Why email volume matters for growth

I’ve spoken to 20+ GTM leaders at high-growth startups over the past 2 weeks. And I’ve been seeing ONE mistake non-stop. A lack of awareness on volume. Here’s how it usually goes: (1) A team will send 10 outbound emails per week for 1 month (2) They’ll get ~1 reply per week (3) They’ll book maybe 1 meeting that month (4) They’ll say “outbound doesn’t work” I get it. Their perception of ‘volume’ might be 10 emails per week. But the truth is: The channel isn’t broken, your perception of volume is. You need more swings. Way more. At Unify, we’re putting at least 1,000-2,000 high-quality contacts in a sequence each month. We're shooting for 5-10% reply rates depending on the sequence. That gives us plenty of volume to increase our odds of replies and bookings. And it helps us to experiment with a bit more statistical significance. The delta between the data collected at 10 emails per week and 1000+ is massive. If you're scaling up your outbound motion in Q2: put yourself in a position to have more chances to win and learn. That simple shift will make a massive difference. What other metrics about our outbound motion would be helpful to share?

"Cold email is broken." That's what 90% of companies tell me on discovery calls. Then I ask them: "How many emails did you send?" The answer is always some laughably small number like a couple hundred emails over 3 months. That's not cold email failing—that's not even trying. Here's the brutal truth most companies refuse to accept: You're not failing at cold email. You're failing at math. ➡️ The Volume Reality Check Companies think 50-100 emails is a "test." That's like trying to fill a swimming pool with a garden hose and giving up after 30 seconds. Real benchmarks require real volume: Minimum 10,000 emails monthly for meaningful data Anything under 5,000 is just expensive networking Top performers send 20,000+ emails monthly ➡️ The Metrics That Actually Matter Stop obsessing over open rates. Here's what moves the needle: → Reply rate: 1-2%+ (anything lower means deliverability issues) → Positive response rate: 20%+ of total replies → Mailbox health: Remove any mailbox under 2% reply rate → Bounce rate: Keep under 1% to protect deliverability ➡️ The Messaging Mistake Here's the kicker: most companies are pitching calls in their cold emails. "Can we hop on a 15-minute call?" "Are you free for a quick chat?" "Let's schedule a demo." Our best-performing campaign doesn't pitch a call at all. Instead, we offer a valuable guide. Prospects respond asking for it, and 20% of those responses naturally convert into booked calls. The lesson: Stop asking for meetings. Start offering value. This is exactly why we use Smartlead for all our campaigns. We're laser-focused on these numbers, and Smartlead just released their updated version—it's made tracking these metrics incredibly simple. You can see everything in real-time: mailbox health, reply rates, positive responses, deliverability by provider. No more guessing games. ➡️ The Real Success Benchmark We track one metric above all others: positive responses per 1,000 emails sent. Under 1,500: Your messaging or targeting is broken 1,500-2,500: You're in the average range 2,500+: You're outperforming most companies The Bottom Line: Cold email "doesn't work" the same way the gym "doesn't work" if you go twice and expect abs. Scale changes everything. Volume changes everything. Proper tracking changes everything. We've found through using Smartlead's analytics dashboard, you have no excuses not to be tracking properly. Stop testing with toy numbers and wondering why you get toy results. _____________ 📌 Want to see a cold-outreach system that works, and how to build it? Watch our free training: https://lnkd.in/d3davd-b

Your email campaigns are crushing it. Open rates up 30%. Click-through rates are soaring. Then suddenly... crickets. What gives? Here's what nobody tells you about scaling email marketing: success breeds failure. As a skilled product manager, you know best that the growth needs to be ongoing, not come with a spike or a few spikes. When you go from sending 1,000 emails to 50,000 overnight, email providers get suspicious. Your sender reputation takes a hit. Messages start landing in SPAM folders instead of inboxes. I've watched promising startups lose months of momentum because they didn't see this coming. Their product was solid, their messaging was on point, but their emails simply stopped reaching customers. One founder told me they lost 3 months of growth because password reset emails weren't reaching new users. Imagine losing customers because they literally couldn't log in. The solution isn't sending fewer emails (that's growth suicide). It's understanding that email deliverability is infrastructure, not marketing. Smart founders treat it like server capacity. So, something you prepare for BEFORE you need it. This means gradually warming up your sending domains, establishing trust with email providers, and monitoring your sender reputation like you monitor your uptime. Tools like Warmy.io - Email channel. Reliable. , a partner of this post can automate this process, helping maintain your sender reputation as you scale. But the key insight is planning ahead, not reacting after damage is done. With this choice, you get: • Automated Deliverability: No configuration headaches, just reliable inbox placement. • Time and Cost Efficiency: No dev resources wasted on constant updates. • Built-in Compliance: GDPR and security taken care of, so you can focus on strategy. • Scalability on Demand: Whether it’s 100 or 10,000 emails, Warmy scales without breaking a sweat. • Expert Support: Real deliverability specialists ready to help when things get tricky. Your growth strategy shouldn't break your communication channel. Because what's the point of acquiring customers if you can't talk to them? Do you struggle with promoting your product? Looking forward to your comments! #productmanagement #emaildelivery  #productmanager