Is your cold email actually good?

What this cold email grader does

This grader scores a cold email out of 100 against eleven mechanical checks and returns a letter grade with the specific items to fix. It reads copy only, it runs on the same standard applied to live client campaigns, and grading never sends or stores your draft; only the optional AI rewrite sends text, to a third-party AI model.

What does the grader check?

Eleven things: subject line, length (an 80-word cap, or the follow-up shape in follow-up mode), em dashes, fluff and template artifacts, AI-tell vocabulary, specificity, the mechanism, the offer and its risk reversal, the ask, reader focus and spam tone. Each is a rule the tool actually applies rather than a general language-model impression of your writing.

What does your score mean?

A score of 85 or above is an A on this editorial rubric. It measures how closely the draft follows the listed rules. It is not a reply probability, a deliverability test or proof that the offer and audience match.

What should you do with a low score?

Fix the flagged items in order of weight, starting with the three 12-point checks: the offer, the subject line and AI-tell vocabulary. Then re-grade. If a draft grades well and replies stay flat, review the offer and copy alongside targeting, list quality and sending setup. A high score does not rule out a copy problem.

What the scoring rules can tell you

This is a rule-based editorial tool. It applies ReplyLead's copy rubric consistently, identifies specific issues and lets you re-grade after editing. The rules and thresholds are listed below so you can inspect the assessment.

The score is not a validated prediction of replies or inbox placement. Our published campaign benchmarks describe historical campaign outcomes; they do not establish the lift caused by passing these checks or validate the scoring weights.

Use the feedback to make an editorial decision, then evaluate actual replies and qualified outcomes in your own campaign. A higher score alone is not evidence of better business results.

Where the 100 points come from

Every check adds points up to its maximum, and the maxima sum to 100. Read from the grader's script, three checks share the heaviest weight. The lists behind them, counted from the same script: 247 hard and 233 softer fluff phrases, AI-tell terms in tiers of 134, 211 and 85, 76 assistant-voice phrases, 23 weak and 16 strong outcome phrases, 12 superlatives, 6 jargon phrases and 1,130 spam-trigger phrases.

Worked example: one email graded check by check

This is the sample behind "Load an example", graded by the tool on this page on 25 September 2026. Press "Load an example" and then Grade to reproduce every line. The email contains one em dash, shown here as (em dash).

Subject: Quick question

Hi {{first_name}},

I hope you're well. I wanted to reach out because we leverage cutting-edge AI to streamline operations and elevate your outbound (em dash) seamlessly.

We help companies like yours improve efficiency and take it to the next level. Moreover, our robust, comprehensive platform is a game-changer.

Do you have 30 minutes this week for a call?

Best,
Jordan

What the cold email grader checks

Every email you paste is run through 11 checks and scored out of 100 with a letter grade. These are the rules the tool actually applies, not a summary of them. Grading runs entirely in your browser: none of your text is sent or stored, and merge fields such as {{first_name}} are masked before scoring so capitalisation checks cannot trip on them.

The 11 checks

1. Subject line. Must pass 2 of 3: what is this, who is it for, what does it promise.
2. Length. A hard cap of 80 words. Over it the check fails outright, and the fix is to cut anything that is not identification, mechanism or the ask.
3. Follow-up shape. In follow-up mode the playbook shape is one sentence, 20 to 28 words, with no greeting and no signoff.
4. Em dashes. A hard rule of zero, including the -- form. Use a colon, period, comma or parentheses instead.
5. Fluff and artifacts. 480 phrases that delay the point or read as template or chatbot output, split into 247 hard flags and 233 softer ones, plus 76 assistant-voice phrases such as "great question" that fail the check.
6. AI-tell vocabulary. 430 flagged terms across three severity tiers of 134, 211 and 85 entries. A clean email takes zero penalty.
7. Specificity. Flags vague or salesy claims and looks for a definite, near-money statement carrying a number. 23 weak outcome phrases are flagged, alongside 12 superlatives and 6 jargon phrases; 16 strong outcome phrases count toward the offer check.
8. Mechanism. Name one mechanism in 3 to 7 words. A mechanism that reads like feature soup is downgraded rather than passed.
9. The offer and risk reversal. The offer has to be concrete. A follow-up that reduces itself to "is now a good time?" fails.
10. The ask. Ends best on a light value-check question with an easy out. Asking a stranger straight for a meeting is a warning, not a pass: match the gradient of reply first, then resource, then time.
11. Reader focus and spam tone. Counts "you" against "I" and "we", and screens 1,130 weighted trigger phrases across five categories: money, overpromise, shady, unnatural and urgency. Risk-reversal clauses are exempt, because "you only pay when deals close" is the offer, not a trigger.

Eleven checks run on any one email. Follow-up mode replaces length with the follow-up shape, switches the offer and ask checks to follow-up rules and awards the 8 mechanism points automatically.

How the score is graded

• A, 85 and above. "Sharp. This one should pull replies."
• B, 70 to 84. "Solid. Tighten the flagged items and it flies."
• C, 55 to 69. "Workable, but it is leaving replies on the table."
• D, below 55. "This will struggle. Run the copy doctor."

