Your tech stack is the lifeblood of your business, driving efficiency and success in every campaign. Cold email marketing is extremely competitive, so having the best tools is essential. The right one can streamline your processes, enhance personalization and, ultimately, boost revenue. By leveraging top-tier software tailored for each critical function, you ensure that your outreach efforts are effective, scalable and data-driven.
In this article, we explore the best-in-class cold email marketing tools so you can build a powerful, revenue-generating tech stack.
1. Findymail: Best Email Finder and Email Verification Tool
Findymail is a powerful tool designed for cold email marketing campaigns, making it an essential part of your tech stack. It serves as both an email finder and a verification tool, ensuring targeted and effective outreach efforts. By using Findymail, you can significantly reduce bounce rates, maintain a clean email list and improve the overall deliverability of your emails, which is crucial for maximizing revenue.
Where It Fits in the Stack
Findymail comes into play at the very beginning of your cold email campaign process. It helps you find accurate email addresses of potential leads and verifies them to ensure they are valid. This means that before you even draft your emails, you can be confident they will reach the intended recipients. This step is vital to avoid wasting time and resources on invalid email addresses, improving your campaign's efficiency and effectiveness.
Pricing starts at $49/month
Key Features
- Email Finder: Pull emails from LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Apollo and more.
- Email Verification: Ensure emails are valid to help reduce bounce rates and protect your sender's reputation.
- Integrations: Native integrations for tools like Lemlist, Apollo.io and more.
- API Access: Provides fast and reliable API.
- Chrome Extension: Offers an easy-to-use Chrome extension to collect emails while browsing sites like LinkedIn.
- Data enrichment: Beyond email gathering and verification, Findymail also offers data enrichment and cleansing through Datacare.
Pros
- High accuracy in email finding and verification.
- User-friendly interface and easy integration with other tools.
- Reliable customer support.
Cons
- May not have the integrations you need.
Reviews
Capterra: 4.9
- “Great and easy tool to use, would highly recommend to anyone who is doing sales and marketing”
- “I love how easy the API is to integrate into workflows and tools we already use. The data quality is unmatched!”
2. Instantly.ai: Best Email Campaign Automation
Instantly.ai is a vital tool for email campaign automation, designed to streamline and optimize your outreach efforts. It automates the entire cold email process, from crafting personalized messages to scheduling and follow-ups, which increases efficiency and offers consistent communication with prospects. With Instantly.ai, you can maintain high deliverability rates, nurture leads effectively and ultimately drive more revenue.
Where Instantly.ai Fits in the Stack
Use Instantly.ai after you've gathered and verified your email contacts (using Findymail, of course). It takes over managing and automating your email campaigns. This includes personalizing emails, scheduling sends, managing replies and tracking the performance of each campaign.
Starts at $37/month. Free trial available.
Key Features
- Automated and Personalized Email Campaigns: Instantly.ai offers tools to create and automate personalized email sequences.
- Email Warm Up: Uses a large pool of real human accounts to warm up email addresses.
- Unibox for Lead Management: Manages all incoming emails from prospects in a single inbox.
- Campaign Analytics: Provides detailed analytics to track and optimize campaign performance.
- Integrations: Integrates with CRMs like HubSpot and other tools for workflow management.
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Pros
- User-friendly interface makes it easy to set up and manage campaigns.
- Highly effective email warm-up feature boosts deliverability.
- Comprehensive analytics for detailed performance tracking.
- Supports multiple email accounts for scalable outreach.
- Offers a large collection of pre-written email templates and strategies.
Cons
- The agency portal needs improvement.
- It uses Zapier for most integrations, which might not cover all user needs.
Reviews
G2: 4.9
- "Hands down, the easiest way to cold email leads."
- “I started instantly.ai for my Agency last month and got 15 Meetings Booked in 30 days only."
3. GoHighLevel: Best Multi-Channel Marketing Tool
GoHighLevel is a comprehensive multi-channel marketing platform designed to streamline and enhance marketing efforts across various channels. It integrates functionalities for email marketing, SMS marketing, CRM, pipeline management and more into a single, cohesive platform.
Where GoHighLevel Fits in the Stack
Leverage GoHighLevel in the middle and later stages of the marketing process. After initial lead generation and collection, it is the central hub for managing and nurturing these leads through email, SMS and social media. This multi-pronged approach is key to enhancing engagement and conversion rates – ultimately boosting revenue.
Pricing starts at $97/month. Free trial available.
Key Features
- Multi-Channel Campaigns: Supports email, SMS, phone calls, voicemail drops and social media messaging, enabling a comprehensive outreach strategy.
- CRM and Pipeline Management: Leads and clients through customized sales pipelines.
- Page and Funnel Builder: Drag-and-drop tools to create websites, landing pages and sales funnels.
- Appointment Scheduling: Integrates scheduling tools to automate booking processes.
- White-Label Solutions: Offers white-label options for agencies to brand the platform as their own and resell it.
Pros
- Combines multiple marketing and sales tools into one platform.
- Flexible campaign management for a unified and cohesive strategy.
