For the purposes of this review while I say “cold call”, I am also referring to cold emails.
The concept is simple. You need to contact someone. You send an email. They don’t reply, so you send another email. Then send another, and another and another until you get a response (or a restraining order.) Reply will help you by helping you “personalize” your automated email so that your prospect warms up a little so that eventually, it isn’t cold it is now a warm call.
Does it work? In short, yes. You can set up customized email templates and Reply will send them out according to a email cadence that you set up and stop automatically when and if they reply.
If you aren’t familiar with this type of email marketing, you may be thinking that this is spammed email. Oleg Campbell, founder of Reply.io posted an answer to this on Producthunt.com. “We connect directly to user email account and our tool act similar to regular email client. All sent emails even will appear in your sent folder and replies goes straight to your inbox.
We have daily sending limits to prevent using Reply for spamming. And usually our customers doesn’t have volume larger than 300-400 emails per day. This is pretty low volume to consider your emails as spam. As well since our customers getting usually at least 20-30% reply rate, this is good sign for spam filters to not classify your emails as spam.
Moreover, since emails sent from user email account, all emails end up in Primary tab of Gmail inbox, not Updates or Promotions one. As well we put a randomized delay between sending each email, so the replies will be coming in a more graduate way and as well for emails servers emails will not look like sent in a bulk.”
So is it spam or not? Um, kinda. That is why there is a “customizable” opt-out feature. Personally, if I get an email from a “person” that has opt-out feature, am I really getting a personal email? NO! That is how you know it is not personal, it is automated. There I said it. You cannot claim to send personalized emails that have to come with a disclaimer that you are not trying to spam them. It seems that potentially, rather than turning a cold call to a warm call, you could be turning a cold call to an icy barren tundra call.
I am down for any product that is going to help recruiters do their job better. Reply can help do that, I am just not sure why Reply is any better than other email automation tools like outreach.io, PersistIQ, Cadence or Rebump. When asked directly about the difference between Reply.io and PersistIQ, Oleg responded, “To be honest, we are very similar, since the end goal of both tools – automate outreach. High level, I would say that we have more possibilities to customize and as well working right now on some unique features. But don’t want to sound self-promotional here. PersistIQ is a great tool. I would suggest you to try both and see what work better for you.” I have noticed the main difference in all of these tools seem to be is the reporting capabilities and the pricing.
Friends, if you are trying to warm up cold calls, learn to present a better message. Some of you don’t need to work on warming up prospects, you need to learn how to communicate with people; not algorithms and spambots. The ultimate goal is to share your important and relevant message to the right person at the right time in an engaging way. Whether you send ten emails or ten thousand, if you cannot articulate your message in a clear and concise way no amount of emails will fix that. If you have the proper skills, however, it is possible to have extremely productive conversations with potential candidates, “warm” or “cold.”
About the Author: An international trainer, Jackye Clayton has traveled worldwide sharing her unique gifts in sourcing, recruiting and coaching. She offers various dynamic presentations on numerous topics related to leadership development, inclusionary culture development, team building and more.Her in-depth experience in working with top Fortune and Inc 500 clients and their employees has allowed her to create customized programs to coach, train and recruit top talent and inspire others to greatness. Follow Jackye on Twitter @JackyeClayton and @RecruitingTools or connect with her on LinkedIn.
By Jackye Clayton
Jackye is an acclaimed thought leader and inspirational speaker on recruiting and DEIB topics. She brings years of experience recruiting across a variety of industries including tech, HR, legal, and finance. In her role as VP of Talent Acquisition and DEIB, she leads all related work at Textio, provides critical expertise to customers, and serves as a leading voice in the products Textio creates for the broader ecosystem. Jackye has been named one of the 9 Powerful Women in Business You Should Know by SDHR Consulting, one of the 15 Women in HR Tech to Follow by VidCruiter, and is on the Top 100 list of Human Resources Influencers by Human Resource Executive Magazine.
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