Email outreach is an irreplaceable channel for businesses striving to connect with their audience. Yet, amidst the allure of popular email outreach platforms lies a subtle deception. The awe-inducing statistics some of them present may paint a rosy picture of success, luring users into a false sense of achievement.

As we delve deeper into this issue, it becomes apparent that what appears as triumph may indeed be a facade of deceit.

Unveiling statistical manipulation

As you may know, Google has rolled out several updates to combat spam. This leads to email outreach becoming less effective.

Under these circumstances, certain email outreach tools started manipulating campaign metrics, such as open rates and click-through rates, to create a facade of success. For customers just starting out, this deception can lead to a false sense of achievement and misguided confidence in the efficacy of solo email campaigns. Novice marketers are especially vulnerable to this “sugarcoating of the truth”, so remaining vigilant and seeking validation beyond surface-level statistics is vital, ensuring you don’t fall prey to the illusion of success perpetuated by these automation tools.

Here are examples.

Below there are two campaigns: first from Closely and second from another tool. Both campaigns ran for the same ICP, equal number of prospects (may be a minor difference). In the end, Closely showed 15% open rate and 13% clicked, while the other tool showed a whooping 63% open rate and 56% clicks.

Closely’s campaign:

The other tool’s campaign:

At this very time, our manager’s emails went down (deliverability got worse). This happens when you send emails to invalid emails or when users complain about your emails. Then something is done to the account and the delivery deteriorates. Consequently, we can conclude that some automation tools inflated metrics.

We also come to another important issue: the question of validity of emails. 

Are the emails valid after all? 🧐

So, in addition to inflated metrics, there are also issues with email validity. 

Email validators don’t have time to scan email addresses and highlight them as valid, which is also common, especially after the New Year, when leads change jobs en masse or get laid off. Below are some examples of this (valid emails bounced).

Our manager downloaded valid email addresses from some email automation tool, sent emails to them, but the emails were not delivered, and as a result, after several consecutive unsuccessful attempts, the emails started to bounce.

We’re for fair competition, so we don’t want to name these email providers, but we want to raise this issue, and advise users to double-check statistics, or change the strategy.

Unraveling the unreliability of email as a first contact

Due to massive layoffs and cutbacks in the technology sector, email is becoming an unreliable first touchpoint in outreach.

Email validators usually fail to scan and understand whether an email is active or not, which, in turn, affects its display as valid/invalid in email outreach activities. As we already demonstrated, displayed as green in solo email automation tools doesn’t not necessarily mean the email is valid.

Closely also offers an email outreach feature, however, we understand the importance of staying cautious around this. The more emails sent to invalid addresses, the more it will affect sender domain, and sender reputation. This poses a high risk.

How to mitigate risks of using solo email outreach tools

In 2024, the efficacy of solo email campaigns is diminishing due to tightening spam policies and spam filters. With Google rolling out new restrictions aimed at email marketing, this year marketers/salespeople must acknowledge the risks associated with relying solely on email as a primary outreach channel. 

To adapt effectively, you have to integrate email within broader, multifaceted strategies and multiple outreach channels. This ensures a more robust and resilient approach to engaging with target audiences, not as profoundly affected by restrictions and email roadblocks. “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”, as they say.

Conclusion

To be effective in outreach, you need to have a quality base that’s formed on the current status on LinkedIn. The next crucial element is LinkedIn outreach, all the other channels (email and phone outreach) can be used as additional effort.

Closely is a perfect option for multichannel outreach: it covers up to 75% of marketers’ needs, simplifying workflow and boosting effectiveness. It offers:

• multichannel outreach campaigns
• meeting scheduling tool
• B2B database with emails and phone numbers
• and lots of other features

Now you’re acquainted with discrepancy in email metrics and can fuel your outreach through multichannel campaigns.