategy that prioritizes relationship building with potential clients and makes the act of selling its consequence rather than a goal. Social selling has many processes, but it usually starts with cold outreach. 

Cold outreach strategy in recruiting 

Due to the global talent shortage, recruiters must develop an employer branding strategy to present their company in the labor market and a cold outreach strategy to approach ideal candidates and attract them to work for their company. 

Furthermore, LinkedIn developed a series of platforms designed to help recruiters find the most qualified candidates for their companies - LinkedIn Recruiter.

What is cold email outreach? 

Cold email outreach is an outbound prospecting technique that uses email to approach prospects to establish professional relationships and sell your product. Therefore, a cold email is any unsolicited email sent to someone who knows nothing or very little about your product with the goal of selling it. 

B2B Cold email response rates 

A generally accepted average cold email open rate is 21.33%, while an average response rate is 1% to 5%. 

As you may see, the difference between an open rate and a reply rate is significant. The email open rate depends on your email subject line and your reply rate of how good you are at writing sales messages and follow-up emails after no response.

One of the many benefits of using Skylead, a LinkedIn automation tool and cold email software, is the possibility to find and verify your prospects' email addresses. The verification process is critical, as it ensures higher deliverability (chances of your cold email landing directly in your prospect's inbox instead of spam) and safeguards your domain from restrictions. 

Furthermore, every day Skylead team strives to educate our users and beyond on sales and anything sales-related, how to put our tips, tricks, and templates for better open and reply rates, and finally, conversion rates into good use through our tool. You can find sales email templates and LinkedIn templates in our resources or subscribe to our newsletter for the latest industry and software updates and ready-to-use sales templates. 

Cold outreach on LinkedIn 

LinkedIn is a social media platform that, besides connecting professionals from around the world, gives you significant insights into your prospects' needs, desires, and pain points through their LinkedIn profiles. 

Unlike other social media focusing on people's private lives or B2C communication, LinkedIn is majorly oriented towards the B2B business model. 

It offers detailed insights into your ideal customers, such as your prospect's name, company name, contact information (email, website, phone number), professional communities they like, and content with which they engage. 

Despite LinkedIn being majorly mentioned as a platform for salespeople, sales teams, and marketers, it's important to highlight that it's pretty valuable for recruiters and people looking for new job opportunities. 

When fishing for the best talent to join your company, the process is the same as social selling. On the other hand, potential employees rely on LinkedIn before applying to a position that might interest them. They can draw conclusions from the company's employer branding campaigns, growth insights, etc., just like sales reps and marketers do for their potential clients. 

What is multichannel cold outreach?

Multichannel cold outreach implies combining channels of communication, usually LinkedIn outreach, email outreach, and cold calling to get prospects to engage in the process of social selling. It can also be performed through your multichannel contact center.

Multichannel outreach is the most effective approach for starting a conversation with your ideal prospects because you are creating more than one touchpoint with your prospects and, at the same time identifying their preferred channel of communication for further conversations. 

Benefits of cold outreach

• Cold outreach is cost-effective. You don't need a specific budget to invest in ads, event planning, advertising, etc. 
• It's scalable. If you use automation tools, hyper-personalized cold emails and follow-ups can reach thousands of people in a few clicks. 
• You can include personalized images, gifs, and videos to make your cold emails or LinkedIn messages more attractive. 
• You can reach potential clients and industry peers from all over the world. Cold outreach allows you to expand your business and networking efforts outside a specific geographic area.
• Consequently, cold outreach offers broader brand exposure. Cold emails and cold LinkedIn outreach can reach anyone on the globe. Additionally, LinkedIn provides specific features to promote your business through its feed, online events, sponsored InMails, communities, etc. 

Cold outreach: Best practices

Understand your prospects' needs 

LinkedIn is a gold mine of qualified prospects and information on those prospects. So, check out:

• the content your prospects share or like,
• the communities they participate in,
• their professional and educational background,
• and their interests.

You can learn all of this by visiting their LinkedIn profile. 

Personalize 

Once you've understood your prospects' affinities, needs, and goals, it's time to put this information into practice. Personalizing your outreach goes far beyond calling your prospects by their names. Some successful sales reps import CSV files (with email lists or LinkedIn URLs) into automation tools. They also personalize entire paragraphs to each prospect for the best results.  

For example, let’s say you have an email list of your ideal prospects. Create a column where you write a personalized intro for each of them where the rest of the sales message copy stays the same for every prospect.

Once you upload this .csv file to Skylead, the column “intro” will automatically turn into a variable {{intro}}. Use it like this. 

Each prospect will receive a combination of the personalized intro as in the csv file with the rest of the message. 

