6 Steps to Get AI to Recommend Your Brand

We analyzed 12 million outreach emails to answer the question:

What’s working in the world of email outreach right now?

We looked at subject lines. We looked at personalization. We even looked at follow-up sequences. Along with our data partner for this study, Pitchbox, we uncovered a number of interesting findings.

Here is a Summary of Our Key Findings:

1. The vast majority of outreach messages are ignored. Only 8.5% of outreach emails receive a response.

2. Outreach emails with long subject lines have a 24.6% higher average response rate compared to those with short subject lines.

3. Follow-ups appear to significantly improve response rates. Emailing the same contact multiple times leads to 2x more responses.

4. Reaching out to multiple contacts can also lead to more success. The response rate of messages sent to several contacts is 93% higher than messages sent to a single person.

5. Personalized subject lines boost response rate by 30.5%. Therefore, personalizing subject lines appears to have a large impact on outreach campaign results.

6. Personalizing outreach email body content also seems to be an effective way to increase response rates. Emails with personalized message bodies have a 32.7% better response rate than those that don’t personalize their messages.

7. Wednesday is the “best” day to send outreach emails. Saturday is the worst. However, we didn’t find an especially large difference in response rates between different days that messages were sent.

8. Linking to social profiles in email signatures may result in better response rates. Twitter was correlated with an 8.2% increase, LinkedIn an 11.5% increase, and Instagram a 23.4% increase.

9. The most successful outreach campaigns reach out to multiple contacts multiple times. Email sequences with multiple attempts and multiple contacts boost response rates by 160%.

10. Certain types of outreach get higher response rates than others. Outreach messages related to guest posting, roundups and links have an especially high response rate.

Most Outreach Emails Are Ignored or Deleted

Our research found poor response rates are the norm. Specifically, only 8.5% of all outreach emails receive a response.

Key Takeaway: 91.5% of outreach emails are ignored.

The Ideal Outreach Email Subject Line Length Is 36-50 Characters

Our study found that long subject lines get a significantly higher response rate than shorter subject lines. Specifically, subject lines between 36-50 characters get the best response rate.

Key Takeaway: Long subject lines get 32.7% more responses than short subject lines.

Sending Follow-up Messages Significantly Improves Response Rates

Our findings showed that multiple outreach messages work better than a single message, with a single additional follow-up leading to 65.8% more replies.

Key Takeaway: Follow-ups can significantly improve outreach conversion rates.

Reaching Out to Several Contacts Increases the Odds of a Response

Sending emails to more than one contact improves response rates by 93% compared to a single contact.

Key Takeaway: Having multiple contacts increases your chances; outreach emails sent to multiple contacts can boost response rates by 93%.

Personalized Subject Lines Lead to More Replies

Personalized subject lines got nearly 1/3rd more replies than those without personalization.

Key Takeaway: Emails with personalized subject lines boost response rate by 30.5%.

Personalizing Email Body Copy Can Significantly Improve Response Rates

Personalizing the body of outreach emails also improved conversion rates. Personalized messages received 32.7% more replies than those that weren’t personalized.

Key Takeaway: Emails with personalized bodies boost response rate by 32.7%.

Wednesday Is the Best Day To Send Outreach Messages

Our data showed that Wednesday had a slight edge over the other days, with outreach emails sent on weekdays having a 23.3% better conversion rate compared to weekends.

Key Takeaway: Outreach emails sent on Wednesday get more responses than any other day.

Linking to Social Profiles May Slightly Improve Outreach Response Rates

Messages containing links to social profile signatures had a 9.8% higher average response rate compared to those without.

Key Takeaway: Outreach emails that contain links to social profiles have a 9.8% higher response rate.

Email Sequences That Involve Multiple Contacts and Multiple Messages Perform Best Overall

Combining the strategy of reaching out to multiple contacts with sequencing showed a 160% higher response rate than sending a single message to a single contact.

Key Takeaway: Campaigns that involve sequences sent to several contacts perform significantly better than one-off emails to a single person.

Outreach Emails About “Links”, “Guest Posting” and “Roundups” Have Especially High Response Rates

Outreach emails about guest posting, roundups, and link building all had above-average response rates.

Key Takeaway: Emails about guest posts, roundups, links, and sponsorships tend to get the best response rates.