asked on Hacker News, 20 March 2026
Do you use AI for cold email copy?
Use it for research and a first draft, not for the send. Recipients spot AI-written cold email quickly, and the tools all converge on the same phrasing. Write the first line yourself from something the person actually did, keep it short, and send a few a day by hand.
By The Marketinque TeamReviewed September 2026
What did people in the thread say?
- The founder who asked had tried countless prompts and tools and found all of them mediocre. The top reply avoided AI for cold email precisely because everyone else uses it. source
- In the discussion of an essay on cold email, a recipient ghosted a reply because it read as AI-written, and the essay’s author agreed that people who get many of these spot them easily. source
- Another founder concluded that the standard playbook of a hook, a short email and AI personalisation now works as a negative signal. source
What would we do?
- Build the list from dated triggers: a role they are hiring for, a round they announced, a problem they posted about. Drop anything older than six weeks.
- Write the first line from that trigger yourself, and check it is true.
- One ask per email, smaller each time, and stop after four.
- Verify every address before the first send, and count replies, not opens.
Where does marketinque help, and where not?
marketinque drafts outreach from the facts you confirmed, and every send waits for your approval, always: cold outreach is one of the actions that can never be set to go out on its own.
Where it does not: It will not make cold email work at volume, and bulk email to people who never agreed to hear from you is blocked outright, with no way to switch it on.
We build marketinque, so weigh this section accordingly. It is free while projects open by waitlist.