The Outbound Report 2026

What real reply rates look like across email and LinkedIn in 2026. Built from anonymized campaign data sent with lemlist, not from surveys.

62.8M

Messages analyzed

Email and LinkedIn

172,057 sent every single day

111K

Campaigns

From 9,487 senders

304 launched every day

30+

Countries

Full metrics on each

From the US to Estonia

12mo

Period

Aug 2025 to Jul 2026

1,478,062 replies tracked

Part 01

The landscape

Baselines first. What outbound converts at in 2026, by channel, by region, by month.

TEST 01n = 62,800,800 messages

What does the average campaign convert at?

The baseline for everything below. Email carries 92.7% of the volume. LinkedIn carries a reply rate ten times higher.

Volume split by channeltotal messages sent

58.2M emails · 92.7%

4.6M

Email, the volume channelLinkedIn, 7.3%

Reply rate by channelreplies divided by sent

1.40%

816K replies

14.48% · 10x email

662K replies

The full baselineall campaigns, all geos

Metric	Email	LinkedIn	Combined
Messages sent	58,232,675	4,568,125	62,800,800
Open rate	53.13%	n/a	n/a
Replies	816,473	661,589	1,478,062
Reply rate	1.40%	14.48%	2.35%
Interested	61,026	47,114	108,140
Interested rate	0.10%	1.03%	0.17%

VerdictOne LinkedIn message gets as many replies as 10 emails. But LinkedIn is only 7% of total volume. That gap is the biggest opportunity in outbound right now.

TEST 02n = 111,043 campaigns

Email only, LinkedIn only, or both?

Three ways to run a campaign. LinkedIn only gets the highest reply rate. Mixing both does something better: it lifts email and LinkedIn at the same time.

Combined reply rate by campaign type

EmailLinkedInBoth

1.35%

Email only66,132 campaigns

77% of volume

15.72%

LinkedIn only24,259 campaigns

best reply rate

3.00%

Both channels20,652 campaigns

2.2x email only

Type	Campaigns	Users	Messages	Email open	Email reply	Email interested	LI reply	LI interested	Combined reply
Email only	66,132	6,676	48,515,202	51.70%	1.35%	0.09%	n/a	n/a	1.35%
LinkedIn only	24,259	4,444	3,097,778	n/a	n/a	n/a	14.55%	0.98%	15.72%
Both channels	20,652	3,816	11,187,820	60.27%	1.28%	0.14%	14.32%	1.13%	3.00%

FINDINGCampaigns using both channels open at 60.3%, which is 8.6 points above email only. They also double the combined reply rate. Same email, warmer context.

TEST 03n = 9 geo and type combos

Does the region change the outcome?

A lot. Europe outside France leads on every combined metric. North America email only is the weakest cell in the whole dataset.

Combined reply rate by region and typecolor scaled inside each column

Email only

LinkedIn only

Both channels

Europe

1.70%

24,423 campaigns · 17.0M msgs

16.85%

11,436 campaigns · 1.5M msgs

3.79%

7,703 campaigns · 3.7M msgs

France

1.40%

20,755 campaigns · 14.7M msgs

14.23%

6,272 campaigns · 967K msgs

2.60%

8,487 campaigns · 4.9M msgs

North America

0.95%

20,954 campaigns · 16.8M msgs

15.42%

6,551 campaigns · 673K msgs

2.63%

4,462 campaigns · 2.7M msgs

Europe

n = 22.1M messages

Type	Campaigns	Users	Messages	Email open	Email reply	LI reply	Combined
Email only	24,423	2,773	17,015,192	60.26%	1.70%	n/a	1.70%
LinkedIn only	11,436	2,089	1,457,892	n/a	n/a	15.44%	16.85%
Both channels	7,703	1,584	3,669,382	65.44%	1.75%	15.66%	3.79%

