Most cold emails get a <e1% response rate. Send to 1,000 people, get 10 responses.
I built a workflow that gets 100 responses from the same 1,000 emails. Here’s how the system works.
The Problem With Cold Email Automation
You’ve seen them:
“Hey [FIRSTNAME], I noticed [COMPANY] and thought we could help with [GENERIC PROBLEM]...”
They fail because they’re obviously templates. The automation is lazy. Just find-and-replace on a few variables.
Real personalization means using actual information about each person. Not inserting their name. Referencing their specific situation.
What I Built
A workflow that chains together three AI agents:
Research agent - Searches online for context about each lead
Writing agent - Composes unique emails using all available data
Sending agent - Delivers at scale
The workflow runs on our last 500 users. Each person gets an email that references:
Their exact signup date
Tools they’re using
Their role
Information from their public profiles
Here’s what one looked like:
“Hey Johann, thanks for signing up to Needle on October 15th. As a co-founder interested in Google Drive workflows, I wanted to reach out personally. I’d love to learn more about how Needle fits into your workflow...”
Not a template. The AI wrote this after researching the specific person.
How It Works
Start with structured data
Google Sheet with basic lead info:
Name, email, company
Tools they use
Signup date
Role
This comes from our database and onboarding flow. If you capture any user data, you have this.
AI research layer
For each row, the workflow:
Searches for their online presence
Pulls relevant context (website, LinkedIn, recent posts)
Adds this to what we already know
LLM writes each email
The writing agent gets:
Your database info
The research results
Your messaging guidelines
It generates a unique email. Not a template with variables filled in. An email written from scratch using all that context.
Automated delivery
Emails send automatically. Each one personalized. At scale.
The Results
500 emails sent. Response rate roughly 10%.
People booked calls. Some thanked me for the outreach. Many asked questions about specific workflows.
Why? The emails were relevant. They referenced real information about each person’s situation.
Sure, recipients probably knew some automation was involved. But when the message actually relates to their work, they don’t care about the how.
The Math
1,000 prospects:
Generic template: 10 responses
AI-personalized workflow: 100 responses
That’s 90 additional conversations. 90 more chances to validate ideas, book demos, close deals.
Build This Yourself
You need:
Lead data in a spreadsheet - Whatever context you have about each person
The workflow template - Available free in Needle’s template library
Your email connected - Gmail, Outlook, whatever you use
Basic customization - Adjust tone and offer to match your brand
The workflow handles research, writing, and sending.
Why This Works
Three things:
Scale - Reach hundreds of people without manual work per email
Personalization - Each message uses actual information about the recipient
Relevance - When people see you understand their situation, they respond
Yes, it’s automated. No, that doesn’t matter if the email is genuinely useful to them.
Try It
Grab the free workflow template and run it on your next campaign.
If you see results, let me know. I’m collecting data on what messaging patterns work best.