Address the pain points 

Your best pitch lies in proving that your product/service solves your prospects' pain points most quickly and directly. Make that clear in your sales messages, from the intro to CTA. 

Connect on a human level

However, addressing the pain points doesn't mean selling repeatedly. Keep in mind that your prospects are humans and that you should always try to connect on a human level. Sales reps who genuinely show that they care and want to help their potential customers improve their businesses have higher conversion rates. 

Build relationships before selling 

As part of social selling, cold outreach is all about building relationships with prospects. People are more likely to buy products from people they trust and with whom they feel comfortable opening up. 

Don't quit - follow up 

Don't give up after the first try. Decision-makers to whom you're trying to get are busy. They receive numerous LinkedIn connection requests and cold emails and, believe it or not, often forget to reply. So sending a follow-up email is always a good choice. 

Qualify your prospects  

Qualifying a prospect means determining whether or not someone interested in your product/service is a good fit for it. Therefore, a qualified prospect is a potential client whose pain points your product/service solves in the most direct way. By qualifying your prospects, you will have higher customer lifetime value while lowering churn rates. 

A/B test your cold outreach

One cold outreach template won't fit all prospects. That's why it's smart to A/B test message templates of all kinds. A/B test is a randomized experimentation process where two or more versions are sent to different target users simultaneously to determine which one makes results and influences the desirable business action. It's the only way to know what really works for your target prospects. 

For example, in this case, we tested 3 different copies of Invite to connect on LinkedIn to see which one would have the highest acceptance rate and/or reply rate. 

Here’s how you see the results of A/B testing in Skylead. You also have instant insight into the messages you were testing. 

Automate your cold outreach

It's 2025, and we're far past manual outreach. LinkedIn automation tools progressed and are now an indispensable part of any sales, marketing, and recruiting process. Skylead, for example, optimizes your time by finding the fastest way to your prospects, makes sure your cold emails land directly in your prospect's inbox, which affects your deliverability, gives you real-time reports and campaign status, and supports all sorts of integrations with CRMs (i.e., Hubspot, Salesflare, Zoho) newsletter tools, databases, etc. through Zapier and API. 

What is a good cold email 

A good cold email must show that the sender has thoroughly researched the recipient (prospect) and their company to understand their needs, desires, and pain points. Furthermore, it also includes a concrete and straight-to-the-point explanation of how your product/service can help improve a specific aspect of their business. 

The characteristics of a "good cold email" are the same for recruiters and candidates writing to hiring managers to search for job opportunities. 

For example, if you're a recruiter reaching out to the ideal candidate, you should show that you've researched that person and why you consider them the right fit for the position. The "spray and pray" approach doesn't work, not it makes your company look good. 

The same goes another way around. If you're a candidate searching for an opportunity, make sure you've done thorough research on a specific company's product/service. Even if you're an expert in your field, the hiring manager is less likely to consider you if they notice you don't particularly care about the company itself and that you just go and apply for random jobs. 

Cold outreach email template 

Now, let's look at some proven cold email formulas (and cold email templates) that increase your reply rates and generate results. 

The most basic structure of cold emails, whether a first email or a follow-up, consists of an email subject line, email body copy, call-to-action (CTA), and email signature. 

As mentioned above, the email open rate majorly depends on your email subject line. Your response rates depend on how well you researched your recipients, hence, how relevant your offer is to their company. Also, if you included links or hyperlinked words, ensure the anchor words are attractive enough (but not misleading) to improve your click-through rate. 

Here are some cold email formulas/templates.

The BAB (Before - After - Bridge) formula

Before - a paragraph on your prospect's pain point. 

After - what your prospect's business looks like with a solution you're offering. 

Bridge - how your prospect can get there. 

The PAS (Problem - Agitate - Solve) formula

The PAS formula is also known as "a pessimistic version of BAB". However, it works equally well in different situations. You have to evaluate which principle works better for you and your prospects, or you can always AB test them. 

Problem - open your cold email with the problem your prospect's facing. 

Agitate - emphasize the problem until it "hurts".

Solve - offer a solution to your prospect's problem.

The SSS (Star - Story - Success) formula 

Star - introduce the main character, that should be either your prospect or someone with whom your prospect can identify.

Story - tell a story about your character in which they face the same problem your prospect does.

Success - share how your character got out of the problem and offer the same solution to your prospect.

The ACCA (Awareness - Comprehension - Conviction - Action) formula 

Awareness - show your prospect that you know what their pain point is.

Comprehension - explain how this pain point affects them, and tell them you have a solution.

Conviction - create a desire for the solution.

Action - call-to-action (CTA).  

The AIDA (Attention - Interest - Desire - Action) formula 

Attention — Grab the prospect's attention.