France

n = 20.5M messages

Type	Campaigns	Users	Messages	Email open	Email reply	LI reply	Combined
Email only	20,755	2,166	14,704,184	56.44%	1.40%	n/a	1.40%
LinkedIn only	6,272	1,275	966,906	n/a	n/a	13.24%	14.23%
Both channels	8,487	1,356	4,862,937	62.48%	1.16%	12.71%	2.60%

North America

n = 20.1M messages

Type	Campaigns	Users	Messages	Email open	Email reply	LI reply	Combined
Email only	20,954	1,737	16,795,826	38.87%	0.95%	n/a	0.95%
LinkedIn only	6,551	1,080	672,980	n/a	n/a	14.51%	15.42%
Both channels	4,462	876	2,655,501	49.28%	0.89%	15.13%	2.63%

VerdictEurope with both channels converts at 3.79%. That is 4 times North America email only at 0.95%. Check what your region mix does to your numbers before you rewrite your copy.

TEST 04n = 30 countries

Which countries actually reply?

The volume goes to the US, France and Germany. The replies come from smaller European markets where inboxes are less crowded.

Top 10 by overall reply rateminimum volume applied, outliers flagged

Ukraine

15.36% · outlier, 76 senders

281K msgs

Denmark

6.72%

209K msgs

Hungary

6.63%

50K msgs

Lithuania

6.00%

76K msgs

Sweden

5.98%

187K msgs

Slovakia

5.39%

360K msgs

Estonia

4.73%

287K msgs

Netherlands

4.20%

1.8M msgs

Romania

4.04%

160K msgs

Spain

3.64%

535K msgs

Sort table by

#	Country	Campaigns	Users	Messages	Emailreply	Emailinterested	LinkedInreply	Overallreply	Overallinterested
01	France	35,514	4,797	20,534,027	1.40%	0.15%	13.04%	2.29%	0.22%
02	United States	27,713	3,239	14,633,752	1.22%	0.06%	15.04%	1.98%	0.12%
03	Germany	7,874	1,232	6,181,069	1.33%	0.10%	15.05%	2.24%	0.18%
04	Canada	3,146	329	4,834,527	0.26%	0.02%	15.62%	0.63%	0.05%
05	United Kingdom	10,978	1,494	4,634,132	1.19%	0.07%	14.95%	2.49%	0.14%
06	Belgium	3,567	577	1,905,702	1.68%	0.13%	14.40%	3.03%	0.26%
07	Netherlands	3,814	703	1,774,184	2.64%	0.19%	17.40%	4.20%	0.28%
08	Switzerland	2,500	430	1,453,506	2.08%	0.16%	15.66%	3.20%	0.29%
09	Italy	2,118	338	1,064,449	1.67%	0.15%	14.37%	2.79%	0.18%
10	Poland	1,358	197	642,449	1.22%	0.10%	15.21%	2.01%	0.19%
11	Spain	1,829	316	534,857	1.81%	0.12%	16.92%	3.64%	0.18%
12	Mexico	935	97	510,543	0.96%	0.11%	9.64%	2.21%	0.17%
13	Austria	881	159	474,624	1.45%	0.04%	17.77%	2.46%	0.08%
14	Portugal	581	71	422,589	1.62%	0.14%	17.78%	3.42%	0.34%
15	Slovakia	274	32	359,900	5.17%	0.02%	20.50%	5.39%	0.02%
16	Estonia	790	59	287,055	1.94%	0.02%	13.97%	4.73%	0.09%
17	Ukraine	2,438	76	280,948	15.32%	0.15%	15.53%	15.36%	0.25%
18	Greece	179	31	271,031	0.91%	0.01%	17.06%	1.53%	0.02%
19	Slovenia	374	62	244,388	1.81%	0.04%	18.32%	2.65%	0.04%
20	Czechia	704	80	212,910	2.14%	0.26%	13.61%	2.87%	0.31%
21	Denmark	483	87	208,544	1.21%	0.07%	17.19%	6.72%	0.38%
22	Sweden	355	83	187,437	4.41%	0.11%	16.96%	5.98%	0.12%
23	Ireland	438	84	177,972	0.98%	0.09%	15.80%	2.61%	0.12%
24	Finland	363	61	177,154	2.14%	0.17%	15.15%	3.42%	0.22%
25	Romania	327	44	160,153	1.52%	0.10%	10.89%	4.04%	0.18%
26	Panama	19	5	106,533	0.98%	0.00%	20.00%(30)	0.99%	0.00%
27	Bulgaria	229	32	89,659	0.87%	0.03%	12.18%	1.94%	0.04%
28	Lithuania	124	39	75,694	2.91%	0.04%	32.72%	6.00%	0.10%
29	Serbia	304	26	71,053	1.67%	0.07%	16.79%	2.06%	0.08%
30	Hungary	154	26	50,363	2.54%	0.18%	24.84%	6.63%	0.15%

