"Offers" increase cold email reply rates by 28%+ (Gong)

"Offers" increase cold email reply rates by 28%+ (Gong)

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A strong offer beats an interest-based CTA by nearly 4x. Yes, you read that right.

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This is the outbound datapoint everyone should be building their 2026 strategy around.

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An offer is NOT:

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• A free demo

• A gift card

• A “meet and greet”

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It's a tangible gift that the buyer will actually get value from.

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Here are three offers you can plug into your cold emails to lift replies by 28%+

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✅ Offer #1: Easy - Pitch The Blind Date

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Position who the buyer will be meeting with. Hype up the AE, sales engineer, or yourself.

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Example: A client of ours sells an automated welding solution

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Example email CTA:

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"Our welding solutions engineer, Paul, is working with Hitch manufacturers like CURT to help overcome the welder shortage and produce consistent, high-quality welds.

Interested in a quick intro?"

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✅ Offer #2: Medium - 1:Many Offers

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High-quality, reusable insights that feel tailored. Competitive benchmarks, industry research, or best practice guides.

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Example: We have a client that sells to a clinical ops solution. They surveyed dozens of clients in key areas around clinical trials.

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Example email CTA:

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"We ran a benchmarking analysis with a few of your peers like Ultromics and MEDRhythms to find avg. study start times, drop-out rates, insights on how they shorten build times.

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Interested in seeing how you stack up?"

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✅ Offer #3: Hard - 1:1 Offers

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These are custom-tailored experiences or resources created specifically for the prospect. This works best at the enterprise & strategic levels.

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Examples:

- A cyber risk analysis

- A benchmarking analysis

- A workshop

- A personalized audit of a website checkout flow

- Visiting and experiencing the brand firsthand, then sharing insights

- Offering free data, licenses, or pilots

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Example: An EdTech rep would use language like this when reaching out to school districts

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"We compiled a report of how WCUS stacks up against the top schools in WA & OR.

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Free next week to run through the report together?

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Tom

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P.S. If nothing else, you’ll see how other PNW school districts are minimizing student inequity and achievement gaps to increase student readiness and graduation rates"

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~~~

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Listen to the rest of my convo on the LevelUp Leads podcast here.

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