Interest — Make it personal to engage their interest.

Desire — Build desire for what you're offering.

Action — Ask for a response.

Also, remember to check out our ready-to-use follow-up email after no response templates, as well as the most common email mistakes and the most effective email calls-to-action (CTAs) for higher response and conversion rates. 

Best cold email outreach subject line 

Whether a first or a follow-up email, your email subject line is crucial for your open rates. 

Subject lines should be compelling but not misleading. If you used tricks to get your email opened, and the subject line doesn't reflect the email body, don't expect your prospect to reply. People generally get angry when misled and are less likely to open your follow-up emails, too.  

Here are email subject line guidelines, best practices, and over 107 subject line examples that you can use immediately or draw inspiration from. 

LinkedIn outreach templates 

In simple words, LinkedIn outreach implies using the platform to connect and nurture professional relationships with the goal of selling your product/service to those members that would benefit from it the most.

For this purpose, LinkedIn offers different types of messaging, such as connection requests for better acceptance rates, regular messages for members of your network, LinkedIn InMails for busy decision-makers, and 3rd-degree connections. 

From this point of view, LinkedIn outreach is different from cold email outreach for classifying members based on your connection level, whereas you can send a cold email to pretty much anyone whose email address you have. However, LinkedIn as a platform offers other benefits, such as networking opportunities, significant insights into your prospect's professional achievements, pain points, and professional aspirations, etc. 

You will find over 30 ready-to-use LinkedIn outreach templates in our resources LinkedIn connection message templates, sales messages for starting sales conversations, and LinkedIn InMails examples. 

LinkedIn outreach automation 

Skylead is a LinkedIn automation tool and cold email outreach software that, thanks to its smart algorithms that make decisions based on your prospect's behavior, automates time-consuming sales processes and gets to your prospects in the fastest and most direct way possible. 

By automating your LinkedIn outreach, you are optimizing your time and saving resources while still getting the most out of your LinkedIn prospecting process. In addition, it is perfectly safe and supports integrations through API and Zapier with CRMs, newsletter tools, database software, calendar booking tools, etc. 

Skylead allows you to automate only LinkedIn outreach, make only cold email campaigns, or combine everything into multichannel outreach for the best results. It also has its email finder that, at the same time, verifies each prospect's email address to increase deliverability and prevent harming your email domain. 

Skylead’s Smart Sequences work on the “if/else” principle meaning that they act based on your lead’s behavior. The picture below shows what multichannel outreach looks like but you can always opt to make a Smart Sequence that focuses on one channel only (LinkedIn or email). 

Also, it has a proven boost mode feature that helps you bypass LinkedIn limits and connect with more prospects in less time. 

Frequently asked questions 

How does cold outreach automation compare to manual outreach in terms of effectiveness and personalization?

Cold outreach automation can scale efforts and maintain consistency while keeping a deeper level of personalization, potentially increasing effectiveness by making recipients feel uniquely considered. While manual outreach can be personalized as well, automation is a preferred option because it saves so much time. 

What are the ethical considerations or potential drawbacks of using cold outreach strategies, especially regarding unsolicited messages?

Ethical considerations in cold outreach include respecting privacy, avoiding spam, and ensuring messages provide value. Misuse can lead to negative brand perception and legal issues.

Can the effectiveness of cold outreach vary significantly between industries, and if so, how should strategies be adapted for different sectors?

Effectiveness of cold outreach can indeed vary across industries. Sectors with high digital engagement may respond better. Tailoring strategies to industry-specific preferences and pain points is crucial for relevance and effectiveness.

Is cold outreach effective? 

If done right, cold outreach is a powerful prospecting tactic used by many salespeople for its high ROI, the possibility to reach potential clients from all over the world, and the ability to build long-lasting business relationships. 

Why is cold outreach important? 

Cold outreach can help you gain broader brand awareness and reach potential customers from all over the world. Furthermore, it's cost-effective and can be used for sales, marketing, recruiting, and job searches. 

How do you conduct a cold outreach? 

• Identify prospects more likely to convert.
• Consider using multichannel outreach to identify their preferred means of communication.
• Prepare your LinkedIn and/or email strategy in advance.
• Prepare your LinkedIn sales messages and/or cold sales emails in advance. 
• Personalize. 
• Follow up. 

Is cold email legal? 

You will not get into trouble if you use your prospects' business email addresses for cold email campaigns. 

Can you cold email B2B? 

Yes, B2B companies' sales teams use cold email outreach and LinkedIn outreach more often to accomplish their sales goals. 

What is cold outreach in marketing? 