Note. Ukraine at 15.36% runs on only 76 senders with an unusual channel mix, so we flag it as an outlier. Canada at 0.63% is pulled down by bulk email senders. Values in grey come from under 1,000 sends and are directional only.

TEST 05n = 12 months

Is outbound getting harder?

Volume grew 21 times in a year. Reply rates did not collapse. They held between 2.2% and 2.4%, with one clear peak in January 2026 at 2.70%.

Overall reply rate and volume by month

Reply rateVolume

Month	Campaigns	Users	Messages	Email reply	Email interested	LI reply	LI interested	Overall
2025-08	1,034	515	110,529	1.41%	0.08%	23.25%	0.81%	2.15%
2025-09	8,419	2,579	2,381,812	1.50%	0.09%	16.06%	1.09%	2.29%
2025-10	15,228	3,964	4,613,833	1.41%	0.16%	15.47%	1.16%	2.33%
2025-11	19,610	4,800	4,588,223	1.45%	0.11%	14.97%	1.08%	2.44%
2025-12	21,133	5,115	4,451,605	1.29%	0.08%	13.94%	1.13%	2.26%
2026-01	26,608	6,048	5,116,671	1.71%	0.17%	15.16%	1.17%	2.70%
2026-02	32,128	7,027	6,181,911	1.46%	0.09%	15.16%	1.18%	2.40%
2026-03	38,903	8,069	7,420,237	1.51%	0.10%	14.61%	1.13%	2.40%
2026-04	42,134	8,844	7,270,701	1.42%	0.09%	14.57%	0.96%	2.25%
2026-05	43,363	9,509	6,723,029	1.25%	0.08%	13.90%	0.86%	2.21%
2026-06	49,133	10,461	7,160,234	1.28%	0.10%	14.07%	0.89%	2.32%
2026-07	51,836	11,041	6,782,015	1.26%	0.10%	13.46%	0.94%	2.34%

VerdictJanuary is the best month. People reset their pipeline after the holidays and replies hit the yearly high of 2.70%. November and December are the low point at 2.26%. Plan your big pushes around that.

TEST 06n = 108 month, region and type points

Who drives the trend? Explore it.

Averages hide the movement. Filter by region and channel to see who pushed the January peak and who has been slowing down since.

Region

Channel

Email reply rateall regions · email only

2025-08

1.39%

98K msgs

2025-09

1.45%

1.9M msgs

2025-10

1.40%

3.5M msgs

2025-11

1.41%

3.5M msgs

2025-12

1.29%

3.4M msgs

2026-01

1.75%

3.9M msgs

2026-02

1.43%

4.8M msgs

2026-03

1.47%

5.8M msgs

2026-04

1.37%

5.7M msgs

2026-05

1.15%

5.2M msgs

2026-06

1.17%

5.5M msgs

2026-07

1.15%

5.2M msgs

Part 02

The copy

Email length and subject length. Two settings almost nobody tests, where the gaps are the widest.

TEST 07n = 15 length and region cells

How long should the email be?

