Email marketing platforms can help you reach out to your existing customer base and engage with them through visually appealing and perfectly timed emails.
But can you use them to reach out to cold prospects?
In this guide, we’ll look at some of the main email marketing platforms and explain the reasons why you can or can’t use them for cold email.
Let’s dive in.
Email Marketing Tools vs. Cold Email Software
The first question you need to ask yourself is what kind of emails you need to send.
Email marketing software is made for people who need to send bulk emails to an existing list of opted-in subscribers, either customers or people who have joined your marketing email list.
Cold email software is designed to help you reach out to potential customers and prospects who you haven’t previously engaged with or talked to.
What Features Does a Platform Need to Send Cold Email?
When deciding on your cold email marketing software, you’ll need to consider if it lets you do the following:
Upload a cold prospect list: Not all tools allow you to reach out to people who haven’t actively opted-in to your list. This is one of the main differences between email marketing tools and cold email tools.
Improve your deliverability: Email marketing tools often use shared IP addresses and servers, which isn’t good for deliverability. Look for tools that give you granular control over your email deliverability, such as custom domain tracking.
Personalization features: The more personalized your cold emails are, the more likely you are to receive a reply. Find a tool that makes it easy to include custom attributes for every prospect in your email list.
Collaboration with team members: As your team grows, you will need to bring other people into your workflow. Make sure the tool you use lets you add multiple inboxes, team members, and can scale with your cold email needs.
Next, let’s take a look at some of the most popular email marketing platforms and see which ones work for cold email.
1. Can You Use Brevo for Cold Email?
Who is Brevo Best For?
Brevo (formerly known as Sendinblue) is a digital marketing platform that includes an email marketing suite.
You can import your customer list, use the drag-and-drop editor to create visual and engaging emails, and then schedule your campaign to go out.
Brevo lets you automate your nurturing process, and you can create multi-step email campaigns to test different value propositions, visuals, and call-to-actions.
As well as letting you send emails, Brevo also includes marketing automation tools to help you send SMS campaigns, add live chat to your site, and even a CRM.
It's perfect for email marketers and digital marketing managers who want to have multiple tools in one software suite.
Can You Send Cold Emails with Brevo?
Brevo is not made for cold email. It's made to send emails to opted-in contacts who have previously told you it's okay to reach out to them.
If you use the platform to send emails to non-opted-in subscribers, which you will have to do when running cold email campaigns, it's against their terms of service.
Brevo is best for sending email marketing campaigns to a list of engaged subscribers, thanks to the visual email templates and marketing tools in the product.
2. Can You Use SendGrid for Cold Email?
Who Is SendGrid Best For?
SendGrid is an email service with two main offerings.
First, the SendGrid platform offers an API service that developers can use to integrate into your software or existing tools. This is ideal if you want to create trigger-based emails that go out to your users as they use your SaaS product, as you can send emails whenever someone takes an important action, like signing up for a free trial or adding their payment details.
SendGrid also has tools for email marketers. You can create email campaigns and automation sequences in an easy-to-use interface without any technical knowledge.
Another useful feature is that you can use SendGrid to create sign-up forms that you can add to landing pages that connect directly to your email lists, so you don't need to build any custom email capture forms yourself.
Can You Send Cold Emails with SendGrid?
SendGrid is an SMTP email platform, which means they maintain their own servers and IP addresses that are used to send your emails.
Due to this, they don't allow you to send cold emails to anyone who hasn't opted-in to receive them. The reason for this is that you're using shared IPs and servers, so if one person sends campaigns that perform badly, it can hurt other SendGrid users.
Here's what Twilio, the parent company of SendGrid, has explicitly stated in their email policy:
Even if you did use SendGrid for cold emails, it's unlikely that you'll get excellent cold email deliverability anyway. Why is that? Well, email service providers like Gmail and Outlook treat most emails coming from these shared IPs and servers as promotional.
That means there's a high chance that your emails land in the Promotions tab, reducing the number of prospects that see, open, and reply to your emails.
3. Can You Use Constant Contact for Cold Email?
Who Is Constant Contact Best For?
