Score cold email tests on interest, not replies
Jay Feldman hand-audited 274 replies on a dental campaign and found over half were out-of-office autoresponders, which flipped his angle ranking. The angle he would have kept on reply rate was his worst performer.
Landing in the inbox
Illingworth and Shields both put the reply problem upstream of copy
Two senders spent the week arguing that inbox placement is an arithmetic problem, not a writing one. Richard Illingworth says bad infrastructure puts up to 75% of sends in spam, citing 570,000+ inboxes set up, and published a volume formula that sizes inboxes and domains off the daily target.
go much past 30 cold emails a day and they start pushing you to spam
Campaigns and numbers
Feldman rebuilt a dental campaign on hand-audited replies, now at 0.733%
Jay Feldman ended the week with Spark Study Club's rebuilt campaign at 0.733% qualified interest, up from 0.302% at the start. The run sent 39,834 emails to 15,114 dentists in seven weeks off 50 mailboxes across 17 domains, returning 274 replies and 54 opportunities. He hand-audited every reply, found over half were out-of-office autoresponders, and the angle ranking flipped once he rescored on qualified interest.
Score tests on qualified interest, not reply rate.
Copy that ran
Berman says the compliment opener he sold for years now hurts replies
Alex Berman tested compliments against no compliments for years, saw compliments win, and says the data then flipped against them as every sender opened with "I loved your LinkedIn post." His replacement is a specific, accurate description of something costing the prospect money. Richard Illingworth landed in the same place from a different direction, saying scraped-fact personalization is what gets binned and that tight targeting is doing the work.
The best-performing emails now lead with the problem.
Workflows and tooling
Illingworth says parallel enrichment in Claude Code cut a 12-hour Clay job to 30 minutes
Richard Illingworth spent the week pushing a Claude Code build that replaces the Apollo, Clay, Instantly and Lemlist chain with one loop. His specific number: 250 contacts enriched in parallel took 30 minutes against a 12-hour Clay job on the same list.
same 250 contacts, done in 30 minutes.
Where they disagree
Ingram and Illingworth both argue the automation-first move is the wrong one
Morgan Ingram says AI mostly lets B2B teams automate mediocrity, and that he has reviewed 50+ tech companies' outbound messaging and keeps seeing the same bland "we are the leading provider" lines. He has a SDR team he coaches going back to psychology, industry trends and buyer challenges this week.
I dislike AI for most B2B sales teams because it allows for people to automate mediocrity.
Also on the timeline
Christian lists 50 verticals he says nobody is emailing
Christian published 50 B2B markets he says are unsaturated, from septic services and dental labs to marinas and sign makers.
Berman blames the calendar for late-November reply dips
Alex Berman lists four windows where replies fall regardless of copy: Thanksgiving through early January, mid-July to mid-August, and the last ten business days of a quarter.
Frequently asked questions
What's causing low reply rates in cold email campaigns?
Multiple factors are at play. Infrastructure problems can affect inbox placement, but copy matters too. Using generic compliments like "I loved your LinkedIn post" has stopped working as effectively because most senders now use the same approach. Specificity about prospect challenges performs better, and hand-auditing replies reveals that many are autoresponders, not real interest.
How can I tell if my replies are actually qualified?
You need to hand-audit replies to separate out-of-office autoresponders from genuine interest. One campaign found that over half of replies were autoresponders, which can make you think an underperforming angle is working when the volume is just automated responses.
When should I expect lower reply rates from cold email?
Reply rates typically drop during Thanksgiving through early January, mid-July to mid-August, and the last ten business days of a quarter, regardless of how good your copy is.
What should I focus on instead of automation in cold email?
Rather than automating mediocre messaging, focus on psychology, industry trends, and specific buyer challenges. Generic lines like "we are the leading provider" are what most senders use, so standing out requires research into what actually costs your prospects money.
Are there untapped markets for cold email outreach?
Yes, markets like septic services, dental labs, marinas, and sign makers have been identified as B2B verticals with less email saturation.