Every agency in this market quotes a reply rate. Below is ours, where it comes from, and which figure to ask every provider for before you sign.
Our best-performing campaign
A training agency, split into three separate audience segments, each with its own angle. The figures for the largest segment, measured on 2 September 2026:
| Segment | Sent | Opened | Replies | Reply rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coaches, therapists and trainers | 2,100 | 1,224 (65 %) | 167 | 7.9 % |
| Consultants, owners and directors | 1,705 | 1,122 (74 %) | 109 | 6.4 % |
That is what a tightly defined audience delivers. How you get to that point is covered further down.
What we count
A reply rate counts every incoming message. We read them one by one by hand and pass on only what is worth a conversation: a request for a meeting, a question about the price, a substantive question about the offer, or a referral to the colleague who handles it. Autoresponders and opt-outs never reach the client.
That makes our figures directly comparable with what ends up in your diary. Ask every provider you speak to the same question.
Mind the denominator too
A second point where comparisons break down: reply rates are sometimes calculated on emails sent and sometimes on unique companies contacted. That is a difference of roughly a factor of three, because a sequence of three emails sends three messages to the same lead. Same campaign, same week, different number. So always ask which denominator sits behind it.
Why segmentation makes the difference
The biggest variable is not the copy. It is how tightly your audience is defined. You do not even need to compare two campaigns for this: in a campaign of 18,594 leads we tested the reply rate per segment statistically. Identical copy, the same weeks, the same infrastructure.
| Segment | Reply rate | What we do with it |
|---|---|---|
| Companies with 100+ employees | 7.8 % | Volume goes here |
| Financial services sector | 6.3 % | Volume goes here |
| Campaign average | 4.4 % | |
| IT & services sector | 2.9 % | Different angle, tested separately |
| Companies with 21 to 50 employees | 2.3 % | Removed from the list |
Tested with a z-test on the reply rate per segment. One campaign, 18,594 leads, measured July 2026.
A factor of more than three between the strongest and the weakest segment, within the same campaign. Once you know that, you send your volume to the segments that deliver and take the rest off the list. That is exactly what we do every week.
That means two things. Segmenting delivers an immediate return, because your volume goes to the audience that replies. And a good provider knows your audience before stating an expectation.
What a realistic expectation is
- Reply rate per unique company contacted: 2 to 5 per cent for an average campaign, and 6 per cent or higher once the audience is tightly defined. Our best-performing campaign sits at 9.1 per cent.
- Open rates: 60 to 76 per cent on our running campaigns, provided the infrastructure is right and the warmup has been done.
- First replies: 3 to 10 days after go-live.
- Stable picture: after three weeks. That is why we let new copy run for at least three weeks before adjusting, so that we steer on figures and not on gut feeling.
The replies nobody counts
Referrals. "This is not my area, email my colleague." In one of our campaigns there were dozens of replies of this kind. These are warm introductions, and we pass them on with the name and contact details attached. Ask every provider how they are followed up.
Price questions. By far the most common positive reply is "what does it cost", ahead of "tell me more". Across all our campaigns that is the dominant pattern. Anyone without a ready answer lets hot leads cool down between the question and the answer.
What to ask every provider for
Five questions. Anyone who cannot answer three of them is not measuring it.
- How many emails were actually sent last month in a comparable campaign, in absolute numbers?
- How many positive replies did that produce, in absolute numbers?
- What counts as positive for you, and what explicitly does not?
- Are out-of-office replies filtered out of the reporting?
- What happens to referrals to a colleague?
How we measure it
We steer on positive replies per 1,000 emails sent, not on reply rate. Out-of-office replies and dissolved companies come out of the reporting and go onto the suppression list. What we count as a positive reply and what explicitly does not is set out on our packages page, so you can check it before you sign and not in month two. And the number of emails sent is set as a minimum in the contract, so the denominator of that fraction is not an estimate but an agreement.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good reply rate for B2B cold email?
Per unique company contacted, 2 to 5 per cent is normal for an average campaign. Our best-performing campaign reaches 9.1 per cent, on the lists where every prospect got their own landing page, against 3.2 per cent on the same list without. Mind the denominator: calculated on emails sent, the same figure is roughly three times lower, because a sequence sends several emails to the same lead.
How many replies do you get to 30,000 emails a month?
That depends almost entirely on how tightly the audience is defined. In a campaign of 18,594 leads the reply rate per segment ran up to 7.8 per cent with identical copy. Ask a provider for absolute numbers from a campaign in a sector similar to yours.
What counts as a positive reply?
A request for a call, meeting or demo, a question about the price, a substantive question about the offer, or a referral to the colleague who handles it, with contact details attached. We read every reply by hand and pass on only that.
How long does it take before cold email produces results?
The first replies usually come in 3 to 10 days after go-live, provided the warmup has been done beforehand. You only get a stable picture after three weeks. That is why we leave a campaign with new copy unchanged for at least three weeks.
Does segmentation really make that much difference?
Yes, more than anything else. Within a campaign of 18,594 leads the reply rate per segment ran up to 7.8 per cent with identical copy, the same weeks and the same infrastructure. That is why we send volume to the segments that perform.
Want to know what your audience realistically delivers?
Send us your sector and audience size and we will work it through with figures from comparable campaigns. If the audience is too small, we will say so.
Rather email first? That works too: info@link2leads.nl