Rémi Kokabi | Updated September 4, 2026 | 11 min read
Rémi Kokabi | Updated September 4, 2026 | 11 min read
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How to Write Cold Emails That Get 23%+ Reply Rates (Real Example Inside)
The average cold email reply rate in 2026 is 3.43%, according to Instantly’s Benchmark Report. That means roughly 19 out of 20 cold emails get ignored.
But some campaigns still pull 15–25% reply rates. The difference isn’t magic. It’s targeting, timing, and specificity.
In this post, I’ll walk you through the exact tactics, and a real 23%+ reply-rate example, you can copy this week. These are the same principles we see working across thousands of lemlist campaigns, and I’ll be honest about what’s changed since the old playbook of “just personalize with {firstName}” stopped being enough.
Table of Contents
Key takeaways
- Use these benchmarks as a starting point, not a universal target. Benchmark against your own past campaigns.
- Personalize beyond first names. Trigger-based signals (hiring, funding, job changes) separate replies from silence.
- Follow up 3–5 times. Sequences of 3–5 steps average 8.3% reply rates, double the rate of single-touch campaigns.
- Go multichannel. Email combined with LinkedIn touches can hit an 11.87% reply rate, far above email-only averages.
Tips to improve your cold email reply rates
1. Verify your cold email list
First and foremost, are you reaching the right people?
There are two main issues in your email list that can hold back your reply rates:
- You’re reaching the wrong people.
- You’re sending emails to invalid addresses.
Segment your email lists so that each lead gets the right message. Not all emails in your campaign will apply to every lead.
Do a bit of research on every lead to make sure you’re hitting the right pain points and reaching out at the right time.
And use reliable sources for contact data. Reaching out to the wrong people hurts more than just your reply rate. It wrecks your deliverability, so the emails that could reach real prospects land in spam.
Here’s what matters: sends under 50 contacts average 5.8% replies versus 2.1% for sends of 1,000 or more (Cold Email Response Rate Benchmarks 2026: Open & Reply Data), according to Best Cold Outreach Tools. Smaller, verified lists crush giant, unvetted blasts every time.
With lemlist’s Email Finder & Verifier, you can make sure you’re pulling accurate contact data before you hit send.
2. Check your subject line
This may sound basic, but it’s the first impression your leads are getting of you. You only get one chance at a first impression.
recipients open an email based on the subject line
If your subject line falls flat, your leads are hitting delete without a second thought.
One thing I’ll add here for 2026: avoid subject lines that sound AI-generated. Prospects have developed near-perfect filters for templated, generic openers. Keep it short, specific, and human. A subject line that references their company or a real outcome (“3 ideas for [Company]”) will always outperform something vague like “Quick question.”
Learn how to write a subject line that improves reply rates now.
3. Check the tone and body of your email
While your subject line will inspire your leads to open your email, your content will push them to take action.
Start with a friendly email greeting that will immediately catch their eye.
If this is your first email, you want to focus on them. Avoid talking too much about yourself, what you do, who you are. You could risk coming across as too pushy. That will push your leads away.
Take a more familiar tone and make the email about them. Start with a genuine compliment on something they’ve achieved, then move on to a pain point they might be experiencing, and then offer your solution to the problem.
Helpful resource: How to write a cold email that gets replies
4. Personalize with real triggers, not just names
According to Best Cold Outreach Tools, personalized campaigns reply at about 17–18% versus 7–9% without personalization.
We can’t stress this point enough. Generic emails will get you nowhere with your leads.
But here’s my honest take: basic personalization (first name, company name, job title) is table stakes now. Everyone does it. What actually separates replies from silence in 2026 is trigger-based personalization, referencing real events happening at your prospect’s company.
I’m talking about things like:
- A recent funding round
- A new VP hire
- Job postings that signal a pain your product solves
- A website visit to your pricing page
These triggers give you a reason to reach out now, not just “whenever.” And they make your email feel relevant instead of random.
Emails that reference specific buying signals (funding rounds, leadership changes, hiring surges) achieve response rates of 15–25% (Cold Email Guide 2026: Best Practices & Benchmarks | Autobound), according to Autobound’s 2026 cold email analysis. That’s 5x the generic average.
Inside lemlist, Intent Signals track these events automatically. Your signal agents continuously monitor buying intent across your ICP, whether it’s hiring activity, fundraising, website visits, tech changes, or custom signals, and automatically detect the right moments to reach out. (lemlist Intent Signals: Spot buying clues & outreach at the best time)
What are the other aspects you can personalize with lemlist?
- Images
- Videos
- Text
- Liquid syntax
- Landing pages
5. Clear CTA
Your call to action and email sign-offs are your last chances to get your lead to reply.
Make sure your CTA is aligned with the rest of your pitch. If you guide your leads to take an action that has nothing to do with your pitch, you’ll lose their interest, cutting down on replies and closed deals.
On the other hand, sometimes the problem lies in giving your prospects too many next steps, or none at all.
You want a single, straightforward CTA to push your lead toward one action. The real tradeoff is between an interest-based CTA (“Would you like to see how this works?”), a direct CTA (“Are you free for 15 min Thursday?”), and a value-based CTA (“I can send over a custom audit”). Pick the one that matches your prospect’s stage and comfort level.
6. Include your email signature
You want to let your prospects know they are talking to an actual human being, not just a bot sending emails left and right.
Make sure your email signature is simple and clean but includes all the relevant information your prospect may need to contact you.
Top tip: When in doubt, A/B test to see what works better for you!
