I’m getting ready to launch cold email campaigns across 24 highly segmented data feeds, targeting CIOs and C-suite executives at $1B+ enterprise companies for B2B IT consulting. Because we’re going after high-level enterprise decision-makers, authority and brand image are extremely important. I recently had a custom banner image created (attached below) to build immediate confidence and trust right when the email opens. Years ago, when our business was doing $4M/year, we ran emails through ConstantContact with visual banners and saw great success. However, standard cold email consensus today is: "Never include images in your first email—it will tank deliverability straight to spam." Here is our current setup: Accounts are pre-warmed (purchased directly through Instantly). Extremely low/sparing sending volume per inbox. Highly optimized spintax and copy to avoid traditional spam triggers. Deeply segmented firmographic data. At the same time, I regularly receive newsletter-style outbound emails in my primary inbox that feature visual header banners. I’d love feedback from anyone running B2B enterprise outreach: 1. Have you tested using a header banner or image in Email #1 when targeting enterprise C-suite? 2. Did you notice a measurable drop in deliverability (especially against enterprise filters like Proofpoint, Mimecast, or Microsoft Defender)? 3. If you use visuals, do you keep Email #1 strictly text-only and introduce graphics in follow-up steps, or do you use them from day one? Would appreciate hearing real test data or experiences from the group!

I usually send around 21 emails per day from one mailbox, divided into 7 new emails and 14 follow-ups. This setup works well for me. I send different types of emails and usually get a good number of replies. However, some of my emails are currently landing in spam. What are the best Instantly settings I should use to improve deliverability and avoid emails going to spam? I’m already sending a relatively low number of emails compared to the usual limits, so I’d like to understand what settings I should adjust.

How do you get people on a call after getting a positive reply? After a lot of tweaking and testing, I finally got my cold email copy to consistently generate positive replies. But I’m struggling to turn those replies into booked calls. What I’m doing right now: - As soon as someone replies positively, I respond and ask them to book a call using my booking link. - Alternatively, I suggest two specific time slots and ask them to choose one. Am I doing something wrong here? Do I need to follow up 5–7 times after a positive reply to get them on a call, or is there a better way to handle this stage? I’m honestly not sure where I’m going wrong. Unfortunately, I don’t have a huge budget to keep these campaigns running. They’re costing me around $300–$400/month, and so far I haven’t generated a single sale. If anyone has experience with this and can point me in the right direction, I’d really appreciate it.

Has anyone used it? Is it a credible substitute for Clay? Any glaring limitations that you've noticed? thanks in advance

Not through personalization. Not enrichment. Not some clever AI angle. They just emailed people who don't get cold emails. Here's the part nobody says out loud. Apollo, ZoomInfo, all of them scrape the same contacts off LinkedIn. Then every single one of us runs the same filters on top. Under 100 employees. Decision makers. Industries you think have money. I'm on that list. I get around 100 cold emails a day and I've got a filter that dumps every one of them into a folder. There is no cold email on this earth you could write me that gets a 10% reply rate. None. A restaurant owner who sees one cold email a day? Completely different conversation. New video is up and it's the full breakdown: 📍 Why swapping Apollo for Google Maps data alone takes you from 1% to 3-4% 👤 Owner emails vs role based emails, and when info@ is genuinely fine 🎥 52,000 YouTubers with a real email attached, filterable by niche 📱 Instagram bio scraping (1.5 million profiles with fitness, gym or health in the bio) 🎁 The easy yes offer behind the 16%: a welcome box, all they do is say yes Watch it here 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja1WknkOX-I Copy and offer are still the most important things by a mile. Fix those first. Then stop sending them to people who are already drowning in cold emails. First month on Consulti is free right now and that link expires in a few days. It's in the description.