Best cold email tools ranking: Email Deliverability Edition 2021

Cold email is still one of the most profitable outbound sales channel, but at the same time sending cold emails on your own can be very time and energy-consuming.

No need to worry though, as now you have hundreds of cold email automation tools that can take those tasks of your shoulders!

Cold email automation ranking like no other

Picking the best cold email tool is super crucial for the growth of your business, and we know this is not a piece of cake when selecting any of the tech stack for your company. Thus we’ve created our own cold email automation tools ranking.

But this is not an ordinary list of tools, we are ranking those services by the most important aspect of email – DELIVERABILITY!

Why? Simply because, if your business email is not delivered, it is worth nothing! That is why we will be looking into what the providers of cold mailing tools promise and provide in the area of inbox placement and deliverability. And as this is our thing – not one feature will go unnoticed!

Just before we start, let’s make sure we are on the same page with some of the glossaries

Cold email

So cold email doesn’t mean that you become a character from Frozen, and start being super cold to your recipient. A cold email is an email sent to someone who might not know you yet and had no prior relationship with you. It is usually sent to those that could be potential customers, and whose problem should be solved by your product or service.

Cold email tool

It’s a product that allows you to automate your sending activities and do it on the bigger scale, so you can reach out to more potential buyers, and help more people learn about your business and your offer.

Email deliverability

Email deliverability is the ability to deliver the email into the contact’s inbox. There are multiple aspects that impact the deliverability of every single email that you send, but it is crucial to remember that by being respectful to the recipient, you are on a good way to keep your deliverability high. You can read more about it all here:Email Deliverability Guide

This is it: Best cold email tools ranking: email deliverability edition

The market of cold email automation tools is pretty packed, but we cherry-picked the best from the best for you! We have analyzed their approach to your email deliverability and the features that they provide their users with.

Additionally, we took the below aspects into consideration:

Pricing– how much will you pay per account?
Free trial– will they provide you with a free trial that will allow you to fully test the possibilities of the tool?
G2 reviews– reviews by current or previous customers can be eye-opening. How many reviews do they have and what is the overall score?
Integrations– does the tools integrate with any other tools? It might be essential for your use-case to have a possibility to integrate your cold email marketing tool with your CRM or calendar.
GDPR compliance– is it safe to use, and meet the GDPR requirements?

Woodpecker

Pricing: from $40 to $50 per month
Free trial: 14 days!
G2 reviews: 4.5 (25 reviews)
Integrations: Native (with Bouncer) and 3rd party
GDPR compliance: Yes (based in Europe)

Email deliverability:

Built-in email verification, provided by Bouncer, FREE OF CHARGE and unlimited! This is the most generous and responsible approach on the market! Kudos to the Woodpecker team!
According to Woodpecker and their tests, their deliverability rate is 95,9%
Features that support high deliverability (special email throttling algorithm, advanced personalization with If-campaigns, custom domain tracking, domain blacklisting)
Inbox placement knowledge hub available for all: Deliverability 101 ebook, webinars, sessions etc.

SalesHandy

Pricing: from free to $59
Free trial: 14 days
G2 reviews: 4.3 (88 reviews)
Integrations: Native (with Bouncer)
GDPR compliance: Yes

Email deliverability:

SalesHandy provides a built-in email verification, provided by Bouncer. It’s a super simple verification process, that doesn’t require you to set up any integration, and jump between accounts. However, you will need to purchase additional credits within SalesHandy app to use this feature.
Multiple deliverability features like: Custom domain tracking, domain blacklisting, a setting of the time interval.

Lemlist

Pricing: from $59 or $99 per month
Free trial: 14 days
G2 reviews: 4.7 (70 reviews)
Integrations: native and 3rd party (including Bouncer)
GDPR compliance: Yes (based in EU)

Email deliverability:

Integrated with Bouncer – smooth process of email verification, however not included in the lemlist pricing.
Lemwarm – this is awesome! This feature allows you to automatically warm up your email. One of the most important factors of deliverability covered by the tool – saved energy and time!
Multiple features like: possibility to test email before send out or custom domain tracking.

Mailshake

Pricing: $59 or $99
Free trial: 30 days
G2 reviews: 4.7 (88 reviews)
Integrations: Native and 3rd party
GDPR compliance: No info!