There is no single answer. The best length flips by market. France rewards long emails. North America rewards mid length. The colored bar is the winner in each region.

Email reply rate by body lengthblue is the best bucket per region

Europe

winner: 101-150 words · 1.24%

0.87

0-50

0.98

51-100

1.24

101-150

0.96

151-200

1.19

200+

France

winner: 200+ words · 1.57%

0.72

0-50

0.84

51-100

0.72

101-150

0.74

151-200

1.57

200+

North America

winner: 101-150 words · 1.42%

0.46

0-50

0.26

51-100

1.42

101-150

0.73

151-200

0.47

200+

Europe

n = 24,453 campaigns

Length	Campaigns	Emails sent	Open	Reply	Interested	Bounce	Overall
0-50 words	6,205	2,726,681	49.36%	0.87%	0.05%	3.17%	1.94%
51-100 words	5,021	2,758,626	51.49%	0.98%	0.05%	2.65%	1.02%
101-150 words	5,990	3,292,858	52.18%	1.24%	0.06%	2.92%	1.26%
151-200 words	3,748	2,073,137	55.78%	0.96%	0.04%	3.20%	0.98%
200+ words	3,489	1,917,172	58.68%	1.19%	0.05%	2.99%	1.20%

France

n = 22,060 campaigns

Length	Campaigns	Emails sent	Open	Reply	Interested	Bounce	Overall
0-50 words	5,019	1,756,198	55.42%	0.72%	0.07%	2.65%	1.71%
51-100 words	5,506	3,482,934	44.48%	0.84%	0.04%	2.92%	0.87%
101-150 words	5,121	2,835,276	54.97%	0.72%	0.06%	3.09%	0.73%
151-200 words	2,650	1,335,587	53.87%	0.74%	0.05%	3.38%	0.74%
200+ words	3,764	2,032,039	49.97%	1.57%	0.35%	2.62%	1.57%

North America

n = 19,591 campaigns

Length	Campaigns	Emails sent	Open	Reply	Interested	Bounce	Overall
0-50 words	3,516	1,493,107	38.40%	0.46%	0.02%	3.96%	1.29%
51-100 words	5,688	4,922,204	23.55%	0.26%	0.02%	1.36%	0.27%
101-150 words	4,856	3,733,936	30.51%	1.42%	0.02%	1.88%	1.43%
151-200 words	3,176	1,404,646	43.74%	0.73%	0.03%	3.13%	0.74%
200+ words	2,355	1,684,501	57.79%	0.47%	0.05%	3.14%	0.49%

VerdictFrance with 200 or more words hits 1.57%, the best email reply rate in this report. North America between 51 and 100 words is the dead zone at 0.26%. Write for your reader, not for a rule of thumb.

TEST 08n = 12 subject and region cells

And the subject line?

Here the answer is the same everywhere. Between 31 and 50 characters wins in all three regions. Past 70 characters replies drop and bounces go up.

Email reply rate by subject lengthblue is the best bucket per region

Europe

winner: 31-50 chars · 1.24%

1.07

0-30

1.24

31-50

0.72

51-70

0.92

70+

France

winner: 31-50 chars · 1.17%

0.80

0-30

1.17

31-50

0.74

51-70

0.69

70+

North America

winner: 31-50 chars · 0.82%

0.50

0-30

0.82

31-50

0.67

51-70

0.38

70+

Europe

n = 24,453 campaigns

Subject	Campaigns	Emails sent	Open	Reply	Interested	Bounce	Overall
0-30 chars	10,246	4,932,106	53.39%	1.07%	0.06%	2.98%	1.69%
31-50 chars	8,289	4,624,670	54.26%	1.24%	0.05%	2.81%	1.26%
51-70 chars	4,101	2,467,849	50.21%	0.72%	0.03%	3.07%	0.74%
70+ chars	1,817	743,849	51.65%	0.92%	0.06%	3.58%	0.93%

