I sent 1,027 cold emails with my own AI sales agent. 7 replied. The problem was not the emails.

Description and use

Low cold‑email effectiveness due to poor list targeting and missing CTA. After refining the target list and adding a landing page link, reply rates improved slightly but remain low.

Problem

Low reply and signup rates from AI‑generated cold emails due to poor targeting and missing call‑to‑action.

Outcome

The main issue was a misaligned target list and missing call‑to‑action, not the email copy. After refining the list and adding a landing page, reply rates improved but still low, highlighting the importance of list quality in outbound campaigns.

Workflow

• 1. Build prospect list using discovery strategies (YC, HN, accelerators, etc.).
• 2. Run LeadAce to read each company’s website and generate a single email.
• 3. Send emails via Gmail with proper DMARC/SPF/DKIM settings.
• 4. Record replies, rejections, and bounce data.
• 5. Analyze reply rates and detector alerts.
• 6. Refine target list to only companies that can run the product (e.g., have Mac, Claude Code Pro/Max, Gmail).
• 7. Add a clear landing page link in the email body.
• 8. Point sending domain to a valid domain or redirect.
• 9. Monitor and adjust based on detector feedback.

Evidence

We had no DMARC record until August 13. The emails went out. A lot of them most likely went to spam.

Source

The ask in the email was "try LeadAce". We do not put links in the email body.

Source