Recently, I’ve been the victim of a cold email that made me follow a six-step process to unsubscribe. And I am pretty sure you have similar stories to tell.
However, done right, cold emails can be a useful marketing technique for generating new sales. A well crafted cold email can help companies introduce themselves to potential new customers and drive traffic to their websites.
But how do consumers feel about cold emails, and is generic, poorly written email copy leaving them consigned to the junk folder? Here, we’ll discuss how effective cold emails are as a marketing strategy, and whether they still work in today’s climate of spam overload.
We surveyed 1,800 people to find out what consumers think of cold emails, whether they trust them, and how they interact with them.
Key statistics
- People surveyed receive an average of 15 cold emails each week, which would amount to 780 over a full year. 6.7% of people said they receive more than 30 cold emails per week.
- Average open rates for cold emails are between 40% and 60%, while average response rates are between 1% and 5%.
- Cold emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened compared to generalized ones.
- The best time to send a cold email is between 5 AM and 8 AM on Monday, where cold emails get an average reply rate of 2.3%.
- Around half (50.9%) of consumers say they usually do not engage with cold emails, with 13.7% saying they delete them straight away, and 10.3% saying they mark them as junk.
- The biggest factors that would make a consumer engage more with a cold email are promotional offers (46.2%), company familiarity (46%), and intriguing subject lines (42.6%).
- Most consumers (38%) prefer companies to send them marketing communications via email, followed by telephone (19.8%) and social media (12.3%) rather than other methods like door-to-door sales.
- Companies in the health and beauty industry send the most cold emails, with 51.4% of those surveyed saying they receive the most from these brands, followed by tech companies (46%).
What is cold emailing?
A cold email is an email you receive from a person or company without any prior communication. Typically, these emails can be personalized, including your name or the organization you work for, with the aim of selling a product or service.
Much like cold calling, cold emailing is a method that companies use to introduce themselves and try to build relationships with potential new customers.
Is cold emailing the same as email marketing?
No, the main difference between cold emailing and email marketing is the relationship between the sender and the recipient. There is no prior relationship with a cold email, whereas email marketing involves sending emails to a list of subscribers who have chosen to receive these emails.
However, the aim of a cold email is typically the same; to inform potential customers of a product or service they may (or may not) be interested in buying.
How do consumers like to be contacted by companies?
We asked people how they like to be contacted by companies wishing to sell them a product or service.
38% of people prefer companies to contact them by email
The majority (38%) of people said they prefer companies to communicate with them via email for marketing purposes. This was followed by telephone at 19.8% and social media at 12.3%.
With 4.48 billion email users worldwide, companies can access a huge base of potential new or returning customers to market their products to via cold emails or email marketing.
Half of consumers (51.8%) are happy to receive marketing emails
Most consumers (51.8%) say they are happy to receive marketing emails once they have purchased a product or service from a company and provided their email address. A quarter (24.6%) said it would depend on the company and what was included in the emails.
Other research found that 59% of people said marketing emails influence their purchasing decisions, and 50% buy products from marketing emails at least once a month.
Open and response rates for cold emails
The open rate for a cold email varies quite a bit, with the average sitting between 40% and 60%, while the average response rate is between 1% and 5%. By comparison, the average open rate for email marketing as of 2023 is 26.76%, with an average click-through rate of 2.33%. (Sources: Breakcold, GMass)
Monday morning is the peak time to send cold emails
Another analysis found that the start of the workday (or even earlier) is the best time to send a cold email, perhaps because they are the first messages people see when they log in. Emails sent between 5 AM and 8 AM have the highest reply rate at around 2.3%, with the reply rate dropping off as the day goes on. (Source: Lemlist)
Consumer experiences with cold emails
We asked people about their experiences with different companies' cold emails and how they interacted with these communications.
We receive 15 cold emails per week on average
Consumers reported receiving an average of 15 cold emails per week from senders they had not had prior communication with. People most commonly receive between 6 and 10 cold emails (27.5%), while 6.7% say they receive more than 30 cold emails per week.
The frequency of cold emails between work and personal email addresses was fairly evenly split. 36.1% say they receive the most cold emails to their work address, while 34.4% say they receive the most to their personal email.
Beauty and technology companies send the most cold emails
The most common industry that consumers say they receive cold emails from is the health and beauty industry. More than half (51.4%) say they commonly receive cold emails from companies in the health and beauty industry, followed by technology companies (46%), and clothing and accessories companies (41.1%).
Note: Respondents could select more than one answer
Half of consumers don’t engage with cold emails at all
When asked how they typically react to a cold email, around half (50.9%) said they don’t engage with them at all. One-fifth (20%) read cold emails but don’t respond to them, while 13.7% say they delete them straight away, and 10.3% say they mark them as junk.