- Provides a wide range of features at a competitive price point
- Easily customize campaigns, pipelines and workflows.
Cons
- Many find the platform complex initially and it takes time to understand all features fully.
- Customer support can be slow and sometimes inadequate.
- Some integrations can be tricky to set up.
Reviews
G2: 4.9
Capterra: 4.1
- “Having an all-in-one solution for email/SMS campaigns, funnels, scheduling and CRM saves me hours or headache, time and thousands of dollars on separate services from single-purpose solutions that need to be integrated together.”
4. Close CRM: Best CRM
Close CRM is a robust CRM designed specifically for sales teams, providing essential tools for managing and converting leads into revenue. Its user-friendly interface and comprehensive feature set make it a preferred choice for businesses looking to enhance their sales processes and improve team productivity.
Where Close Fits in the Stack
Close is a core component of the entire sales process. It plays a critical role in lead management, nurturing prospects and tracking interactions across various channels. The CRM's comprehensive analytics and reporting tools help sales managers monitor performance, forecast sales and optimize strategies.
Pricing starts at $59/month. Free trial available.
Key Features
- Lead and Contact Management: Efficiently store and manage leads and contacts with customizable fields and Smart Views for prioritization.
- Multi-Channel Inbox: Unified communication from phone calls, emails, SMS and video.
- Pipeline Management: Track sales opportunities and stages with a clear sales funnel overview.
- Task Management: Offers task delegation and management with reminders and organizational tools.
- Email Tools: Includes bulk emailing, email sequences, templates, open tracking and scheduling.
- Analytics and Reporting: Real-time sales activity reports, team leaderboards, custom graphs and automated notifications.
- Integrations: Native support for apps like Zapier, Zoom, Zendesk, Gmail and more.
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Pros
- Easy to navigate and use, with a short learning curve.
- Integrates emails, calls, SMS and video into a single platform.
- Helps organize and track sales activities efficiently.
- Allows personalization to fit specific business needs.
Cons
- No free version. Only a 14-day trial.
- Custom support services are expensive, starting at $750 per month.
- Missing advanced features like lead scoring and territory management
Reviews
G2: 4.7
Capterra: 4.7
- “We had another CRM system that was a lot more expensive and not very easy to use. Close.com is just a pure pleasure to work with and the entire team here is thrilled with it.”
- “What I liked about Close was the consolidation of tools into one CRM. The sales pipeline and lead management was incredibly intuitive and ready to jump right out of the box.”
5. Smartlead: Best Lead Gen Tool
Smartlead is an essential tool for email marketers focused on improving deliverability rates and maintaining a high sender reputation. Its advanced email warm-up features, powered by artificial intelligence, help ensure that emails land in the recipient's inbox rather than the spam folder. This capability is crucial for businesses that rely on email outreach to generate leads and engage with potential customers.
Where Smartlead Fits in the Stack
Smartlead works best at the early stages of an email marketing campaign. Before sending large volumes of emails, Smartlead warms up email accounts to establish their credibility with email service providers. This preemptive step prevents new email addresses from being flagged as spam.
Pricing starts at 39/month. Free trial available.
Key Features
- Unlimited Rotating Email Accounts: Use multiple email accounts to send large volumes of emails without hitting sending limits.
- AI-Powered Email Warmup: Uses artificial intelligence to warm up email accounts.
- Unified Inbox: Consolidates all lead communication in a single hub.
- Campaign Analytics: Provides detailed insights into the performance of email campaigns.
- Shared Campaign Access: Collaborate among team members by providing shared access to campaigns and lead data.
- Predictive Insights: Uses AI to provide predictive insights based on lead data.
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Pros
- Scalable outreach that supports unlimited email accounts and high-volume sending.
- AI-driven email warmup and predictive insights improve the likelihood of reaching the inbox.
- Advanced AI-powered analytics and reporting tools.
Cons
- Some features may be overly complex.
- While the volume of leads is high, the quality can vary.
- Integrations with other tools can be challenging and time-consuming.
Reviews
G2: 4.8
Capterra: 4.7
- “Smartlead was easy to set up and start warming my email addresses ready for a campaign. The customer support is very good and the chat window offers you precise, targeted results from Ai as a first option before going to live customer support.”
6. Apollo.io: Best for Sales Intelligence
Apollo.io is a powerful sales intelligence and engagement platform designed to enhance lead generation, prospecting and outreach efforts. It provides sales teams with comprehensive data on over 250 million contacts and 73 million companies – that means precise targeting and effective engagement strategies. Apollo.io integrates these data capabilities with sales engagement tools to streamline operations and improve sales outcomes.
Where Apollo.io Fits in the Stack
We suggest using Apollo.io at the initial stages of the sales process. It helps identify and gather detailed information on potential leads. The platform’s sales intelligence capabilities are critical for building a robust pipeline, while its engagement tools support continuous interaction and follow-ups.
Pricing starts at $59/month. Free trial available.
Key Features
- Advanced Search Filters: Highly targeted lead selection through advanced filtering options.
