Cold emailing is one of the most powerful outreach strategies businesses can use today. It is basically an email to a receiver with whom the sender has never had a history of relations. Cold email aims to start a conversation or build a connection. Unlike spam people get, which is most often unwanted and irrelevant, a proper cold email is custom-made to send value to the recipient’s needs and provide a potential solution for helping businesses generate new leads, cultivate relationships, and finally convert into sales.
What is a Cold Email?
A cold email is a first-contact outreach email that introduces a person or his business to a new contact with whom they have no previous connection. It aims to build a relationship that benefits both parties. In short, it’s equivalent to a “cold call”, but with the added advantage of allowing recipients to respond at their convenience.
The Goal of Cold Emails
Cold emails are specifically designed to accomplish a specific goal, typically to:
- Generate Leads: A cold email, if created well, converts recipients into warm leads by bringing their interest to life.
- Build Connections: Cold emails create a prospect of future business opportunities by giving the first impression.
- Sales Opportunities: For businesses, cold emailing creates an opening for sales conversations.
If the subject lines and the content of the email directly address the recipient’s pain or interest, the response rates will be significantly improved.
For example, if the subject line of the cold email includes a personalized message, the expected open rate is 35.69%, almost 50% higher than the open rate for generic subject lines.
Why Does Cold Email Matter?
According to a recent study, cold emails yield an impressive 40-60% open rate, with response rates ranging from 5% to 12%, depending on the industry and audience reached. Although cold emails are usually considered intrusive, when done correctly, they offer a direct line of communication, especially in B2B settings.
For example, imagine you are a SaaS company selling marketing automation software. You can directly reach marketing managers or business owners using cold emails and demonstrate how your tool will make their work processes easier. Reaching out establishes awareness and creates an opportunity to turn a cold lead into a loyal customer.
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Cold Email vs. Email Marketing: Key Differences
Cold email and email marketing are both highly effective outreach tools, but they are pretty different. Let’s break it down as follows:
| Aspect | Cold Email | Email Marketing |
| Audience | New or “cold” leads with no prior relationship | Existing subscribers or “warm” leads |
| Purpose | To introduce and establish a relationship | To nurture and engage an existing audience |
| Personalization | Highly personalized; often targeted to a specific person | Generally broader, with segments based on preferences |
| Volume | Smaller batches targeting specific individuals | Larger volumes, with a broader audience reach |
| Engagement Rate | Lower: because of no prior connection | Higher: due to established trust |
Cold emails are mainly used for lead generation because they target new recipients, requiring extreme customization and directness. On the other hand, email marketing campaigns target contacts or newsletter subscribers who have already expressed interest in a brand. Thus, it’s more likely that this group would engage with content because of an established relationship.
When Do You Need Cold Email Software?
For many businesses, manually managing cold email campaigns becomes too time-consuming and downright expensive, at least when the volume is high. Cold email software is undoubtedly helpful in the following situations:
1. Sending Lots of Emails
As your business grows, so does the number of people you may need to contact. Cold email software helps you scale your campaign without sending each email individually, maintaining consistency and efficiency.
2. Manage Multiple Email Accounts
If your team includes many marketers and sales reps, managing multiple email accounts might be challenging. Cold email software can simplify this process, making coordinating and keeping track of all group members easier.
3. Integration with the CRM System
Cold email software can be integrated with CRM platforms and help you synchronize prospects’ information. This enables real-time tracking of interactions, improves time and topic relevance in follow-ups, and undoubtedly increases the chances of conversion.
How to Choose The Best Cold Email Software?
With cold email software, you can send personalized and targeted emails in bulk. Cold Email Software can significantly benefit the marketing, sales, and recruitment teams by automating and keeping track of their emails to improve deliverability. As we discussed, your cold emails should also have a human touch to get higher open rates. Cold Email Software should also help you automate everything so you don’t have to do anything manually. Considering these things, your Cold Email Software must have the following features:
1. Personalization and Automation
The must-have features of a cold email tool are personalization options and automated email sequences. Personalization allows you to customize your emails to the specific needs of the recipients. Choose a tool that lets you add dynamic content (e.g., names, companies, and other information). Automation helps you send emails and follow up automatically within a fixed time frame. These features allow you to ensure that each email feels individualized and personalized for the recipient.
2. CRM Integrations
Integrating software and CRM systems is required for seamless lead management. Synchronization of Cold Email Software using CRM integration ensures that every lead, from initial contact to subsequent follow-up interactions, is easily accessible. It also allows teams to check the status of leads, engagement levels, and campaign success in one location.
3. A/B Testing and Analytics
Cold Email Software provides A/B testing for multiple email factors, such as subject lines, content styles, and call-to-action buttons. This helps you see which variation works best. You can also get detailed analytics such as email open rates, response rates, and click-through rates, which give insight into just how effective your campaign is performing in making those necessary changes in outreach based on data.
4. Deliverability Enhancements
Some cold email software also helps you optimize the delivery of your emails. With this feature, you can configure your email campaigns to send emails to thousands of recipients over time rather than sending them all simultaneously, which can be considered spamming.
