Shields says a no-results-no-pay PS doubled booked calls
A seven-point list from 12M sends, with one claim tested and no sample sizes attached to any of them.
James Shields says putting the line "no results, you don't pay" in the PS of a cold email increases booked call rate by 100%, and adds "(i've tested this)" next to that claim and no other in the list. The post is framed as lessons from sending over 12M cold emails.
The rest of the list is short and blunt. Write copy like a 12 year old, because the copy that looks the worst gets the best results. More volume means more booked calls, simple math. Respond to leads within two minutes for a 70% chance of booking a call, with chances dropping hard after that. Warm calling interested leads books twice as many calls. And do not put an unsubscribe link in your email because it hurts deliverability.
What is actually evidenced here
None of the seven points carries a test size, a date range, a niche or a control. The 12M figure is lifetime volume across an agency, not the sample behind any single claim, and the 100% lift, the 70% booking figure and the 2x from warm calling are all stated flat with no campaign attached. The post closes with an offer of a system that books 30 qualified calls in 90 days on a performance model, which is the same promise the PS line is selling, so the guarantee advice and the pitch are the same idea.
Shields has posted specific campaign numbers before, including a one-line email to 4,800 restaurants and a 19-word email he put at a 9.1% reply rate. This list is not that. It is a summary with the sends stripped out.
For people sending
The PS test is cheap to run yourself and costs nothing if it fails, so there is no reason to take the 100% on faith. The offer point underneath it is the more useful one, and Shields states it directly.
The unsubscribe advice is the line to be careful with. Dropping an unsubscribe link is not a copy tweak you can A/B and roll back. It changes your compliance position and how recipients get rid of you, and the post gives no data behind it at all, just the assertion. Check it against the rules your sending volume actually puts you under before you pull anything out of a template. Everything else on the list is reversible in an afternoon.
adding "no results, you don't pay" in your ps line increases booked call rate by 100% (i've tested this)
i'd rather send 1k emails with a good offer than 50k emails with a terrible offer.
Know what is landing before you burn another domain
One email a day. Under three minutes. What the operators found out yesterday.