Selecting the ideal cold email platform for enhancing lead generation and supporting outreach efforts is tough, especially when each claims to be the top choice.
Don’t worry, this article is a guide for you to pick the best email software to send cold emails.
Our comprehensive list of the 14 best cold email tools is finalized based on expert opinions, customer feedback, and our own thorough testing.
So, let’s dive deep in.
14 Best cold email software to drive more leads and boost outreach
Choosing the best software for cold email outreach is crucial for successful sales and marketing campaigns.
So, don’t restrict yourself to just a few choices. Instead, consider a wide array of cold email tools to find the one that best suits your needs.
The table below summarizes the top 14 cold email tools we’ve discussed, each carefully evaluated to help you make an informed decision.
Best cold email tools
Customer rating
Free trial
Pricing(Billed annually)
Salesmate
G2 – 4.6 Capterra – 4.7
Yes
$23/user/month
Lemlist
G2 – 4.3 Capterra – 4.6
Yes
$50/seat/month
Klenty
G2 – 4.6 Capterra – 4.6
Yes
$50/user/month
Woodpecker
G2 – 4.1 Capterra – 4.5
Yes
$25/month
QuickMail
G2 – 4.6 Capterra – 4.8
Yes
$49/month
Reply.io
G2 – 4.6 Capterra – 4.6
Yes
$60/user/month
Salesloft
G2- 4.5 Capterra – 4.4
No
Not mentioned on the website
Overloop
G2 – 4.3 Capterra – 4
Yes
$49/user/month
MixMax
G2 – 4.6 Capterra – 4.6
Yes
$29/user/month
Smartlead
G2 – 4.8 Capterra – 4.4
Yes
$33/month
Mailshake
G2 – 4.7 Capterra – 4.6
Yes
$58/user/month
SmartReach
G2 – 4.8 Capterra – 4.8
Yes
$29/user/month
Snovio
G2 – 4.5 Capterra – 4.6
Yes
$30/month
Outreach
G2 – 4.3 Capterra – 4.4
Yes
Not motioned on the website
Each email cold emailing tool is a strategic ally for seasoned marketers, sales outreach teams, and startups striving to make an impact. Let’s begin our learning.
1. Salesmate
Salesmate is a modern, AI-driven CRM and automation platform that excels in improving marketing, sales, and customer support activities.
It offers a complete cold email marketing solution with ease of use, personalization, and advanced analytics.
The CRM system auto-enriches the profile in your cold contact lists to get you details, like job titles, company details, and more. With this rich data, you can tailor your cold emails, making them more relevant and likely to get a response.
The Campaigns feature of Salesmate CRM enables users to create, manage, and track the performance of their email marketing campaigns.
Here are the top features that make Salesmate one of the best cold email marketing tools:
Personalization at scale: Salesmate auto-enriches CRM contacts and helps you personalize emails beyond the recipient’s name, enhancing the relevance of the outreach.
Target list creation: Filter contacts based on various criteria to create targeted lists for more effective cold outreach.
AI-powered email creation: You can create contextual emails faster than ever, providing quick edits and efficient campaign execution.
A/B and multi-variant testing: It allows you to compare different versions of your emails to see which ones are more effective. This helps to optimize subject lines and content to get more email open rates and engagement.
Automation: Build drip campaigns and channel journeys to engage and nurture cold prospects.
Sequences: The platformenables you to set up sequences of emails based on recipient behavior, ensuring timely and relevant automated follow-up.
Subscription management: Salesmate simplifies subscription management with automated opt-in/out and compliance tools.
Campaign analytics: Dedicated dashboard for each campaign analysis to get insights into performance metrics like open rates and click-through rates.
Additionally, features like email throttling, dedicated IP address, branded link tracking, etc., enhance your cold emailing deliverability and experience.
Salesmate suite of features makes cold email prospecting easier, allowing sales teams to focus on what they do best – Selling.
Additional key features:
Lead generation tools like Web Forms and Live Chat.
Custom lead scoring model to prioritize leads automatically.
Contact management platform to manage leads and client data effectively.
Omnichannel communication via emails, text messaging, and calling.
Sales forecasting to set and achieve new revenue goals.
Mobile CRM app to manage business on the go from anywhere.
Integration capabilities with about 700+ business tools.
Pricing plans:
Basic – $23/user/month
Pro – $39/user/month
Business – $63/user/month
Enterprise – Custom
Salesmate G2 review:
“The best thing about Salesmate is that I can track who opens my emails and clicks on the links I send, making it easier to identify interested leads.”
Best user-friendly interface and high customization options
Unbeatable AI-enabled CRM functionalities
Cons:
A steep learning curve for new users
2. Lemlist
Lemlist is one of the best platforms for cold email and is quite popular among small businesses and SaaS companies.
It includes an AI campaign generator for building personalizing campaigns and supports multiple channels like email and LinkedIn.
Users can personalize emails on a large scale to improve outcomes. Lemlist also includes a deliverability booster to reduce spam folder occurrences.
Additionally, it integrates with popular business tools to continuously support business growth.
Additional key features:
Unique image and video personalization in emails.
Automated follow-up sequences to increase response rates.
A/B testing to optimize campaign effectiveness.
Pricing plans:
Standard- $50/user/month
Pro – $83/user/month
Enterprise- Contact sales
Lemlist G2 review:
“Lemlist is an excellent tool that makes email campaigns easy with its seamless integration with other applications. Additionally, their customer service is exceptional.”
$50 for an email outreach and automation tool seems a bit pricey
Require creative input for personalization
3. Klenty
Klenty is a powerful sales automation tool that helps streamline the sales outreach strategy for teams. You can engage your target prospects with omnichannel outreach (email, LinkedIn, dialer, and SMS).
It is one of the best cold email tools that excels in automating personalized cold email outreach campaigns and follow-ups.
