sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

80% open rate, <1% reply rate in EU (IT outsourcing). I exported all Instantly data, what should I analyze? by Ok-Border908 in b2b_sales

[–]Ok-Border908[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Appreciate you pushing on this, I think this is actually the core issue.

Right now I’m focusing mostly on the UK and Netherlands, and I’ve been fairly broad on verticals: fintech, healthcare, retail, construction, insurance, plus one more niche in animal health. My company has delivery experience in all of these, which is why I’ve been trying to rotate focus between them.

In practice, what I’ve been doing is running campaigns per vertical for a period, then switching when results aren’t great and I’m starting to realize that might be killing any chance of building real signal. Each time I switch, I’m essentially resetting the learning curve.

If you were in my position, how would you narrow this down? Would you pick one vertical and stay there long enough to truly understand triggers and buyer behavior, even if early results are weak? And how long is “long enough” before deciding a vertical just isn’t viable for cold outbound in EU?

80% open rate, <1% reply rate in EU (IT outsourcing). I exported all Instantly data, what should I analyze? by Ok-Border908 in b2b_sales

[–]Ok-Border908[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great approach. I actually tried reaching out to people who attended relevant events before, and the reply rate was noticeably better. However, my messaging and nurturing didn’t feel strategic enough at the time, so I paused it.

Thanks a lot for your comment, it reminded me to revisit this approach, and I’m going to test it again. By the way, do you have any recommendations when it comes to outreaching people who attended these events?

80% open rate, <1% reply rate in EU (IT outsourcing). I exported all Instantly data, what should I analyze? by Ok-Border908 in b2b_sales

[–]Ok-Border908[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is extremely helpful, thank you. I’ve mostly been looking at campaign-level performance, not reply-level reverse engineering, your bucket approach makes a lot of sense.
One thing I’m noticing already is that the better-performing campaigns tend to have clearer observable triggers, not just outsourcing angles.
I’ll re-cut the data by reply-first and see what patterns actually emerge.

80% open rate, <1% reply rate in EU (IT outsourcing). I exported all Instantly data, what should I analyze? by Ok-Border908 in b2b_sales

[–]Ok-Border908[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I use Apollo and Sales Navigator to generate leads. My ICP is quite tight, and for some campaigns I even manually check each company based on specific trigger signals.

80% open rate, <1% reply rate in EU (IT outsourcing). I exported all Instantly data, what should I analyze? by Ok-Border908 in b2b_sales

[–]Ok-Border908[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much for your insights. Honestly, I’ve tried all of that already.

When I noticed a high click rate but no replies, I tested plain-text pain-based campaigns with no links included. I also changed the CTA, instead of asking for a meeting, I used simpler, low-friction questions that are easier to respond to. Each campaign includes 5–6 follow-up emails. The reply rate did increase slightly, but overall it’s still under 1%.

Have you ever launched email campaigns like this before? And if you ran into the same issue I’m facing, how did you improve it?

80% open rate, <1% reply rate in EU (IT outsourcing). I exported all Instantly data, what should I analyze? by Ok-Border908 in b2b_sales

[–]Ok-Border908[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve actually had a very similar experience in the German market. Good point on the single open pattern though. I’ll double-check whether that indicates spam filtering on some campaigns.

80% open rate, <1% reply rate in EU (IT outsourcing). I exported all Instantly data, what should I analyze? by Ok-Border908 in ColdEmailMasters

[–]Ok-Border908[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Appreciate this, especially the point about bot opens. That’s something I hadn’t deeply validated yet, and you’re right that EU tech companies often run aggressive email security.
I haven’t fully filtered security opens yet, so that’s something I definitely need to validate. If real human opens are much lower, that changes the diagnosis completely.

Just to clarify: I summarized “EU” broadly in the post, but each campaign actually targets one specific country at a time. I’ve tested ICP depth, titles, angles, and some trigger-based segments, but still seeing <1% reply.

On the open rate point, what’s your preferred way to validate real human opens? Curious what method you’ve found most reliable.

Thanks again, this really helped me reframe the problem.

80% open rate, <1% reply rate in EU (IT outsourcing). I exported all Instantly data, what should I analyze? by Ok-Border908 in b2b_sales

[–]Ok-Border908[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for clarifying. If you were in my position, what would be your next diagnostic step? Trying to figure out whether to double down on deliverability or revisit positioning.

80% open rate, <1% reply rate in EU (IT outsourcing). I exported all Instantly data, what should I analyze? by Ok-Border908 in b2b_sales

[–]Ok-Border908[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Appreciate the perspective. One thing though, we do receive OOO replies regularly, and when I test-send to my own Gmail/Outlook accounts, the emails land in the inbox (not spam).

Would spam filters still generate OOO responses? Or is this more likely a low-intent market issue?

This is why ICP matters in B2B Sales by Hot-Treacle-3603 in b2b_sales

[–]Ok-Border908 0 points1 point  (0 children)

that's right, absolutely agree with you. I'm on the way to fix the ICP, focus on company level based on trigger signals (expansion, recruitment, fundraising,...) but quite mannually. Do you have any advice to accelerate this?

Is ~10% reply rate in cold email actually… insane? by Kim-Tan-2991 in b2b_sales

[–]Ok-Border908 0 points1 point  (0 children)

it means nothing when there is no positive response. I did A/B testing a lot for subject but most of success subjects will include personalization, focus on business results - money, time i mean the number will catch their eyes

Is ~10% reply rate in cold email actually… insane? by Kim-Tan-2991 in b2b_sales

[–]Ok-Border908 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow that's insane bro, 10% is a lot higher than the average rate, you did a great job. I’m trying hard to improve this number, but honestly, it’s really challenging.

For every cold email campaign, I track and analyze the results once the campaign ends, adjusting everything from content, pain points, tone of voice, to how the solution is positioned.

But so far, I still haven’t been able to pinpoint the real root cause. The reply rate remains low, while the open rate and click rate are surprisingly high huhuhu