7. How many follow-ups should you send
This is a section most cold email guides skip, and it shouldn’t be skipped.
58% of all replies are generated from step one in a cold email campaign, while remaining follow-ups contribute 42% of total replies (Cold Email Benchmark Report 2026: Reply Rates, Deliverability and Trends), according to Instantly’s 2026 Benchmark Report. That means if you send one email and stop, you’re leaving nearly half your potential replies on the table.
Sequences of 3 to 5 steps average 8.3% replies, double the 4.1% rate of campaigns with no follow-ups (Cold Email Response Rate Benchmarks 2026: Open & Reply Data), per Best Cold Outreach Tools.
Here’s a cadence that works well:
- Day 1: Initial personalized email with a trigger-based opener.
- Day 3–4: Short follow-up that adds new context (a case study, a stat, a different angle).
- Day 7–8: Value-add touch (a relevant resource, a quick insight).
- Day 14: Polite “breakup” email that leaves the door open.
In lemlist, you can set up behavior-based sequences that auto-adjust steps depending on whether a lead opened, clicked, or replied. No manual tracking required.
8. Go multichannel
This article has focused on email tactics so far. But the reality in 2026 is that email alone leaves money on the table.
Coordinated sequences across email, phone, and LinkedIn can lift response rates by roughly 287% over single-channel outreach (Sales Statistics 2026: Outbound, Pipeline & Funnel Data), according to Martal Group’s 2026 sales statistics report.
Your prospect might ignore your email but notice your LinkedIn profile view. They might open your email on mobile but respond after a phone call reminder. Multichannel outreach means reaching leads across multiple channels instead of just one, and since every lead engages differently, this approach boosts replies by connecting with them where they’re most active. (lemlist Multichannel Prospecting: Automate email, LinkedIn, & phone outreach)
With lemlist’s Multichannel Prospecting, you can automate email, LinkedIn (profile visits, connection requests, messages), phone calls, and WhatsApp steps from a single campaign. All multichannel conversations stay in lemlist’s Unified Inbox, so you can reply by email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, or call without switching platforms. (lemlist Multichannel Prospecting: Automate email, LinkedIn, & phone outreach)
Example: Cold email structure with 23%+ reply rate
The sequence sent by Pierre, Head of Growth at Fiveoffices, landed a 23%+ reply rate, 15+ meetings booked, a 70%+ conversion rate, and €80K+ in pipeline.
The email Pierre sent to his 246 prospects was the 3rd step of his 7-step email sequence.
Goal?
Finding companies with unused office space that are willing to monetize it by sharing it with other companies.
Target?
CEOs with offices in Paris and at least 2 employees.
So how did Pierre’s outreach get such a high reply rate?
Let’s go through his cold email structure and copywriting together:
#1 The subject line highlights the desired outcome, which motivates your prospects to open and read your email for a solution.
#2 If you don’t want to be too formal or too casual with your greeting, “Hello” followed by the prospect’s name is always the safe option.
#3 Pierre catches the prospects’ attention right from the start by immediately showing what’s in it for them, without too much fluff.
#4 The intro line is hyper-personalized, pointing out the prospects’ pain points so they can relate from the start and seek the solution.
#5 The pain point is turned into a win, sharing the benefits and giving prospects a reason to reply.
#6 The next step is clear, ensuring prospects know how to get the value in the way that suits them the most.
#7 The sign-off is simple and neutral, ensuring the conversation ends in a positive tone and motivates the prospect to take action.
The sequence outcome
Open rate: 66.67%+
⬇️
Reply rate: 23.58%+
⬇️
Meetings booked: 15+
⬇️
Conversion rate: 70%+
⬇️
Generated revenue: 80K€+ in the pipeline
This exact email got them in-person meetings within 1 day with a top-tier CEO and an endless stream of qualified sales opportunities!
“Cold outreach brought us leads that other channels such as Ads, SEO, or WOM would have never attracted,” says Pierre Harington, Head of Growth at Fiveoffices.
Key takeaways from Pierre’s results
So, what should you keep in mind if you want the same or even better results than Pierre?
- Take time to get to know your customer and their data.
- Use variables for personalization at scale.
- Rely on behavioral psychology to frame pain points as wins.
- Time your outreach using real triggers (hiring, funding, job changes) so you arrive when the problem is top of mind.
In a 14-day free trial (no credit card required), you can replicate all the advice by using customized elements that will make your outreach stand out and bring you 17–30% reply rates.
Final thoughts
Personalization used to be the cheat code. In 2026, it’s the minimum. Everyone personalizes now. The teams pulling 15–25% reply rates are the ones combining verified data, trigger-based timing, persistent follow-ups, and multichannel sequences.
The playbook is straightforward: verify your list, write subject lines that sound human, personalize around real buying signals, follow up 3–5 times, and show up on more than one channel.
If you want to put this into practice, start a 14-day free trial and build your first multichannel sequence today. Join the 20,000+ sales teams rating lemlist 4.6/5 on G2.
Need help?
If you feel lost and want personalized insights, we’ve launched a coaching program for that. Lemcoach is a 90-day paid coaching engagement with a certified lemlist partner, where we help you use lemlist in the most relevant way for your business. We go deep on your sourcing processes, copywriting, routines, CRM connections, and more, to make sure your outbound play reaches its full potential.
Hi there, I’m Rémi, co-founder of the GTM Club powered by lemlist & Claap. If you believe Go-To-Market is the new moat in this AI-era, you should apply: https://www.thegtmclub.com/
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