ConstantContact is an email marketing platform made for small businesses that want to set up their email marketing campaigns in an easy-to-use platform.
The user interface is simple to use, enabling anyone to be able to get their marketing campaigns up and running. You can tap into various pre-built email templates that fit almost any scenario you'll need.
You can build multi-step campaigns and have them run on autopilot.
That said, it's not ideal for anyone looking to run cold outbound campaigns to sales prospects.
Can You Send Cold Emails with Constant Contact?
You can't send cold emails with Constant Contact.
The platform's email permission policy states that every person on your email list must have given you permission to email them.
You either need:
Express permission: “when an individual has opted-in or specifically requested to get your emails,” or
Implied permission: “[implied permission] happens through a client or customer relationship”
Unfortunately, neither of these covers cold email. When you're cold emailing, you won't have implied or express permission from your recipient and therefore, it will be against Constant Contact's terms.
If Constant Contact detects that you're cold emailing prospects who haven't opted in themselves, you'll be restricted from using the platform.
4. Can You Use ActiveCampaign for Cold Email?
Who Is ActiveCampaign Best For?
ActiveCampaign is a “customer experience automation” platform that's packed with features to improve your marketing operations.
The email capabilities let you build multi-step campaigns, easily segment your subscriber base depending on actions they’ve taken, and automate new emails based on actions that people take on your website.
It’s perfect for growth teams at e-commerce, SaaS, or similar companies that are invested in growing.
But can you use ActiveCampaign for cold emailing?
Can You Send Cold Emails with ActiveCampaign?
ActiveCampaign’s product documentation states that you can only import contacts that have explicitly opted-in to hearing from you.
That means using ActiveCampaign for cold email is prohibited.
If you’ve sourced your prospect list using prospecting tools like B2B databases or building lists on LinkedIn and then using another tool to scrape their email address, these people won’t have given you explicit permission to reach out to them, even if your offer is a good fit for them.
You’ll need to use a dedicated cold email tool like QuickMail to reach out to your cold sales prospects.
5. Can You Use AWeber for Cold Email?
Who Is AWeber Best For?
Aweber is an email marketing tool for small businesses. You can quickly create email sign-up forms to add to landing pages to build your email list on autopilot. When you have your list, you can create email campaigns in the easy-to-use template creator and send them on a pre-set schedule.
AWeber is a good fit for content creators with an email marketing strategy, thanks to features like the auto-newsletters that are sent whenever you publish a new article on your blog.
However, we wouldn't recommend using AWeber for cold emailing.
Can You Send Cold Emails with AWeber?
AWeber is an email marketing tool. That means your emails are being sent from shared IP addresses and servers, which, as we looked at previously, will affect your email deliverability.
As well as that, AWeber requires you to have permission to reach out to people.
Importing cold prospects is against AWeber’s terms, and therefore you can’t use it to send cold email campaigns.
6. Can You Use Klaviyo for Cold Email?
Who Is Klaviyo Best For?
Klaviyo is a popular email marketing tool used by e-commerce brands to build complex campaigns that drive sales.
You can send personalized emails and SMS messages to subscribers based on event triggers like the products they’ve viewed, previous orders, and items they add to their shopping cart.
It also integrates with many other e-commerce tools so you can build powerful engagement and nurturing workflows.
All-in-all, Klaviyo is an excellent email automation platform.
Can You Send Cold Emails with Klaviyo?
Klaviyo is made to engage with people who have given you their contact information, not as a cold email marketing tool. The platform's Acceptable Use Policy states that you can't use it to email lists of prospects who haven't actively consented to receive communications from your business.
If you send cold emails using Klaviyo, your account will be restricted.
Even if you did want to risk it, using email marketing tools for cold email is never recommended, as they’re not designed for it. If you go with a dedicated cold email tool like QuickMail, you'll get better deliverability and more positive responses due to its native integration with the email warm-up tool MailFlow.
7. Can You Use MailerLite For Cold Email?
Who Is MailerLite Best For?
MailerLite is a newsletter and email marketing tool used by ecommerce brands.
With MailerLite, you can create and send promotional email campaigns to your email subscribers. To create email campaigns for prospective customers, you can start from scratch or use one of the hundreds of available templates.
