Before starting my career in marketing, I was a business development admin for a relatively large local college. Part of my role was to generate sign-ups for apprenticeships and short courses from local businesses across different sectors. I did this by cold calling (oh, the humanity!), good ol’-fashioned mailouts, face-to-face visits, and email outreach.

Like 23% of sales pros, I found cold emailing the best way to reach out to prospects. Seriously, it was my preferred lead-gen activity by a country mile. Not only was it less invasive and nerve-wracking for me, but also, like 21% of salespeople, cold email was my most successful lead-gen method.

I didn’t have access to AI back then. When I think about how long-winded and monotonous it was to build prospecting lists manually — only to have a chunk of emails bounce or remain unopened — I wish I did.

From that point of view, I can totally see the benefit of incorporating AI into the process. But when it comes to the actual writing part, I must admit, I’m a little skeptical. Are AI cold email generators actually worth it? Today, I put ‘em to the test.

Table of Contents

• What is an AI cold email generator?
• When To Use an AI Cold Email Generator
• 5 Best AI Cold Email Generators

What is an AI cold email generator?

An AI cold email generator is a tool you can use to help you draft your cold email copy using Artificial Intelligence (AI). By tweaking prompts and output fields, AI email tools can help you save time on your outreach. But here’s the thing: AI shouldn’t be your go-to for every cold email you send.

When To Use an AI Cold Email Generator

In my experience — and from what I’m hearing from email experts — using AI to generate cold emails can save you time.

But on the flip side? An AI cold email writer can also harm your effectiveness at turning cold leads into warm ones or achieving your email goals, whatever they may be. While some nuance is involved, I think using an AI cold email generator for the following scenarios would work best.

You have a free product or service offer.

In the intro, I mentioned that cold email was my most successful lead-gen activity in sales. And this was especially true when we had free short courses to offer local businesses. Why did this work?

We had genuinely great freebies that were highly relevant to the industries I targeted.

If that’s your setup, I think an AI cold email generator could help you successfully promote your freebie to a specific audience segment.

Example: Back in the 2010s, the UK government introduced new regulations that required anyone handling food in a commercial setting to have specific training around food allergens. From memory, they might’ve even needed specific certification, too.

Luckily, the college I worked with had secured funding to offer a free food allergen short course with relevant certification. Ahead of the updated regulations, I sent out a cold email to a bunch of hospitality and catering companies in the local area. Within 10 minutes of the email landing in people’s inboxes, the phone started ringing.

The email itself wasn’t anything fancy. I explained the upcoming regulations, shared details about the course, and made it crystal clear it was free, no strings attached! I also included a clear CTA telling folks how to book a place. If I replicated this same scenario now, I’d feel comfortable using AI to help me draft the email and save time.

You don’t need high degrees of personalization.

If high levels of personalization aren’t needed (i.e., you’re sharing a generic offer or quick news update to prospects), try AI. But if high levels of personalization are required (i.e., you’re targeting a smaller group of specific prospects), it might be best to skip AI and prioritize the human touch.

Example: Ekta Shewani, a Freelance SEO Outreach Specialist at Uniqode, has experimented with using AI to generate cold outreach emails for publishing partnerships. She shares her experience below.

“I think AI has a huge way to go. I think, given the right prompts, it’s great. But then there are other elements like if we leverage it at mass level, will it actually decrease the level of humanness of an email.”

She adds, “I have realized personalized email outreach is way better than using tools…Recently, I have increased personalized email outreach, and it helps me understand the domains better, analyze them better, and understand the people working there better.”

You’re not reaching out to a specific high-value prospect.

I also wouldn’t recommend using AI to generate cold emails if you’re contacting a specific person for the first time. And I really wouldn’t recommend it if you’re sending a cold outreach email to a potentially high-value prospect. Intensive research, personalization, and heavy lifting are justified in this case.

Example: Joe Fletcher, a Marketing Consultant at Scaled, recounts contacting a busy CRO where another generic type of cold email wouldn’t have prompted a response.