France

n = 22,060 campaigns

Subject	Campaigns	Emails sent	Open	Reply	Interested	Bounce	Overall
0-30 chars	9,361	4,402,461	52.65%	0.80%	0.09%	2.65%	1.23%
31-50 chars	6,703	4,001,830	47.88%	1.17%	0.09%	2.80%	1.18%
51-70 chars	4,135	1,947,505	51.85%	0.74%	0.23%	3.53%	0.75%
70+ chars	1,861	1,090,238	52.47%	0.69%	0.05%	3.39%	0.70%

North America

n = 19,591 campaigns

Subject	Campaigns	Emails sent	Open	Reply	Interested	Bounce	Overall
0-30 chars	7,653	3,593,759	37.91%	0.50%	0.03%	2.89%	0.87%
31-50 chars	8,011	7,063,139	29.56%	0.82%	0.01%	1.34%	0.83%
51-70 chars	2,716	1,739,607	39.98%	0.67%	0.07%	3.75%	0.70%
70+ chars	1,211	841,889	37.32%	0.38%	0.02%	3.48%	0.40%

TEST 09n = 20 combos, 22.5M emails

Cross the two. Where is the sweet spot?

Body length against subject length, every combination measured on email reply rate. Two cells stand out on the map.

Email reply rate by body and subject length

under 0.6%0.6 to 0.80.8 to 1.01.0 to 1.41.4% and up

	0-30 chars	31-50 chars	51-70 chars	70+ chars
0-50 words	0.73%5.1M sent	0.79%643K sent	0.51%201K sent	0.71%50K sent
51-100 words	0.84%3.9M sent	0.46%5.8M sent	0.65%1.3M sent	0.55%144K sent
101-150 words	0.84%2.4M sent	1.56%4.9M sent	0.67%2.0M sent	0.79%532K sent
151-200 words	0.95%961K sent	0.89%2.1M sent	0.79%1.2M sent	0.51%618K sent
200+ words	1.18%565K sent	1.54%2.3M sent	0.79%1.4M sent	0.68%1.3M sent

FINDINGTwo winners: 101 to 150 words with a 31 to 50 character subject at 1.56% on 4.9M emails, and 200 or more words with the same subject length at 1.54%. Short bodies with long subjects lose everywhere.

Part 03

The sequence

Where to start, how many steps to run, and which real sequences bring replies.

TEST 10n = 65,584 sequenced campaigns

Start with email or with LinkedIn?

The first touch sets the ceiling. Sequences that start on LinkedIn reply 2 to 3 times better overall than sequences that start on email, in every region.

Overall reply rate by first touch

Email firstLinkedIn first

Europe

LinkedIn first is 3.1x better

1.09%

Email first

3.36%

LinkedIn first

France

LinkedIn first is 2.0x better

0.96%

Email first

1.88%

LinkedIn first

North America

LinkedIn first is 3.2x better

0.72%

Email first

2.28%

LinkedIn first

Region	First touch	Campaigns	Leads	Email open	Email reply	LI reply	Overall
Europe	Email First	18,582	11,201,826	52.58%	1.08%	12.61%	1.09%
Europe	LinkedIn First	4,412	1,092,961	59.43%	0.95%	12.23%	3.36%
Europe	Other	1,459	768,155	51.60%	0.82%	14.26%	1.68%
France	Email First	16,880	9,893,724	49.65%	0.95%	11.31%	0.96%
France	LinkedIn First	4,090	1,339,275	61.10%	0.70%	9.80%	1.88%
France	Other	1,090	428,505	50.10%	0.57%	11.82%	1.54%
North America	Email First	16,507	12,328,518	33.31%	0.71%	9.91%	0.72%
North America	LinkedIn First	2,370	686,299	42.83%	0.44%	11.68%	2.28%
North America	Other	714	360,987	32.03%	0.27%	9.74%	0.63%

VerdictOnly 17% of campaigns start on LinkedIn, and they reply 2 to 3 times better everywhere. If your leads are active on LinkedIn, start there.