You can also build landing pages with MailerLite, and it has native integration with the most popular e-commerce platforms out there.
Can You Send Cold Emails with MailerLite?
It is against MailerLite's email policy to send cold emails to people using their software. If you still do this and your account is found to be in violation of this policy, your account may be suspended immediately.
Email marketing platforms are not designed for sending out cold emails. To send cold emails, you have to use a platform dedicated to it, such as QuickMail. This way, you don't risk your account being terminated.
8. Can You Use Campaign Monitor For Cold Email?
Who Is Campaign Monitor Best For?
Campaign Monitor is a strong platform for marketers who are looking to scale their growth and email marketing efforts.
The email marketing platform helps e-commerce brands create, automate, and optimize their email campaigns. With it, e-commerce brands can set up automated email journeys to nurture leads through the sales funnel, welcome new subscribers, recover abandoned carts, and re-engage inactive customers.
For any e-commerce brand looking to engage its audience via email, it is a valuable tool.
Can You Send Cold Emails With Campaign Monitor?
It is against Campaign Monitor’s policy to send cold emails using their service. This is stated in their “Permission to send” policy. In the event that you decide to send cold emails using their platform, your account may be completely terminated.
As with other email marketing tools on our list, you need a dedicated cold email platform for sending out cold emails. They are designed for it, so you won't encounter any legal issues.
9. Can You Use Get Response For Cold Email?
Who Is Get Response Best For?
Get Response is a powerful tool that can help email marketers who want to create email marketing campaigns and newsletters.
Its marketing automation platform is capable of streamlining and enhancing various aspects of your marketing campaigns. You can create personalized emails using customizable templates and drag-and-drop editors.
Get Response is not just for email marketing. You can design lead capture forms and landing pages to collect valuable customer information.
Can You Send Cold Emails With Get Response?
The short answer is no. This is what Get Response’s legal page states:
As you can see, it says that you have no permission to send emails to recipients who haven’t given you permission for it. So no, you can’t use Get Response for cold emails, and it is against their policy.
Using an email marketing platform for cold email would also hurt your deliverability, so instead you should use a cold email platform dedicated to it, such as QuickMail.
10. Can You Use Convert Kit For Cold Email?
Who Is Convert Kit Best For?
ConvertKit is a good newsletter creation platform for creators, bloggers, and online businesses who want to build and nurture their email lists.
ConvertKit is a platform for everything related to newsletters. With ConvertKit, you can create newsletters using customizable templates or design your own using the drag-and-drop editor. You can customize the layout, fonts, colors, images, and more.
We see it as a good platform for creators, bloggers, and online businesses who want to build and nurture their email list.
Can You Send Cold Emails With Convert Kit?
Convert Kit’s Acceptable Use Policy states that it’s against their policy to use Convert Kit for cold emailing. See what it says here:
Therefore, no, you can’t use ConvertKit for cold emailing. ConvertKit requires that all subscribers have given permission to receive emails from you. So if you send cold emails with ConvertKit, you terminate their policies and risk your account being suspended fully.
In case your account is suspended, you won't be able to get a refund or open a new one.
11. Can You Use Litmus For Cold Email?
Who Is Litmus Best For?
If you want to grow your e-commerce brand's email presence, Litmus can help.
Litmus is an email marketing platform that helps you build personalized emails and deliver targeted messages to engage your audience on a deeper level. You can start with one of the ready-to-use templates or design from scratch using the drag-and-drop email editor.
If you want to grow your ecommerce brand's email presence, Litmus can help.
Can You Send Cold Emails With Litmus?
When looking at Litmus's Foundations page, it clearly states that you need to have the subscriber's permission to send an email to them.
For this reason, you can’t use Litmus for cold emailing. Litmus is designed to be an email marketing tool where subscribers have opted in to receive your emails once they have filled out a form.
12. Can You Use Mailjet For Cold Email?
Who Is Mailjet Best For?
Mailjet is an all-in-one email platform for companies of all sizes.
Mailjet is an email marketing platform for designing and sending out email campaigns. You can start with one of the templates of Mailjet and design it to match your brand.