5 Best Cold Email Software and Tools
| Cold Email Software | Price | Free Plan | Free Trial | Ratings (G2) |
| Reply.io | $49/mo. | Yes | 14-Days | 4.6 (1,372) |
| Lemlist | $32/mo. | Yes | 14-Days | 4.5 (261) |
| Saleshandy | $36/mo. | Yes | 7-Days | 4.6 (634) |
| Woodpecker | $29/mo. | Yes | 7-Days | 4.3 (65) |
| GMass | $18/mo. | Yes | 7-Days | 4.8 (1,113) |
1. Reply.io
Reply.io is a versatile tool for cold email automation and sales engagement. It is popular because it effectively uses artificial intelligence. It can help you scale up outreach and personalize messages, which increases engagement rates. Multiple users have praised their quick support service.
Suitable For
Marketers for email outreach, outbound sales, and sending multichannel cold emails.
Pricing
- A Free Plan is available.
- Reply.io offers multiple plans with different features. The smallest plan begins at $49/mo.
Top Features
- AI-Powered Personalization: Creates and uses email templates based on recipient information using AI.
- Multichannel Sequences: Allows outreach via email, LinkedIn, SMS, and more.
- Advanced Analytics: Provides advanced analytical information on open rates, reply rates, and more to optimize campaign performance fully.
- A/B Testing: Facilitates multiple testing of email versions for the most optimal approach in messaging.
Limitations
- LinkedIn integrations and additional email accounts require paid add-ons.
- With lots of features, the UI can be overwhelming.
Integration
Reply.io provides support for no-code, native, and third-party integrations with more than 80 tools and software.
Customer Opinion
“I am using Reply for my Startup, it really helps.”
The things I most like about reply is that it has diverse features, like email seqencing, making calls, getting leads from thier data, their customer support and easy navigation. I can also integrate reply with other SaaS tools to make things easier. Another beautiful use is related to the use of Jason AI which is AI assistant which can rellay help making sequences effectively and easily.
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2. Lemlist
Lemlist is a widely used cold email outreach tool known for its robust personalization options and email warm-up tools. The tool is centered around human-like outreach. Users can send personalized intro lines, images, videos, and even GIFs to improve open and response rates.
Suitable for
Sales and marketing professionals working in small and medium-sized businesses for sending personalized email campaigns.
Pricing
- A Free Plan is available.
- The smallest plan of Lemlist begins at $32/mo and goes up to $129/mo.
Top Features
- Unique Personalization Options: They support personalized intro lines, images, and videos, making emails more engaging and relevant.
- Email Warm-Up: Automatically warms up your email accounts to increase deliverability and prevent chances of landing in spam.
- Automated Follow-ups: You can create follow-up sequences based on recipient engagement and avoid letting leads slip through the cracks.
- Custom Templates: The tool provides innumerable templates that can be customized and positioned for easy outreach configuration.
- Get Leads from LinkedIn: Provides a feature to source leads and their email address from LinkedIn.
Limitations
- Expensive pricing for sending emails from multiple inboxes.
- The tool interface can be confusing for some users, making navigating difficult.
- A steep learning curve for first-time users.
Integration
Lemlist can be integrated with multiple CRMs, Workflows like Zapier, and other email marketing tools.
Customer Opinion
“Very happy with features and documentation, but blown away by amazing customer service”
I’ve looked at many options for our first email campaign, and after giving it all some thought (and some recommendations from friends and colleagues) I’ve opted for lemlist. And it was a good decision. Affordable, powerful in features, and easy to use, even for someone inexperienced in marketing campaigns. But the thing that really stands out is the amazing customer support. I’ve used hundreds of services over the years, but I have to say lemlist’s customer service is second to none. Definirely recommended.
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3. Saleshandy
Saleshandy is a user-friendly and convenient tool for making a cold emailing campaign easier and more effective. It is mainly used by small—to medium-sized businesses that require basic cold outreach features but do not want to pay for expensive software.
Suitable For
Businesses looking for an affordable tool to track email clicks and open rates.
Pricing
- A free Plan is not available.
- The smallest Saleshandy plan begins at $36/mo. Premium plans are also available that allow you to send over 300,000 emails per month.
Top Features
- Automated Follow-Ups: You can create multi-stage follow-up sequences and maximize response rates.
- Sender Rotation: Even the basic plan has a sender rotation feature that allows three email accounts per email sequence to avoid spam risks. With higher plans, they allow 50 email accounts per sequence.
- Team Collaboration: The tool will enable you to collaborate with team members during outreach. Team members can share templates or best practices for effective communication. With premium plans, you can add unlimited team members and create unlimited teams.
- 700M+ Contact Database: You can use their contact database (paid access) to find and create leads.
Limitations
- There are fewer customization options than other tools.
- Limited integration options with third-party tools.
Integration
Saleshandy can be integrated with Pipedrive, Zoho, HubSpot, and Zapier.
Customer Opinion
“Better than the Competition”
We have been using sales handy for 2 years. I like the customer support very much. Their turnaround time is way less than the competition. Implementation is fairly easy. They have a good verification system for emails which is fairly cheap. Price is on par with the competition but SH has a nice balance for price to features & support.
