Have you ever crafted a cold email, sent it out with high hopes, and then faced nothing but silence in return? If so, you’re definitely not alone.
Research shows that the average response rate for cold emails is just 8.5%.
Although this number is low, it doesn’t mean you have to abandon your cold emailing efforts. The key is to get these emails right to prompt a response, and we’re here to help.
In this guide, we’ll take an in-depth look at strategies to help improve your response rates, including:
🔸 What a cold email is.
🔸 How to measure these response rates.
🔸 Factors that shape your response outcomes.
🔸 Best practices to enhance your success rate.
What Is a Cold Email?
A cold email is sent to potential clients, partners, or other businesses without prior contact.
In the B2B industry, cold email campaigns can help initiate business conversations, and they often aim to generate sales, partnerships, or other collaborations.
Unlike spam, a cold email targets specific people or businesses with a tailored message based on research or genuine interest they’ve shown in the product or service.
Businesses use cold emailing to generate new leads, which sets them apart from traditional email marketing that relies on previous interactions.
While this approach might seem a little old school, outreach campaigns have a lot of benefits:
✅ Less intrusive than cold calls: Unlike the immediate nature of a cold call—where recipients are often caught off-guard—cold emails allow recipients to digest information at their own pace. This gives them more time to understand the offer and make an informed decision.
✅ Cost-effectiveness: For marketers, the allure of cold emails lies in their affordability. There’s no need for pricy advertising campaigns or shelling out money on list rentals.
✅ Highly customizable: Every cold email can be tailored to suit a recipient’s specific needs and interests. This personal touch can significantly enhance engagement.
✅ Control over messaging: Since there’s no pre-existing relationship with the recipient, businesses have more freedom in crafting and testing their messaging.
What Is the Average Cold Email Response Rate?
This is hard to say because responses vary greatly depending on the industry. However, one thing is clear: the quality of your emails impacts the bounce rate of your cold emails.
Thoughtfully composed emails, complemented by catchy subject lines and consistent follow-ups, have better results than hastily written, one-off messages.
However, the average cold email response rate remains low, hovering at less than 10%. This means that out of every 100 cold emails you send, fewer than ten people should respond.
Based on insights from Belkins.io, here are some essential pointers regarding cold email response rates:
🎯 Acquiring 1 B2B lead typically requires sending approximately 306 emails.
🎯 B2B cold emails usually see a response rate of about 7%, with an average open rate of 36%.
🎯 Engaging with 2 to 4 individuals from a single company can lead to a maximum response rate of 7.8%. If you contact more than five people, the response rate drops to 2.5%
🎯 Launching cold B2B email campaigns that target 240–499 recipients can yield an average reply rate of 10%.
| 💡Insight: Quick Mail found that 20% of campaigns have an open rate below 20%, which likely suggests those emails are ending up in the spam folder. |
How Do You Measure Response Rate?
Now that you know more about cold email response rates, it’s crucial to understand how these are measured
Measuring your cold email response rates provides insights into your campaign’s efficacy and highlights areas where you can improve.
To understand your cold email’s performance, you need to track various metrics:
📧 Open rate
The open rate is the percentage of people who open your email. It shows how well your subject line works and how much people trust you as a sender.
Most CRMs have built-in features that allow you to track and analyze these response rates in real time.
To determine the open rate, use this formula:
📊Open rate = (Number of unique opens/Total number of recipients) x 100
Plugging in the numbers:
Open rate = (250 opens/1,000 recipients) x 100
Open rate = 0.25 x 100
Open rate = 25%
Thus, the open rate for this email campaign is 25%. This means that 25% of the recipients you contacted opened and viewed your email.
📧 Click-through rate (CTR)
CTR indicates the number of recipients who clicked on links in your email after viewing it.
Remember, just because someone opens your email doesn’t guarantee they’ll interact with its contents. Some might skim the surface without clicking any links.
Monitoring these clicks offers a clearer insight into how engaged recipients are with your material.
To determine the click-through rate (CTR):
📊CTR = (Number of clicks/Total number of emails sent) x 100%
Say you sent an email to 1,000 potential leads. Out of those, 50 recipients clicked a link within the email.
Using the formula:
CTR = (50 clicks/1,000 emails sent) x 100
CTR = 5%
The CTR for this campaign is 5%, which means 5% of the recipients clicked on a link in your email.
| 💡Insight: What are good click-through rates for cold emails? The average click-through rate for cold emails is 3.67%. So, 5% or more can be considered a very good CTR for a successful cold email outreach campaign. If you’re wondering how to increase this number, consider that personalized emails receive 41% more clicks than generic ones. This means that including an element of personalization in your email body or subject line may be the key to increasing your response rates. |
📧 Reply Rate
Reply rate refers to the percentage of recipients who responded to your cold email campaign. This also indicates the overall success of your outreach.