The platform is focused on enhancing the productivity of sales teams by reducing manual effort and increasing the impact of their email campaigns.
Klenty’s AI writer allows you to create email campaigns from scratch, including cold email templates and email cadences.
You can evaluate your marketing and sales campaign results with reports.
Additional key features:
Template and cadence creation for standardized communication.
Prospect IQ to help find prospective buyers.
Call IQ for recording, transcribing, and analyzing communication.
Sales sequences to support your sales strategy.
Pricing plans:
Startup – $50/user/month
Growth – $70/user/month
Pro – $100/user/month
Enterprise- Contact sales
Klenty G2 review:
“Klenty helps me generate leads to start my business. It’s simple, yet creates great emails. The support team is friendly and accessible, making me feel valued.”
Its user-friendly interface and high email deliverability make it one of the best cold email tools for businesses looking to enhance lead-generation efforts.
Additional key features:
Sales assistant to help you with multichannel communication.
Deliverability protection for your email account.
Scale; an AI tool to develop personalized videos for each prospect.
Pricing plans:
Woodpecker offers a plan called “Cold Email” worth $25 per month when billed annually. This plan includes 500 contacted prospects and allows for 2000 stored contacts.
Woodpecker G2 review:
“I like this email automation tool because it allows for A/B testing and has an intuitive and user-friendly dashboard.”
QuickMail is one of the favorite cold email automation tools among startups and small businesses for its focus on personalization.
The platform is effective for creating tailored cold emails and offers powerful email deliverability support.
Quickmail allows you to add unlimited team members, supporting effective coordination within your sales and marketing teams for more effective campaign management.
The platform offers features like follow-up sequences, detailed analytics, and A/B testing to optimize campaign performance.
Additional key features:
Free AutoWarmer with MailFlow integration.Email deliverability score based on your last 10 days’ sending.
Provides multiple inboxes for each campaign to scale and save time.
Pricing plans:
Basic plan – $49/user/month
Pro plan – $89/user/month
Expert plans – $129/user/month
Quickmail G2 review:
“The best tool for cold email outreach! It’s highly effective, has an auto warm-up feature, and offers detailed campaign reporting. I highly recommend it.”
Advanced analytics isn’t offered with the basic plan
Steeper learning curve
6. Reply.io
Reply is an AI-powered sales engagement platform designed to create sales opportunities at scale.
It provides a multi-channel sales engagement experience, which allows businesses to create tailored sequences using email and social media automation.
The platform is one of the best cold email software for deliverability, offering tools like Email Health Check that monitor domain settings and prevent common mistakes.
Further, Reply has partnered with MailToaster to improve sender reputation and has integrated with Google Postmaster to manage email performance and spam complaints.
The platform also includes an AI Sales Assistant to help compose emails and handle common customer responses, streamlining the initiation of meaningful conversations.
Additional key features:
Multi-channel sequencing for emails, calls, and social touches.
AI-driven email sorting and response classification.
It offers extensive filters to target the right prospects.
Integration with popular CRMs and sales tools.
Pricing plans:
Reply offers a free plan with 200 credits per month. It offers three paid plans –
Starter – $60/user/month
Professional – $90/user/month
Custom – Talk to sales
Reply G2 review:
“I like Reply for semi-automatic outreach. It has package pricing and features that let me personalize messages for each prospect. Since it’s our first outreach tool, I can’t speak to transitioning from others.”
Salesloft is considered one of the leading cold email prospecting tools with powerful automation and engagement toolsets.
Cold email campaign tools like email sentiment tracking, automated email cadences, and A/B testing help you improve email response rates.
Salesloft Cadence plays an integral role in generating quality B2B leads. It provides an intuitive platform for engaging potential customers, developing targeted campaigns, and automating follow-up emails.
It also offers real-time analytics of email campaigns, enabling sales teams to make data-driven decisions and refine their cold emailing strategies for maximum impact.
Additional key features:
Cadence to streamline your outreach with automation capabilities
Real-time insights into your sales pipeline for better deal management.
Conversation intelligence to transform interactions into opportunities.
Sales forecasting software to predict future sales plans and outcomes.
Pricing plans:
SalesLoft has three plans: Essentials, Advanced, and Premier. The pricing is not available on their website, you need to contact their representative to get the prices.
Salesloft G2 review:
“Salesloft streamlines my outreach process and helps me customize my sales approach for different prospects.”
Limited feature in terms of insights under the essential plan
8. Overloop
Overloop offers a powerful and user-friendly platform for boosting sales and revenue through personalized and efficient outbound strategies.
The platform integrates cold emails, LinkedIn automation, and phone calls, making it a comprehensive solution for sales teams, especially in small and medium businesses.
It allows teams to send personalized cold email campaigns, automate LinkedIn outreach, and efficiently manage sales pipelines.
This all-in-one platform also tracks sales performance, helping businesses close more deals.
Additional key features:
Multi-channel outbound campaigns to drive more sales.
Automated follow-ups and workflows to boost productivity.
LinkedIn automation and enrichment.
Capable of integrating with top CRMs and other business apps.
Pricing plans:
Startup – $49/user/month
Growth – $99/user/month
Enterprise- $149/user/month
Overloop G2 review:
“This app offers impressive email automation features, making email management easy. Integration is simple, plus you can manage all accounts in one place. Automated emails can also be generated and scheduled on a large scale.”
Each plan includes all features with usage caps based on the plan level
Cons:
Pricing exceeds the feature set offered
Some users find the user interface less intuitive
9. Mixmax
Mixmax is a sales engagement platform that helps to build customized outreach campaigns, enabling sales revenue-making opportunities.
It is one of the best cold email outreach tools, offering customizable templates, productivity, and email tracking features.
You can create engaging sequences across email, phone, and social media to start more conversations with prospects and customers and provide personalized experiences on a larger scale.
