The secret to inbox placement and email success
It’s tempting to think deliverability is all about tech settings. Yes, tech is critical, but email providers like Gmail have become really good (and sneaky) by using engagement signals. Their algorithms track everything: who opens your emails, how fast they delete them, if they drag your message out of the Promotions tab, if they reply, and it’s the death knell if they hit ‘Report spam’.
Gmail cares even more about user behavior than it does about a few spammy keywords. If recipients love your emails, Gmail, Outlook and all the ISPs love you. If users consistently ignore or delete your emails, expect trouble.
We mention Gmail a lot because they are a great bellwether for email deliverability across all email clients. Don’t forget that many companies use Google Workspace for their own corporate domains.
Replies are gold for deliverability. An email with even a 2% reply rate can outperform one with 40% opens and zero replies in Gmail’s eyes. A reply tells the algorithm ‘This is a conversation, not spam.’ Meanwhile, a high open rate means nothing if nobody engages beyond the click, or worse, if a chunk of people opens then immediately clicks ‘this is junk.’
The takeaway? Make your emails engaging and conversation-worthy. It’s the ultimate hack to bypass the spam filters because real conversations don’t get sent to spam.
The mission is to get recipients to engage, not buy stuff! Buying stuff comes later.
So how do we get recipients to engage? Especially in cold outreach where they didn’t explicitly ask for your email? Here are some proven tactics:
Generic ‘John, can I interest you in our stuff?’ emails are destined for the trash. Even simple personalization can increase open rates (one study noted 26% more opens with just a well personalized subject line). PitchKraft was built on this strategy: hyper-personalized emails that are tailor-made for each recipient. When an email reads like a one-on-one message, people engage. They reply, they click, or at least they don’t mark it as spam because it feels relevant. Trust us, even if they don’t want to buy your stuff, they will thank you for your time and effort.
The subject line is your first impression. Aim for intrigue or value but avoid spammy clickbait. Keep it short and human-sounding (6-10 words is a sweet spot). And yes, personalize it if possible (e.g., include their company or first name in a natural way). Better still, let PitchKraft create a unique subject by summarizing the unique email content.
The best cold emails read like one colleague reaching out to another. Friendly, brief, and focused on how you can help them. Get to the point quickly. Busy people won’t wade through War and Peace. And make it about their pain or goal, not just your product’s features. If the reader feels, ‘This person did their homework and isn’t wasting my time’ they’ll be more inclined to respond or at least keep reading. Use PitchKraft to create fantastically personalized emails based on your email theme and a ‘hook’.
Don’t ask for too much. In a cold outreach, that’s usually a quick call or meeting. Something like ‘Open to a 10-minute chat next week?’ is a low-friction ask. One CTA is plenty, too many options or links can overwhelm (and trigger spam filters). And speaking of links: fewer links = less spammy in the eyes of filters, so stick to maybe one link (or even plain text without hyperlink, e.g., ‘www.yourwebsite.com’ instead of a hidden link) if you can.
You can encourage replies by asking a direct question or prompting for feedback. For instance, ‘Does simplifying [XYZ process] sound like something that would make your life easier?’ or even cheeky stuff like ‘Are you the right person to speak to about this? If not, could you point me in the right direction?’ These invite a response. Some outreach emails explicitly say ‘Just hit reply and let me know.’ If you can get even a small reply like ‘Not interested’ or ‘Forwarding to the right person,’ it’s actually a good thing. That interaction will help your overall sender reputation. Obviously, aim for positive replies, but any reply is better than silence in deliverability terms.
Even in cold outreach, not all prospects are the same. If you can segment your list and tailor your messaging to different verticals or personas, do it. Emails that resonate with the recipient’s industry or role will get better engagement. A VP of Sales and a CTO care about different things – your email should reflect that. Higher relevance = higher engagement. PitchKraft does all this automatically of course.
Engagement will naturally be higher if you’re sending to people who have shown signs of interest. For example, if someone never, ever opens any of your first 5 emails, consider dropping them from future campaigns (or pausing for a few months). Don’t keep hammering the truly disinterested. It’ll only harm your metrics and annoy them into issuing a spam report. Give them a last chance. Say ‘this is your last chance and then you won’t hear from me again’. People rely on the fact that they will get a reminder so why bother replying now. You’ll be surprised how many reply once they know you are going to drop them.
An email sent at a time when the prospect is likely to see it will get better engagement. Use what you know about their time zone and typical business hours. Also, avoid sending too many emails too quickly to the same person. No one likes an inbox flood. Give them breathing room to respond. A well-timed follow-up (maybe 3-7 days later) referencing the last email can nudge them without feeling spammy. Consider emailing in quiet periods like holidays. When inboxes are empty and your prospect is bored at home they might just spend longer on your email.
It might sound counterintuitive for engagement, but providing a clear way for someone to say ‘no thanks’ (like an unsubscribe link or a line like ‘Let me know if you’d prefer that I don’t contact you again’) can actually protect your engagement rates. People who don’t want your emails will either opt-out (preferred) or mark you as spam (very not preferred). So, give them an easy out. Those who stay are, by definition, more engaged or at least tolerant. Oh and don’t ask them to go to your website and then enter the email address and go through multiple levels of unsubscribe. That just winds us up!
Every one of these levers can tip the scales between inbox and spam folder. The good news is that you can control them.
Here’s the beautiful part: if you do these things and boost engagement, your deliverability improves, which then further boosts engagement, and so on. You are in a positive feedback loop.
For instance, say you tweak your approach and get your average open rate from 20% to 40%, and your reply rate from 1% to 5%. Email providers see that improvement and start delivering you to the ‘Primary’ inbox tabs instead of ‘Promotions’ or spam. Now even more people see and engage with your emails, because they’re not buried. That further signals to providers that users like your emails. You become a ‘good sender’ in their eyes, and your future campaigns benefit from a built-up reputation.
Meanwhile, your competitors who blast generic templates to stale lists are crying a river of tumbleweed (excuse the mixed metaphors).
Of course, engagement isn’t just about avoiding the spam folder; it’s the whole point of why we’re sending emails! High engagement means more conversations, leads, and sales.
Everything in PitchKraft is engineered to maximize engagement. Our hyper-personalization means recipients feel like your email was written just for them, because it was. That leads to more opens, more clicks, and way more replies. We’ve seen clients get reply rates that make their jaws drop once they switch to proper holistic email personalized outreach. And every one of those interactions is boosting their sender rep and deliverability behind the scenes.
So, if you want to play the email game on easy mode and let PitchKraft handle the heavy lifting by creating outreach that people can’t ignore. More engagement, better deliverability, more deals closed.
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support@pitchkraft.ai
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