Cold Email Agency
Updated: 5 October 2026
Newlead is a done-for-you cold email agency for B2B companies. We build a verified lead list, write and test the copy, and send plain-text emails from dedicated sending domains and inboxes, separate from your main domain. Our team handles every reply and delivers each interested lead to your Slack with name, company, email and phone number.
We report replies and interested leads, never open rates. Booking meetings into your calendar is available as an add-on.
Book a 30 minute discovery callWhat is included
Target market and ICP
We define with you the industries, company sizes, regions and roles that buy what you sell.
Verified lead list
Decision-makers with verified work emails, plus phone numbers where available.
Dedicated sending setup
Domains and inboxes separate from your main domain, warmed up and kept at low volume per inbox.
Plain-text copy, tested
Sequences written for your buyers, with several variants tested against each other.
Every reply handled
Our team handles all replies, from auto-replies to the people who want to talk.
Leads in your Slack
Each interested lead arrives with name, company, email and phone number. Meeting booking is an add-on.
How it works
Define the target
We agree on the target market and ideal customer profile with you.
Warm up sending
We set up dedicated sending domains and inboxes and warm them for 14 days.
Build the list and copy
We build and verify the lead list, then write plain-text sequences with variants to test.
Run the sequence
Each contact gets up to four emails over about three weeks. Variants are compared on replies.
Handle replies
Our team reads and handles every reply.
Deliver leads
Each interested lead is posted to your Slack with name, company, email and phone number.
What results look like
These numbers come from Newlead's own outbound, the campaigns we run to win our own clients, so they are not a forecast for yours. Full data: cold email benchmarks 2026.
- 0.62% bounce rate across 371,590 emails sent.
- 1.89% reply rate, counted as unique human replies divided by unique people contacted, with auto-replies excluded.
- 202 people contacted per opportunity, where an opportunity is a reply positive enough to become a live sales conversation.
- 60% of replies came from the first email in our largest campaign, 117,475 emails to financial services firms in the US and Canada.
- 2.6x difference in reply rate between two first-email variants in that campaign (0.67% vs 0.25%).
5.33% reply rate across 421,456 people contacted for 33 clients in 2026, 55% above the 3.43% industry average (source: Instantly 2026 Cold Email Benchmark Report). We only count real human replies, not out-of-office.
Client campaigns. From January to September 2026, the campaigns we ran for 33 clients contacted 421,456 people. 5.33% reply rate across 421,456 people contacted for 33 clients in 2026, 55% above the 3.43% industry average (source: Instantly 2026 Cold Email Benchmark Report). We only count real human replies, not out-of-office. One client, Luca, a Swedish accounting and finance partner, got 249 leads from about 48,900 cold emails between June 2025 and June 2026, and those leads brought about $685,000 in revenue. That is one client's result, not a forecast. Read the Luca case study.
How many domains and inboxes does cold email need?
A typical Newlead setup uses 4-6 sending domains and 100-250 inboxes, each sending about 4 emails a day. This is an example. Your scope depends on market, list size and goals.
| Part | Typical setup | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Sending domains | 4-6, separate from your main domain | Your main domain never sends cold email |
| Inboxes | 100-250 | Spreads the volume thin |
| Emails per inbox per day | About 4 | Protects deliverability |
| Format | Plain text, no tracking | Reads like a normal email |
| Sequence | 4 emails over about three weeks | In our largest campaign, 40% of replies came after email 1 |
| Lead list | Up to 10,000 contacts | Verified for your target market |
How do you keep cold email out of spam?
Mostly before the first send: separate domains, 14 days of warm-up, low volume per inbox, plain text, and verified lists rebuilt monthly.
What Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook.com require (last checked 3 October 2026)
| Provider | Who it covers | What it requires | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gmail | All senders to personal Gmail | SPF or DKIM, forward and reverse DNS, TLS, spam rate under 0.3% | |
| Gmail | About 5,000+ a day to personal Gmail | Also SPF and DKIM, DMARC, alignment, one-click unsubscribe on marketing mail | |
| Yahoo | All senders | SPF or DKIM, forward and reverse DNS, spam rate under 0.3% | Yahoo |
| Yahoo | Bulk senders, no threshold published | Also SPF and DKIM, DMARC, alignment, one-click unsubscribe, unsubscribes honored within 2 days | Yahoo |
| Outlook.com | Over 5,000 a day, since 5 May 2025 | SPF, DKIM and DMARC, or mail goes to Junk, then gets rejected until fixed | Microsoft |
These rules mostly target bulk mail to personal accounts, and Google says its guidelines don't apply to Google Workspace accounts. Our lists use work emails, but authentication and a low spam rate still matter.
For scale: 100-250 inboxes at about 4 emails a day is roughly 400-1,000 emails a day, or 70-250 per domain, far below the 5,000 a day where the bulk rules start. More in how many cold emails per day per inbox.
Why plain text, and why don't you track opens?
A cold email should read like a short note from one person to another. So we send plain text, with no images, HTML templates or tracking.
Open tracking hides a tiny image in the email and counts an open when the mail app loads it, which reflects mail settings more than interest. Click tracking reroutes your links. A normal email has neither.
So we report replies and interested leads instead. Ask any agency how it counts replies: published 2026 figures range from a 0.74% median (Smartlead, per contact) to a 3.7% average (Saleshandy, per email delivered).
