Why B2B Cold Email Response Rates Are Low and How to Fix It
It’s hard to say exactly what constitutes a “good” cold email response rate. There is a lot of variance across email types, industries, and even countries.
Based on the studies we reviewed, the industry average sits between 1% and 7%. But even if you manage to hit the higher end of that range, 93 out of every 100 people still deem your email unworthy of a response.
Cold email will always be a numbers game to an extent, but most sales reps are nowhere near their optimal reply rate. And implementing just a handful of straightforward copywriting and operational tips can have a dramatic effect.
What is the Average B2B Cold Email Response Rate?
According to a study by Belkins, the average cold email response rate in 2023 is 7%. However, that figure comes with a few important additions.
There is significant variance across industries—the reply rate for museums is 17% compared to 2% for business and consulting. Similarly, there’s a lot of variance between countries. The reply rate in Ireland is 17%, while it’s only 5% in the United States, where most English-speaking international businesses will likely send the bulk of their email.
Another vital piece of information in the Belkins study is that sending just one follow-up increases the average response rate by nearly 50%, although this figure starts to diminish quickly with repeated follow-ups (three follow-ups is the sweet spot). The study also found that Wednesday and Thursday are the best days to send cold emails, but only by a small margin.
Keep in mind that achieving an optimal response rate is almost always the result of a lot of testing. Be realistic with your goals, and don’t expect double digits with your first campaign to a new audience.
How to Calculate Your B2B Cold Email Reply Rates
Here’s the formula for calculating your cold email reply rate:
For example, if you send 10 emails and receive 2 responses, that’s a 20% response rate. Here, the response rate is calculated by using whole sequences. If you receive one response from your batch of initial cold emails and one response from a follow-up email, you’ll still calculate your reply rate on the basis of 10 emails sent.
Here are a few more tips to keep in mind:
Group by sequences rather than individual emails. This is a better way to measure responses as it gauges the effectiveness of your whole sequence, rather than your initial cold email.
Exclude bounces and undelivered emails. These will skew your true results, so don’t include them in your final calculation.
Collect granular data. Measure the response rate at the initial email and follow-up levels. If all of your responses come from the second follow-up, for example, it’s likely due to something you’re doing differently in that email.
An AI-based platform like Artisan will automatically run these calculations excluding unnecessary data. This allows you to identify and remedy issues while maximizing what you’re doing right. If you would like to see Artisan’s powerful analytics dashboard in action, get in touch to organize a demo.
Factors That Influence B2B Cold Email Response Rates
There are five main factors that influence cold email response rates:
Freshness of your subject line
Specificity and depth of personalization
Quality of your body copy
Timing and frequency
Quality of your target list
Let’s look at each one of these in a little more depth.
1. Subject Line Freshness
Subject lines are the initial hooks that grab your recipient’s attention. The best email subject lines articulate a clear use or evoke curiosity, but not both simultaneously. Originality is also an important factor. It’s very easy to get lost in an already overcrowded inbox.
Here are some common subject line mistakes:
Trying to be curious and functional at the same time. It’s far better to pick one and focus on doing it well.
Writing a subject line that is too long. Often, too-long subject lines will be clipped in the recipient's email client. Sixty characters is the maximum.
Not A/B testing different subject lines and tracking open rates. Different audiences will respond better to certain subject lines over others.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it’s vital to keep in mind that testing is the only way to determine what works best for your unique market.
2. Personalization
Personalization is non-negotiable. There’s nothing that shouts “mass sales email” more than a generic block of text with no mention of the recipient.
Even if a cold email is targeted at a company rather than an individual, it’s still important to include specific references.
Here are some common personalization mistakes:
Not taking advantage of all personalization variables. Variables like [first name] and [company name] are the bare basics. But others, like [job title], [location], and [industry], can also be useful.
Only personalizing the opening. Personalization should be included throughout the email copy, including in the offer and when you sign off.
Adding generic or irrelevant personalization. The days when saying “Love what you’re doing at [company name]” captures attention are over. Personalization needs to be specific and current.
Personalizing emails at scale is difficult, and companies often hired copywriters solely for that job. However, with AI, mass personalization needn’t be costly and time-consuming. Artisan’s virtual sales rep, Ava, can personalize thousands of emails in a fraction of the time it traditionally takes, just as well as a human researcher. If you’d like to see Ava in action, get in touch to book a demo.
3. Email Content and Structure
Once you’ve pulled the reader in with your subject line and hooked them with a personalized opening, they’ll move on to your body copy. This is where your email does the heavy lifting.
