Case Study

The Pipeline Inc. Achieved a 56% Positive Reply Rate with Cold Emails Using Smartlead

Wajahat Ali
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February 24, 2026
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Key Highlights

  • 56% positive reply rate from 1.4k contacts.
  • $15k generated from small-scale campaigns.
  • 41 unique replies and 70.73% unique positive replies.

Client Overview

Vladislav Molchanov, CEO of The Pipeline Inc., leads a Toronto-based digital marketing agency specializing in Facebook Ad Management, Funnel Building, CRO, and Content Management for B2B/B2C clients. With a focus on cold email as their core lead generation strategy, The Pipeline Inc. helps businesses convert prospects into high-value clients through hyper-personalized outreach. 

Vlad’s love for copywriting psychology drove the agency to treat cold email as a “conversational sales funnel.” However, despite their expertise, outdated tools and email deliverability challenges limited their scalability—until they discovered Smartlead.

Challenges Before Smartlead

1. Poor Deliverability

Emails were frequently landing in spam, even with a strong copy.

2. Ineffective Tools

Previous platforms lacked critical features and reliable support.

3. Weak Message-Market Fit

Offers felt generic, failing to spark prospect interest.

4. Manual Workarounds

Time wasted on disjointed workflows.

Why Smartlead?

After using a few trending cold email outreach tools in the market, Vlad switched to Smartlead after industry experts' recommendations. 

Key reasons included:

  • Superior Deliverability Features: Ensured emails never miss the inboxes.
  • User-Friendly Interface: The UI is clean and easy to use. This allowed for a simplified campaign setup and management.
  • Expert Support Team: The support is very responsive and provides quick resolutions from cold email specialists.
“Smartlead’s team understands cold email outreach better than we do” – Vladislav Molchanov.

The Solution: Smartlead + Copywriting Mastery

The Pipeline Inc. combined Smartlead’s cold email automation features with their proven copywriting framework. This worked wonders for their campaigns. Here’s how they did it:

1. The Slippery Slide Framework

  • They aimed to make every element (subject line, first word, formatting) compel the reader to keep reading. Start with the subject line, then make them read the first line, then the second, and so on and on.
  • Example: “Hey [First Name], quick question…” → 78% open rate.

2. Wii FM (“What’s In It For Me?”)

  • Prospects always care about what’s it in for them, so they focused on benefits within benefits (e.g., “Boost ROI” → “Save 10 hours/week on ad management”).

3. Dating Before Marriage

  • You don’t want to overwhelm them with a meeting right away. Start with low-commitment asks (e.g., “Can I share a case study?”) instead of pushing for immediate calls. 

4. Minimalist Design

  • Short sentences, white space, and skimmable structure to accommodate readers’ habits. This is 2025; you need to keep it short and skimmable!

Key Results Achieved

  • 56% positive reply rate from 1.4k prospects that were engaged with personalized, benefit-driven emails.
  • $15k in revenue generated from targeted campaigns for niche clients.
  • 41 unique replies and 70.73% unique positive replies.
  • Automated workflows reduced manual tasks, freeing up hours for strategy.
“Smartlead improved our deliverability and gave us the tools to turn cold emails into conversations. The support team’s expertise was the cherry on top.”

Looking Ahead

Vlad is quite happy with Smartlead and has no complaints whatsoever, so The Pipeline Inc. plans to double its outreach volume in 2025 using Smartlead.

Conclusion

By pairing Smartlead’s deliverability and automation with a conversational, benefit-driven copywriting strategy, The Pipeline Inc. transformed cold email from a cost center to a revenue driver. 

This is how you turn conversations into revenue and scale your cold email game. Cold email isn’t just about blasting offers—it’s about starting conversations. Smartlead gives you the tools to start and keep the cold email conversation going. 

Looking to start that cold email conversation with a prospect? Here, check out our 14-day free trial and shoot your best copy.

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Wajahat Ali

Wajahat Ali is a Technical Content Writer at Smartlead, specializing in the B2B and SaaS sectors. With a talent for simplifying complex concepts, he crafts clear, engaging content that makes intricate topics accessible to both experts and newcomers. Wajahat’s expertise spans across copywriting, social media content, and lead generation, where he consistently delivers valuable, impactful content that resonates with a global audience. His ability to blend technical knowledge with compelling storytelling ensures that every piece of content drives both understanding and results, helping businesses connect with their target markets effectively.

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Frequently asked questions

What is Smartlead's cold email outreach software?
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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?
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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"?
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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?
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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?
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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?
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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?
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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?
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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?
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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?
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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.