The Best Cold Email Software for 2024
Cold email got a bad rap—but the only reason we ever got here is because most people aren’t doing it very well. Cold email for marketing agencies is still not the easiest topic to wrap your head around, however, it’s worth the effort.
In order to be successful, though, you need a cold email tool. It can help you organize your prospects, ensure that emails don’t end up in spam, and make responding to emails easier.
With the sheer amount of software available, let’s look at how you can choose the best tool for your cold email outreach, and the available software options.
What is cold email software?
Cold email software is a tool that helps you reach out to leads. This type of software is particularly useful for sales and marketing teams as it allows them to easily send out a large number of personalized emails in bulk without hurting domain reputation or landing in the spam box.
Different cold email tools have varying degrees of functionality. Some are more basic (they just help with A/B testing and bulk email sending for example), while others are more robust and can handle tasks such as scheduling, tracking responses, and analyzing data. They often integrate with your customer relationship management software, allow you to create follow-up sequences, or use AI to personalize the emails.
If you want to send cold emails successfully, here’s what you need to know about finding the best cold email software this year.
Good features for cold outreach email software
There are many cold email software features you could consider. However, some of the most important ones include the following.
A/B testing
A/B testing, also known as split testing, is an essential feature that allows you to compare two versions of your email to see which one performs better. By varying elements such as the subject line, email content, or send time, you can gather data on which variables most influence your open and conversion rates. This feature enables a more data-driven approach to your cold email campaigns, helping to optimize your strategies for better results.
Keep in mind that if you want to run proper A/B tests, you will first have to have a hypothesis and to only test one variable. Regardless of how great your cold email marketing software is, it won’t be able to give you accurate data if you don’t follow these principles.
Automatic follow-up
Automatic follow-up is a crucial feature that allows the system to send emails automatically if there is no response to the initial message. Thanks to email tracking functionality, cold leads are not lost due to a lack of engagement while also increasing conversion rates. Furthermore, automated follow-ups allow sales teams to spend less time on an otherwise manual task.
Email warmup
When you run cold email campaigns, you want to make sure that your email deliverability is top-notch and your emails do not go to the spam folder.
Email warmup is a feature that helps you establish a positive sender reputation by gradually increasing the number of emails sent over time. This ensures that email providers recognize you as a legitimate sender and improves your chances of landing in the recipient’s inbox.
Data analytics
Data analytics is an essential feature that allows you to track the performance of your cold email campaigns. It provides insights into open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates, allowing you to measure the success of your strategies and make data-driven decisions for future campaigns. Look for a cold email platform that offers comprehensive data sets with customizable reports.
Email reply inbox
The email reply inbox is another safety net for your cold email campaigns. It is a separate inbox where you can view and manage all the responses you receive from your cold emails. This feature makes it easier to keep track of potential leads and ensures that important replies don’t get lost.
Sender rotation
Sender rotation refers to the ability of a cold email tool to alternate between multiple email accounts when sending out emails. This helps to prevent any individual account from being flagged or marked as spam due to too many emails sent in a short amount of time. It also allows for more personalization by using different email addresses for the same campaign.
Email personalization
Personalized cold emails allow you to make them more personal and targeted, increasing the open and click rate. Personalization can include dynamic fields that automatically insert personalized details such as the recipient’s name or company into the email.
Some tools may also offer AI-powered personalization, which uses data analytics to create more targeted and individualized emails.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) in cold email tools can significantly enhance the personalization and effectiveness of your outreach campaigns. By analyzing data and previous interactions, AI algorithms can recommend the most opportune times to send emails, predict the best content and subject lines to increase open rates, and automate the creation of highly targeted messages. This level of personalization and efficiency not only saves time but also increases the likelihood of engaging potential clients effectively.
AI can also help you personalize your emails in an even more advanced way, such as by allowing the AI to make suggestions on how to finish your email copy according to the specific prospect data.
List building
Lastly, list building is another important feature of cold email tools. This feature should allow you to easily import or build targeted email lists based on specific criteria such as job titles, industries, and company sizes, i.e. US-based CFO email lists. The more targeted your list is, the higher the chances of success for your cold email campaigns.
Best cold email outreach software
There are a lot of cold email outreach software options out there, but the following are among the most popular ones.
Saleshandy
Saleshandy is one of the most well-known cold email tools out there. It comes with all the features you might need if you engage in cold email, from email sequences to lead finder, email warm-up, email tracker, sender rotation, auto follow-ups, and even a gamified score-based system for improving your emails.
On G2, Saleshandy has a score of 4.6 out of 5 stars from more than 550 users. Most of them tout the tool’s user-friendliness and smooth UX, but some are unhappy with certain limitations the tool has in place.
Pricing
Saleshandy comes in four versions (Cold Emailing, B2B Lead Finder, Agency, and Account Management Services), each of them with its tiered packages. The cost of these packages ranges from $25/month (for the most basic cold emailing tool) to $599/month (for agency cold emailing tool) and even as much as $4,500 (for the actual account management services).
Autoklose
Autoklose pushes the boundaries of cold email tools even more, with features focused on sales intelligence and data, real-time reporting, and AI assistant (email komposer) to help you create winning cold emails. In their own words, they are an “email engagement and B2B data platform all in one.”
