Does Cold Email Still Work?

I wonder if cold email still works today. And by whether it works, I don't mean blast 2,000 cold emails and get 30 demos booked. Chances are high it's not going to happen today, but even more likely, your Apollo or AI-tool-generated email is going to end up on LinkedIn (redacted, of course) as an example of what not to send. This seems to be the rising new trend lately for some reason.

What I mean by cold email is sending researched, lead-specific, no AI sandwich communication smell in it at all, completely personalized, and written-on-your-own email. And getting the person to actually read it and reply. Last week, I sent around 20 of these, and I'm still waiting for the first reply.

For me, personally - I'll read the cold email if there's absolutely no glimpse of an AI sandwich in it. I'll reply if I see that the person sending it actually did their homework and provided the value (their vision of the value, that is). Even if the reply from my end is Thanks, but not interested at the moment or similar, I'd still reply.

Do you read cold emails? And if you do, when do you hit the reply button? If you write me a cold email with your answer, I promise I will read it and reply :)

P.S. This post was originally published on LinkedIn.