Further, you can enhance your email campaigns with GIFs, embed polls, or URL previews.
Also, it allows you to integrate your email with Google Calendar, making it easier for customers and candidates to schedule meetings by adding clickable dates and times in your messages.
Additional key features:
Mixmax AI to create email content faster and engage intelligently.
Reporting dashboard to gain actionable insights into your sales pipelines.
Sidechat for quick replies.
One-click meeting scheduling within emails.
Pricing plans:
Mixmax offers a free plan that includes instant scheduling, unlimited event types, email tracking, templates, polls & surveys, and top-notch security.
There are four paid plans available –
SMB- $29/user/month
Growth – $49/user/month
Growth + Salesforce – $69/user/month
Enterprise – Custom pricing
Mixmax G2 review:
“You can save your crafted emails as templates and create a library of scripts that can be shared with your colleagues. Additionally, you can create “Sequences” similar to drip campaigns, bringing the automation and features of big email providers to your Gmail account.”
Crucial features like tasks and automation are offered only with the Enterprise plan
Too pricey for startups and SMBs with little budget
10. Smartlead
Smartlead stands out among the best cold email platforms, offering a dynamic solution for businesses looking to enhance their outreach and revenue generation.
It is a comprehensive tool that provides unlimited mailboxes, warmups, and a versatile multi-channel infrastructure, making it an all-in-one platform for managing the entire revenue cycle.
This powerful tool enables users to expand their outreach without facing the limitations of daily quotas or email reputation issues.
You can easily create campaigns, connect mailboxes, and efficiently auto-rotate messages, all within this single platform.
Smartlead extends its capabilities across multiple channels, including Email, SMS, Twitter, WhatsApp, and more, making it an ideal choice for multi-channel outreach.
Additional key features:
Dynamic IP address per campaign.
Email follow-up automation.
Customized white labelling.
Centralized master inbox.
Pricing plans:
Basic plan – $33/user/month
Popular plan – $65/user/month
Pro plan – $78/user/month
Custom plan – Contact sales
Smartlead G2 review:
“Smartlead is the best cold email platform for lead generation agencies. It’s user-friendly, intuitive, and comes packed with features like unlimited rotating emails, AI-optimized sending, centralized master inbox, and email warmup, enabling us to scale our outreach efforts.”
Mailshake is a dedicated cold email software that elevates your sales outreach strategies.
It ensures your messages are precise and targeted, significantly reducing the chances of landing in the spam folder. Also, it automates and personalizes your campaigns, boosting your team’s productivity.
Additionally, it helps in managing multi-channel outreach, ensuring your sales messages are engaging and reach the right audience.
With features like LinkedIn Automation and Pipeline-Focused Analytics, Mailshake is an advanced platform that addresses the modern needs of sales teams.
Additional key features:
Data finder to find potential prospects.
Mailshake lead catcher for managing leads.
Automated follow-ups and response tracking.
VoIP system for cold calling.
Pricing plans:
Sales engagement – $58/user/month
Team – Talk to sales
Unlimited – Talk to sales
Mailshake G2 review:
“Mailshake is an excellent email management software. The tracking features are helpful when determining good leads of a campaign.”
Support social selling with LinkedIn automation and browser extension
Cons:
No free trial offered
Can be costly for full-feature access
12. SmartReach
SmartReach is an AI-powered sales engagement platform that helps sales teams to achieve their targets. The platform offers multichannel outreach, shared inbox, AI content creation, and cold emailing.
It allows for omnichannel sequences, task management, and end-to-end LinkedIn automation, making it a comprehensive tool for sales engagement.
SmartReach provides detailed insights to optimize the sales pipeline and team performance.
Additional key features:
AI-driven email content writing.
Advanced email sequencing.
Warmup emails using the WarmupHero platform.
Reply sentiment report to analyze response tones for better insights.
SmartReach G2 review
SmartReach is a user-friendly platform for cold email outreach campaigns. It offers merged fields, click tracking, A/B testing, and an easy setup process.
May require additional customization for specific business needs
Priority support is not given at lower plans
13. Snovio
Snov.io is a versatile sales automation platform that helps teams scale their operations and improve lead engagement.
You can build drip campaigns for personalized email outreach and conduct unlimited follow-ups on autopilot.
Snovio supports teams to boost their lead generation with a comprehensive set of sales tools like email finder, verifier for email validation, and warm-up.
You can integrate the platform with more than 5000 platforms, making your workflow easier.
Additional key features:
AI conversation generator.
Sales CRM to streamline workflow and optimize processes.
Domain health checker.
Customizable pipelines.
Pricing plans:
Snovio offers a free trial plan with 50 credits to leverage the tool.
Other than this, you will find three paid plans –
Starter – $30/user/month
Pro – $75/user/month
Managed service – $3999/month
Snovio G2 review:
“Snovio is a very helpful tool when you need to send emails quickly. I work with people from different countries, ranging from Europe to Latin America, so the message-sending schedule is an important factor for me. Fortunately, I can easily set it up myself.”
Most of the teamwork features aren’t offered in the starter plan
Steep learning curve
14. Outreach
Outreach is a sales engagement platform that aims to transform the way sales teams interact with prospects. This tool has a wide range of features designed to simplify the sales process.
You can conduct personalized outreach and automate follow-ups, ensuring any potential leads slip through the cracks due to oversights or delayed responses.
Moreover, the platform offers various tools that allow sales representatives to customize their interactions with prospects.
This personalization is not limited to using the prospect’s name or company but extends to tailoring communication based on the prospect’s behavior, needs, and past engagement.
Additional key features:
Deal management for better deal closure rates.
Conversation intelligence to gather insights from customer interactions.
Rep coaching to enhance sales team skills for improved performance.
