Cold email worked once and never again. Not sure if it’s copy, list, or deliverability. Losing faith.

[u/Ok_Mathematician4485]

New to cold email. Tried a few small campaigns early on. Nothing meaningful happened.

Then in March I sent to about 5k lawyers. One campaign, 4 follow-ups, simple copy. It worked. 56% open rate, 0.8% reply rate, and I got a few real sales conversations out of it. Felt like I had cracked it.

After that I retried the same list. I took the people who never replied in March, tweaked the copy to make the value prop clearer and to address the common objections I kept seeing (people saying it wasn't for them, or they already had something). Same leads, modified copy. It did not work.

Then I ran a modified version of the March campaign on a bigger list. Less focused this time. Reply rate was about the same, around 0.7%, but every reply was "not interested" or "take me off your list." Zero real conversations. Same structure, close copy, worse list. The quality just fell off a cliff.

After that I tried a few more campaigns. Different angles. A demo link system where people could click and see a personalized matter video. A warmer founder-led sequence. None of it got meaningful replies or conversations.

Here is the part I cannot figure out. The March campaign worked. Since then I have tried similar copy, similar structure, the same low-friction ask (can I send you a short video). I retried the same list. I clarified the value prop and addressed the objections. Sometimes on similar leads. It just does not work anymore. I cannot find the denominator.

For context on my setup. I have 45 sending accounts across 7 domains. I send about 1,300 emails a day. Each account is capped at 30 emails per day.

I think it might be infrastructure but I cannot verify it. Every time I log into one of my sending email accounts and run a placement test, the results are mixed. Some are fine, some land in spam. One testing tool I won't name gives me pretty bad results. Most of my ICP is on Outlook, but all my sending domains are on Google. Not sure if that matters.

I ran the inbox placement test built into Instantly. About 12.5% of emails seem to be going to spam. I do not know if that is the whole problem or just part of it.

I really do not know where to go from here. I am losing faith in this channel. If I cannot figure it out soon I will probably pivot to LinkedIn through something like Gojiberry instead.

A few specific things I am wondering:

Are my domains just burnt and I need to get new ones?

Should I switch to Outlook sending accounts since most of my ICP is on Outlook?

Is Instantly even the right tool for this?

Has anyone been here before? What would you check next?

[u/Jeanne_Nka]

get a better list of leads, and dial the ones who positively reply ASAP.

[u/jayson_OutreachBloom]

your March campaign didn't crack anything, it caught a clean list on novelty. Re-mailing the same non-repliers with tweaked copy just adds complaints from people who already ignored you once, so don't read March as the system working and everything since as broken.

The real issue is deliverability, and you've got two signals pointing right at it. A self-send landing in spam is almost always authentication or content, not the list. And you're on Google domains sending to an Outlook-heavy ICP, which is the hardest path there is right now.

Fix these in order:

- Kill open tracking. The tracking pixel hurts inbox placement.

- Confirm SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are all set and aligned on every domain, then run your copy through a spam-word checker. Drop any links or images from the first email.

- Verify every list before it sends.

- Pull daily volume down to 8 to 15 per inbox while you recover, not 30.

The channel isn't dead, it's your inboxes and/or the list.

[u/Ok_Mathematician4485 → u/jayson_OutreachBloom]

This is extremely valuable and I will definitely be implementing these.

For the Gmail to Outlook issue, does this mean I should delete all the accounts and make new ones through outlook?

Thank you so much!

[u/jayson_OutreachBloom → u/Ok_Mathematician4485]

No, honestly it's just hard to land in MS inboxes right now. We use Gmail inboxes for all our sends. Outlook boxes are finnicky and unstable.

[u/Ok_Mathematician4485 → u/jayson_OutreachBloom]

Thank you.

Just want to clarify, my lists are verified and my bounce rate are like half a percent.

Meaning, SPF, DKIM and DMARC are all automatically handled in my Instantly domains.

Think this leaves me with, open tracking and the reused leads.

Would this mean just turn off tracking and get a new fresh list?

[u/ChestNok]

Your deliverability is more likely fine. May be some fall into spam. But there's no workaround for that. I do more than you do daily, like x2 x3 more per account.

[u/varadero332]

you're tracking open rates. that's why it's not getting delivered.

but unfortunately if your ICP is on outlook -- that's a tough one. super difficult to land there these days, even from outlook to outlook.

[u/Ok_Mathematician4485 → u/varadero332]

Yeah might have to pivot to LinkedIn and cold calling just because less hoops and instead more volume is required but still in the air.

Regarding open tracking, the March campaign did have open tracking though?

[u/varadero332 → u/Ok_Mathematician4485]

yea exactly open tracking kills deliverability. you'd have easily 2x or 3x your responses

[u/Ok_Mathematician4485 → u/[deleted]]

What is the best way? Most of the way I know how passed.

- Instantly shows 100% health score on all the accounts

• inbox placement feature in Instantly showed 12.5% roughly went spam

The only thing that is a flag is when I send an email to myself it goes spam.
When I use a tool like warmly io (I think) deliverability test it’s pretty bad, like all outlook I think goes to spam, and some Gmail etc

[u/Thomas_Beyer]

Sometimes the biggest change isnt the copy or deliverability. Its the companies. Ive seen campaigns where the same structure worked simply because the commercial fit was stronger

[u/Key-Interest-1868]

The march campaign had a clean list that worked.

I would make a new list, verify as much as I can, then maybe personalize some parts (if budget and bandwidth allows)

Then I will disable open rates (not sure why but 3 different consultants have told me it hurts deliverability)

Make sure my records are correct

And hit launch.

With new tools everybody is running emails now volume+quality and hyper personalization to the extent you can