Key Highlights
- 20% average reply rate across campaigns.
- 50% conversion rate from replies to closed deals.
- $10M+ revenue generated for 150+ clients over 7 years.
- 68.53% positive reply rate from 5,311 sent emails.
Client Overview
Oleksandr Ivanets, CEO of Before Hello, leads a team of email deliverability experts trusted by global enterprises to turn cold emails into revenue drivers. Since 2017, Before Hello has:
- Specialized in outbound B2B campaigns that are focused on industries like SaaS, fintech, and healthcare.
- Prioritized quality over quantity and rejected “spray-and-pray” tactics, opting for hyper-targeted, high-value outreach.
- Built a reputation for inbox mastery by navigating Gmail, Microsoft, and regional ISP filters to ensure emails land and convert.
Challenges Before Smartlead
Despite their expertise, Before Hello faced hurdles in a shifting email landscape:
Algorithm Wars
Google and Microsoft’s frequent security updates tanked email deliverability for outdated tools.
Content Fatigue
Prospects ignored generic sales pitches, demanding “irresistible” value upfront.
White-Label Costs
Building custom client dashboards in-house was prohibitively expensive.
Tool Fragmentation
Existing platforms lacked end-to-end features for scaling personalized campaigns.
“Most cold emails fail because they’re transactional, not conversational. Our campaigns work when we spark dialogue—but that requires tools that don’t treat emails as spam.”
Why Did Oleksandr Choose Smartlead?
After testing every tool in the market, Before Hello chose Smartlead for its:
Unmatched Deliverability
AI email warmups, spintax options, dynamic ESP matching, and SmartDelivery ensured 95%+ inbox placement.
White-Label Client Portals
Saved thousands of dollars in dev costs with ready-to-use dashboards with Smartlead’s white labeling.
Continuous Innovation
Constant updates (e.g., new spam filters and new features like SmartServers and SmartSenders) kept campaigns ahead of algorithms.
Community-Driven Support
Slack group and webinars provided real-world strategies, not just ticket replies.
Solutions & Features That Made the Difference
1. White-Label Transparency
- Clients access real-time campaign data (opens, replies, spam rates) via branded dashboards.
2. AI-Optimized Deliverability
- Rotated IPs/domains to mimic human sending patterns.
- Pre-send checks flagged risky phrases (e.g., “free trial,” “discount”).
3. “Conversation-First” Campaign Framework
- Irresistible Offers: Replaced sales pitches with consultative hooks:
- “We helped [Competitor] reduce churn by 30%—can I share how?”
- Behavior-Triggered Sequences: Paused emails after prospects replied to avoid overselling.
4. Global Community & Education
- Smartlead’s Slack group helps us to share and learn deliverability hacks with 5k+ cold email experts.
- Smartlead’s weekly webinars on topics on email deliverability, cold email outreach tips, and others help us immensely in our cold email strategy.
Key Results Achieved
- Our campaigns have an average 20% reply rate regardless of the emails sent.
- 50% conversion rate from replies to closed deals.
- We have helped 150+ companies generate $10M+ in revenue over 7 years.
- One of our campaigns, which had 5,311 emails sent, generated a 68.53% positive reply rate.
“Smartlead isn’t just a tool—it’s a partnership. The white-label dashboards makes us look like tech giants to clients.
Looking Ahead
Smartlead has been releasing new features every few months, and we’re looking forward to seeing more from them. Mainly a feature centered around selecting and deleting multiple leads from campaigns.
Conclusion
By combining Before Hello’s deliverability mastery with Smartlead’s enterprise-grade infrastructure, Oleksandr transformed cold email from a gamble into a predictable revenue channel. Their 20% reply rate proves that prospects listen when you prioritize conversations over conversions.
Tools don’t start conversations—people do. But Smartlead gives those conversations the spotlight they deserve. If you want a similar spotlight for your cold email outreach, it’s time you switch to Smartlead.
Maybe start slow? Here, check out this 14-day free trial to get started.