Sales forecasting for strategic planning and resource allocation.
Pricing plans:
According to the latest update on Outreach’s website, they offer plans: Plans for everyone, which include Standard and Professional, and Plans for Enterprise, which include Enterprise and Unlimited.
The website does not provide pricing information for these plans, so you will need to connect with Outreach to request pricing details for each plan.
Outreach G2 review:
“Outreach is intuitive and easy to use. I can customize my cadences for calls, emails, and LinkedIn. I get quick responses with multiple ways to contact people.”
If you’re feeling indecisive about which option to choose from the above cold email tools, don’t worry.
Our next section will guide you in selecting the right cold email software that suits your specific needs and goals.
How to choose the best cold email software for your needs?
When it comes to selecting the best cold email drip software for your business, there are many factors that you need to consider. These may include your current and future business needs, budget, and overall strategies.
To help you choose the best cold email outreach software, we have outlined some steps below that can help you shortlist or finalize your decision.
Let’s go through each step and determine which one is the right fit for you:
1. Assess the essential features of cold email software
The best tools for cold email are the ones that streamline your campaign efforts and enhance the effectiveness of your outreach.
Here’s a closer look at the key features:
Personalization capabilities: Advanced personalization features can significantly enhance engagement with your audience.
Automation of email sequences: The software should be capable of automating email sequences, allowing for efficient follow-ups.
A/B testing(Split testing): It lets you compare different versions of an email, and you gain valuable insights into what drives higher engagement, helping to shape more effective email marketing strategies.
Email tracking and analytics: Analytics help in understanding the effectiveness of your personalized email campaigns and making data-driven decisions.
Integration with CRM and other marketing tools: Seamless integration facilitates a cohesive outreach strategy.
2. Prioritize cold email outreach tools with high deliverability
Cold email tools with high deliverability rates are dominating the cold outreach solution market. Check for the following in your selected cold email software:
Spam compliance and reputation management: The software should ensure compliance with best practices to maintain a good sender reputation and minimize spam flags.
Email verification and list cleaning: Features that clean and verify email lists can improve your overall campaign deliverability.
Ensure it enables a warm-up email domain feature: This will help you build a good sender reputation and improve email deliverability.
3. Verify security measures and data protection protocols
Ensuring robust data security and compliance is crucial when selecting cold email software.
The platform must implement rigorous security protocols and comply with data protection regulations like the GDPR. This guarantees the safe handling and privacy of user data.
4. Check customer reviews for each potential tool
Look for customer feedback on trusted software review platforms like G2 or Capterra to gauge the software’s real-world performance and user satisfaction.
5. Assess customization and flexibility
When choosing the best cold email platform, evaluate its customization and flexibility, ensuring it can adapt to your specific cold emailing needs and other growth strategies.
Consider platforms that offer a high degree of customization, allowing for tailored solutions that align with your unique business requirements and goals.
6. Seek out innovative features in the options available
Many robust cold email tools are offering intelligence support, making the process more effective and faster.
So, prioritize solutions that continuously innovate and adapt, ensuring your cold email campaigns remain effective and ahead of the curve.
7. Consider cost-efficiency and ROI
Look up if the cold email tools you’re considering offer value about their cost.
Invest in a solution that fits your budget and promises a significant return through enhanced email campaign performance and lead generation.
8. Utilize free trials and demos
Free trials help evaluate software before making a financial commitment.
Leveraging free trials to assess all the potential cold email tools features, user interface, and effectiveness in real-world scenarios to ensure it fits your needs. It aids in making an informed decision and ensures your investment is well-placed.
9. Review the customer support and resources
Quality customer support can significantly enhance your experience with the software.
Access to educational resources such as guides and community forums is beneficial, especially for those new to cold emailing.
By carefully considering these points, you can select a cold email outreach tool that not only aligns with your marketing goals but also enhances your outreach strategies and contributes to a strong return on investment.
What are the cold emailing best practices to follow?
Investing in cold email software alone is not enough to ensure success. To make your cold emails effective, you need to develop a strategy for your email marketing and implement best practices for cold emailing.
There are 11 cold emailing best practices that you should learn and start applying to improve your cold outreach.
1. Verify the email addresses
Regularly update your customer database with accurate contact information to save time and resources.
2. Segment your email list
Divide your email list into groups based on relevant criteria to ensure targeted and effective messaging.
3. Optimize your email design and formatting
Ensure your emails are responsive across various devices. Maintain a balanced text-to-image ratio and include plain text alternatives.
4. Craft creative and concise subject lines
Create subject lines that are engaging, informative, and personalized. Keep them short, ideally under 50 characters.
Tailor your emails to the individual recipient, making them feel directly addressed. Use their name, company name, or other relevant details in the subject line and email body.
Test different elements in your cold emails, such as subject lines, calls-to-action, images, etc., to optimize open and response rates.
7. Test and monitor email deliverability
Regularly check your emails on different platforms to ensure they display correctly. Monitor key metrics like open rates and bounce rates to optimize your strategy.
8. Monitor blacklists and feedback loops
Stay alert to any blacklisting of your domain or IP and address it promptly. Utilize feedback loops with ISPs for direct recipient complaints.
Always provide a straightforward unsubscribe link in your emails, allowing recipients to opt out easily and protect your sender’s reputation.
Wrap up on best cold email tools
To improve your cold emailing campaigns and increase your open and response rates, consider using the best cold email software combined with a personalized approach.
This can help you build unforgettable connections and drive growth for your business.
When evaluating different cold email tools, it’s essential to consider various factors that align with your business lead-generation goals.
Investing in a CRM with email marketing features like Salesmate can be an intelligent choice, as you’ll get access to many other sales and marketing growth features at a similar or lower cost.
Salesmate offers the best email tools for cold outreach, such as
Advanced segmentation for personalized campaigns
Automated email sequences
Detailed tracking for opens and clicks
A/B testing capabilities
And many more endless growth features!