Cold outreach in marketing is a form of outbound marketing that implies contacting prospects who could turn into your potential clients but don't know about your brand and have no previous experience with it. It could be done through email marketing, LinkedIn outreach, and cold calling. 

What is cold lead generation? 

Cold leads (referred to as "top of the funnel" leads) are those who are most likely not familiar with your product/service and haven't expressed interest in it. Cold lead generation is the process of gaining cold leads' attention, usually through LinkedIn (LinkedIn lead generation), cold emailing, and cold calling.

What is the difference between cold calling and prospecting? 

Prospecting is the process of identifying and building relationships with potential customers who probably don't know about your product and haven't shown interest in it so far. Cold calling is one of the prospecting techniques which includes reaching out to potential customers via phone. 

Is it better to cold call or email first? 

It majorly depends on your sales outreach strategy. However, some outreach experts find cold emailing less invasive and advise starting by reaching out to your ideal customers in written form (cold emailing and/or LinkedIn outreach). 

How long should a cold outreach email be? 

Generally, shorter cold sales emails of around 50-200 words have higher response rates. However, the most important aspect of cold emails is that they are personalized and highly relevant to the recipients. Also, their subject lines must be catchy while reflecting the emails' topic.

Blank email interface. Insertion point flickers on your document. You can feel it staring back, almost judging you for not knowing what to write anymore for your cold email outreach. You tried everything - it’s not working, and you don’t understand what you are doing wrong.

Once again, without any inspiration, you scribble what your company does, offer a product, and mass blast it. 

You wait. A couple of days later, history repeats itself. There is no response.

You think to yourself ’’This is too hard’’, or worse ’’This is not working for me’’.

As Darth Vader, you start breathing heavily. Take off the mask and get wind of the list of cold email mistakes you're probably making, what impact they have on your email metrics, and how to fix them to improve email campaign performance.

Do not worry. These mistakes happen to everybody.

The most important cold email outreach metrics

Before we dive deep into these email mistakes, let’s recap the metrics you need to track that will tell you a lot about your overall campaign performance.

Understanding and tracking the email metrics is crucial when deciding if your outreach campaign was victorious. It’s like putting a billboard up in the city and not knowing how many people saw it or bought your product afterward. Thanks to technology, now you can.

To be more precise, to measure email performance, you need to knowhow many emails were bounced, opened, responded to, and how many people converted via cold email outreach. Once you have that mastered, you can start creating engaging cold email campaigns.

#1 Cold email metric: Bounce rate

Bounce Rate in email outreach is the total percentage of email messages that have not been delivered successfully. This can happen if for example an email address is invalid or there is a technical issue with the email provider.

How to calculate email bounce rate

Example: 

Let’s say that during your email campaign you sent 1000 email messages. Out of those, 98 weren’t successfully delivered. The calculation would go like this:

Bounce Rate = 98 / 1000 x 100 = 9.8%

#2 Cold email metric: Open rate

Email open rate is the percentage used as an indicator of email campaign health. The higher it is, the better. 

This metric doesn’t tell you a lot about the email convertibility as a whole. However, it can indicate why it wasn’t opened, whether or not your subject line, or preview text (first several words of your email body) are appealing or can imply broken email deliverability. 

How to calculate email open rate

Example: 

Taking the numbers from the previous example, say, you have 1000 sent out, 98 out of those bounced and 565 were opened. The calculation will go like this:

Open rate = 565 / ( 1000 - 98 ) x 100 = 62.63%

#3 Cold email metric: Response rate

It’s nice to have a high Open rate, but it is even better to have a high Response rate, as well. As per its name, this metric indicates the number of individual emails in the cold campaign that leads responded to. This metric shows the quality of your email’s content. Ultimately, a good response rate means that you’ve managed to get the lead’s attention.

How to calculate email response rate

Example:

Continuing the example thread. Now you have 902 unique emails that have been delivered. Out of those, only 133 leads responded. The calculation goes like this:

Response rate = 133 / 902 x 100 = 14.75%

#4 Cold email metric: Email conversion rate

Conversion is an activity when a lead completes a desired goal, such as signing up for Demo or starting the Subscription. That said, conversion rate for email outreach is the percentage of prospects who took the desired action from your email campaign. 

To find out more about conversions, their types, and other KPIs, check out 5 Must-Know KPI Metrics to Grow Your B2B Business [Bonus Metrics Included].

Needless to say, the conversion rate is the ultimate metric to figure out if an email campaign was successful.

How to calculate email conversion rate

Example: 

Out of 902 successfully delivered emails, you have 36 conversions in total. Calculation is the following:

Conversion Rate = 36 / 902 x 100 = 3.99%

Now let’s see what email mistakes you are making that negatively impact these metrics and how to correct them.