Note. Senders who start on LinkedIn also tend to run smaller and better researched lists, so part of this gap comes from the sender and not only from the channel order. The direction is consistent across all three regions, which makes it a strong signal even so.

TEST 11n = 29M emails, 364K LinkedIn messages

How many steps is too many?

Email tires out fast. The sweet spot is 2 to 3 steps, then reply rates fall. LinkedIn does not tire the same way. Rates stay flat around 11% up to 5 touches.

Email reply rate by sequence lengthfalls off fast

1 step

1.01%

4.4M

2 steps

1.29%

4.4M

3 steps

1.24%

6.9M

4 steps

0.75%

5.4M

5 steps

0.44%

3.8M

6 steps

0.65%

2.1M

7 steps

0.86%

620K

8 steps

0.55%

697K

9 steps

0.73%

106K

10 steps

0.36%

205K

11 steps

0.16%

610

12 steps

0.69%

11K

15 steps

0.12%

LinkedIn reply rate by sequence lengthstays flat

1 step

10.68%

133K

2 steps

10.69%

74K

3 steps

11.21%

68K

4 steps

11.21%

64K

5 steps

11.67%

13K

6 steps

8.02%

11K

7 steps

17.97%

Note. Faded bars come from small samples, under 10,000 emails or under 5,000 LinkedIn messages, so read them as directional. The email spike at 5 steps comes from a few high volume senders. The overall shape is the signal.

TEST 12n = top 25 sequences per region

Which exact sequences win?

Real sequences ranked by how often they are used, with their real reply rates. E Email, L LinkedIn, C Call, M Manual, O Other.

Region

Sequence	Steps	Campaigns	Leads	Emails	LI msgs	Email reply	LI reply	Overall
E›E›E	3	3,988	2,348,503	2,348,503	0	1.28%	n/a	1.28%
E›E›E›E	4	2,751	2,094,909	2,094,909	0	0.75%	n/a	0.75%
E›E	2	3,408	1,917,378	1,917,059	0	1.23%	n/a	1.23%
E	1	3,166	1,278,461	1,277,971	0	1.12%	n/a	1.12%
E›E›E›E›E	5	988	707,023	707,023	0	1.63%	n/a	1.63%
E›E›E›E›E›E	6	517	514,731	514,710	0	0.94%	n/a	0.94%
E›E›E›E›E›E›E›E	8	303	409,033	409,033	0	0.69%	n/a	0.69%
E›E›E›O	4	232	236,779	236,779	0	0.83%	n/a	0.83%
E›E›E›E›E›E›E	7	138	212,702	212,702	0	0.41%	n/a	0.41%
L	1	581	137,087	0	42,395	n/a	11.07%	11.07%
E›E›E›M›O	5	108	106,613	106,613	0	0.83%	n/a	0.83%
L›L	2	441	101,419	0	39,453	n/a	10.46%	10.46%
L›L›L	3	311	96,375	0	36,928	n/a	12.08%	12.08%
C	1	99	90,009	0	0	n/a	n/a	n/a
L›L›L›L	4	195	53,588	0	17,537	n/a	11.80%	11.80%
E›E›E›E›E›E›E›E›E	9	42	50,476	50,476	0	0.90%	n/a	0.90%
E›E›E›E›E›E›E›E›E›E	10	90	42,370	42,370	0	0.51%	n/a	0.51%
O	1	49	38,982	0	0	n/a	n/a	n/a
E›L›E›E	4	59	38,676	38,530	146	1.29%	22.60%(146)	1.37%
L›E	2	168	32,742	31,259	1,483	0.37%	18.27%	1.18%
L›E›E	3	97	31,649	30,714	935	3.01%	15.61%(935)	3.38%
C›C	2	20	30,219	0	0	n/a	n/a	n/a
E›E›E›L›L›L	6	25	29,730	29,723	7	1.25%	14.29%(7)	1.25%
M	1	73	29,420	0	0	n/a	n/a	n/a
E›L	2	72	21,600	19,873	1,727	1.03%	18.01%	2.39%

VerdictThe best mixed sequence in Europe is LinkedIn, then email, then email at 3.38% overall. Open on LinkedIn, then follow up by email.