It is an AI-driven platform that can help streamline your entire business interactions and boost sales opportunities with analytics.
If you’re aiming to boost your lead generation game with personalized outreach, take the Salesmate 15-day FREE trial and witness growth.
Frequently asked questions
What is a cold email tool?
A cold email tool is software specifically designed to send unrequested emails to potential customers who have not had any prior contact with the sender.
The best cold email marketing platforms come with features like personalization, automation, and analytics that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of email campaigns.
What is the difference between spam and cold email?
Cold emails and spam have one key difference: their targeting and content relevance. Cold emails are personalized messages sent to potential customers, offering value to generate interest in the sender’s products or services.
On the other hand, spam involves sending irrelevant or unwanted content to a broad audience without any targeting or personalization. Spam is often unsolicited and does not offer any real value to the recipients.
What is the best software for cold emailing?
The best cold emailing software for your sales team is the one that meets your specific needs and lifts your outreach and sales game with powerful features.
The popular choices for cold emailing software include Salesmate for its CRM integration and analytics, Lemlist for AI-driven campaigns and multi-channel support, and Klenty for sales automation and personalization.
How does your cold email tool impact your deliverability?
The effectiveness of a cold email tool in terms of deliverability depends on several factors such as:
Reputable email service provider: Enhances email deliverability.
DNS record authentication: Ensuring SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are in place.
Gradual email volume increase: Important for new domains to build reputation.
Clear unsubscribe options: To reduce spam reports.
Engagement focus: Updating content and testing for better engagement.
Best practices compliance: Maintain low bounce rates, manage complaint rates, format emails correctly, and avoid spam traps.
Understanding ISP (Internet Service Provider) Limits: ISP’s sending limits and blacklists can affect deliverability.
These factors collectively determine how effectively your cold emails reach the intended inbox.
How many cold emails should I send to get a potential client?
The number of cold emails needed to acquire a client can vary significantly depending on factors like your industry, target audience behavior, the quality of your email list, and how well your emails resonate with the recipients.
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. However, you can always test and optimize different strategies to find what works best for your target audience.
What is the difference between a sales engagement tool and cold email software?
A sales engagement tool is a platform used to streamline and enhance interactions between sales teams and prospects. It enables various communication channels (emails, text, and calling) and automation capabilities for more effective engagement and follow-up.
On the other hand, cold email software is a more specialized tool that mainly focuses on managing, sending, and tracking cold email campaigns.
Sonali Negi
Sonali is a writer born out of her utmost passion for writing. She is working with a passionate team of content creators at Salesmate. She enjoys learning about new ideas in marketing and sales. She is an optimistic girl and endeavors to bring the best out of every situation. In her free time, she loves to introspect and observe people.
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Key Takeaways
Cold email marketing software with features like personalization, automation, and analytics simplifies your work and enhances lead generation.
A study by Backlinko reveals that personalization can boost reply rates by 142%.
Selecting the ideal cold email platform for enhancing lead generation and supporting outreach efforts is tough, especially when each claims to be the top choice.
Don’t worry, this article is a guide for you to pick the best email software to send cold emails.
Our comprehensive list of the 14 best cold email tools is finalized based on expert opinions, customer feedback, and our own thorough testing.
So, let’s dive deep in.
14 Best cold email software to drive more leads and boost outreach
Choosing the best software for cold email outreach is crucial for successful sales and marketing campaigns.
So, don’t restrict yourself to just a few choices. Instead, consider a wide array of cold email tools to find the one that best suits your needs.
The table below summarizes the top 14 cold email tools we’ve discussed, each carefully evaluated to help you make an informed decision.
Each email cold emailing tool is a strategic ally for seasoned marketers, sales outreach teams, and startups striving to make an impact. Let’s begin our learning.
1. Salesmate
Salesmate is a modern, AI-driven CRM and automation platform that excels in improving marketing, sales, and customer support activities.
It offers a complete cold email marketing solution with ease of use, personalization, and advanced analytics.
The CRM system auto-enriches the profile in your cold contact lists to get you details, like job titles, company details, and more. With this rich data, you can tailor your cold emails, making them more relevant and likely to get a response.
The Campaigns feature of Salesmate CRM enables users to create, manage, and track the performance of their email marketing campaigns.
Here are the top features that make Salesmate one of the best cold email marketing tools:
Additionally, features like email throttling, dedicated IP address, branded link tracking, etc., enhance your cold emailing deliverability and experience.
Salesmate suite of features makes cold email prospecting easier, allowing sales teams to focus on what they do best – Selling.
Additional key features:
Pricing plans:
Basic – $23/user/month
Pro – $39/user/month
Business – $63/user/month
Enterprise – Custom
Salesmate G2 review:
“The best thing about Salesmate is that I can track who opens my emails and clicks on the links I send, making it easier to identify interested leads.”
Read full review->
Pros:
Cons:
2. Lemlist
Lemlist is one of the best platforms for cold email and is quite popular among small businesses and SaaS companies.
It includes an AI campaign generator for building personalizing campaigns and supports multiple channels like email and LinkedIn.
Users can personalize emails on a large scale to improve outcomes. Lemlist also includes a deliverability booster to reduce spam folder occurrences.
Additionally, it integrates with popular business tools to continuously support business growth.
Additional key features:
Pricing plans:
Standard- $50/user/month
Pro – $83/user/month
Enterprise- Contact sales
Lemlist G2 review:
“Lemlist is an excellent tool that makes email campaigns easy with its seamless integration with other applications. Additionally, their customer service is exceptional.”
Read full review->
Pros:
Cons:
3. Klenty
Klenty is a powerful sales automation tool that helps streamline the sales outreach strategy for teams. You can engage your target prospects with omnichannel outreach (email, LinkedIn, dialer, and SMS).