“I signed one client who was a big football fan,” says Fletcher. “I started the email with, ‘your team lost 2-1 at the weekend, but I am here to cheer you up by giving your SDR team 25 qualified calls and save you cash from your current tech.’”

He adds, “Basically, I had scraped a bunch of people using ZoomInfo tracking code on their website, and knew it cost a lot, for what is in effect just a large database of B2B people.”

According to Fletcher, the tool at the time was a freemium offering.

“We were just reaching out to anyone really and saying sign up, usual hook. But this guy was working for a medium-sized company that had just taken on funding, and the number of seats they would’ve needed was high,” Fletcher says.

Fletcher explains that this was a big thing for the SaaS brand where he worked at the time. It showed them moving into the next steps of growth and handling companies that needed 15+ seats of the tool.

Rather than turning to AI to generate a generic email, “it took a lot of research into this guy’s personal life, what his role in the business was, different hooks I could try, and things he was passionate about.”

5 Best AI Cold Email Generators

To make the test fair, I will use the same prompt — or elements of it — and scenario for each tool when possible. How much of the prompt I can use will ultimately depend on each tool’s setup and preset input options. Because of this, I predict that the difference maker in output will likely be the availability and detail of input fields.

For this scenario, I’m pulling inspiration from the use cases above and offering a free service (a comprehensive edit of a piece of blog content) to a specific target segment (busy SEO managers).

Here’s a screenshot of my prompt and scenario:

Pro tip: I’m mainly testing out each AI cold email generator’s writing ability and how easy the tools are to use. Before investing in any email marketing tool, consider other elements like integrations with existing tools or prospect research and campaign management capabilities.

1. HubSpot AI

HubSpot AI is a collection of AI-powered tool integrations you can use as part of the customer platform. The tools will help you streamline your marketing, sales, and customer service activities.

Regarding features relevant to email marketing, you can use HubSpot AI to do prospect research, draft on-brand prospecting emails, and analyze campaign results. I’m specifically testing HubSpot’s AI Email Copy Generator for this article.

What I like: ChatSpot has recently graduated as a full HubSpot feature. You can now access it from anywhere inside your CRM, which I think will help speed up email marketing tasks related to prospecting. For example, you can ask ChatSpot questions and get quick answers about leads in your CRM.

Price: Get started for free.

Source

Testing It Out

Looking at the post-sign-up screen, I’m so grateful that HubSpot (at least by the looks of it) will walk me through this process. Plus, the options on this page are simple and easy to follow. I don’t feel overwhelmed at all. To get started, I’m picking “Marketing Email.”

This has prompted a screen asking me to describe what my marketing email is about. HubSpot recommends keeping it “concise and focused,” so I will only add a relevant portion of my pre-written prompt.

Next, HubSpot wants me to input my key selling points. Specificity is the hidden art of conversion copy, so I love that this is making me really think about my offer‘s key selling points! These selling points are actually more specific than my original prompt. I’d say the tool’s layout and prompting are helping me narrow these down.

Now, it’s time to determine what action I want my audience to take. I’m selecting “Sign-up” as this offer requires leads to reply by email to qualify. I love the range of calls to action on offer. I also like that you can create your own if you want.

Now I’m being prompted to select my writing style. Out of the options, I think “Witty” is closest to the tone of my brand. Like the call-to-action options, I loave the range of styles on offer. I can see this being beneficial if you oversee a few different brands, each with a distinct style.

After filling out the input fields above, I can confirm my prediction that HubSpot would walk me through the entire process was correct. No overwhelming spreadsheets, no fuss, just simple guidance making it super simple to start. Perfect!

After inputting all the requirements, I was met with this screen. The layout is visually pleasing and easy to navigate. If I want to change anything I’ve added to the input fields, the instructions walk me through it.