Cold email outreach mistakes to say goodbye to

Successful email outreach is a lot tougher than ever these days. With so many emails cramping up the leads inboxes, it is hard to remember and know what best works for your targeted prospects, let alone see the mistakes that slither in without you even noticing. ‍

That’s why we created this ultimate guide to the most common email mistakes, how they affect the metrics, and how to fix them. First, let's break the email mistakes down into the following four categories to make it easier. There are Email Mistakes:

1. Affecting Deliverability 
2. Regarding Content
3. Related To Attitude Towards the Prospect
4. Affecting Sales Process

I Email mistakes affecting deliverability 

1. Acquiring poor quality leads

Let’s address the elephant in the room: many came across a situation where you are weighing options whether you should go for a cheaper alternative or not when buying prospects’ data. Unfortunately, the cheaper option almost always leads to devastating results in the end.

Starting, the leads’ contact information you get from unverified vendors might be completely untargeted for your outreach. You can get every mistake right on this list, but if your ICP is not targeted, the entire email outreach will fail. 

Or, maybe the prospect’s name is incorrect, and you might address them wrongly which will definitely affect the response rate and you will lose this lead. Forever. 

But there is a worse case scenario above all: if emails are invalid or non-existent, they can crumble your email outreach efforts because it increases the bounce rate and risks getting your domain blacklisted. 

Think of it as the butterfly effect: the bigger the bounce rate is, the more it damages your domain health and increases the danger of getting your emails in the spam folder or domain blacklisted. It also decreases your open rate, response rate, and conversion rate in the long run.

What to do?

Buy the data from well-established and verified data vendors or gather the right information as first-party data yourself. 

Another solution is to find a reliable partner for data research or introduce your sales team with a sales engagement tool for outreach that has email discovery and verification features. 

2. Adding a big number of links or sending the broken ones

Everyone wishes to tell the prospect as many things as possible about our product or service. We want to show them the blogs, ask for a meeting, attach a whitepaper file and add alternative comparison pages for them to see. While this confuses the prospect regarding CTA (which we will mention below), it also overcrowds the email itself, making email providers raise their robot heads as bloodhounds. Too many links or files in your email will trigger a warning to the email provider and increase the possibility for your emails to twirl down to the Spam folder. 

Furthermore, if you send a broken link to prospects, they will think of you as an unprofessional or worse spammer, and it will decrease the response and conversion rates, as they will lose interest in you.

What to do?

Try to keep the number of links to a minimum as you can (preferably without any links), and of course, check the links before sending. 

Additional tip: If in your signatures you have linked icons, check every one of them. As those links count as well, and sometimes they get broken, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

3. Sending too many messages per day

We all wish to send as many emails as possible for a short period. But this is a big mistake, especially if your email address is new. Sending too many emails per day can result in your messages ending up in the Spam folder. This can be one of the causes of your open rate dropping. 

What to do?

Slowly warm up your email address manually by sending a low number of emails, and then gradually increase the volume over some time. Or, use email warm-up tools to do it automatically. The warm-up of a new email address or domain can last from 30 to 90 days. 

II Email mistakes regarding content

4. Being too casual or too formal

Balance is everything. Sales representatives sometimes go overboard trying to get their prospects to laugh, which only ends up being too cringey. We do not say GIFs or jokes are bad, we even use them in outreach, and thread them to the context of the message. So know what thy boundaries are. 

Then on the other side of the scale, we have an overly formal approach. The truth is that everyone wishes to be respected, so a formal approach is good, but if you go overboard, you will sound like a robot.

What to do?

Find the balance between the two scales. You can even send personalized GIFs or Images to show creativity and genuine interest, but keep it tasteful.

When it comes to an overly formal approach, you can loosen up a bit. 

5. Subject lines mistakes

Coming up with the subject line cannot be an easy feat. It has to be attractive, short, explain everything but still leave the prospect interested in clicking on it. As challenging as it is, there are still some mistakes people make when it comes to these:  

• Spammy or clickbait subject lines - Big no. It will only enrage your prospects.
• Subject lines not specific enough for the market – This can cause lower open rates as the prospects will not relate to the email at all.
• Subject lines in caps lock - It’s good to be excited, but you don’t need to shout at your leads to get the attention.

What to do? 

These mistakes influence every important email metric starting open rate, so make sure to avoid them. Think about how you would attract the leads’ attention and bind the subject line as a whole with the email body. Even better, try to make the subject line as a prequel to your Preview text of the email and make it a united lead magnet.

6. Message copy not relevant to the market

As mentioned for the subject line, you need to keep a close eye on your email content's relevance to the market, as well. Writing an email not relevant to the industry can result in a lower response rate and conversion rate.