A study by whitecream.com showed that while 21.5% of cold emails are being opened, only 1 to 4% of recipients are choosing to respond or reply to the email.
| 💡Insight: When comparing the days of the week, people who respond to cold emails receive the most on Fridays, with an average response rate of 20.98%. In contrast, Saturdays and Sundays see the fewest replies because people may not access their work emails over the weekend. |
📧 Conversion rate
A cold email conversion rate is the percentage of recipients who engage with your message and then take a desired action—such as signing up for your service or making a purchase.
According to LinkedIn, the average conversion rate for cold email campaigns is 15%.
To determine the cold email conversion Rate:
📊Conversion Rate = (Number of conversions/Total number of emails sent) x 100%
Suppose you sent a cold email to 1,000 potential clients. Out of those, 30 signed up for your service.
Using the formula:
Conversion Rate = (30 sign-ups/1,000 emails sent) x 100
Conversion Rate = 3%
Thus, the conversion rate for this campaign is 3%, which means 3% of the recipients took the desired action (signing up) after having read your email.
Measuring the response rate of your cold emails involves looking at key metrics such as:
- Open rate.
- CTR.
- Reply rate.
- Conversion rate.
Each metric offers a unique insight into how recipients engage with your emails and where you could improve.
While the average cold email statistics may seem low, it’s essential to understand that you can significantly increase these numbers with the right strategies.
In the next section, we’ll first take a look at how you can do just that.
What Factors Influence Your Cold Email Response Rate?
Cold email campaigns are an essential element of any successful email marketing strategy and there are several factors that can determine their effectiveness. These may include:
➡️ Personalized subject lines: This is the first thing your recipient sees. A personalized email subject line can result in an opened email compared to one that gets lost in a busy inbox.
➡️ Context: Cold outreach campaigns should never really be “cold.” The content should be tailored based on prior research about the recipient.
➡️ Timing: The time and day of the week can influence open rates. Research suggests Tuesdays and Thursdays are optimal.
➡️ Lack of follow-up emails: Did you know that 55% of replies to cold emails come from a follow-up email? Persistence pays off. A gentle follow-up can remind recipients of your initial email and increase the chances of a reply.
➡️ Relevance: Ensure your message matches the needs and interests of the target audience.
How to Increase Your Average Open Response Rates
Boosting your open rate is pivotal in getting more responses. Here’s how you can do this:
Hyper-personalization is a must
Generic cold emails are often dismissed as sales pitches and usually get ignored. However, personalizing your message increases its chances of being read and engaged with.
An Experian study revealed that personalized cold emails get 41% more unique clicks than non-personalized ones.
Personalization shows that your sales reps have taken time to understand your recipient’s interests and care about what they do.
Use the recipient’s name, reference recent events or content they’ve shared, and show that you’ve done your homework.
This can make potential customers feel seen, helping to improve their experience with your brand.
| 💡What Does A Personalized Cold Email Look Like? Subject: Enhancing [Company Name]’s 5G Initiatives Hi [Recipient’s Name], I hope this email finds you well. I recently came across Borham Telecom’s 5G Readiness project and was truly impressed, especially noting your significant contribution. At [Your Company Name], we’ve partnered with similar enterprises to bolster their 5G strategies, achieving some remarkable results. Given the parallels in our experiences and the dynamic shifts in the 5G space, I believe there’s potential for a beneficial collaboration. [Embedded Animated Personalized Visual – perhaps showcasing a 5G graphic with [Recipient’s Company Name]] I’d love to explore how we can support and amplify your ongoing and future projects. Would you be available for a brief call next week? Thank you for considering this, [Recipient’s Name]. I appreciate your time and look forward to potentially working together. Warm regards, [Your Name] [Your Position] [Your Contact Information] |
There are a number of different ways to make your emails more personalized, including:
🎉 Image personalization
People often auto-delete cold emails out of habit, so capturing a recipient’s attention is key.
One innovative way to do this is by using animated personalized visuals.
Introducing personalized animations disrupts a mundane email-reading routing, which prompts the reader to truly consider your offer.
Tools like Hyperise allow you to easily create and insert personalized images, GIFs, or videos that will catch the recipient’s eye.
Hyperise is a personalization toolkit that helps marketers get their prospects’ attention. Let’s look at how it can help boost your cold email response rates.
Case study: Reply.io
AI-powered sales and automation platform Reply.io, used Hyperise in their cold email sales campaigns.
The company wanted to quickly and clearly explain how its platform simplifies engaging with prospects and customers via email and social media.
They created two diagrams that directly compare the complexity of the sales and marketing tech stack normally against how simple and streamlined it is with Reply.io.
It included a dynamic element that automatically showed the recipient’s company logo.
