Radical shift in email habits

Cold email changed more in 12 months than it did in the previous 5 years. Most people are still playing the old game. If you're still blasting 5k contacts with HTML emails from a list you scraped last quarter - that's why no one's replying. Here's the thing: Buyers got smarter. Inbox filters got brutal. And spray-and-pray isn't just ineffective - it'll kill your domain. I've helped 20+ companies drive pipeline through outbound in 2025. Here's what works now: 1️⃣ Stop chasing volume. Start chasing precision. Smaller lists. Better segmentation. Built around ICP + signals - not guesses. If you can't explain why someone's getting your email, don't send it. 2️⃣ Personas don't convert. Signals do. Stop targeting "VP of Sales at SaaS companies." Start targeting triggers: - new exec hire - website visitors - new tech installed - job post hinting at pain - funding round with no sales headcount 3️⃣ Deliverability isn't optional anymore. Your copy doesn't matter if your emails don't land. That means: - email validation before every send - Google/Outlook inboxes only - no images - no HTML - no links 4️⃣ Your first line either earns the read or gets deleted. "Hope you're doing well" = instant delete. Referring to their actual pain point = they keep reading. If your opener doesn't prove relevance in 10 words, they'll never see your CTA. 5️⃣ "Just bumping this" doesn't work anymore. Your follow-ups need to add value. Share a relevant insight. A short case study. A referral angle. That's what gets responses now. 6️⃣ Track replies, not opens. Open rates are a vanity metric. Positive replies and booked meetings are the only numbers that matter. If it's not intent-based, stop tracking it. 7️⃣ You don't need 20 tools. You need 5 that work together. Here's the lean stack you can implement: Clay (enrichment, scoring, personalization) Sales Navigator (data) LeadMagic (validation) Instantly.ai / Woodpecker.co (sequencing) GPT / Perplexity (copy generation) I've turned all of this into a 2025 cold email cheat sheet. It'll save you hours of trial and error - and probably save your domain too. Enjoy!

If you're still obsessing over "optimal send times," you're missing the real opportunity. COVID obliterated the boundaries between work hours and personal time. Suddenly, everyone was checking emails at 6 AM from their kitchen table. Responding to Slack messages at 10 PM from their couch. The sacred "9-to-5 email window" became meaningless when home became the office. Here's what actually happened: Before COVID: Clear work/life boundaries meant predictable email behavior → Send at 10 AM Tuesday for highest open rates → Avoid evenings and weekends → Follow the "rules" everyone preached After COVID: Blurred boundaries created constant email accessibility → People check email at all hours → Work communication happens 24/7 → Traditional timing "wisdom" became irrelevant Many are trying to optimize emails for timing while ignoring what moves the needle: context alignment. Here's the new framework: Instead of asking "When should I send?" ask "What mindset will they be in when they open this?" Morning sends (6 AM - 9 AM): → Educational content → How-to guides → Industry insights Their brain is fresh and ready to process information Evening sends (6PM - 10 PM): → Stories and case studies → Inspirational content → Personal narratives Their brain is tired and craves emotional connection While everyone else sends one email per day "at the optimal time," you could use this strategy send 2-3 emails in 24 hours by matching content to context - which is useful during time based launches. Real example: Morning email: "The 3-step framework that increased conversions by 47%" Evening email: "The story behind our biggest campaign failure (and what it taught us)" Both emails. Same day. Different contexts. Higher total engagement. Bottom line: Stop fighting for the "perfect" 2-hour window everyone else is targeting. Start owning the larger time cycle by understanding psychology, not just analytics. What an email timing assumption that might be holding you back?

🔄 Your email strategy is stuck in 2019. But your audience has moved on. I see it all the time - businesses sending the same tired campaigns while wondering why engagement keeps dropping. The harsh truth? People evolve. Their behaviors shift. Their preferences transform. Yet most email marketers keep doing what they've always done. Open rates declining? Send more emails. Click-through rates falling? Make the button bigger. Conversions dropping? Offer deeper discounts. But here's the thing: The problem isn't your audience. It's your approach. When was the last time you fundamentally reassessed your email strategy? Not just tweaking subject lines or sending times... but really examining whether your entire approach still resonates with who your audience has BECOME? The pandemic changed us. Economic uncertainty changed us. New technologies changed us. Your subscribers from 3 years ago are not the same people today. So why are you sending them the same emails? The brands winning the inbox right now are doing three things: ✅ Listening before sending (tracking behavioral shifts) ✅ Testing radically different approaches (not just minor tweaks) ✅ Treating subscriber evolution as ongoing (not a one-time fix) Your audience is telling you what they want through their actions. Are you paying attention? Or are you still sending the same campaigns and hoping for different results? Evolution isn't optional in email marketing anymore. It's survival.

Outbound in 2025 looks nothing like how it was only a year ago. And you need to adapt if you want to win. The old playbooks of mass emailing and random targeting don’t work anymore. You can't keep blasting emails in the hopes of something sticking. Now, the teams winning deals are doing it very differently. The best GTM leaders have made several shifts in their processes: ❌ Manually scrolling the net to find job changes → Use tools like Clay to find position shifts and other intent signals ❌ Navigating filters on database tools to find your contacts → AI listening tools like OpenFunnel (YC F24) automatically find the exact companies you need to reach to ❌ Writing genetic copy and subject lines on your own → Write highly personalized messages with tools like Twain ❌ Hoping to avoid spam when sending emails → Ensure deliverability with tools like Instantly.ai that automate warm-ups, optimize throttling, and test inbox placements ❌ Relying on VAs for list clean-ups and validations → AI agents built with tools like Relevance AI can automatically do that while you sleep ❌ Guessing when's the best time to reach out → Monitoring intent signals with the likes of Common Room takes the guesswork out of outbound. Outbound isn't dead. It’s just smarter, faster, and sharper than ever before. What’s the biggest shift you’ve noticed in your workflows?

How you send emails in 2026 won’t look anything like how you’re sending them today. Here are 10 shifts that will shape how we send (and read) emails in 2026:    👉 Emails become mini-apps. You’ll complete surveys, book meetings, or even check out products inside the inbox itself.   👉AI filters take control. Gmail and Outlook already use machine learning, but the next wave of AI will catch patterns no human reviewer ever could. If your emails look manipulative, they won’t make it to the inbox.   👉 Burner domains die out. Providers can see through the “10 domains, 10 inboxes” trick. A single strong domain with age, traffic, and trust will beat a pile of throwaways.   👉 Engagement outweighs volume. Deliverability will depend less on how many emails you send and more on whether people open, click, and reply.   👉 Compliance gets built in. ESPs will show you deliverability dashboards that flag risks — spikes in complaints, shady patterns — before you burn your sender reputation.   👉 Web presence becomes a signal. Inbox providers cross-check: Does your site get real traffic? Is it alive with content and branding? If not, your email credibility takes a hit.   👉 Personalization goes deeper. No more “Hi {FirstName}.” AI will help pull relevant insights from context and behavior, making emails feel human without being creepy.   👉 Cold email grows up. Spammy blasts will vanish. Value-first, respectful outreach will be the new norm (as it should be!).    👉 Human + AI becomes the norm. AI drafts faster than any copywriter. But the human “taste check” (tone, timing, judgment) is what turns it into something people actually reply to.   👉 Recovery speed becomes critical. If your domain gets flagged, fixing it in hours will matter more than fixing it in weeks. Senders who monitor closely and act fast will bounce back stronger.   💬 Which of these shifts do you think is happening already? Share in the comments below.