Wajahat Ali
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Founder, Lambda Group
“The best outbound email marketing software. Customer support - they are so responsive and helpful Features - you can add multiple email doma”
Senior Account Executive, Key Outreach
"Intuitive. Game-Changing. POWERFUL. Analytics, spintax, A/B testing, quick personalization. This is a game changer if you send cold email ca"
Account Executive, B.I.G. Charity Law Group Professional Corporation
“Hands down the best cold email software. Smartlead is amazing, this is the best tool if you want to cold email at scale and land in the inbo”
Co-founder, Pitchlane
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Co-Founder, Five Element
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“Smartlead is an innovative cold email platform that helps me reach out to potential clients. There are easy-to-use templates, powerful autom”
Founder, Leadbird.io
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CEO, Yell Cut
"I can upload hundreds of email accounts, send thousands of cold emails per day, and still have an organized master inbox. This is unseen wit"
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Founder, WindGrowth
“Smartlead is simply amazing. They constantly improve their product and bring new features that make the cold email software even more comple”
Outbound Lead & Partner, Peakora
“Our campaigns weren't just about reaching out, but reaching out right, and Smartlead helped us achieve this. It has added immense value to o”
Co-Founder, Five Element
“Smartlead is an absolute game-changer! With its exceptional features and support from the Smartlead team, I've experienced remarkable succes”
CEO, Acquisizioneclienti.it
“Best cold outbound email software out there. Everything, is fast, reliable, scalable, you can also white-label, amazing analytics and never”
Owner, Storydriven.video
“I just ended my 2 year search for the right cold emailing platform with Smartlead. A stand alone tool for cold emailing unlike anything else”
Senior Account Executive, Key Outreach
“Intuitive. Game-Changing. POWERFUL. Analytics, spintax, A/B testing, quick personalization. This is a game changer if you send cold email campaign. Grateful to this team for building a product that has changed our day to day. 🚀”
Powerful automated workflows that drive sales.
Frequently asked questions
What is Smartlead's cold email outreach software?
Smartlead's cold email outreach tool helps businesses scale their outreach efforts seamlessly. With unlimited mailboxes, fully automated email warmup functionality, a multi-channel infrastructure, and a user-friendly unibox, it empowers users to manage their entire revenue cycle in one place. Whether you're looking to streamline cold email campaigns with automated email warmups, personalization fields, automated mailbox rotation, easy integrations, and spintax, improve productivity, or enhance scalability with subsequences based on lead’s intentions, automated replies, and full white-label experience, our cold email tool implifies it in a single solution.
How does Smartlead's unlimited mailboxes feature benefit me?
Our "unlimited mailboxes" feature allows you to expand your email communications without restrictions imposed by a mailbox limit. This means you won't be constrained by artificial caps on the number of mailboxes you can connect and use. This feature makes Smartlead the best cold email software and empowers you to reach a wider audience, engage with more potential customers, and manage diverse email campaigns effectively.
What do you mean by "unibox to handle your entire revenue cycle"?
The "unibox" is one of the unique features of Smartlead cold email outreach tool, and it's a game-changer when it comes to managing your revenue cycle. The master inbox or the unibox consolidates all your outreach channels, responses, sales follow-ups, and conversions into one centralized, user-friendly mailbox.
With the "unibox," you gain the ability to:
1. Focus on closing deals: You can now say goodbye to the hassle of logging into multiple mailboxes to search for replies. The "unibox" streamlines your sales communication, allowing you to focus on what matters most—closing deals.
2. Centralized lead management: All your leads are managed from one central location, simplifying lead tracking and response management. This ensures you take advantage of every opportunity and efficiently engage with your prospects.
3. Maintain context: The "unibox" provides a 360-degree view of all your customer messages, allowing you to maintain context and deliver more personalized and effective responses.
Can Smartlead help improve my email deliverability rates?
Yes, our cold emailing software is designed to significantly improve your email deliverability rates. It enhances email deliverability through AI-powered email warmups across providers, unique IP rotating for each campaign, and dynamic ESP matching.