What to do?

Go full private detecting on this one. Research the industry, find the pain points. Go even further - find prospects' companies and information about them. Show them you understand the industry problems and what solution you offer instead.

7. Self-centered messages to prospects

Writing messages that are more focused on you instead of your prospects’ companies can come across as being too aggressive or assertive, resulting in lower response rates.

What to do?

Instead, be aggressive in knowing your lead: Showcase the research you did on them, ask for the call to know more about their pain points and see how your product or service can aid them further. 

People resonate with what’s in it for them. Talk about them, gain their interest through email. 

Example:

8. Adding too much CTAs or not at all

As mentioned above, if you wish to show the prospect the blog posts, ask for a meeting, add alternative comparison pages for them to see, and top it off with a YouTube video - Stop. 

All these are a type of call to action, and piling them in one email will only confuse the prospects regarding CTA. 

On the other hand, if you do not use CTA at all, you will lose the purpose of your cold outreach, so the prospects won’t have action in their mind to fulfill. 

What to do?

The goals of outreach campaigns are different for every purpose. Define one short CTA, and stay away from the unclear ones.
For more information on CTA in sales emails, check out our Detailed Guide On Crafting The Powerful Call To Action.

9. Not enough value

Often, our value proposition is not deep enough, doesn’t hit the bullseye, and is too generic. This directly affects the response rate, and you will lose the prospect as you weren’t compelling enough. 

What to do?

Once again, put on your detective glasses and go into deep search of a particular prospect’s main pain points. You need to know and understand them. 

If you can explain their situation better than they can, they will automatically assume you have the solution and gain interest.

Example:

10. Unnecessary text length

If your cold email message is too long and has numerous paragraphs, take a step back. 

Let's say you are reaching out to CEOs or other higher-up positions. They usually have a lot on their plate, so you probably know the one virtue they lack is time. Please make sure to not waste it. 

What to do?

If you can draw the line through any piece of your text without losing the value, remove it. 

Let's say you have sentences such as: 

• I know you are busy but... 
• I’m following up... 
• I’d love to give you a demo… 
• Do you perhaps know when would be the best time...

You won't lose the value if you cut them off. So instead, tell them something short, sweet, and essential about their business in particular, straight to the point:

• I see that your company struggles with VALUE...
• Would Wednesday at 10 AM work for you...

III Email mistakes related to attitude towards the prospect

11. Questioning the prospects integrity and authority

Now we have a mistake example, which is little farther down the cold email outreach sequence. Let’s say you have a correspondence with the lead from medium or large company who you are not sure if they are a decision maker or not.

Asking a straightforward question ’’Are you the right person?’’ or responding ’’I guess you are just not the right person to reach out to’’ after they do not reply is a big no-no. 

Simply do not ask a straightforward question if someone is a decision-maker. If not a decision-maker, they would feel invalidated.

Or maybe they indeed are, but your outreach was just not that compelling enough to respond to, or they might think ’’If I'm not, would you treat me with the same respect?’’ Either way, this is how you will decrease your conversion rate. 

What to do?

If you really wish to know if someone is the right person to reach out to, then you can say something like this: 

When you bought this {{Product}} in the past, who was involved in the process?

12. Being authoritative over or submissive under the prospect 

There are three ego states in the body: child, adult, and parent ego state. If you command someone to do something, you talk to someone from the parent's ego state, and they will automatically go to their child's ego state. 

An example would be ’’Let me know the time that works for you’’.

How would you feel if you got this sales email?

Would you want to rebel against that sentence? Your prospect would want to rebel too. 

Another example would be if you start your email with just a prospect's name, it will trigger a child's ego state, and they will think they are in serious trouble. You would want to increase the chance of somebody responding, so when cold outreaching, your goal should be to trigger ONLY their adult ego state. 

What to do?

So what to avoid in communication exactly?

1. Commanding to prospects to do something (Child ego state trigger)
2. Putting accountability on them for not responding (Child ego state trigger)
3. Invalidate their objections (Child ego state trigger)
4. Sentences like: 

• Just checking in...
• I know you are busy but…
• Would you have the time… (Parent ego state trigger)

Overall avoid triggering their Parent or Child ego state. Instead, trigger an adult ego state. 

For example, instead of saying:

Would you have the time…

You can offer an up-front contract. For example, write the exact time and date of the meeting and ask for consent. Additionally, provide an agenda for your call. 

13. Judging or making the prospects feel bad

Even though you think you will never do this to your prospects, this type of mistake is one of the most common ones. 

