I automated 90% of my cold email outreach. Here’s what changed (n8n + instantly)
I was spending 2–3 hours/day on cold outreach and still missing follow-ups, tracking replies manually, and burning out. So I built a cold outreach automation system that now handles ~90% of the workflow. Here’s what it does 👇 Lead research (fully automated) - Scrapes & validates company websites - Extracts key details (industry, size, tech stack, pain signals) - Flags bad or inactive domains automatically Result: 0 manual lead research Personalized icebreakers at scale - AI reads the company website + context - Writes 1–2 line human-sounding icebreakers - No “Hope you’re doing well” or obvious AI fluff - Output:300 personalized emails/day~6,000 emails/month Smart sending + reply tracking - Sends with warm-up & daily limits - Tracks opens, replies, and follow-ups automatically - Updates everything in a single dashboard (no spreadsheets) Real results (last 30 days) - 6,000 emails sent - 5–7% average reply rate - ~1.2–1.8% positive replies - Zero manual follow-ups missed Biggest takeaway:Automation didn’t make the emails robotic — it actually forced me to be more relevant, because bad personalization doesn’t scale. This system isn’t a “spray & pray blaster.”It’s more like: fewer mistakes, consistent execution, and clean data.