Part 04

The levers

Personalization, list size, images, tracking. The settings most senders never question, measured.

TEST 13n = 42,925 campaigns

Does personalization pay? Depends how.

Four methods, from none at all to spin syntax. The surprise: variables only, where two thirds of senders sit, is the worst performing method.

Overall reply rate by personalization methodbadge shows share of campaigns using it

1.82%

No personalization10,799 campaigns

25% of usage

0.81%

Variables only28,887 campaigns

67% of usage

1.05%

Liquid conditionals847 campaigns

2% of usage

1.57%

Spin syntax2,392 campaigns

6% of usage

Method	Campaigns	Total sent	Email open	Email reply	Email interested	Bounce	LI reply	Overall
No personalization	10,799	7,578,338	45.82%	1.03%	0.02%	3.29%	11.48%	1.82%
Variables only	28,887	27,035,400	44.76%	0.78%	0.05%	2.59%	11.73%	0.81%
Liquid conditionals	847	1,131,981	58.36%	1.03%	0.07%	2.68%	16.11%	1.05%
Spin syntax	2,392	2,354,531	47.02%	1.57%	0.19%	2.02%	11.02%(998)	1.57%

FINDINGSpin syntax reaches 1.57% reply, close to twice variables only at 0.81%. Writing 3 to 5 versions of each line is not more work per lead. It is more work once, up front.

TEST 14n = 12 method and region cells

Same method, same result everywhere?

No. Spin syntax in France is a big win at 2.43%. The same method in North America barely moves at 0.54%. The market decides what personalization buys you.

Email reply rate by method and regionblue is the best method per region

Europe

winner: Spin syntax · 1.09%

1.08

None

1.05

Variables

1.03

Liquid

1.09

Spin

France

winner: Spin syntax · 2.43%

0.55

None

0.80

Variables

1.05

Liquid

2.43

Spin

North America

winner: No personalization · 1.76%

1.76

None

0.52

Variables

0.97

Liquid

0.54

Spin

Europe

n = 15,902 campaigns

Method	Campaigns	Leads	Email open	Email reply	Interested	LI reply	Overall
No personalization	4,746	2,670,455	49.29%	1.08%	0.03%	12.50%	2.19%
Variables only	10,334	9,235,777	53.15%	1.05%	0.05%	13.16%	1.09%
Liquid conditionals	486	868,585	59.80%	1.03%	0.06%	15.92%(716)	1.05%
Spin syntax	336	288,125	58.24%	1.09%	0.17%	11.39%(483)	1.11%

France

n = 14,312 campaigns

Method	Campaigns	Leads	Email open	Email reply	Interested	LI reply	Overall
No personalization	3,839	3,082,068	51.57%	0.55%	0.03%	10.17%	1.17%
Variables only	8,526	7,191,223	50.01%	0.80%	0.11%	10.34%	0.82%
Liquid conditionals	307	194,703	57.84%	1.05%	0.09%	15.13%(641)	1.10%
Spin syntax	1,640	1,193,510	52.84%	2.43%	0.26%	12.39%(226)	2.43%

North America

n = 12,711 campaigns

Method	Campaigns	Leads	Email open	Email reply	Interested	LI reply	Overall
No personalization	2,214	1,825,815	31.23%	1.76%	0.00%	11.46%	2.37%
Variables only	10,027	10,608,400	33.90%	0.52%	0.02%	10.73%	0.55%
Liquid conditionals	54	68,693	41.65%	0.97%	0.15%	25.30%(83)	1.00%
Spin syntax	416	872,896	35.35%	0.54%	0.09%	9.34%(289)	0.54%

TEST 15n = 96,250 campaigns

Does list size kill reply rate?