The first example is being harsh regarding the leads' choice to use similar products. Even though you are not saying anything bad about the leads themselves, you are indirectly insulting the decision they made. This easily translates to insulting them.

What to do?

Instead of judging the prospect for using a competitor and bragging why your product is better, say something like this:

Oh, you are using an XY competitor? That’s great! So you are familiar with the type of product itself. What differs our product from them is…

Also, do not allow your words to make your prospects feel bad. Put the onus on you, not on your prospect. 

Example: 

IV Email mistakes affecting sales process

14. Not setting up follow up messages sequences

Not having your follow-up game is the next in line of common lead generation mistakes (both for lead generation on LinkedIn and off). If the prospect doesn’t reply, do not give up. 

Follow-up emails always get a better response rate than the first email. In this study, there is an illustration of difference as follow-ups got 18% response rate higher than the first email, 13% to the fourth, and 27% to the sixth email *.

What to do?

Set up follow-up emailing sequences for the prospects who did not respond. Even if they do not respond to these follow-ups, insert them for other purpose sequences. Never give up, and never give in. 

15. Not tracking email campaigns’ performance

As we mentioned in the beginning, tracking is everything when it comes to your sales effort, especially if we talk about cold outreach.

If you do not know what you are tracking, how would you know if the channel is effective?

What to do?

So be sure to set and track the following: 

• Bounce Rate
• Open Rate
• Response Rate
• Conversion Rate

On the other hand you can use a LinkedIn automation and cold email software such as Skylead to track it for you. Analyze the chosen tool thoroughly and start tracking your performance. 

Honorable mentions

We cannot finish this blog, without mentioning a couple of short email mistakes which are essential to correct.

16. Poor Grammar - you have so many grammar checkers and tools available on the internet nowadays to remove sloppiness in communication.

17. Using initials - signing your email message using your initials such as J.K. can come across as unprofessional. Use your full name and surname in your signature. 

18. Not personalizing the email - Nowadays, in the cold outreach, you need to step up your personalization game, especially if you did the prospecting on LinkedIn first. To learn all about outreach personalization check out Cold Outreach: Increase The Level of Personalization [+Templates]

Summary

Cold email outreach is still a powerful tool for lead generation and conversion if done right. Take time to study all of the mistakes mentioned above, let them be your guide, and double-check. 

Here are all the email outreach mistakes to serve you as a checklist: 

1. Acquiring Poor Quality Leads

2. Adding A Big Number Of Links Or Sending The Broken Ones

3. Sending Too Many Messages Per Day

4. Being Too Casual Or Too Formal

5. Subject Lines Mistakes

6. Message Copy Not Relevant To The Market

7. Self-Centered Messages To Prospects

8. Adding Too Much CTAs Or Not At All

9. Not Enough Value

10. Unnecessary Text Length

11. Questioning The Prospects Integrity and Authority

12. Being Authoritative Over Or Submissive Under The Prospect 

13. Judging Or Making The Prospects Feel Bad

14. Not Setting Up Follow Up Messages Sequences

15. Not tracking email campaigns’ performance

16. Poor Grammar

17. Using initials 

18. Not personalizing the email 

Now get too cold email writing - You’ve got this. Godspeed!

Wish to use email and LinkedIn in your outreach and successfully track their performance? See Skylead in action - Start your 7-day Free Trial.

You already have your marketing agency and a few prosperous clients. Lately, you’ve been thinking of expanding your service list and offering more. What is it that would fit your clients’ needs best and still be in line with your industry? It’s outreach. Here’s why. 

If you already offer social media management, content writing, copywriting, SEO, web development, or similar, it is high time to start thinking one step ahead of your competitors. By adding outreach, you will undoubtedly keep up with the times and give your customers a valuable reason to stick around longer. 

Not only. 

There are a series of reasons why incorporating outreach into your Lead Generation Agency would be the right call. Here are a few. 

Customer loyalty

By adding the service of identifying and nurturing potential customers for your client’s products or services, you will be covering probably the most important segment of their prospecting. If they confide in the way you do their outreach, the chances of them staying loyal to your Lead Generation Agency increase, as you are controlling an additional sales channel of their business.

Furthermore, incorporating outreach in your marketing business will give your clients a well-rounded experience of generating leads on LinkedIn or via other methods. 

Outreach as a new marketing segment 

Adding outreach to your service list can also be a great way to attract new customers. Initially, newbies might only be interested in you identifying and nurturing their potential clients. However, if satisfied with your way of doing business, they might extend their request to other services that your Lead Generation Agency offers. 

Additional revenue growth 

By introducing a new marketing segment, you are raising your revenue stream.

Simply, adding an extra service means company growth. It also implies greater economic security, as your Lead Generation Agency doesn’t depend only on one or a few services. 