It is one of the best cold email tools that excels in automating personalized cold email outreach campaigns and follow-ups.
The platform is focused on enhancing the productivity of sales teams by reducing manual effort and increasing the impact of their email campaigns.
Klenty’s AI writer allows you to create email campaigns from scratch, including cold email templates and email cadences.
You can evaluate your marketing and sales campaign results with reports.
Additional key features:
Pricing plans:
Startup – $50/user/month
Growth – $70/user/month
Pro – $100/user/month
Enterprise- Contact sales
Klenty G2 review:
“Klenty helps me generate leads to start my business. It’s simple, yet creates great emails. The support team is friendly and accessible, making me feel valued.”
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4. Woodpecker
Woodpecker specializes in B2B companies, offering a robust platform for automating and personalizing cold emails and follow-ups.
It is highly regarded for its ability to personalize emails at scale and for automated follow-up sequences that adapt based on recipient actions.
Woodpecker provides detailed analytics on email performance and integrates well with Salesmate CRM and other business tools.
Its user-friendly interface and high email deliverability make it one of the best cold email tools for businesses looking to enhance lead-generation efforts.
Additional key features:
Pricing plans:
Woodpecker offers a plan called “Cold Email” worth $25 per month when billed annually. This plan includes 500 contacted prospects and allows for 2000 stored contacts.
Woodpecker G2 review:
“I like this email automation tool because it allows for A/B testing and has an intuitive and user-friendly dashboard.”
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5. QuickMail
QuickMail is one of the favorite cold email automation tools among startups and small businesses for its focus on personalization.
The platform is effective for creating tailored cold emails and offers powerful email deliverability support.
Quickmail allows you to add unlimited team members, supporting effective coordination within your sales and marketing teams for more effective campaign management.
The platform offers features like follow-up sequences, detailed analytics, and A/B testing to optimize campaign performance.
Additional key features:
Pricing plans:
Basic plan – $49/user/month
Pro plan – $89/user/month
Expert plans – $129/user/month
Quickmail G2 review:
“The best tool for cold email outreach! It’s highly effective, has an auto warm-up feature, and offers detailed campaign reporting. I highly recommend it.”
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6. Reply.io
Reply is an AI-powered sales engagement platform designed to create sales opportunities at scale.
It provides a multi-channel sales engagement experience, which allows businesses to create tailored sequences using email and social media automation.
The platform is one of the best cold email software for deliverability, offering tools like Email Health Check that monitor domain settings and prevent common mistakes.
Further, Reply has partnered with MailToaster to improve sender reputation and has integrated with Google Postmaster to manage email performance and spam complaints.
The platform also includes an AI Sales Assistant to help compose emails and handle common customer responses, streamlining the initiation of meaningful conversations.
Additional key features:
Pricing plans:
Reply offers a free plan with 200 credits per month. It offers three paid plans –
Starter – $60/user/month
Professional – $90/user/month
Custom – Talk to sales
Reply G2 review:
“I like Reply for semi-automatic outreach. It has package pricing and features that let me personalize messages for each prospect. Since it’s our first outreach tool, I can’t speak to transitioning from others.”
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7. Salesloft
Salesloft is considered one of the leading cold email prospecting tools with powerful automation and engagement toolsets.
Cold email campaign tools like email sentiment tracking, automated email cadences, and A/B testing help you improve email response rates.
Salesloft Cadence plays an integral role in generating quality B2B leads. It provides an intuitive platform for engaging potential customers, developing targeted campaigns, and automating follow-up emails.
It also offers real-time analytics of email campaigns, enabling sales teams to make data-driven decisions and refine their cold emailing strategies for maximum impact.
Additional key features:
Pricing plans:
SalesLoft has three plans: Essentials, Advanced, and Premier. The pricing is not available on their website, you need to contact their representative to get the prices.
Salesloft G2 review:
“Salesloft streamlines my outreach process and helps me customize my sales approach for different prospects.”
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8. Overloop
Overloop offers a powerful and user-friendly platform for boosting sales and revenue through personalized and efficient outbound strategies.
The platform integrates cold emails, LinkedIn automation, and phone calls, making it a comprehensive solution for sales teams, especially in small and medium businesses.
It allows teams to send personalized cold email campaigns, automate LinkedIn outreach, and efficiently manage sales pipelines.
This all-in-one platform also tracks sales performance, helping businesses close more deals.
Additional key features:
Pricing plans:
Startup – $49/user/month
Growth – $99/user/month
Enterprise- $149/user/month
Overloop G2 review:
“This app offers impressive email automation features, making email management easy. Integration is simple, plus you can manage all accounts in one place. Automated emails can also be generated and scheduled on a large scale.”
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9. Mixmax
Mixmax is a sales engagement platform that helps to build customized outreach campaigns, enabling sales revenue-making opportunities.
It is one of the best cold email outreach tools, offering customizable templates, productivity, and email tracking features.
You can create engaging sequences across email, phone, and social media to start more conversations with prospects and customers and provide personalized experiences on a larger scale.
Further, you can enhance your email campaigns with GIFs, embed polls, or URL previews.
Also, it allows you to integrate your email with Google Calendar, making it easier for customers and candidates to schedule meetings by adding clickable dates and times in your messages.
Additional key features:
Pricing plans:
Mixmax offers a free plan that includes instant scheduling, unlimited event types, email tracking, templates, polls & surveys, and top-notch security.
There are four paid plans available –
SMB- $29/user/month
Growth – $49/user/month
Growth + Salesforce – $69/user/month
Enterprise – Custom pricing
Mixmax G2 review:
“You can save your crafted emails as templates and create a library of scripts that can be shared with your colleagues. Additionally, you can create “Sequences” similar to drip campaigns, bringing the automation and features of big email providers to your Gmail account.”