The final email itself isn’t exactly in the style of my brand — a little bit sarcastic, sassy, and with extra spice. If you follow me on LinkedIn and receive something like this with my name attached and without my signature, it might shock you. (I’m picturing it now and giggling.)

That said, not everyone has a bold brand like mine, and I think this copy isn’t too shabby for an out-of-the-box AI-generated email.

Pro tip: Try experimenting with the various “writing styles” for different outputs.

Once the tool has generated your email copy, you can either “generate again” or “edit your marketing email.”

Similar to the previous screen, the layout of the edit screen is super user-friendly. I can see this being helpful if you want to drag and drop elements in, like images, or switch up the email layout.

2. Clay

Clay harnesses multiple APIs and integrations to achieve many actions with a single tool. Clay is ideal for creating a cold first touch point email that steers away from prompt-based and generic offerings. Clay comes highly recommended by Joe Fletcher, who has seen “real movement” in first touch point cold emails from using the tool.

“I can research my targeted leads within Clay and then use the tool to scrape company information, like company size, blog posts, latest news on the web, events they are attending, and much more,” says Fletcher. This helps him craft a much more targeted email showing some research into these potential leads and interest in their company.

While Clay’s features can speed up your prospecting process, it’s not quite there yet for one-to-one email marketing.

“Integrating GPT/Claude to write your emails can mean you send unique emails out to customers you mark as people you want to work with,” Fletcher warns. “However, there is still that missing human element/certain research areas that the tools cannot find. So, for me, a personalized approach is still needed when you have a focused ABM campaign running.”

What I like: You get 1,200 credits a year with the free trial. That’s pretty generous and will give folks enough wiggle room to test out the tool’s capabilities and make sure it’s right for them. I also think Clay has a lot of potential for personalizing cold emails based on company size, specific team structures, and even posts they have on social media.

Price: Get started for free.

Testing It Out

Clay’s sign-up process was pretty straightforward. But looking at the “home” screen, I’m already wondering if this is the best tool for testing the cold email writing feature alone. It seems like you have to be a whiz with spreadsheets, and so far, there have been no prompts to walk me through the process.

This could be my tech-aversion at play, or maybe my use case isn’t ideal. Still, I’m sitting here thinking, “What do I do next?” I guess it’s time to watch a help video. So far, this isn’t nearly as easy to get to grips with as HubSpot’s platform. That said, if you’re familiar with tools like this, the layout might not be an issue for you at all.

I have returned from watching the help video. It turns out I can use the “Clay Starter Table” to test out the tool. That’s a bonus, as with some research-based tools like this, you need your own data to get started.

Based on the help video, I hit “Add column,” select “Add enrichment,” and type “Use AI” into the search bar.

That process brings up a bunch of third-party integrations. At first glance, you need credits to use most of these. You get 1,200 credits a year with the free trial. That means I can test some of the integrations out for free. Another bonus! I will stick with what I know and use the OpenAI/GPT integration.

I think this might say more about me than the actual product, but I’m looking at this next screen and feeling the tech fear again. Alas, I’ll dive in. I’ve added a brief section of my original prompt for the specific task and then used the rest to add more context below.

Pro tip: As an FYI, you must select up to five rows on the Starter Table before generating the email. That had me stumped for a little while.

I’m selecting “Try on five rows,” but I only see the subject line drafts rather than the cold email copy. I think I need to add an input, or maybe some new columns, perhaps a conditional formula… At this stage, I really don’t know.

I’m going to try adding a new “Text” column and adding that as the input to the prompt. Let’s see if this changes the output.

Clay is still only reverting subject line drafts. As for the subject line copy, it isn’t too bad. It’s a little generic for me, but as I said before, my brand is bolder than most. This will have to be my jumping-off point because I’m getting nowhere, fast.

Regarding how I found Clay, I want to be fair to the tool: I’m not the greatest with spreadsheets these days. To be brutally honest, I also lack interest in or the need to upskill in this area.