It cannot integrate with Apollo. Reporting of individual email IDs I like to see which competition offers.
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4. Woodpecker
Woodpecker’s user-friendly interface is focused solely on lead management, making it a perfect fit for B2B companies. Its CRM integrations are particularly great for sales teams that want all prospect data to be synchronized. Woodpecker simplifies and optimizes cold email campaigns with intuitive and personalized email automation.
Suitable For
Small businesses that want to automate and personalize cold email outreach on a budget.
Pricing
- A free plan is not available.
- The smallest Woodpecker plan begins at $20/mo, making it one of the most affordable options on our list.
Top Features
- Everything You Need for Cold Email Marketing: Email automation, sender account rotation, A/B testing, integrations, and everything else.
- Inbuilt CRM Integration: It supports native CRM integration with Salesforce and HubSpot, which makes lead management relatively easier.
- Deliverability Booster: Helps maintain high deliverability because of personalization and unique sending patterns that avoid spam filters.
- Easy to use: The tool is easy to use and can quickly be adopted by new users.
- Advanced Personalization: It helps you personalize emails based on user actions such as opens and clicks and create further email sequences.
Limitations
- Being one of the most affordable options, the features and resources are limited.
- Higher cost for advanced features and additional resource usage.
Integration
Woodpecker can be integrated with 40+ tools and software, including CRMs, prospecting tools, email verifiers, and mailboxes.
Customer Opinion
“Great customer service and a really neat and user-friendly software!”
The customer service is really attentive and helps you with whatever you want so that you campaigns will work. Also, the software is really easy to use and simple which makes it great if you just want to send emails and don’t want to get too deep into email marketing.
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5. GMass
GMass is a low-cost and powerful Gmail-based cold email tool for businesses just getting started with email outreach without complicated setups. It is directly integrated into Gmail, making it easy to use and widely accessible.
Suitable For
Gmail users for email warm-up, automation, and personalization.
Pricing
- A free plan is not available.
- The smallest GMass plan begins at $18/mo. It allows you to send unlimited emails, exceeding Gmail’s sending limits.
Top Features
- Gmail Integration: GMass runs entirely within Gmail, where one can send and track emails right from his inbox.
- Mail Merge: Allows for mail merge with Google Sheets, so you can easily personalize emails based on a spreadsheet.
- Campaign Scheduling: Manages your emails and follow-up campaigns to be sent at particular times for maximum engagement.
- Custom Tracking Reports: Provides tracking on opens, clicks, and replies with detailed reports for each campaign.
Limitations
- It can be confusing for some users to navigate the tool initially.
- If you are using Gmail, GMass will do the job; otherwise, we suggest you choose other options.
Integrations
GMass can be integrated with Google Sheets and Zapier. Using Zapier, you can connect it with your desired tool.
Customer Opinion
“One of the best tool for mass emailing”
One of the best tool I have ever used for mu business. My team has just started using Gmass but we are already impressed by the features and services. Gmass has everything to ease my team’s work. The best thing I found about Gmass is that it customization of services and problem rectification services. Gmass Provides features like automated follow-ups, push email campaign, multisend emails, and many more helped my team to do efficient and effective work.
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Cold Emai Best Practices For Successful Outreach Campaigns
Following best practices can make all the difference in making your cold email outreach as effective as possible. Here are some essential tips to ensure you maximize engagement and response rates.
1. Crafting Engaging Subject Lines
- Your subject lines should be concise and to the point. Target a limit of under 60 characters so people can read the whole subject line on their mobile screens.
- Including the name or company name in the mail increases open rates. For example, something like, “Hi [Name], here’s the way to add to [Company]’s results,” sounds more personal than a general subject line.
- Use subject lines that stimulate interest but do not reveal much. For example, “Quick way to double your conversions!” will make recipients open the email.
2. Dos and Don’ts of Cold Email Content
- Direct-to-the-point emails make customers happy, so avoid writing two to three long paragraphs.
- Personalize content by mentioning details related to the recipient or company, such as recent company news or achievements.
- Tell the recipient what you want them to do next: schedule a call, download a resource, or just reply to the email.
- Don’t use spammy words like “Free money!” or “Limited time” because spam filters commonly identify these.
- Avoid overloading your email with links, images, or attachments, as they might lead your emails to the recipient’s spam folders.
3. Follow-up Frequency and Methods
- If you do not get a response after the first email, send a follow-up within a few days. Follow-ups have up to 40% higher open rates than the first email.
- Do not resend the same follow-up email; instead, try different angles. You may present a new benefit of the offer or a valuable resource.
- Two to three follow-ups are good. More may be perceived as spam and may even lead to unsubscribes or complaints.
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Conclusion
Cold emailing is an outreach tool for generating leads, building relationships, and selling products. Simple-looking best practices lead to improvements, including a great subject line, keeping the actual email short, and being personalized. Cold emailing is the scalable and cost-effective way to connect with potential customers, whether you are a startup connecting with its first clients or an established company aiming for expansion.