It’s an opportunity to introduce yourself, demonstrate an understanding of your recipient’s pain points, outline your offer, and provide evidence that you can deliver. It has to be clear, strike a suitable tone, and be highly relevant.
Here are the most common email content mistakes:
Not introducing yourself. The introduction frames the body content and adds a personal touch.
Describing what you do in a way that's not relevant. When you outline your offer, it’s essential that it aligns with the recipient’s pain points.
Leaving out evidence of your ability to deliver. Proof, whether in the form of a one-sentence case study or a testimonial, demonstrates that you’re able to achieve the results you offer.
4. Timing and Frequency
According to Hubspot, Tuesday between 9 AM and 3 PM is the best time to send marketing emails. However, other studies indicate slightly different times, with Belkins suggesting before 12 on Wednesday or Thursday.
This highlights the need for in-house testing. Use weekdays before late afternoon as a baseline, but make adjustments based on results specific to your audience. Advanced analytics tools are essential for tracking activity.
The same is true of follow-up emails. While research suggests leaving three to five days between follow-ups, in-house testing is the only sure way to go.
Here are the most common timing and frequency mistakes:
Sending emails on weekends or out of working hours.
Not adjusting for location (most email software will do this automatically).
Using industry benchmarks rather than running tests.
Leaving too much time between follow-up emails.
Leaving too little time between follow-up emails.
5. Email List Quality
You can do everything right—use a well-tested email template, send it at the right time, and schedule the perfect follow-up sequence. However, if your lead data quality is poor, you're at a disadvantage before anything leaves your inbox.
Ensure you pick a high-quality list data provider that adheres to enrichment and verification best practices.
Here are the most common email list quality mistakes:
Purchasing access to a database before vetting.
Not using enrichment and hygiene tools.
Using verification data only from one source rather than multiple.
Relying on outdated web scraping methods.
Opting for just one vendor.
Your choice of database is important, and it’s vital to thoroughly check third-party reviews and enrichment practices. At Artisan, for example, our database of over 300 million leads is verified and enriched using the very latest scraping and AI technology.
8 Strategies to Improve B2B Cold Email Response Rates
There are eight components of a cold email campaign with a high average reply rate:
A curiosity-evoking or high-utility subject line.
Targeted and detailed personalization.
Best domain warm-up practices to ensure email deliverability.
A/B testing to find top-performing templates.
A clear and specific CTA.
Follow-up email sent at the right time.
A high-quality list provider.
Automation tools for time-consuming manual tasks.
Let’s take a look at those in depth:
1. Craft an Irresistible Cold Email Subject Line
The best subject lines are either functional or curiosity-evoking. Generally, it is better to go for one or the other and test which type works best for your unique audience. Functional subject lines.
As sales expert Dan Pink says, “Every email subject line should make the person say, ‘Woah, I need to open that because it’s going to be useful to me,” or ‘Man, I need to find out what that is.’ Where you don’t want to be is between utility and curiosity.”
With individuals used to receiving a large volume of emails. For individuals like CEOs, salespeople, and marketers, utility tends to work best. For those receiving fewer emails, curiosity is typically most effective.
Here are some examples of strong subject lines:
Partnership inquiry for [company name]
[company name] & [your company name]
Proposal about [subject] for [company name]
Interested in connecting [first name]
[first name], quick question
2. Personalize at Scale
Personalization—when it’s done well—is one of the best ways of standing out and building a connection with a reader right off the bat. But it’s about more than just mentioning your recipient’s name. Nowadays, personalization needs to be specific, detailed, and original.
Traditionally, sales reps have hired copywriters with the sole job of adding personalized elements to emails. This is a time-consuming and expensive way of connecting with potential customers.
Generative AI email marketing tools provide a cost-effective alternative. For example, an AI sales rep like Ava of Artisan can access up-to-date lead data and write thousands of personalized emails in less than an hour.
Here are some examples of personalization done well:
I found your recent post on LinkedIn about trends shaping HR very insightful. Your point about the decline in working from home was especially interesting.
Congratulations on your recent award at the Widget Company of the Year Conference. It was very well deserved, given your innovations in the Widget Space.
I understand from your recent posts on LinkedIn that you’re having trouble scaling your outbound marketing.
Wow! The results of your recent seeding round blew me away. Widget Company’s growth this year has been phenomenal!
3. Warm Up Your Emails
Email warm-up involves sending a gradually increasing number of emails to controlled inboxes, where they can be opened and read (usually by bots), to improve a domain’s standing with email service providers (ESPs). An email address that has a good “score” is far less likely to end up in your recipients’ spam boxes.
Email warm-up is an essential part of a successful cold email strategy, especially given the fact that service providers are becoming harsher with spam. It’s one of the technical elements of running a campaign that can have a significant effect on your average open rate and response rate.