The score is clamped to the 0 to 100 range. Weighting is deliberately uneven: the offer, the subject line and AI-tell vocabulary are worth up to 12 points each, the most of any check; length, specificity and the ask 10 each; em dashes, fluff and the mechanism 8 each; reader focus and spam tone 5 each. A high score is not a promise of replies. It means the email no longer fails the things that reliably suppress them, which is a floor, not a ceiling.

What costs a draft the most points

These are the failures that cost the most points, in roughly the order of their weight in the score.

• No concrete offer. It is worth up to 12 of the 100 points, tied with the subject line and AI-tell vocabulary for the most of any check. Without a near-money outcome and a risk reversal the check keeps at most 5 of its 12 points, and the rest of the draft can still carry it to an A.
• Over the 80-word cap. The length check fails outright and loses all 10 of its points; the rest of the draft still counts. Anything that is not identification, mechanism or the ask is what to cut first.
• A subject line that passes only one of three tests. It has to answer at least two of: what is this, who is it for, what does it promise.
• Asking a stranger straight for a meeting. That is a warning, not a pass. The reply gradient runs reply, then resource, then time - asking for time first skips two steps.
• Assistant-voice and AI-tell vocabulary. 430 AI-tell terms across three severity tiers, plus 76 assistant phrases such as "great question" that the fluff check fails. A clean email takes no penalty at all here.
• Em dashes. A hard rule of zero, including the double-hyphen form. A colon, period, comma or parentheses does the same work without the tell.
• Vague outcome claims. 23 weak outcome phrases are flagged. A definite statement carrying a number beats an adjective every time.

Follow-up drafts fail differently. In follow-up mode the shape check expects one sentence of 20 to 28 words with no greeting and no signoff, and a follow-up that reduces itself to "is now a good time?" fails the offer check outright.

What to do with your score

The number is a floor, not a ceiling. It tells you the email no longer fails the things that reliably suppress replies; it does not promise replies. What to do next depends on the band you land in.

• A, 85 and above. Send it. Spend your remaining effort on the list and the sending infrastructure, which is where the next marginal reply comes from.
• B, 70 to 84. Fix the flagged items individually rather than rewriting. The heaviest single check is worth 12 points, so a score of 72 or below needs more than one fix to reach an A.
• C, 55 to 69. A C has lost at least 31 points, more than the offer and the ask carry together, so more than one check is failing. Apply the playbook fixes, then re-grade before editing by hand.
• D, below 55. Start again from the mechanism: name what you do in three to seven words, then build the email outward from that one sentence.

A score does not assess the recipient, offer-market fit, address validity or sending infrastructure. Review those alongside the copy when results fall short.

Why cold emails get ignored

Most cold emails are ignored because they ask a stranger for time before giving them a reason to care, not because of grammar or tone. The measurable pattern is that drafts naming one concrete mechanism and making one light ask outperform longer, vaguer ones.

For scale: across 429,763 emails sent over 115 campaigns for five client programmes between April and August 2026, the median campaign drew a reply from 2.12% of contacted leads and the pooled figure was 2.58%. The middle half of campaigns that contacted 500 or more leads sat between 1.38% and 2.97%, with a top decile of 3.79%. A good email is not one that gets a 20% reply rate; it is one that reaches the upper part of a band that narrow.

That spread is mostly list and market rather than prose, which is the honest framing: copy decides whether the right person replies, not whether an indifferent one does. What copy reliably costs you is the downside - a draft that reads as automated, asks for a meeting cold, or buries the mechanism in feature language gives an interested reader a reason to stop. See what a realistic reply rate looks like before judging a draft by its response.

Length, CTA and personalisation

How long should a cold email be?

Under 80 words for a first touch. The grader treats that as a hard cap rather than a preference: past it the check fails outright, because the extra words are almost always context the reader has not yet agreed to care about. Cut anything that is not identification, mechanism or the ask. A follow-up is shorter still - one sentence of 20 to 28 words, no greeting, no signoff.

What makes a good cold email CTA?

The smallest ask that still moves things forward. Asking a stranger straight for a meeting is the largest request you can make in a first email, so the grader treats it as a warning rather than a pass. The gradient that converts is a reply first, then a resource, then time - each step cheaper for the recipient than the one after it. A light value-check question with an easy out beats a calendar link.

Does personalisation beat generic copy?

Specificity beats personalisation. A merge field that inserts a company name proves nothing; a sentence that names a mechanism in three to seven words and attaches a number does. The grader flags 23 weak outcome phrases for exactly this reason. It also masks merge fields before scoring, so a broken tag never inflates a capitalisation check - though a tag that fails to resolve in the real send is its own problem, covered in merge fields and their failure modes.

The full standard these checks come from is written up in the cold email copywriting rules.

The rest of the cold email toolkit

Grading the copy is one step. These complimentary tools cover the other things that decide whether a cold email lands and gets a reply - the list, the infrastructure, the recipient's environment. All run in your browser; none needs a sign-up.