You spend 20 minutes crafting the perfect cold email. Personalized opener, clear CTA, professional sign-off. You hit send. Then...
Nothing. Not even a "not interested."
You send 50 more. Still nothing. Your response rate is 0%.
Here's the painful truth: you don't know what you did wrong. And without feedback, you'll keep making the same mistakes.
The 5 killers of cold email replies
1. "I hope this email finds you well"
Openers like this tell the reader: "I didn't research you, and I'm going to waste your time." It's the #1 most-ignored opener in cold email.
Fix: Open with a specific observation about them — their content, their company, their recent post. One genuine sentence beats five template lines.
2. Asking for a 30-minute demo in email #1
You're asking for a meeting before you've proven any value. That's like proposing on a first date.
Fix: Ask a low-friction question instead. "Quick question:" or "Curious about something you wrote." Make it easy to reply.
3. Writing 300+ words
Your prospect scans emails in 7 seconds. If it looks like a wall of text, they skip it.
Fix: Cut it in half. Then cut it again. The best cold emails are 50-150 words.
4. Spam trigger words in your subject line
"Amazing opportunity," "Act now," "Limited time," "FREE" — these go straight to the spam folder. Your email never even gets seen.
Fix: Use curiosity, specificity, or a question. "Loved your post on X" beats "Amazing opportunity you don't want to miss."
5. No question mark
Emails with a question mark get 40% more replies. Questions are invitations to respond. Statements are monologues.
Fix: End with a genuine question. Not "Let me know if you're interested" but "When you switched to X, what was the hardest part?"
❌ Reply-killing email
- "Amazing opportunity you don't want to miss!"
- 300 words
- "I hope this email finds you well"
- "Let me know if you're interested!"
- Asks for 30-min demo
- 5 buzzwords
✅ Reply-worthy email
- "Loved your post on async standups"
- 75 words
- "Your writeup was the most practical thing I read this month"
- "What was the hardest habit for your team to break?"
- Asks for 5 minutes
- Zero buzzwords
The fix is simple (but not easy)
You can't fix what you can't see. That's why I built the Cold Email Grader — a free tool that checks your email for 20+ patterns that separate replies from silence.
It scores your email from 0-100 and tells you exactly what to fix, prioritized from worst to best. No signup, no tracking, no AI rewriting your email — just honest feedback on what you wrote.
Grade your cold email now
Paste your subject line and body. Get your score in 2 seconds.
Try the free grader → ☕ SupportWhy offline?
Your cold email contains your prospecting strategy, your target list, your unique angle. Why would you paste that into someone's server?
The Cold Email Grader runs 100% in your browser. Your email never leaves your machine. No server, no API key, no tracking, no account.
Built for
- Sales reps — grade before you send to prospects
- SDRs/BDRs — daily email quality check
- Founders — first outreach to investors or customers
- Freelancers — client acquisition emails
- Marketers — newsletter and drip campaign optimization
- Job seekers — networking and referral requests
Share your score
After grading, you can tweet or LinkedIn-share your score. Challenge your network to beat it. It's a small viral loop — and it helps the tool reach people who need it.
Because the people who need this most are the ones currently sending 50 emails a week and getting zero replies.
Support the work
All tools are free and MIT licensed. If Cold Email Grader saves you time, a $1 tip keeps me building more:
Every dollar goes into the next free tool.
— Andrew · @andrwspt