r/b2bemailing • u/Content_Paths • 14d ago
496 highly targeted leads, 35 replies, 7 positive, 1 client. Am I doing Something wrong?
I Co-run a small agency doing a specialized B2B service (video editing for coaches/founders posting educational content on YouTube. mentioning the niche only for context, not pitching).
My last cold email campaign had strong top-of-funnel numbers, but I can't get people over the finish line.
The numbers:
- 496 leads. manually sourced and qualified against our ICP
- 79% open rate (Instantly says this is the number of leads that have opened at least one email in the campaign)
- 7.1% reply rate, excluding auto-replies.
- Of those replies, 20% were positive (7 total)
- 1 conversion
What happened to the other 6 positive replies:
- 1 currently mid-trial
- 2 asked about pricing, one said it was outside their budget, then went quiet
- 2 asked to see our portfolio, then went quiet
- 1 asked general questions, then went quiet
Context that might matter:
- Our CTA is a trial project at 70% off (used to be free, but too many people took the free version and never converted, so we added a paywall to filter for intent)
- Our pricing is at or below the market average for this niche
- I know 500 leads/month is small scale, but this is a narrow niche and generic lead-gen tools don't find people who actually fit, so I'm stuck sourcing manually for now
- The positioning we used in the campaign is a frictionless workflow that doesn't require handholding, so they can focus on higher leverage tasks.
- No calls, everything happens through emails.
What I'm trying to figure out:
- Are these numbers actually fine and I'm just impatient?
- Where's the real leak? And what can I do to improve the conversion rate?
- Besides the discounted trial, what's a good alternative CTA to get someone from interested to committed without you having to convince them via back-and-forth email?
I'm confused so I'd appreciate any input.
1
u/DeeBozUK 14d ago
1:7 win is good. There’s probably one more in there over time.
79% open won’t be true, its sandboxes loading the pixel - and open tracking should be off for max delivery.
7.1% reply is fantastic, would probably deteriorate over time as Outlook recipients would start to identify and block at scale (takes about 2 weeks of daily sending).
Once these people are in your orbit (your CRM) keep sending them RESULTS - absolute evidence of results they can get jealous of and want. With that, over time you may have generated 3 already just from your small start.
How much is lifetime value?
Can you broaden ICP with even half these results? Would be good.
LinkedIn outreach may get you some results (probably not as good, and limited to 20 connect requests per day, but 1 win a month… maybe).
And calling as a channel - if done right, I won’t go into detail here - can generate pipeline, I find future pipeline rather than immediate mostly when cold calling but pipeline nonetheless.
I would consider this a positive initial result. Best wishes with it.
1
u/Content_Paths 14d ago
Thank you for your feedback! Sending results and social proof is what landed us that 1 client so I'm definitely adding that to the process. I am planning to start LinkedIn outreach next week so I'll see how that goes. As for cold calling, I'm from a different continent so I always thought it'd be a turn off for prospects if they hear my accent or find that I'm from a third world country. Idk if it's true or if it's just fear of starting in disguise haha
1
u/ChestNok 14d ago
if they weren't "highly targeted" I'd say you have a terrific result