What should you ask any cold email agency?
Put these seven questions to every agency, including us.
| Question | Why it matters | Newlead's answer |
|---|---|---|
| Do you send from separate domains? | Protects your main domain | Yes. Cold email never runs on your main domain. |
| How many emails per inbox per day? | Shows how hard inboxes work | About 4 in a typical setup, spread over many inboxes. |
| What do you report? | Opens show activity, not interest | Replies and interested leads. No open tracking. |
| How do you verify the list? | Decides how many emails arrive | Every address is verified before sending, and lists are rebuilt monthly. |
| Who answers the replies? | Interest must be sorted from noise | Our team. Interested leads go to your Slack. |
| What counts as a lead? | Defines what you pay for | A decision-maker on your list who replies with interest. |
| What happens when we stop? | Shows what you keep | Delivered leads stay in your Slack, and you can get an export of the recipient list and the sent emails. We deregister the sending domains and inboxes on our side. To own the setup, choose our one-time implementation: we build the outbound system and you own it. |
More in how to choose a lead generation agency and what a qualified B2B lead is.
Done-for-you agency, in-house SDR or DIY tools?
All three can work. Here is how they differ.
| Compared on | Newlead | In-house SDR | Other agencies | DIY tools |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | Our team: list, copy, sending, replies | A rep you hire and manage | The agency, scope varies | You |
| Sending setup | Dedicated domains, separate from yours | You buy and maintain it | Rarely published, so ask | You buy and maintain it |
| What you see | Replies and interested leads | What your rep tracks | Varies, so ask for replies | Tool dashboards |
| How leads arrive | In Slack with name, company, email and phone | In your CRM, if logged | Often as booked meetings | In your own inbox |
We only run cold email, not LinkedIn, calls or ads, and leads come with phone numbers so your team can call. Compare cold email vs LinkedIn outreach, cold email vs paid ads and in-house vs agency lead generation. Prefer booked meetings? See B2B appointment setting services.
Newlead is a Swedish company in Eskilstuna, founded by co-founders Max Erikstedt (CEO) and Vishal Vyas. More about Newlead.
What rules apply to B2B cold email?
B2B cold email is legal in the US and the UK if you follow the rules. In the EU it depends on the country. Last checked 3 October 2026:
- US. CAN-SPAM covers business email but needs no prior consent. Each email needs honest headers and subject lines, a postal address and an opt-out honored within 10 business days, among other rules (FTC).
- UK. Under PECR, limited companies and LLPs can be emailed without consent, but sole traders and some partnerships need it. UK GDPR still applies to named contacts, and the ICO says its guidance is under review (ICO).
- EU. The ePrivacy Directive requires consent for marketing email to private individuals and leaves the rules for companies to each member state (Article 13). GDPR applies on top.
In the US, you stay responsible when an agency sends for you. In the FTC's words, you "can't contract away your legal responsibility." This is not legal advice. Full guide: is cold email legal.
What this costs
Newlead does not publish prices. Scope depends on your markets, how many decision-makers fit your ideal customer profile, the sending setup that volume needs and whether you add meeting booking.
We scope it with you on the discovery call. Prefer to run outbound yourself? Our one-time implementation means we build the outbound system and you own it.
For market price ranges, see what B2B lead generation costs.
Who this is for
- B2B companies with a clear offer and a defined buyer.
- Founders and sales leaders who want leads without hiring SDRs.
- Teams that follow up fast when a lead lands in Slack.
- Companies selling in the US, UK, Canada, Sweden or the rest of Europe.
- Firms in fields we know: accounting and CPA, fractional CFO, financial advice and wealth management, SaaS, law, consulting, manufacturing and export, property services.
Who this is not for
- Teams that want LinkedIn outreach, cold calling or ads run for them.
- Companies selling to consumers.
- Sellers with only a few large enterprise accounts. In our own outbound, enterprise buyers replied far less often than smaller firms.
Common questions
Will cold email hurt my main domain?
No, because none of the cold email is sent from your main domain. We use dedicated sending domains and inboxes, set up separately and warmed for 14 days before the first emails go out. Your team's everyday email keeps its own domain and its own reputation.
Who handles the replies?
Our team does. We read and handle every reply, from auto-replies to polite no's, so nobody on your side has to work a cold email inbox. When someone shows interest, we post the lead to your Slack with name, company, email and phone number.
How do you build and verify the lead list?
We build it from your ideal customer profile: decision-makers with verified work emails, plus phone numbers where available. Every address is verified before it enters a sequence, and lists are rebuilt monthly instead of reused. In our own outbound, that kept bounces at 0.62% across 371,590 emails.
How long until we get the first leads?
Plan for 14 days of setup before the first emails go out, while new sending domains warm up. Each contact then gets up to four emails over about three weeks, and in our largest campaign 60% of replies came from the first email. Lead volume depends on your market, list and offer.
Is cold email legal?
Yes for B2B in the US and the UK, if you follow the rules, while in the EU it depends on the country. CAN-SPAM needs no prior consent but requires honest headers, a postal address and an opt-out honored within 10 business days, among other rules. In the UK, limited companies can be emailed without consent, but sole traders need it. This is not legal advice.
Let's see if this fits your ICP
Thirty minutes. We will run the outbound maths for your market and tell you straight.
Book a 30 minute discovery call