what actually makes a cold email get a reply

1. the right person. the largest single lever. a fine email to the right person beats a great email to the wrong one. spend more time on the list.
2. a specific reference. something that proves you actually looked at them. a recent post, a project they shipped, a comment on a podcast. one specific reference outperforms three generic compliments.
3. a small ask. "15 minutes next Tuesday" replies more than "happy to set up a call at your convenience." pick a time, suggest a format, make the yes cheap.
4. brevity. three short paragraphs beats one long one. if it doesn't fit on a phone screen without scrolling, cut it.
5. a subject line that doesn't promise. "quick question about [their specific project]" reads as honest. "increase your revenue 3x" reads as spam.

• send time. "Tuesday 10am" tactical posts make for good Twitter content, not for results. send when you're working. the difference is in the noise.
• email signature design. a four-line plain-text signature performs indistinguishably from a designed one with logos and pronouns. cut it back; nobody is reading it.
• follow-up cadence formulas. "day 3, day 7, day 14, day 30" is one valid pattern out of many. what matters is whether each follow-up adds something new - not whether you nailed the spacing.

iris is built around the five that matter. discovery + fit score targets the right person. per-contact drafting forces a specific reference. the review queue gives you one more editing pass before send. send pacing is humanized so you don't have to think about timing.

the rest is up to you - iris isn't going to write a great pitch from a vague brief. but if you know what you're offering and why it matters, iris closes the gap between "I know what I want to say" and "5,000 contacts each got a personal version of it."