More than a third (36.2%) think cold emails are not trustworthy
While the majority (44.7%) of consumers said they think cold emails are trustworthy, over a third (36.2%) do not trust these emails.
Data relating to online spam shows that 49% of all emails sent each day are spam, amounting to 162 billion spam emails in total. Knowing this fact, it is perhaps unsurprising that more than a third of people are wary of emails they receive from companies out of the blue.
What makes consumers more likely to engage with cold emails?
46.2% say a promotional offer would make them engage with a cold email
We asked consumers what would make them more likely to open and read a cold email rather than ignore it or send it to their junk folder. Promotional offers and company familiarity were the most common factors that would make people engage with a cold email (46.2% and 46% respectively). An attention-grabbing subject line would also encourage 42.6% of people to take more notice of a cold email.
People prefer longer, more personalized emails
When asked what type of cold email they would be most likely to respond to, the biggest proportion (36%) of people said a longer, personalized email containing their name would make them more likely to respond.
This is backed up by data from other studies that show personalized emails improve click-through rates by 14% and conversion by 10%, and an email with a personalized subject line is 26% more likely to be opened. (Source: Revium)
The type of email least likely to elicit a response according to consumers would be a long, but non-personalized email. 15.1% of people said they wouldn’t respond to any of these cold email formats.
51.8% would engage more with a cold email from a company they had previously used
The majority of people (51.8%) said if they received a cold email from a company they had previously purchased from, perhaps in a physical store, they would be more likely to engage with the email.
AI in cold emails
Almost two-thirds of consumers (61.4%) think they can spot when a cold email has been AI-generated. Interestingly, a Tooltester study found that 53% of people cannot accurately identify content made by AI chatbots like ChatGPT. The study found that this figure rises to 63.5% when using the ChatGPT-4.0 model. This suggests that a lot of people who think they can identify AI-generated text may actually struggle to identify real examples.
Alongside this, 44.4% of people said they would be less likely to engage with a cold email from a company if the text had clearly been AI-generated.
Cold email examples
Let’s take a look at some examples of how a cold email campaign can be done well, and how they can be done badly.
Good cold emails
A good quality cold email that’s relevant and targeted to the recipient can be the start of a successful business relationship. Here are some examples of good cold emails:
Example 1
This cold email I received from John Marquez includes a clear introduction and a mention of an article we published on our site. John summarizes how his product can benefit us, and includes some personalization by discussing other tools he has seen we are affiliated with.
Example 2
This cold email example introduces the company, its relevant product, and the potential pain point that it solves. It also gets to the point by providing data to show proof that their product works and they have examples to back it up. The email is left open-ended for the recipient to get in touch at a convenient time.
“Hi [first name]
I came across your company at [source] and wanted to get in touch.
I represent [sender company name] and I have a solution for [industry problem] that might be of interest to [recipient company name]. We have helped [number] companies achieve a [x%] increase in sales and a [x%] improvement in customer satisfaction as a result of implementing [product or service].
When would be a convenient time for us to connect and discuss this opportunity?
Thank you
[sender name]
[contact details + website]
Bad cold emails
While some cold emails can be well-written and provide a useful outline of a company’s services, there are plenty of poor-quality ones out there, and some common types that you may have received yourself. Let’s take a look at some real examples:
Example 1
The email below came from a Gmail address, rather than a professional business email address. There is no personalization in the subject line or the greeting, and the email copy is generally poorly written.
The sender does not include their business name or a link to a website, meaning it’s impossible to know who it’s from without sending a reply. They do not sign off the email with their name or include any company details in a signature. This type of cold email would go straight to our junk folder.
Example 2
This is another example of a cold email from a Gmail address which looks unprofessional. Again, there is no personalization in the subject line or the greeting. The sender does include their company’s name, but it looks like they have had a problem with their automation software, as they’ve included ‘your website’ rather than the recipient’s website or company name.
Summary
While cold emails still have their place as a marketing strategy, the data shows that personalization and well-written content are far more likely to elicit consumer engagement than generic, poor-quality emails.
An email that reaches out to someone directly with useful explanations and proven examples will garner much more success and prevent your cold emails from being sent straight to junk.
Methodology
We carried out a survey of 1,869 adults in the U.S. in July 2024 using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform. The aim of this survey was to find out how consumers feel about cold emails, and what makes them more or less likely to engage with them.
The breakdown of survey respondents was as follows:
Gender:
- Male – 51.1%
- Female – 46.9%
- Non-binary – 1.6%
- Transgender – 0.4%
Age:
- 18-27 – 10.2%
- 28-34 – 75.7%
- 44-59 – 9.7%
- 60-78 – 3.8%
- 79+ – 0.5%
The authors
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Our Methodology
This article has been written and researched following our EmailTooltester methodology.
Our Methodology