If you’re running email campaigns at scale and love spreadsheets/tech in general, maybe the upfront effort is worth the end result. I personally found Clay too complex, and I don’t feel I could go beyond the free trial. I also didn’t get to truly test the capabilities of the AI cold email generator in terms of content output. Apologies for that!

For what it’s worth, I think my use case was too simple for the potential majesty of this tool. I also don’t think my free product scenario fits the test data’s existing leads. This entry might be one you have to do a full road test and judge for yourself. But if, like me, you’re not into spreadsheets, maybe give it a miss.

3. Anyword

Anyword is an AI copywriting assistant aimed at marketing professionals. Relevant email marketing features include text generation for welcome campaigns, general emails, subject lines, and newsletters. You can also use Anyword’s built-in target audiences or create your own.

What I like: I love that you can upload relevant information and documentation like brand assets, web pages, images, and messaging to Anyword. I can see this being helpful for marketers who manage multiple client accounts with individual style guides and documentation.

Price: Get started for free.

Testing It Out

I previously tested this tool in my piece about AI for Amazon sellers. I remember Anyword being user-friendly and competent at text generation. Now I’m curious to see how well the tool handles email copy. So let’s get into it.

At first glance, it’s a relief to look at a dashboard that I can get to grips with from the get-go. “Create content” is editing and blog-focused, so I’m heading to “Templates.” Lo and behold, there’s the “email” option. I already love how easy the tool is to navigate!

I want to keep it simple with the “Email” option, which creates copy “suitable for any purpose.”

This opens up an intuitive dashboard (praise be!), and I’m curious about that “cold outreach email” prompt template. At this point, I realize every tool has different input options, and I’ll get more out of the test by using them rather than just copying and pasting my original prompt into a chat box.

The prompt template is lovely and straightforward. This will be an excellent guide if you’re new to email marketing. For more experienced marketers, this will save you time.

Now, it’s time to fill out the prompt template, then the “Tone of voice” and “Target audience” options.

I will pick “Entertainer” because I picked a “Witty” tone when testing the HubSpot cold email generator. It seems fair to choose a similar tone for each tool when possible.

Pro tip: As you fill in the prompt template, Anyword automatically suggests relevant target audiences. Very cool!

For the audience, I’m going to pick “Freelance Content Creator.” At first, I thought “Marketing Professional” would suit, but when you hover over each option, this one is closer to my ideal persona for this email.

Okay, now it’s time to hit “Generate.” The tool has given me three different email copy variants, meaning I could mix and match between elements of each if I wanted. Nice!

Like HubSpot AI’s output, this isn’t exactly on brand for me, and I don’t think I would send these as is. But I can see myself taking inspiration or parts from each email above. Overall, the content is pretty good.

Plus, it doesn’t sound confusing and robotic like most AI-generated word salads.

4. Copy.ai

Copy.ai is a content creation tool for sales and marketing teams. It’s aimed at companies that run large-scale prospecting projects. Aside from generating copy, you can use Copy.ai’s pre-built workflows or build your own. The tool uses ChatGPT 3.5 and Claude 3.

What I like: If, like me, you prefer customizing existing prompts rather than creating them from scratch, try the “Browse Prompts” option at the bottom of the chat screen.

Price: Get started for free.

Testing It Out

As with HubSpot AI and Anyword, being met with a dashboard that doesn’t evoke tech fear is a welcome relief. After browsing through the options, I’m going to hazard a guess and start with “New Chat” under “Discover Chat.”

“New Chat” shows the following screen, which looks like Copy.ai’s branded version of the AI chatbots we know and love. Let’s give it a whirl.

I’m giving it a simple prompt to get started with the task.

Next, I will copy and paste the full prompt with background context. So far, I’m not as impressed with the different input/customization options — HubSpot AI and Anyword offer more in this regard. But I’m willing to be pleasantly surprised!

Honestly, given the lack of input fields and prompt help, this isn’t too bad. Is it something I’d send? No. Does it score very highly on the cringe-ometer scale? Also no.