On G2, Autoklose has 4.6 out of 5 stars from 260+ users. Most of them like that it is an intuitive platform and that all of the features help them send large numbers of emails in as little as one day. The real-time tracking is an appreciated feature as well.
Pricing
Similarly to Saleshandy, Autoklose has three main products: an email tool, a data tool, and a multichannel engagement tool. For each of these, they have three pricing plans you can choose from, ranging from $59.99/month/user to $3,000 (for the largest data bundle, for example).
Lemlist
Lemlist is an undeniable leader in its niche (personalization), with features such as lemwarm and email warmup that make it a great option for those who want to engage in highly personalized cold outreach campaigns. It also has all the main features one would expect from an email marketing tool: sequences, tracking, A/B testing, templates, etc.
On G2, Lemlist has 4.4 out of 5 stars from more than 220 users. Most of them tout the benefits of Lemlist’s personalization features, user-friendly interface, and integration with LinkedIn data and LinkedIn messages.
Pricing
Lemlist has four pricing packages, ranging from $39 to $159/user/month. All of the packages come with a 14-day free trial. The one with the lowest cost is more basic, but it still includes 450 databases you can pull data from, as well as a range of very solid features for your cold email campaigns.
Overloop
Overloop is a lesser-known cold email tool, but it has some unique features that make it stand out from the other more popular options. For example, Overloop also comes with LinkedIn automation and cold calling features—more than helpful for those of you who might be looking to create more comprehensive email outreach campaigns.
On G2, Overloop has 4.3 out of 5 stars from more than 120 users. Users appreciate its user-friendly interface, simple setup process, and strong customer support. Some have noted that the LinkedIn automation feature is a bit limited.
Pricing
Overloop has three pricing plans: Startup, Growth, and Enterprise. The cheapest one is €59/user/month, while the more expensive option is €149/user/month. All three packages come with features that are suited for their pricing category.
Woodpecker
Woodpecker is another popular option for cold email outreach, offering all the main features you might need to send effective and personalized emails in bulk. It also comes with advanced automation options and integrations with other tools such as Salesforce and Zapier.
On G2, Woodpecker has a 4.1 out of 5 stars score from less than 50 users. Most of them like how the tool unifies the experience across different team members, the ease of use, and the fact that you don’t need to go into a lot of detail with the tool onboarding (because everything is easy to use).
Pricing
Woodpecker’s pricing plan is straight to the point and easy to get: you pay according to the number of emails you plan to send. If you have up to 500 prospects, the cost for the tool will be $29/month. If you have 4,000 contacts, the cost will be $99/month; and if you have 25,000 contacts, the tool will cost $395/month.
Nureply
Nureply is more than a simple cold email tool. It also comes with a smart AI integration that helps you write hyper-personalized subject lines and emails, as well as send smart follow-ups automatically.
On G2, Nureply has 4.1 stars out of 5 from 14 users. What they like about it is its personalization capabilities and the option to set up automated email responses (which helps you make sure you don’t miss out on any email).
Pricing
Nureply comes with four pricing packages. The lowest one is $99/month, while the highest one is $389/month. They also have an extra package for enterprise/Fortune 500 businesses, for which they charge $30,000 for lifetime access (not as a recurring subscription).
SmartReach
SmartReach is almost a full-service platform for cold outreach. It can help with email automation, prospect management, team collaboration, and detailed analytics. Its API allows you to integrate it with virtually any tool, but they have some ready-to-use integrations as well.
On G2, SmartReach has 4.7 stars out of 5 from 45 users. The ones who like the tool say they appreciate the multichannel features, the ease of use, and the fact that it has helped them automate emails in a secure way.
Pricing
SmartReach has three main products: an email outreach one, a sales engagement one, and a tool built specifically for agencies. Each of these has its own pricing plans and add-ons you can add on top of the actual plan. For instance the least expensive plan is $29/month, but you can buy calling seats for $19/month as an addon.
Klenty
Klenty is a cold email outreach tool that helps you run outbound sales and account-based campaigns. Some of its features include the ability to engage with prospects on email, SMS, calls, and LinkedIn. Furthermore, the platform also allows you to implement behavior-based follow-ups and sequences too.
On G2, Klenty has 4.6 stars out of 5 from more than 350 users. Their favorite parts about this tool are its integrations, customer support, and the fact that it helps them save time and streamline their outreach efforts. They also say it’s easy to use, but allows for complex email flows, which is a major bonus when you want to stand out in inboxes.
Pricing
Klenty has three main products: the email automation tool, the conversation intelligence tool, and the prospecting data tool. Each of these has its own pricing packages, but for the cold email tool, you can expect to pay between $50/month and $100/month (or more, if you choose the enterprise version).
Pick the best platform to send cold emails from
The cold email process might feel overwhelming, specially with what feels like a saturated market. But each tool has its own specialty, audience, pluses, and minuses. Whether your priority is simplicity, automation, integration, or pricing flexibility, there’s a solution out there that fits.
Remember, the effectiveness of your outreach strategy hinges not just on the tool you choose, but also on how well you leverage its strengths to connect meaningfully with your audience. No tool in the world can replace solid prospect research and compelling copywriting.