Once you've sent the emails out, Mailjet has some basic analytics for tracking your open, click, and unsubscribe rates.
Can You Send Cold Emails With Mailjet?
Looking at Mailjet’s Acceptable use of policy, this is what they say:
The text “Emails can only be sent where permission has been expressly obtained” means that the subscriber has filled out a form and opted in to receive emails from you. As a result of this policy, it is not acceptable to send out cold emails with Mailjet.
13. Can You Use Moosend For Cold Email?
Who Is Moosend Best For?
Moosend is a mail and automation software that’s best for growing e-commerce brands.
Moosend is an email marketing platform offering features to help businesses manage their campaigns. You can create popup forms and add them to your website to collect email subscribers and then integrate those subscribers into your email marketing workflows.
Can You Send Cold Emails With Moosend?
Moosend does not explicitly discuss cold emails on their website, from what they found. However, certain articles, like Email Deliverability, state that recipients must opt in.
If your recipient has given you permission to use their email address for advertising purposes, then you can do so. If not, then it is referred to as cold emailing, and for that you need to use a dedicated cold email platform, like QuickMail.
Are There Any Email Marketing Platforms That Can Send Cold Emails?
There are other popular email marketing tools out there. However, most don’t give you the ability to send cold emails.
We’ve reviewed some of the most popular tools not mentioned in this article in separate articles, which you can check out here:
If you want to send cold emails, you need to find a platform that allows you to reach out to cold contacts.
Using QuickMail to Send Cold Emails That Get Replies
If you want to send cold emails to prospects who haven't yet opted in but will have a legitimate interest in hearing from you, QuickMail is the tool for you.
Here’s why:
1. Send Personalized Cold Emails at Scale
QuickMail lets you send text-based, personalized cold emails to any decision-maker you want to connect with.
You can include attributes in your emails, such as:
Hi {{prospect.first_name}} - how’s it going?
Great to see {{company.name}} doing so well.
As you work as {{prospect.role}}, I thought you’d be interested in this.
The custom attributes will auto-fill with details from your prospect list, so every email is personalized.
It’s a simple and powerful way to improve your cold email response rates.
2. Automatically Follow-Up to Boost Response Rates
If someone doesn’t reply to your first cold email, don’t worry. Only 10-20% of cold emails receive a reply on the first try. Decision-makers are busy and don’t always have time to reply.
To increase your reply rates, always send a follow-up.
If someone doesn’t reply, you can set QuickMail to automatically send a follow-up email with a new angle, value proposition, or call-to-action.
Simply add a wait step, and then a new email step.
In the example above, if someone doesn’t reply, they’ll receive a second email from you after three business days.
You can add as many follow-up steps as you need, and even include multi-channel steps like cold calls, SMS or automated LinkedIn connection requests and messages.
3. Deliverability Tools to Ensure Your Emails Get Opened
Most email marketing tools like Constant Contact, SendGrid, or Klaviyo send emails from their own IP addresses and servers.
This can worsen deliverability as you may share an IP with a spammer or someone not following email best practices.
With a dedicated cold email platform like QuickMail, you use your own domain to send emails – no shared servers.
As well as that, QuickMail has a native integration with MailFlow, which is a free email warmup tool, that improves your email deliverability. MailFlow warms up your cold email inbox by sending positive engagement signals to Gmail and Outlook.
When you send an email to a cold prospect, their email service provider will trust that your email is a real account and deserves to land in the primary inbox.
With MailFlow, you can track how well your email account is performing and send campaigns with confidence when you see that the majority of your emails consistently land in the primary inbox.
Wrapping Up
Email marketing tools are designed to help you engage with your existing customer base and audience. They aren’t made for sending cold emails to prospects who haven’t opted-in to hearing from you.
If you do use them for cold outreach, you risk having your account terminated, and it’s unlikely your campaigns will get the results you’re looking for or need to grow your business.
To send cold emails, you’ll need a tool designed specifically for outreach to cold lists, like QuickMail.
When you’re ready to start building your prospect list and sending cold outreach campaigns that start conversations, you can try out QuickMail with a completely free trial here.
