I Sent 292 Cold Emails To Get More Leads. Here’s What Happened Next

It didn't work

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I tested cold email outreach to grow my consulting practice last month. 

After sending 292 cold emails, I got a 2.7% reply rate and 1 positive response.

But the one person who said they were interested ended up canceling the meeting at the last second, thus netting no booked calls from this cold email campaign. 

You can see a breakdown of what happened below.

This email campaign had a 2.7% reply rate which is around the industry benchmark for cold email.

Why I Started Testing Cold Emails

After reading a few books that mentioned that an over-reliance on inbound marketing could lead to stagnation, I concluded that exploring outbound channels might yield quicker growth than traditional inbound channels like content marketing, SEO, and referrals.

It’s also a more scalable and predictable path to growth.

With outbound sales, you can create an equation where you know that for every 1,000 emails you send, you will book a certain number of meetings.

So the problem then becomes a matter of increasing the email volume to hit those appointment targets. 

Personally, I was aiming for around a 1% bookings rate for cold emails, or 1 booked call per 100 emails sent.

A great book discussing the importance of outbound sales.

My Approach

I started off by creating a separate domain with website copy tailored for the segment I was targeting: distributors and manufacturers.

I created an email address under that domain for sending cold email out, so I wouldn’t damage the reputation of my main consulting website address.

I decided I was going to discuss a couple main problems that they often had including:

• Manual Errors - My target customers often suffer from too many repetitive tasks that lead to costly business mistakes

• Information Silos - Data is often scattered across multiple tools, making it difficult to get a holistic view of their business

• Scalability concerns - The lack of automation hinders their business from scaling their operations further

For prospecting, I used Apollo.io, a lead generation tool, and filtered leads by only contacting folks who:

• Have CEO and COO titles

• In the USA

• With 10-100 employees

• That had the keywords “manufacturing” or “distribution” for certain types of items 

Although I did test a few variations and problem points to target in the cold email, the general gist of my cold emails looked like this:

Everyday, I would dedicate 2 hours to researching companies, come up with some personalization for the email before sending the cold email out manually through my Gmail account.

My plan was to make sure this worked before automating this process out using a cold email platform.

But since I didn’t book any meetings from this campaign, I never got to this stage.

Why My Cold Email Results Were So Poor

First off, I don’t think this happened because my prospects weren’t seeing the email.

Although I couldn’t directly see the open rate because I was doing this manually, the 2.7% response rate is still within industry benchmarks that hover around 1-3%, indicating people did open it.

Second, I also don’t think it’s an issue of volume.

If I expected at least 1 meeting booked per 100 emails I send out, that’s a 1% bookings rate. The chances of landing a meeting after sending 300 emails then is 95%, so if I sent 292 cold emails out, I probably should’ve gotten at least one meeting by then.

Instead, I think the poor campaign performance was due to two main factors. 

First, I was offering help implementing a software called Odoo ERP. But in order for clients to be open to this, I had to catch them at the exact moment they were looking to buy new ERP software or when their old ERP contract was about to expire. 

It is difficult for me to know if the companies I’m prospecting actually have the problem I was solving.

So unless I could target people with the EXACT problems they have at the EXACT time they need it, my cold email strategy was not targeted enough to work.

Second, it could be that different industries have different preferred means of communication.

For example in supply chain, many of these businesses are family-owned businesses, run by older generations.

They often may not openly embrace new technology the way engineers do, and they may prefer different ways of communciation, like tradeshows or traditional phone calls over emails.

What Am I Going to Do Now?

I don’t think cold email is dead, but it needs to be highly targeted.

I continue to get some inbound requests for AI related integrations, so I may test other types of cold outreach involving AI integrations instead.

I am also considering doubling down on content creation again, potentially expanding my reach using video platforms like Youtube and Tiktok and publishing on this newsletter more often to drive more leads. 

But for now, the cold email campaign for supply chain is on pause as I figure out more reliable channels for growth.

Stay tuned!

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