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?

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?

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?