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10. Smartlead
Smartlead stands out among the best cold email platforms, offering a dynamic solution for businesses looking to enhance their outreach and revenue generation.
It is a comprehensive tool that provides unlimited mailboxes, warmups, and a versatile multi-channel infrastructure, making it an all-in-one platform for managing the entire revenue cycle.
This powerful tool enables users to expand their outreach without facing the limitations of daily quotas or email reputation issues.
You can easily create campaigns, connect mailboxes, and efficiently auto-rotate messages, all within this single platform.
Smartlead extends its capabilities across multiple channels, including Email, SMS, Twitter, WhatsApp, and more, making it an ideal choice for multi-channel outreach.
Additional key features:
Pricing plans:
Basic plan – $33/user/month
Popular plan – $65/user/month
Pro plan – $78/user/month
Custom plan – Contact sales
Smartlead G2 review:
“Smartlead is the best cold email platform for lead generation agencies. It’s user-friendly, intuitive, and comes packed with features like unlimited rotating emails, AI-optimized sending, centralized master inbox, and email warmup, enabling us to scale our outreach efforts.”
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11. Mailshake
Mailshake is a dedicated cold email software that elevates your sales outreach strategies.
It ensures your messages are precise and targeted, significantly reducing the chances of landing in the spam folder. Also, it automates and personalizes your campaigns, boosting your team’s productivity.
Additionally, it helps in managing multi-channel outreach, ensuring your sales messages are engaging and reach the right audience.
With features like LinkedIn Automation and Pipeline-Focused Analytics, Mailshake is an advanced platform that addresses the modern needs of sales teams.
Additional key features:
Pricing plans:
Sales engagement – $58/user/month
Team – Talk to sales
Unlimited – Talk to sales
Mailshake G2 review:
“Mailshake is an excellent email management software. The tracking features are helpful when determining good leads of a campaign.”
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12. SmartReach
SmartReach is an AI-powered sales engagement platform that helps sales teams to achieve their targets. The platform offers multichannel outreach, shared inbox, AI content creation, and cold emailing.
It allows for omnichannel sequences, task management, and end-to-end LinkedIn automation, making it a comprehensive tool for sales engagement.
SmartReach provides detailed insights to optimize the sales pipeline and team performance.
Additional key features:
SmartReach G2 review
SmartReach is a user-friendly platform for cold email outreach campaigns. It offers merged fields, click tracking, A/B testing, and an easy setup process.
Read full review->
Pricing plans:
Email outreach – $23/seat/month
Sales engagement – $39/seat/month
Agency – Talk to sales
Enterprise – Talk to sales
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13. Snovio
Snov.io is a versatile sales automation platform that helps teams scale their operations and improve lead engagement.
You can build drip campaigns for personalized email outreach and conduct unlimited follow-ups on autopilot.
Snovio supports teams to boost their lead generation with a comprehensive set of sales tools like email finder, verifier for email validation, and warm-up.
You can integrate the platform with more than 5000 platforms, making your workflow easier.
Additional key features:
Pricing plans:
Snovio offers a free trial plan with 50 credits to leverage the tool.
Other than this, you will find three paid plans –
Starter – $30/user/month
Pro – $75/user/month
Managed service – $3999/month
Snovio G2 review:
“Snovio is a very helpful tool when you need to send emails quickly. I work with people from different countries, ranging from Europe to Latin America, so the message-sending schedule is an important factor for me. Fortunately, I can easily set it up myself.”
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14. Outreach
Outreach is a sales engagement platform that aims to transform the way sales teams interact with prospects. This tool has a wide range of features designed to simplify the sales process.
You can conduct personalized outreach and automate follow-ups, ensuring any potential leads slip through the cracks due to oversights or delayed responses.
Moreover, the platform offers various tools that allow sales representatives to customize their interactions with prospects.
This personalization is not limited to using the prospect’s name or company but extends to tailoring communication based on the prospect’s behavior, needs, and past engagement.
Additional key features:
Pricing plans:
According to the latest update on Outreach’s website, they offer plans: Plans for everyone, which include Standard and Professional, and Plans for Enterprise, which include Enterprise and Unlimited.
The website does not provide pricing information for these plans, so you will need to connect with Outreach to request pricing details for each plan.
Outreach G2 review:
“Outreach is intuitive and easy to use. I can customize my cadences for calls, emails, and LinkedIn. I get quick responses with multiple ways to contact people.”
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If you’re feeling indecisive about which option to choose from the above cold email tools, don’t worry.
Our next section will guide you in selecting the right cold email software that suits your specific needs and goals.
How to choose the best cold email software for your needs?
When it comes to selecting the best cold email drip software for your business, there are many factors that you need to consider. These may include your current and future business needs, budget, and overall strategies.
To help you choose the best cold email outreach software, we have outlined some steps below that can help you shortlist or finalize your decision.
Let’s go through each step and determine which one is the right fit for you:
1. Assess the essential features of cold email software
The best tools for cold email are the ones that streamline your campaign efforts and enhance the effectiveness of your outreach.
Here’s a closer look at the key features:
2. Prioritize cold email outreach tools with high deliverability
Cold email tools with high deliverability rates are dominating the cold outreach solution market. Check for the following in your selected cold email software:
3. Verify security measures and data protection protocols
Ensuring robust data security and compliance is crucial when selecting cold email software.
The platform must implement rigorous security protocols and comply with data protection regulations like the GDPR. This guarantees the safe handling and privacy of user data.
4. Check customer reviews for each potential tool
Look for customer feedback on trusted software review platforms like G2 or Capterra to gauge the software’s real-world performance and user satisfaction.
5. Assess customization and flexibility
When choosing the best cold email platform, evaluate its customization and flexibility, ensuring it can adapt to your specific cold emailing needs and other growth strategies.
