Instantly vs Mailchimp: Cold Email Tools Face-off 2024

Instantly.ai provides a straightforward approach to creating email sequences for sales outreach campaigns. The platform focuses on simplicity, allowing users to set up linear sequences without the complexity of conditional branching or forking.

Key features of Instantly.ai's sequence creation:

• Linear sequence structure: Steps are arranged in a single, straightforward path
• Streamlined setup: Quickly add steps and variants to the sequence
• Customizable subject and content: Tailor each step to the specific campaign
• Preview functionality: Review and refine the sequence before launching

Reddit users have shared positive feedback on combining Instantly.ai with other tools for improved campaign results:

👍 "combine this with instantly.ai for our results" - r/sales

Mailchimp, a popular email marketing platform, provides a user-friendly interface for creating and sending email campaigns. While originally designed for marketing emails, some users leverage Mailchimp for cold outreach as well.

Key features of Mailchimp's campaign creation:

• Drag-and-drop email builder: Easily create and format emails using simple, intuitive tools
• Extensive template library: Choose from a wide range of pre-designed templates for various purposes and industries
• Branded templates: Maintain brand consistency with custom-designed email templates
• Responsive design: Ensure emails look great on any device with mobile-optimized templates

While Mailchimp may lack some of the advanced automation and personalization features found in dedicated sales engagement platforms, its ease of use and robust email design capabilities make it a viable option for those looking to send well-crafted cold emails at scale.

Instantly.ai offers a comprehensive set of features to improve email deliverability and avoid spam filters when sending cold outreach campaigns. The platform focuses on email warming to establish a positive sending reputation for your inboxes.

• Built-in email warming: Instantly.ai's most basic package includes unlimited email warming to prepare your inboxes for outreach.
• Simulate engagement: The warming service can simulate opens and reads with your connected inboxes to boost reputation.
• Custom tracking domains: Set up custom tracking domains to further improve deliverability and tracking.
• Manage multiple inboxes: Easily connect and warm up multiple inboxes from the Instantly.ai dashboard.

However, user reviews on Reddit reveal mixed sentiments about the effectiveness of Instantly.ai's deliverability features:

👎 "email warmup is just a claim and did not work" - r/Emailmarketing

👎 "emails going to spam in Yahoo/AOL domains despite warm-up" - r/Emailmarketing

Mailchimp has a strong reputation for email deliverability rates, thanks to its compliance with best email sending practices. The platform provides tools and features to help users maintain high deliverability and avoid spam filters.

• Domain verification and authentication: Mailchimp allows users to verify and authenticate their email domains, which helps establish trust and improves deliverability.
• Compliance with best practices: The platform adheres to industry standards and best practices for email marketing, reducing the risk of emails being flagged as spam.
• Monitoring and reporting: Mailchimp provides detailed analytics and reporting on email performance, including open rates, click rates, and unsubscribe rates, allowing users to monitor and optimize their campaigns.

However, it's important to note that Mailchimp does not offer email warming services, making it less suitable for cold outreach campaigns. The platform is best used for engaging with existing subscribers and sending warm outreach emails to maintain high deliverability rates.

Instantly.ai's campaign function offers robust email customization options, allowing users to personalize their outreach at scale:

• Flexible templating: Start with pre-made templates or create your own from scratch
• Dynamic placeholders: Insert variables like {{accountSignature}} to auto-populate personalized information
• Live preview: See how your email will look with the "Preview" button before sending
• Rich content: Easily add links, emoticons, and images to your emails
• Advanced settings: Control email tracking, daily sending limits, and more

Mailchimp provides a range of personalization options to tailor emails to individual leads. By leveraging custom fields and merge tags, you can create targeted, personalized content that resonates with your audience.

• Audience fields: Manage the fields available to your audience's signup forms. These fields can be used to personalize content and segment your audience based on their attributes.
• Merge tags: Insert dynamic content into your emails using merge tags. These tags pull in personalized information for each recipient, such as their name, email address, or custom field values.
• Custom fields: Create your own custom fields to store additional data about your contacts. This allows for more granular personalization based on the specific interests or characteristics of each lead.
• Conditional content: Use merge tags to display different content based on a recipient's data. For example, you can show different product recommendations or offers based on a lead's previous purchases or preferences.

Instantly.ai does not appear to offer any AI-powered features for creating or managing sales sequences. Despite the company's name suggesting quick, automated solutions, there is no evidence of AI being leveraged to generate personalized content or optimize sequences based on lead data.