The campaign’s response rate—at 21%—was almost 100% higher than that of its other outreach efforts.
Reply.io then did some additional research to find out how effective dynamic, personalized images are at each stage of email campaigns.
They found using dynamic images allowed them to land more emails in prospects’ inboxes and increase engagement:
- Total contacted: +887 emails
- Delivery rate: +9.8%
- Open rate: + 9.2
- Reply rate: +8.1%
Personalize subject lines
The subject line often determines whether your email gets opened or ignored.
A study by Superoffice revealed that a staggering 33% of email recipients decide whether or not to open an email based solely on its subject line.
Personalized subject lines—especially those that incorporate the recipient’s first name—can also increase open rates by 50%.
When crafting a subject line, aim to be clear and concise.
Long subject lines can cause messaging to get lost, so try to stick to around nine words or 60 characters.
Combining personalized touches with action-inducing phrases like “Urgent” or “Limited time offer” can also help capture even more attention.
However, avoid overtly salesy terms that could trigger spam filters. This will ensure better email deliverability and boost the average response rate.
| 💡Pro-tip: Consider split-testing your cold email subject lines. This lets you pinpoint the most impactful phrasing, which in turn helps optimize your campaign’s performance before a full launch. |
Segment your audience
Many businesses fall into the trap of mass-emailing potential customers in the sales process, which often leads to underwhelming response rates.
Instead, a more effective approach is to segment your audience by focusing on specific characteristics—such as job title, location, or industry.
To ensure your outreach garners genuine interest, it’s important to pinpoint the right demographic and engage in intentional lead generation.
HubSpot’s research indicates that emails tailored to a specific audience can achieve a click-through rate that’s 100.95% higher than that of generic campaigns.
By creating emails that align with your recipient’s interests and needs, you can boost your chances of being opened.
In turn, this increases the likelihood that recipients will click through and take decisive actions, such as signing up for a trial or making a purchase.
Proofread your cold email
A simple typo or grammatical mistake can undermine even the most compelling cold email. After drafting your email, pause for a moment before reviewing it.
Ensure that there are no grammatical slip-ups, typos, or repetitive points. Consider having a colleague or friend proofread it for you.
| 💡Pro-tip: Check that your email is formatted cleanly and professionally to achieve a higher response rate. Avoid using bold or underlined text excessively, as overdoing it can make your message feel more like an advertisement than a genuine outreach. |
Ensure your email provides value to a recipient
Since a typical email user receives around 120 emails daily, capturing their attention quickly is crucial.
Here’s how to make an impact within those few crucial moments and get potential customers further along the sales funnel:
🔥Address the recipient personally: Using their name and referencing specific aspects of their business demonstrate a genuine interest in understanding them and their needs.
🔥Identify a common pain point: Identify potential concerns your recipient may have and tell them how your solution addresses these issues.
🔥Introduce evidence of your product’s or service’s efficacy: Include testimonials, success stories, or case studies from satisfied clients to establish trust and reliability.
🔥Propose an enticing offer: Offer your recipients something that allows them to experience your service for themselves, such as a free trial or discount code.
🔥Ensure your cold email is concise: Avoid drawn-out introductions and avoid overwhelming them with information. Focus on showcasing the unique value you’re offering.
Include a great call to action
In the same way that a weak subject line can reduce your email open rates, an ambiguous CTA can negatively impact your CTRs.
Many marketers fall into the trap of incorporating several CTAs in their cold emails, thinking it offers more choices.
However, crowding an email with multiple CTAs can reduce their impact and potentially confuse your target audience, resulting in fewer engagements.
Developing a precise, enticing, and straightforward CTA for your email is essential. Move away from unclear prompts and instead focus on underlining the benefits of a specific action.
For example:
- “Start your free trial now.”
- “Let’s schedule a call to discuss how you can grow your business.”
Optimize for mobile
It’s important to ensure your emails are mobile-friendly because many people primarily check their emails on smartphones.
To make your emails more readable on mobile devices:
🔸Use a slightly larger font size.
🔸Leave ample spacing between paragraphs.
🔸Utilize headers and subheadings so recipients can quickly skim your content on their phone or tablet screens.
Enhance Your Cold Email Strategy with Hyperise
In the bustling digital landscape of B2B marketing, standing out is no easy feat.
Cold emails remain a key marketing tool, but their success hinges on the fine details: personalized content, impeccable timing, and strategic visuals.
Average response rates can be sobering, but there are many ways to improve how well your cold emails perform.
Hyperise’s personalization tools can help. With tools tailored for dynamic personalization and visual engagement, Hyperise ensures your cold emails stand out from the crowd.
Ready to transform your cold email game? Dive into the future of B2B outreach and sign up for a free trial with Hyperise to experience the difference firsthand.