Consider platforms that offer a high degree of customization, allowing for tailored solutions that align with your unique business requirements and goals.
6. Seek out innovative features in the options available
Many robust cold email tools are offering intelligence support, making the process more effective and faster.
So, prioritize solutions that continuously innovate and adapt, ensuring your cold email campaigns remain effective and ahead of the curve.
7. Consider cost-efficiency and ROI
Look up if the cold email tools you’re considering offer value about their cost.
Invest in a solution that fits your budget and promises a significant return through enhanced email campaign performance and lead generation.
8. Utilize free trials and demos
Free trials help evaluate software before making a financial commitment.
Leveraging free trials to assess all the potential cold email tools features, user interface, and effectiveness in real-world scenarios to ensure it fits your needs. It aids in making an informed decision and ensures your investment is well-placed.
9. Review the customer support and resources
Quality customer support can significantly enhance your experience with the software.
Access to educational resources such as guides and community forums is beneficial, especially for those new to cold emailing.
By carefully considering these points, you can select a cold email outreach tool that not only aligns with your marketing goals but also enhances your outreach strategies and contributes to a strong return on investment.
What are the cold emailing best practices to follow?
Investing in cold email software alone is not enough to ensure success. To make your cold emails effective, you need to develop a strategy for your email marketing and implement best practices for cold emailing.
There are 11 cold emailing best practices that you should learn and start applying to improve your cold outreach.
1. Verify the email addresses
Regularly update your customer database with accurate contact information to save time and resources.
2. Segment your email list
Divide your email list into groups based on relevant criteria to ensure targeted and effective messaging.
3. Optimize your email design and formatting
Ensure your emails are responsive across various devices. Maintain a balanced text-to-image ratio and include plain text alternatives.
4. Craft creative and concise subject lines
Create subject lines that are engaging, informative, and personalized. Keep them short, ideally under 50 characters.
As per a study sending cold emails that are highly customized can increase the reply rates by 142%. So, personalize your cold email subject lines to boost open rates.
5. Personalize each message
Tailor your emails to the individual recipient, making them feel directly addressed. Use their name, company name, or other relevant details in the subject line and email body.
6. Follow A/Z testing methods
Test different elements in your cold emails, such as subject lines, calls-to-action, images, etc., to optimize open and response rates.
7. Test and monitor email deliverability
Regularly check your emails on different platforms to ensure they display correctly. Monitor key metrics like open rates and bounce rates to optimize your strategy.
8. Monitor blacklists and feedback loops
Stay alert to any blacklisting of your domain or IP and address it promptly. Utilize feedback loops with ISPs for direct recipient complaints.
9. Use multiple email accounts for campaigns
The best cold email tools let you employ various email accounts for cold emailing to avoid spam flags and test different approaches.
10. Send automated follow-up emails
Persist with follow-up emails if there is no initial response. This shows your genuine interest and can increase response rates.
Here’s how Salesmate makes the follow-up process simple and effective:
11. Ensure easy opt-outs for recipients
Always provide a straightforward unsubscribe link in your emails, allowing recipients to opt out easily and protect your sender’s reputation.
Wrap up on best cold email tools
To improve your cold emailing campaigns and increase your open and response rates, consider using the best cold email software combined with a personalized approach.
This can help you build unforgettable connections and drive growth for your business.
When evaluating different cold email tools, it’s essential to consider various factors that align with your business lead-generation goals.
Investing in a CRM with email marketing features like Salesmate can be an intelligent choice, as you’ll get access to many other sales and marketing growth features at a similar or lower cost.
Salesmate offers the best email tools for cold outreach, such as
It is an AI-driven platform that can help streamline your entire business interactions and boost sales opportunities with analytics.
If you’re aiming to boost your lead generation game with personalized outreach, take the Salesmate 15-day FREE trial and witness growth.
Frequently asked questions
What is a cold email tool?
A cold email tool is software specifically designed to send unrequested emails to potential customers who have not had any prior contact with the sender.
The best cold email marketing platforms come with features like personalization, automation, and analytics that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of email campaigns.
What is the difference between spam and cold email?
Cold emails and spam have one key difference: their targeting and content relevance. Cold emails are personalized messages sent to potential customers, offering value to generate interest in the sender’s products or services.
On the other hand, spam involves sending irrelevant or unwanted content to a broad audience without any targeting or personalization. Spam is often unsolicited and does not offer any real value to the recipients.
What is the best software for cold emailing?
The best cold emailing software for your sales team is the one that meets your specific needs and lifts your outreach and sales game with powerful features.
The popular choices for cold emailing software include Salesmate for its CRM integration and analytics, Lemlist for AI-driven campaigns and multi-channel support, and Klenty for sales automation and personalization.
How does your cold email tool impact your deliverability?
The effectiveness of a cold email tool in terms of deliverability depends on several factors such as:
These factors collectively determine how effectively your cold emails reach the intended inbox.
How many cold emails should I send to get a potential client?
The number of cold emails needed to acquire a client can vary significantly depending on factors like your industry, target audience behavior, the quality of your email list, and how well your emails resonate with the recipients.
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. However, you can always test and optimize different strategies to find what works best for your target audience.
What is the difference between a sales engagement tool and cold email software?
A sales engagement tool is a platform used to streamline and enhance interactions between sales teams and prospects. It enables various communication channels (emails, text, and calling) and automation capabilities for more effective engagement and follow-up.
On the other hand, cold email software is a more specialized tool that mainly focuses on managing, sending, and tracking cold email campaigns.
Sonali Negi
Sonali is a writer born out of her utmost passion for writing. She is working with a passionate team of content creators at Salesmate. She enjoys learning about new ideas in marketing and sales. She is an optimistic girl and endeavors to bring the best out of every situation. In her free time, she loves to introspect and observe people.