Stand out in the lead generation industry

By incorporating outreach into your Lead Generation Agency, you might be making one step ahead of your competitors. 

In case they thought of it first, draw attention to yourself by offering an impeccable, high-quality service. Better service attracts and retains better clients. 

Also, think about your and your competitors’ Value Proposition. What is it that makes your outreach service stand out in comparison to your competition’s?

Outreach is easy to incorporate 

You are probably already doing outreach to get more clients for your Lead Generation Agency. Therefore, you are familiar with the entire process of attracting new prospects and nurturing the old ones. All you need to do is expand your expertise to your clients. The more you develop this service for yourself, the better it will become for your customers as well. By growing your Lead Generation Agency, you will be growing an entire service within. Also, the better you become at doing outreach, you will most likely attract more clients for your Marketing Agency as well. 

Minimal cost

The only things that you need for outreach are a laptop and internet connection.

Create your client’s ICP (Ideal customer profile) and a cold outreach template with several follow-ups, and you can already start.

However, if you want to make this process far easier, you will need an Automation Tool, Scraping Tool, and an Email Finder. 

Luckily for you, there is a Sales Engagement Software that has all of these incorporated for as low as $100 per month. Long story short, it will save you both time and money.

Namely, Skylead combines LinkedIn Messages, LinkedIn InMails, and Emails scrapes publicly available emails of your 1st-degree connections, has an “Email Discovery & Verification” feature for discovering and verifying your leads’ business emails, as well as “Image and GIF hyper-personalization” tool in case you want to do a bit of an unconventional outreach. 

Therefore, Skylead contains an Automation Tool, Scraping Tool, an Email Finder, and more. 

If you would like to know more about Skylead, feel free to schedule a demo call with our team specialist.

White-labeling a solution 

Think about white-labeling the Sales Engagement Tool that you are using. 

A white-label product is a product or service produced by one company that other companies rebrand to make it appear as if they had made it.

By white-labeling the Sales Engagement Tool of your choice, you will:

• Boost your brand’s visibility;
• Enhance your customers’ loyalty;
• Eliminate the need for a development team of your own;
• Save time and money on your outreach;
• Upgrade your service;
• Scale your business;
• Strengthen your revenue stream.

That being said, know that you can white-label Skylead. To know more about this option, schedule a demo call with our team specialist. 

How to start implementing your outreach?

Start with offering your service to the most loyal customers first 

The advantage of offering your new service to the already existing and most loyal customers first is that you are very familiar with their business. That is, by handling other marketing segments for their companies, you have already gained a major insight into their business goals, targets, and preferences. This allows you to do prospecting on LinkedIn and outreach leads with major precision and manage their outreach with more efficiency.

Furthermore, your already-established business relationship and cooperation will most likely reinforce. Upgrading your customers’ service package increases the possibility of enhancing their loyalty to your marketing agency. Additionally, you will be giving them a well-rounded Lead Generation experience.  This approach, often adopted by top advertising agencies in the US, ensures that your clients receive a comprehensive service.

Attract your new customers by offering outreach first 

In case you don’t want to introduce a new service before “testing it out”, try attracting new customers by using outreach as a bait. This way you don’t risk losing loyal customers in case something doesn’t go as planned. Additionally, you have space to learn, grow, and perfect your service before you offer it to your long-time clients. 

Summary

In conclusion, incorporating outreach into your Lead Generation Agency has more upsides than downsides for sure. 

By deciding to go for it you will:

• Enhance your customer loyalty;
• Attract new clients;
• Strengthen your revenue flow for introducing a new marketing segment; 
• Stand out in the Lead Generation Industry. 

Additionally, you have the option of making your life easier by going for a Sales Engagement Tool that has all the necessary features for a top-notch outreach.

Why Skylead?

For as low as $100 per month, with Skylead you can have an Automation Tool, Scraping Tool, and an Email Finder, all in one software. 

Furthermore, thanks to the implementation of Smart sequences, Skylead allows you to create the highest number of personalizable touchpoints with your prospects. 

Five times more in comparison to other tools, to be precise. 

It gives you the chance to combine LinkedIn Messages, InMails, and Emails with other LinkedIn features such as View, Follow, and Invite to Connect. Additionally, it has an Email Discovery & Verification feature. Therefore, no need for a separate Email Finder or Scraping software. 

Actually, white-label it and make it your secret weapon!

To know more about the advantage of Skylead over other Sales Engagement Tools and to get to know its features, schedule a demo call with a specialist from our team.

If already our customer, feel free to reach us out on the Support Chat or schedule a success call with our Customer Support and Success Manager. Improve your service by knowing Skylead better.