To be fair to Copy.ai, I’m not great at prompting AI. I don’t typically use it in my everyday work, so I’ve not had a lot of practice with prompting. So, I’m going to give the Attention-Interest-Desire-Action prompt template a whirl.

Even after using the prompt template, I’m still unconvinced with the email copy. For example, the text is quite long. But once again, that could be because my prompt didn’t include word count parameters. The tone is also a little bit robotic. As with the word count, my prompt didn’t set many restrictions around tone, and I didn’t add a brand voice.

Overall, the platform is user-friendly, which is a bonus. That said, Copy.ai could benefit from some input fields to help fine-tune the copy. I also wonder if you might get more from this tool by working from the “Workflow Library.” If you want to road-test this tool yourself, that could be an excellent place to start!

5. Lemlist

Lemlist is a cold outreach platform that helps you build your email lists and write and personalize emails at scale. Aside from using AI to help generate email copy through Lemlist, you can use the tech to organize lead data. The platform also gives you the option to add external integrations.

What I like: Lemlist is a complete email marketing tool. So, aside from generating email copy, you can build and generate entire campaigns.

Price: Get started for free.

Testing It Out

I’m going through Lemlist’s cold email generator landing page to save time rather than signing up for the tool. (It turns out Copy.ai has this option, which I didn’t do. I think I would’ve been directed to their “Workflow Library” and maybe had a better prompting experience if I went this route.)

It’s time to fill in the prompt. As with the other tools, I’m using aspects of my original prompt/scenario where relevant. Let’s see what happens when I “Generate email.”

Pro tip: As a heads up, if you go through the landing page, rather than signing up for the free trial from the start, you’ll be asked to input your email to get the copy. It has to be a professional email, so no Gmail, Hotmail, etc.

Here’s the result.

First thought: I’m not sure about the subject line formatting. For a start, it doesn’t follow either title or sentence case. I’m also struggling to move past that lowercase “i” at the beginning of the sentence. And while I understand that posing something as a question piques interest, this comes off a little abrasive to me. Either way, the tone and grammar gremlin in me isn’t best pleased.

In reality, this could be some email marketing trick I don’t know about. And I’m just some stuffy substitute teacher archetype that doesn’t quite understand. In either case, I wouldn’t feel comfortable using a subject line like that.

On the plus side, this is the only AI-generated copy that automatically includes social proof by mentioning existing clients and results. I like that; it’s excellent sales practice. That said, if you’re an email marketing expert and, unlike me, not a lazy prompter, you might’ve got that output from the other tools by actually (hark!) requesting it.

I also like that the email is short and easy to read. That said, the overall tone is a little dry for me. I could be wrong, but I don’t see any options to set a specific tone or adjust it after the AI has generated the email copy. That means every cold email could potentially sound the same, regardless of external context.

AI Cold Email Writers: Input Options Can Make or Break ‘Em

After testing five AI cold email generators, what have I learned? Well, my prompting could do with some major improvement. As could my tech skills. I’m not just proving how humble and down-to-earth I am about my personal failings. (It’s endearing, though, right? Right?!) The simple fact is that these failings have impacted my findings.

Combine my tech fear with lazy-ish prompting — the result is that I preferred the tools that did a lot of hand-holding. For example, I loved how HubSpot walked me through building my cold email from start to finish. I also loved how Anyword provided a customizable cold email prompt and automatically created target audiences based on my input.

On the other hand, I struggled with Clay, for the most part, because my use case didn’t quite match up with the existing dataset. I also really struggled with the technical setup side of Clay. That said, people I respect in the industry rave about Clay because of the personalization options available through research rather than prompt-based tools.

Long story short? If you prefer hand-holding like me, invest in a tool that walks you through the process while offering simple but effective input options. If you love tech and are looking for hyper-personalization, invest in a research-based tool that requires you to format and fill in a spreadsheet first.