Real-time AI learning refines strategies based on performance, optimizing deliverability without manual adjustments. Smartlead's advanced features and strategies are designed to improve email deliverability rates, making it a robust choice for enhancing cold email campaign success.
Can I integrate Smartlead with other tools I'm using?
Certainly, Smartlead cold email tool is designed for seamless integration with a wide range of tools and platforms. Smartlead offers integration with HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Clay, Listkit, and more. You can leverage webhooks and APIs to integrate the tools you use. Try Now!
What is Smartlead, and how can it enhance my cold email campaigns?
Smartlead is a robust cold emailing software designed to transform cold emails into reliable revenue streams. Trusted by over 31,000 businesses, Smartlead excels in email deliverability, lead generation, cold email automation, and sales outreach. A unified master inbox streamlines communication management, while built-in email verification reduces bounce rates.Additionally, Smartlead offers essential tools such as CNAME, SPF Checker, DMARC Checker, Email Verifier, Blacklist Check Tool, and Email Bounce Rate Calculator for optimizing email performance.
How does Smartlead, as a cold emailing tool, automate the cold email process?
Smartlead’s robust cold email API and automation infrastructure streamline outbound communication by transforming the campaign creation and management processes. It seamlessly integrates data across software systems using APIs and webhooks, adjusts settings, and leverages AI for personalised content.
The cold emailing tool categorises lead intent, offers comprehensive email management with automated notifications, and integrates smoothly with CRMs like Zapier, Make, N8N, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive. Smartlead supports scalable outreach by rapidly adding mailboxes and drip-feeding leads into active campaigns Sign Up Now!
How does Smartlead ensure my emails don't land in the spam folder?
Smartlead, the best cold email marketing tool, ensures your emails reach the intended recipients' primary inbox rather than the spam folder.
Here's how it works:
1. Our "unlimited warmups" feature is designed to build and maintain a healthy sending reputation for your cold email outreach. Instead of sending a large volume of emails all at once, which can trigger spam filters, we gradually ramp up your sending volume. This gradual approach, combined with positive email interactions, helps boost your email deliverability rates.
2. We deploy high-deliverability IP servers specific to each campaign.
3. The ‘Warmup’ feature replicates humanized email sending patterns, spintax, and smart replies.
4. By establishing a positive sender reputation and gradually increasing the number of sent emails, Smartlead minimizes the risk of your emails being flagged as spam. This way, you can be confident that your messages will consistently land in the primary inbox, increasing the likelihood of engagement and successful communication with your recipients.
What features does Smartlead offer for cold email personalisation?
Smartlead enhances cold email personalisation through advanced AI-driven capabilities and strategic integrations. Partnered with Clay, The cold remaining software facilitates efficient lead list building, enrichment from over 50 data providers, and real-time scraping for precise targeting. Hyper-personalised cold emails crafted in Clay seamlessly integrate with Smartlead campaigns.
Moreover, Smartlead employs humanised, natural email interactions and smart replies to boost engagement and response rates. Additionally, the SmartAI Bot creates persona-specific, high-converting sales copy. Also you can create persona-specific, high-converting sales copy using SmartAI Bot. You can train the AI bot to achieve 100% categorisation accuracy, optimising engagement and conversion rates.
Is Smartlead suitable for both small businesses and large enterprises?
Smartlead accommodates both small businesses and large enterprises with flexible pricing and comprehensive features. The Basic Plan at $39/month suits small businesses and solopreneurs, offering 2000 active leads and 6000 monthly emails, alongside essential tools like unlimited email warm-up and detailed analytics.
Marketers and growing businesses benefit from the Pro Plan ($94/month), with 30000 active leads and 150000 monthly emails, plus a custom CRM and active support. Lead generation agencies and large enterprises can opt for the Custom Plan ($174/month), providing up to 12 million active lead credits and 60 million emails, with advanced CRM integration and customisation options.