Every step up in list size costs you replies, with no exception. From 1.74% at 10 to 50 leads down to 0.65% above 500.

Overall reply rate by campaign sizeone step down at a time

1.74%

10-5068,704 camp.

0.99%

51-10016,261 camp.

0.70%

101-1506,000 camp.

0.68%

151-2002,906 camp.

0.61%

201-5002,056 camp.

0.65%

500+323 camp.

Region

Size	Campaigns	Avg leads	Email reply	LI reply	Overall reply
10-50 leads	68,704	21	1.16%	12.55%	1.74%
51-100 leads	16,261	69	0.92%	10.03%	0.99%
101-150 leads	6,000	122	0.68%	7.69%	0.70%
151-200 leads	2,906	172	0.67%	8.98%	0.68%
201-500 leads	2,056	285	0.61%	5.80%	0.61%
500+ leads	323	719	0.65%	7.14%(14)	0.65%

VerdictSmall lists win everywhere, every time. A campaign of 10 to 50 leads replies 2.7 times better than one above 500. Segmenting is not optional.

TEST 16n = 37.4M emails

Should you put images in cold emails?

This is the most split result in the report. North America punishes images hard, with open rate falling from 43% to 15%. Europe is the only region where image campaigns get more replies.

Email reply rate with and without images

No imagesWith images, betterWith images, worse

Europe

+47% with images

0.97%

No images

1.44%

With images

France

-49% with images

0.98%

No images

0.51%

With images

North America

-89% with images

0.98%

No images

0.11%

With images

Region	Images	Campaigns	Emails sent	Open rate	Reply rate	Bounce	Overall
Europe	No Images	20,722	10,635,177	53.18%	0.97%	3.01%	1.29%
Europe	With Images	3,731	2,133,297	52.06%	1.44%	2.79%	1.45%
France	No Images	18,664	9,636,370	51.09%	0.98%	2.76%	1.19%
France	With Images	3,396	1,805,664	49.45%	0.51%	3.79%	0.51%
North America	No Images	14,709	8,813,112	43.22%	0.98%	2.75%	1.13%
North America	With Images	4,882	4,425,282	14.71%	0.11%	1.14%	0.11%

VerdictSelling to North America? Remove every image. The signal is clear. Selling to Europe? Images go with 47% more replies, but read the note below before you act on it.

Read this before quoting the Europe number. Replies go up by 47% but the interested rate is cut in half, from 0.052% to 0.030%, so some of those extra replies may be lower quality. Senders who use images in Europe also tend to be the ones using personalized images, who are often more experienced. So this is a correlation, not a proven cause. France at minus 49% and North America at minus 89% point the other way.

TEST 17n = 37.4M emails

Does turning off tracking boost replies?

On paper yes, senders without tracking reply at twice the rate. In practice this is about who they are: 20 times fewer, more experienced, and running smaller lists.

Email reply rate with tracking on and off

Tracking onTracking off

Europe

2.6x when off (cohort bias)

0.97%

Tracking on

2.49%

Tracking off

France

1.9x when off (cohort bias)

0.87%

Tracking on

1.68%

Tracking off

Region	Tracking	Campaigns	Emails sent	Reply rate	Interested rate
Europe	Tracking Disabled	620	670,670	2.49%	0.06%
Europe	Tracking Enabled	15,282	12,097,804	0.97%	0.05%
France	Tracking Disabled	801	517,082	1.68%	1.12%
France	Tracking Enabled	13,511	10,924,952	0.87%	0.06%
North America	Tracking Disabled	sample not conclusive, left out
North America	Tracking Enabled	11,660	9,408,651	0.93%	0.03%

Note. The tracking off samples are 15 to 20 times smaller and lean toward experienced senders with better lists. The pixel itself probably matters less than the profile of the sender who removes it. North America tracking off is left out because the sample is not conclusive.