Here are the main ways you can warm up your email address:
Start with small batches rather than bulk campaigns.
Track open rates to catch any issues before they harm your email address.
Use an automated warm-up tool like Artisan.
Ensuring close alignment between your offer and target audience will also make it less likely that your cold emails are marked as spam by recipients.
4. A/B Testing Your B2B Cold Email
A/B and multivariate testing (which involves testing multiple variables at once) are the only ways to find the cold email formula that works optimally for you.
It’s the best way of improving your cold email open rates and response rates, but it is a long-term strategy. Industry benchmarks have their place, but you should begin split testing from your very first campaign.
Modern email marketing tools like Artisan have split-testing functionality built in. What’s more, AI-powered sales assistants will often handle split testing on autopilot, finding the best email body and cadence variations without any manual input.
Here are the main email elements to split test:
Subject line
Opening
Body template (introduction, offer, and supporting evidence)
CTA
Closing
Email signature
Postscript (P.S.) if you use one
Day and time of sending
Time between follow-up emails
Number of emails sent
5. Include a Clear and Specific Call-to-Action (CTA)
Research by Gong shows that the “interest CTA”—which asks “Would you like to learn more?”—is more effective than both open and closed CTAs requesting a meeting—”Are you free at 3PM tomorrow?” or “Are you available next week?”
Again, A/B testing is the way to go, but err towards the “interest CTA” until you have in-house data. Some members of your target audience will prefer more direct CTAs, while for others, the decision-making process can be longer.
Here are some examples of strong CTAs:
Would you be interested in learning more?
Can I send you some more information?
Would you like to see some [recipient industry] case studies?
Would you be interested in a 15-minute call?
Would you like to talk more?
Is this a problem you’re struggling with?
Are you interested in achieving similar results?
6. Send Follow-Up Emails
Three follow-up emails sent on weekdays between three and five days apart seems to be the best formula based on industry research.
Here’s a quick checklist for writing follow-up emails that get responses:
Reference the first email
Reiterate your offer (don’t make the recipient scroll through your thread)
Add extra support like a case study or testimonial
Ask the recipient to forward the email to the appropriate person or decision-maker
Here’s an example of a follow-up email:
Hi [first name],
I’m following up on my last email about a possible partnership between [your company] and [target company].
I mentioned that we helped [past client] achieve [specific result] and would love to do the same for you.
Would you be interested in learning more?
Regards,
[Your name]
P.S. Are you the right person to contact about this? If not, could you point me in the right direction?
7. Find a Reliable B2B Email List Provider
Successful lead generation and optimization of your email conversion rates cannot happen without a high-quality source of contact data. If the email addresses associated with your leads are “dead”, then all of your efforts to increase the effectiveness of your emails are redundant.
When evaluating list providers, look for the following features:
Up-to-date contact details (email addresses and numbers)
Industries relevant to your target audience
LinkedIn and social media data
Advanced web scraping for enrichment
A mix of demographic, firmographic, and technographic data
In addition, check third-party reviews on websites like Trustpilot, G2, and Capterra, as they are typically impartial and can point you toward high-quality databases that aren’t as well-known.
8. Use Tools and Automation
Automation tools speed up the process of response rate optimization by handling an array of manual tasks and tracking conversion metrics, from click-through rates to email bounce rates.
Outbound sales teams are increasingly using AI-driven tools to supplement human efforts. This means that sales reps have more time to focus on what’s truly important: nurturing interested prospects and adding a human touch before passing sales-qualified leads onto AEs.
Here are just some of the areas where AI automation tools can help:
Lead profile enrichment
Email warmup
Email personalization at scale
A/B and multivariate testing
Analytics tracking
Let’s take a look at Artisan as a practical example of how AI can help you achieve better, faster results from your email campaigns.
How Ava Simplifies Your Cold Email Outreach Campaign
Ava is an AI sales development representative (SDR). She is the virtual employee at the heart of the Artisan platform and is capable of automating large portions of a cold email campaign, including response rate optimization.
Ava handles all of the following tasks on autopilot:
Domain warm-up and deliverability tracking to avoid the spam folder
Personalized emails based on a waterfall that identifies the most relevant available data
Access to a database of over 300 million leads
Lead profile enrichment from dozens of sources across the web
Email tracking and analytics with automated insights
LinkedIn outreach
A/B and multivariate testing of various email elements
Campaign creation based on successful playbooks
Integrations with a range of third party providers (CRM, accounting, project management, etc.)
If you would like to see how Artisan can help you improve your average response rates, close more deals, and drive revenue, get in touch today to book a demo.
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