- Sales Engagement: Includes tools for email sequences, task management and click-to-dial.
- Workflow Automation: Automates repetitive tasks and workflows.
- Analytics and Reporting: Provides detailed insights into sales activities and performance.
- Integrations: Seamlessly integrates with tools like Salesforce, Findymail, HubSpot and more.
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Pros
- Robust and continuously updated database for enhanced lead generation.
- Precise targeting through advanced search filters.
- Combines data intelligence with robust sales engagement tools to streamline sales and marketing processes.
- Supports customized workflows.
Cons
- Some users report slow response times and less effective support.
- The platform can be complex to navigate, especially for new users.
Reviews
G2: 4.8
Capterra: 4.6
- “I highly recommend this software, I do really think is the best one in the market”
- “Apollo beats out any other SEP by housing the data and extracting it from LinkedIn, allowing my team to enroll contacts in sequences much more efficiently.”
7. Leadfeeder: Best Lead Gen Tool
Leadfeeder (now Dealfront) is a powerful lead-generation tool that specializes in identifying and tracking website visitors. This platform provides invaluable insights into who is visiting your website, which pages they interact with and how they found your site. Leadfeeder helps businesses focus their marketing and sales efforts on the most promising prospects by turning anonymous website visitors into actionable leads.
Where Leadfeeder Fits in the Stack
Leadfeeder fits into the early stages of the sales and marketing stack. Users primarily utilize it to identify and capture leads based on website activity. Once it identifies leads, Leadfeeder integrates the information into your CRM or marketing automation platforms, enabling sales and marketing teams to engage with these prospects through personalized outreach.
Pricing starts at €165/month. Free plan available with limited features.
Key Features
- Visitor Identification: Tracks and identifies anonymous website visitors, providing detailed information about the companies visiting your site.
- Integration with CRMs: Integrates with popular CRMs like HubSpot, Salesforce and Pipedrive for easily accessible and actionable lead data.
- Custom Feeds: Set up custom feeds to track specific types of visitors or behaviors for more relevant data.
- Lead Scoring: Provides lead scoring to prioritize the most promising leads based on their interaction with your website.
- Email Alerts: Sends email notifications to sales teams about new leads and their activities.
- Detailed Analytics: Offers comprehensive analytics on website visitor behavior.
Pros
- Get more high-quality leads.
- Easy to use with an intuitive interface.
- Customizable alerts for timely engagement.
- Advanced filtering options for targeted lead tracking.
Cons
- High price point, especially for smaller businesses or those with limited budgets.
- Occasional inaccuracies in identifying the companies visiting your website.
- Lacks advanced features like comprehensive marketing automation capabilities.
Reviews
G2: 4.3
Capterra: 4.3
“As a sales executive, there are certain things I check everyday. Prime amongst them is Dealfront. The ability to see who is on the website, what pages they’ve been looking at and their keyword searches helps me to do everything from understand intent leads better to helping to plan ABM campaigns based on behaviors.”
8. LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Best Sales Prospecting Tool
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a premier tool for sales prospecting, with advanced features to find and engage with potential clients effectively. Built on LinkedIn's extensive network, Sales Navigator provides deep insights into prospects to identify key decision-makers, track prospect activities and engage in personalized outreach.
Where Sales Navigator Fits in the Stack
Sales Navigator is utilized at the initial stages of the sales process. It helps identify and connect with potential leads, making it easier for sales teams to build a robust pipeline. Sales Navigator effortlessly transfers lead information and updates other parts of your stack.
Pricing starts at $99/month. Free 7-day trial available.
Key Features
- Advanced Search and Filtering: Robust search capabilities to find leads based on various criteria, such as industry, company size and role.
- Lead Recommendations: Provides suggestions for potential leads and companies based on user activity and preferences.
- InMail Messaging: Send direct messages to prospects even if they are not in your network.
- Real-Time Updates: Sends notifications about changes and updates in prospect companies, such as job changes or company news.
- TeamLink: Expand your reach by showing connections within your team who can help with introductions.
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Pros
- Provides powerful search and filtering options to pinpoint high-quality leads.
- Integrates with Findymail so you can quickly verify and validate lead contact info.
- It lets you connect with prospects outside your networks
- Offers robust data enrichment to improve personalization efforts.
Cons
- Some users report that customer support is not always helpful or knowledgeable.
- Eliminated certain features, including the ability to find "lookalike" leads.
Reviews
G2: 4.3
Capterra: 4.5
“I use LinkedIn Sales Navigator on a daily basis and ever since I've started I noticed a much higher retention and acquisition of my prospects, especially larger companies.”
Building a Robust Tech Stack for Cold Email Marketing
A strong tech stack is crucial for the success of your cold email marketing campaigns. With the best tools for each function, you can streamline your processes, enhance personalization and ultimately increase your revenue. While some features might overlap, it’s essential to understand where each tool shines.
And when you’re ready to upgrade your tech stack and supercharge your email marketing efforts, start with Findymail. Sign up today and get your first ten emails for free and experience the benefits of a precise, reliable email finding and verification tool.