Email deliverability:

Live training sessions for customers, where they explain the email deliverability aspects – great approach – ‘free’ knowledge is always highly appreciated!
Email copy analyzer – their algorithms will analyze the content of your email against the list of ‘spam words.’ Using these words might be the reason why your emails go to spam.
They do include some list-cleaning credits (5k or 10k depending on the plan), however, it’s not clear how those emails are cleaned, and by who (own solution or 3rd party?).

Reply

Pricing: from $50 to $120 per month
Free trial: 14 days!
G2 reviews: 4.6 (631 reviews)
Integrations: No info!
GDPR compliance: No info!

Email deliverability:

Built-in email validation, however, not sure if this is their own solution or their use an email checker. You will need to purchase additional credits from Reply if you would like to verify your emails.
Contact and email blacklisting – great to keep aside the recipient’s that might hurt your inbox placement, plus spam word detection

Quickmail

Pricing: $49 or $69 per month
Free trial: 14 days
G2 reviews: 4.6 (32 reviews)
Integrations: 3rd party
GDPR compliance: Yes

Email deliverability:

Auto warmer technology – warm up your emails with this Quickmail feature!
Weekly deliverability report – makes monitoring your deliverability super simple! You can quickly notice abnormalities and take actions.
Other inbox placement features like custom domain tracking, load balancing, remove tracking option etc.

Klenty

Pricing: from $45 to $125 per month
Free trial: 14 days
G2 reviews: 4.6 (86 reviews)
Integrations: Native and 3rd party
GDPR compliance: Yes

Email deliverability:

They do focus on email deliverability in the marketing of their product, and we love it! You will find multiple features like custom domain tracking, random interval, cadence throttling
Monthly deliverability reports – monitor your inbox placement and act accordingly.

Integrating Cold Email Solutions into Your Sales Strategy

Choosing the Best Cold Email Software Selecting the best cold email software is crucial for effective outreach. Consider features such as automation, personalization capabilities, and analytics to find the tool that best fits your needs.

Optimizing Cold Email Campaigns When running cold email campaigns, focus on personalization to improve engagement rates. Personalized cold emails can significantly increase the chances of getting a response, as recipients are more likely to engage with content that feels relevant to them.

Effective Cold Email Outreach For successful cold email outreach, ensure that your messages are concise and value-driven. Use a reliable cold email tool to manage your campaigns and track responses. Consistent follow-up is key to converting leads into opportunities.

Leveraging Cold Email Marketing Software Invest in cold email marketing software that offers comprehensive analytics and reporting features. This helps you understand the performance of your cold email outreach campaigns and make data-driven decisions to improve future efforts.

Maintaining Sales Team Efficiency A well-coordinated sales team can maximize the impact of your outreach efforts. Use a sales engagement platform to streamline communication and ensure that all team members are aligned in their approach.

Multi-Channel Outreach Incorporate multiple channels into your outreach strategy. While cold emails are effective, combining them with other methods such as social media and phone calls can enhance your reach and effectiveness.

Email Warm-Up Techniques Before launching a major campaign, use email warm up techniques to gradually build your sending reputation. This helps prevent your emails from being marked as spam and improves deliverability rates.

Regular Review and Optimization Continuously review your cold outreach campaigns and optimize based on performance data. This includes cleaning your email list, A/B testing subject lines and content, and adjusting your approach based on engagement metrics.

Comprehensive Cold Email Platforms Consider a cold email platform that integrates seamlessly with your existing CRM and marketing tools. This ensures a smooth flow of data and helps maintain consistency across your sales and marketing teams.

Cold Email Software Options Explore various cold email software options to find the best fit for your needs. Some tools offer specialized features for cold emailing, such as advanced personalization and detailed analytics.

Integrating Cold Email Marketing Integrate cold email marketing with your overall email campaigns. This ensures a consistent message across all touchpoints and helps reinforce your brand’s presence.

By implementing these strategies and utilizing the right tools, you can enhance the effectiveness of your cold email marketing efforts and drive better results for your business.

Wrapping up

If you are on the task of finding the right cold email outreach tool for your needs, we hope that this ranking did shed some light on the possible options.

Our main lesson is that you should stay focused on the basics first – deliverability and inbox placement, and later on the extra features around content or design.

As we mentioned previously, even the most beautiful and personalized email will mean nothing if it lands in the SPAM box.

All of the cold email automation tools listed in this ranking, are well-executed products provided to you by best experts in the field. Thus, make sure that you follow their blog/webinars and learn from them how to always get those emails of yours in your lead’s inboxes!