{"id":32443,"date":"2024-09-02T08:37:53","date_gmt":"2024-09-02T07:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/?p=32443"},"modified":"2025-01-21T10:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T09:07:10","slug":"cold-email-is-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/cold-email-is-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Cold email is dead. Long live cold email!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is cold email dead?<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen more changes in the cold email space in the last year than in the previous 5 years. And they’re only going to accelerate.<\/span><\/p>\n

How we send our cold emails, write them, how we get data \u2013 everything has changed.<\/span><\/p>\n

And, like it or not, those who don\u2019t adapt the new way of email outreach will get left behind.<\/span><\/p>\n

But what <\/span>exactly<\/span><\/i> is changing? And what can you do to thrive in cold emailing <\/span>today<\/span><\/i>?<\/span><\/p>\n

For that, let\u2019s break down cold email into 5 areas:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Access to data<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Prospect research & personalized outreach<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Sending cold emails<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. The SDR role<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Cold email tools<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I\u2019ll cover each of them in this blog post. But we\u2019ll start with the first question that comes to mind: is cold email even worth it anymore?<\/span><\/p>\n

    Cold email is more cost-effective than ever (and getting cheaper!)<\/span><\/h2>\n

    With all sales channels, your deals have to be high enough to cover the cost of the team\u2019s salaries, infrastructure and leave a profit.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Not so long ago, cold emails made sense when the deal size was at least $2,000 (per <\/span>Cold Email Manifesto<\/span><\/i><\/a> by Alex Berman and Robert Indries).<\/span><\/p>\n

    But with the costs of cold email going down, I\u2019d risk saying now it can make sense if your prices start at $1,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Cold email is getting easier and cheaper to scale.<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    At the same time, the costs of other acquisition channels are going up. Look at Google ads.<\/span><\/p>\n

    According to <\/span>this Google ads report<\/span><\/a> from WordStream, the cost per click increased by an average of 10% (April 2023-March 2024). The cost per lead also went up \u2013 by an average of about 25%. That leaves us with:<\/span><\/p>\n\"An\n

    Source: <\/span><\/i>WordStream<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

    Now, look at the average costs of LinkedIn ads per <\/span>this research<\/span><\/a> from marketing agency WebFX:<\/span><\/p>\n\"A\n

    Source: <\/span><\/i>WebFX<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

    And compare that with the cost of cold emails.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Take a look at <\/span>Woodpecker<\/span><\/a> as an example \u2013 you can contact 500 people for $29\/mo. To contact twice as many (1,000), you\u2019d pay $49 \u2013 extra 20 bucks for twice as many opportunities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s account for your domain ($15 per year, so $1.25\/mo) and a mailbox ($6), too. So:<\/span><\/p>\n

    $29 + $1.25 + $6 = $36.25<\/span><\/p>\n

    If you\u2019re looking at the cost per 1,000 impressions and thinking, ‘hey, that\u2019s cheaper than cold email’, let me say this: this metric is used for brand awareness ads.<\/span><\/p>\n

    If you\u2019re running lead generation ad campaigns, you should be looking at cost per click or per send, and \u2013 of course \u2013 at cost per lead.<\/span><\/p>\n

    And according to <\/span>the benchmarks<\/span><\/a> by Powered by Search, the cost per lead for LinkedIn ads ranges from $15 to $350.<\/span><\/p>\n\"Cost\n

    Source: <\/span><\/i>Powered by Search<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

    For cold email, the cost is typically lower.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Cost per lead in cold email<\/span><\/h3>\n

    Let\u2019s say you want to contact 500 people per month. That will cost you $36.25\/mo.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The average reply rate is 1.9% (based on the research on our customers\u2019 campaigns). So in this case, it\u2019s 9.5 replies. (Let’s round it up to 10.)<\/span><\/p>\n

    On average, there\u2019s going to be 10-20 positive replies in every 100 replies you get. So 10 replies get you 1-2 positive replies. For $36.25\/month.<\/span><\/p>\n

    So it can go as low as $18.12 per lead.<\/b><\/p>\n

    Compare that to $66.69 per lead from search ads and $15-$350 from LinkedIn ads.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Also, not many other acquisition channels allow you to target your prospects as precisely as cold email. Definitely not ads or SEO marketing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    With cold email, you pick person X at company Z. That means you spend money targeting only those prospects who qualify as your ICP.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Let’s say you sell to e-commerce shops. Your list hasn’t been cleaned yet. Now you can scrape the websites on your list to check:<\/p>\n