Lemlist vs Instantly.ai: Cold Email Tool Showdown 2024

The lemlist Sequences feature stands out because it lets you design and run complex email and messaging sequences. It's like a sandbox, so you can see your whole campaign and how each part connects. Plus, it works with LinkedIn, so you can reach out on social media too.

• Visual Campaign Setup: Arrange emails and tasks in a clear, visual way.
• Social Media Integration: Send messages on LinkedIn along with emails.
• Branching Conditions: Make your campaign smart by setting rules for what happens next based on different situations.

Some Reddit users really like how lemlist helps them with their emails:

👍 "using Lemlist to create 'custom' automated email campaigns" - r/Emailmarketing

Instantly.ai Sequences provide a straightforward way to set up linear email sequences for simple outreach campaigns. Without the complexity of conditional branches, users can quickly create a series of emails to engage prospects and close sales leads effectively.

• Linear Sequences: Ideal for uncomplicated outreach campaigns.
• No Forking or Conditionals: Keeps the focus on simple, direct communication.
• Easy Step Addition: Quickly add new steps to the sequence.
• Variant Options: Allows for testing different message approaches within a single step.

In the realm of email marketing, getting your message to the recipient's inbox is critical. lemlist tackles deliverability challenges head-on with lemwarm, a separate product that focuses on warming up emails, avoiding spam filters, and managing sending rates. While lemwarm requires an additional subscription, it's designed to enhance your campaign's chance of landing in the inbox.

• Email Warming: Lemwarm actively works to warm up your email account.
• Spam Avoidance: Provides strategies to prevent emails from being marked as spam.
• Rate Limits: Allows you to set daily limits on the number of emails sent.
• Multiple Mailboxes: Supports managing several mailboxes to distribute the sending load.

Reddit users discuss the importance of proper email settings and practices to maintain high deliverability.

🤔 "Be sure that DMARK/SPF/DKIM are working." - r/agency

Instantly.ai’s deliverability focus is clear in their Sequences feature. They include unlimited email warming even in the most basic package. This is key for users who want to ensure their emails reach the inbox and not the spam folder. The platform offers built-in tools to simulate email opens and reads, which can help your emails look more like regular traffic and less like spam.

• Email Warming: Built-in service to improve sender reputation.
• Spam Avoidance: Simulates email opens and reads to reduce spam flags.
• Rate Limits: Adjustable settings to control the number of emails sent per day.
• Multiple Mailboxes: Supports connecting and managing several email accounts.

Users on Reddit have discussed the effectiveness of these features, with some reporting issues with deliverability to certain domains despite following the warm-up process.

😐 "Been doing the warm up for almost 2 months now and still even basic messages going to spam" - r/Emailmarketing

Personalizing emails can significantly increase engagement, and lemlist's Sequences feature offers options to customize your messages for each lead. The ability to insert dynamic variables and use liquid syntax for conditional content helps create a more targeted and relevant experience for recipients.

• Dynamic Variables: Insert basic fields like name and company into your emails.
• Liquid Syntax: Use conditional logic to tailor messages, include current dates, and set fallbacks.
• Custom Images and Landing Pages: Enhance your emails with personalized visuals and destinations.

Instantly.ai's Sequences feature provides robust tools to customize outreach emails, ensuring that your messages stand out and feel personal to each lead. From crafting your template to adding the final touches, personalization is at the core of the Sequences feature.

• Customizable emails: Full control over email content with the "campaign" function.
• Template variety: Access to a range of pre-made templates or create your own.
• Dynamic placeholders: Use {{ }} brackets to insert variables like lead names or company details.
• Preview option: See how your email looks before sending with a "preview" button.
• Rich content: Add links, emoticons, and images to enhance your message.
• Advanced options: Includes email tracking and settings to limit daily emails sent.

Lemlist's Sequences feature includes AI tools that allow you to generate full campaigns automatically. However, while you can use AI to write complete sentences, customization options are limited. Here's what we found about the AI capabilities:

• AI-Generated Campaigns: Create full email and messaging campaigns automatically.
• Basic AI Commands: Use a few simple AI commands to write sentences.
• Limited Customization: Lack of extensive customization options for AI-generated content.
• Personalization at Scale: Leverage AI for personalizing content, though within the tool's constraints.

We've explored the AI capabilities within the Sequences feature of Instantly.ai, particularly in the context of sales sequences. Despite the suggestive name, it appears that the platform does not currently offer AI-driven functionalities for crafting sales sequences or leveraging custom signals for each lead. This may be an important consideration for users seeking advanced AI assistance in their sales engagement processes.

Key takeaways on AI feature:

• No AI for sentence creation: You cannot use AI to write sentences in sales sequences.
• Lack of AI-driven lead signals: Custom signals for leads are not enhanced by AI.

Lemlist's Sequences feature offers native enrichment capabilities, providing you with buyer signals and additional data on your leads. However, it's important to note that this functionality is more basic compared to specialized enrichment tools. The data provided may not be as comprehensive or up-to-date as what you could get from dedicated services.

• Basic lead enrichment: Gather essential information on leads within lemlist.
• Limited details: Enrichment features are not as thorough as dedicated tools.
• Simple list building: Easy to compile leads but with less depth in data.
• Manual searching necessary: May need to supplement with external research.

Instantly.ai's Sequences feature offers a powerful way to enrich lead information by integrating data from various sources, giving you better insight into your leads. However, it's important to note that while you can enrich a list of added leads, Instantly.ai does not provide a native enrichment database, which means you'll need to have your lead data ready or use external sources to enrich your contacts.

Key aspects of Native Enrichment:

• Enrich leads with data from multiple sources for better insights
• Requires external lead data or databases for enrichment
• Does not include a native database for lead enrichment
• Buyer signals to understand lead engagement and readiness

Lemlist's Sequences feature extends its functionality to social automation, particularly for LinkedIn activities. By using a browser extension, lemlist performs actions like connection requests and messages directly within the LinkedIn platform. This local execution mimics human behavior, making the automation process less intrusive and more natural.

Key aspects of social automation:

• Browser Extension: Perform LinkedIn actions locally
• Connection Requests: Automate LinkedIn invites to connect
• Post Engagement: Automatically engage with posts
• Messages: Send personalized LinkedIn messages

When using Instantly.ai's Sequences for sales engagement, one aspect to consider is its capabilities in social automation. It's important to note that this tool does not currently automate social platforms such as LinkedIn. For those looking to incorporate social media tasks into their sales sequences, additional tools like Bardeen would be necessary to fully automate the process.

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