Key observations:

• No mention of AI-driven sentence generation
• Lack of custom signal integration for lead-specific personalization
• Domain name does not reflect actual product capabilities

Mailchimp's Sequences feature incorporates AI to help users write more effective email content. The AI-powered content generator can create paragraphs based on a selected content type, such as a product description or a special offer announcement.

Key aspects of the AI content generation in Mailchimp Sequences:

• Content Type Selection: Users can choose from various content types, such as paragraphs, bullet points, or listicles, to suit their specific email marketing needs.
• Customization Options: The generated content can be further customized and refined by the user to ensure it aligns with their brand voice and messaging.
• Time-Saving: By leveraging AI to generate email content, marketers can save time and focus on other aspects of their campaigns.

Instantly provides a Lead Finder feature to help users find relevant leads, although it does not offer a native enrichment database. The Lead Finder allows users to search for leads based on various criteria such as job title, location, industry, company size, and more.

Key aspects of Instantly's lead enrichment capabilities:

• Upload lists for enrichment: Users can upload their own lists of leads to enrich their information within the platform.
• No native enrichment database: Instantly does not provide a built-in database for lead enrichment, relying on user-uploaded lists.
• Detailed search filters: The Lead Finder offers a wide range of search filters to help users find the most relevant leads for their campaigns.

Mailchimp, as a sales engagement tool, does not offer native enrichment capabilities. This means that users need to rely on integrations with external tools to gather additional data on their leads, such as buyer signals from other sources.

While Mailchimp provides a robust platform for email marketing and automation, the lack of built-in lead enrichment features may be a drawback for some users who require a more comprehensive view of their prospects. To access this functionality, users will need to set up and manage integrations with third-party services.

It's important to consider the additional effort and potential costs associated with using external tools for lead enrichment when evaluating Mailchimp as a sales engagement solution. Users should assess their specific needs and determine if the benefits of Mailchimp's core features outweigh the absence of native enrichment capabilities.

While Instantly provides a range of automation features for email outreach, it currently does not offer built-in functionality for automating social media engagement, such as LinkedIn outreach. To automate social media outreach in addition to email, users would need to use a separate, dedicated tool like Dripify or Hey Alfred alongside Instantly.

This means that users looking to streamline both their email and social media outreach within a single platform may find Instantly's social automation capabilities lacking compared to other all-in-one sales engagement tools. However, for teams primarily focused on email outreach, Instantly remains a strong choice.

Mailchimp, as a sales engagement tool, offers social media integration primarily for cross-posting and ads management. However, it does not provide the ability to enrich leads using social media data, which could be a limitation for some users.

Key aspects of Mailchimp's social media automation:

• Cross-posting: Share content across multiple social media platforms simultaneously
• Ads management: Create and manage social media ads within the Mailchimp platform
• Limited lead enrichment: Unable to gather additional lead information from social media profiles

Instantly provides straightforward pricing plans designed to meet the needs of various businesses. The pricing model is based on the number of emails sent per month, with plans starting at $30 per month for the Growth plan and scaling up to $286.3 per month for the Light Speed plan.

• Flexible billing options: Customers can choose between monthly or annual billing, with a 20% discount for annual subscriptions.
• 14-day free trial: All plans come with a 14-day free trial, allowing potential customers to test the product before committing to a paid subscription.
• No per-seat pricing: Plans are priced based on email volume rather than the number of users, making it cost-effective for teams of any size.
• Unlimited email accounts and warmup emails: All plans include unlimited email accounts and warmup emails, helping to prevent emails from being marked as spam.
• Scalable plans: The Growth plan supports up to 5,000 emails per month for $30, while the Light Speed plan accommodates up to 500,000 emails per month for $286.3.
• No sales call required: Customers can sign up for a plan and start using the product without the need for a sales call.

Mailchimp provides a range of pricing options to suit different business needs and budgets. Their plans are billed monthly, with the ability to upgrade or downgrade as needed.

• Free plan: Ideal for businesses just starting out, offering basic features for up to 1,000 contacts.
• Essentials plan: At $13/month, this plan includes testing and scheduling features for up to 5,000 contacts and 3 users.
• Standard plan: For $20/month, users get additional personalization, optimization, and automation tools for up to 6,000 contacts and 5 users.
• Premium plan: At $350/month, this plan offers unlimited contacts, users, and advanced features like dedicated onboarding and priority support.

All paid plans come with a 30-day free trial, allowing users to test the features before committing. The pricing model is based on the number of contacts and email sends, with overages applied if limits are exceeded.