Mailshake Review: We tried Mailshake for 30-Days and here’s what we found

Mailshake Review: We tried Mailshake for 30-Days and here’s what we found

Lead Generation

Table of Contents

Hey there, fellow sales dude/dudette!

I know you're busy. If you're always looking for ways to save time and be more productive, then this blog is for you.
And if you're like me, you've probably considered using a sales automation tool to help you with your cold email outreach.

But which tool is right for you? 

There are many options, and it can be tough to decide which is the best fit for your needs. That's why I put Mailshake to the test for 30 days.

In this blog, I'll share my honest assessment of Mailshake. I'll cover everything from the pros and cons of the tool to my overall thoughts on whether or not it's worth your money.

So, if you're considering using Mailshake, I encourage you to read this review post first.

Here's what you'll learn:

  • What Mailshake is and how it works
  • The pros and cons of Mailshake
  • My overall thoughts on Mailshake
  • Best Mailshake alternative

By the end of this Mailshake review, you'll clearly understand whether it is the right tool for you.

So, first things first - what exactly is Mailshake, and how can it help you level up your growth hacking game? Let's find out in the next section.

What is Mailshake? 

Mailshake is a tool that helps salespeople reach out to prospects using cold email and other channels like Linkedin. It allows you to send automated follow ups as well based on a schedule you can set (say 3 days, 5 days, 7 days later).

Mailshake homepage
Source: Mailshake

Mailshake also includes a mail-merging feature that enables businesses to create personalized and customized emails at scale. 

With Mailshake, you can set up 

  • a cadence of emails, 
  • a series of automated emails sent out to a prospect over time, 
  • including follow-ups, reminders, or value-add content

all designed to move the prospect through the sales funnel. 

Having learned what Mailshake is, let's review what users like and dislike about the tool in the next section.

Mailshake's Pros and Cons: What You Need to Know Before You Sign Up

For our blog skimmers out there, let me give you a quick rundown of the pros and cons of Mailshake in the following table. 

Mailshake pros and cons

Now, we'll review the detailed advantages and disadvantages of Mailshake.

What do users like about Mailshake?

The pros of Mailshake are-

Easy Email Campaign Management:

  • You can import or manually enter contacts into campaigns.
  • And send emails directly from the platform, saving time and effort.
  • You can also categorize and segment contacts for targeted outreach.

Simple User Interface:

  • You must understand the platform first and then start with its intuitive interface.
  • Then the layout is clean and organized for easy navigation.
User Review of Mailshake
Source: G2

Personalization and Customization:

  • You can personalize subject lines for better engagement.
  • And upload CSV files and customize email series for different segments.
Mailshake

Email Deliverability Tools:

  • You can optimize email content for improved deliverability.
  • And just follow deliverability recommendations to increase email open rates.

Good Customer Support:

  • They have an efficient support team.
  • You get good advice to troubleshoot issues and optimize campaigns.
User Review of Mailshake
Source: G2

These features make Mailshake a valuable tool for easy campaign management, personalized outreach, deliverability tools, and good customer support.

As we've explored the features that users appreciate about Mailshake, it's important to acknowledge that no software is without its drawbacks. 

Let's delve into the areas where Mailshake falls short and understand the aspects some users find challenging or lacking. By understanding the positives and negatives, you can decide whether Mailshake is the right fit for your email campaign needs.

What do users dislike about Mailshake?

The cons of Mailshake are-

Poor contact data quality:

  • Incomplete and low-quality contact data.
  • It hinders campaign effectiveness and targeting.
User Review of Mailshake
Source: G2

Campaign issues:

  • Mailshake does not allow you to pause or stop a campaign once it has started. 
  • If you send out a campaign and realize that you need to make a change, you must delete the entire campaign and start over. 
  • This can be a major inconvenience, especially if you have a large campaign with many prospects.

Deliverability issues:

  • Users have faced deliverability issues with bulk emails. 
  • Mailshake can raise Google's spam flag with the number of emails sent daily.

Initial Learning Curve:

  • Challenges for new users to get started. 
  • There are difficulties with warming up emails and crafting content.
User Review of Mailshake
Source: G2

Complex Pricing

  • Mailshake doesn't help with customer acquisition with its immediate plans.
  •  So you'll have to buy another plan besides your Sales Engagement plan to collect leads before starting your outreach.

Template creation difficulty

  • It has a complex process for inserting custom text in templates.
  • You have separate input areas for title and body.

Limited reporting metrics:

  • Users have reported a lack of advanced functionalities to compare the campaigns' performance.
  • It isn't easy to check advanced performance metrics.
User Review of Mailshake
Source: G2

When considering Mailshake as an email campaign management tool, these drawbacks should be considered.

User Review of Mailshake
Source: G2

While it has its strengths, these limitations may lead users to explore alternative options that better address their specific needs and provide a more seamless experience.

And since we discussed its complex pricing structures and plans, let's go ahead and review Mailshake's pricing plans in the following section. 

How Much Does Mailshake Cost? 

Mailshake offers two different pricing plans to choose from. 

Engagement Plans

Email Outreach: $58/month

  • It is designed for marketers and founders. 
  • This plan includes all the core features of the Mailshake platform, including the ability to send automated email sequences, A/B testing, and reporting and analytics tools. 
  • It is a good option only for businesses starting out with email marketing or with smaller email lists

Sales Engagement : $83/month

  • It is geared more toward sales teams. 
  • It includes all the features of the first plan, plus additional tools specifically designed for sales, such as the ability to track email opens and clicks, reply detection, and integrations with popular CRM platforms. 
  • This plan is for businesses that need to manage large sales teams or have more complex sales funnels.
Mailshake Pricing
Souce: Mailshake

Things to consider before you buy these plans:

  • It's important to note that each Mailshake user can only connect to one email account. 
  • If you have multiple email accounts that you want to manage with Mailshake, you will need to purchase separate accounts for each one.
  • If you decide to go for a paid subscription plan, Mailshake offers discounts for annual contracts paid in advance. 

Data Finder Plans

Free Plan:

It gives you 50 monthly credits to search for prospects by job title, employer, sector, and location. You can also identify people, find their names, emails, and more. However, this plan is not enough to test the service.

Starter Plan:

It costs $49 monthly, billed annually, and gives you 1,000 monthly credits. You can search by the same criteria as the Free Plan, get prospects' contact information, including their email addresses, and direct push to campaigns using Engagement Products.

Pro Plan:

It costs $99 monthly and gives you 2,500 credits. You can search by the same criteria as the Starter Plan, find names and email addresses, and push directly to campaigns with Mailshake's Engagement Products.

Enterprise Plan:

It costs $249 per month and gives you 12,500 monthly credits. You can search by the same criteria as the Pro Plan. However, this plan is not necessary unless you have a massive team.

Mailshake pricing
Source: Mailshake

The important thing to note here is that Mailshake has separate plans for outreach engagement and lead generation. It just means you have to invest more than you might've expected. 

Plus, the bulk email deliverability issues and limited LinkedIn prospecting abilities still stand. 

We wouldn't be doing our due diligence if we ended our Mailshake review here. Other noteworthy features remain and are a great alternative to discuss in the next sections. Let's take a look at them.

Mailshake Review of its features

Here are some of the standout features that Mailshake has to offer:

  • Mailshake's AI email writer generates email copy in under a minute, saving you time and effort while ensuring personalized outreach.
  • Mailshake's A/B testing tool tests different versions of outreach emails, quickly determining the most effective emails. It tracks opens, clicks, and responses to each email, optimizing your email campaigns.
Mailshake Template
Source: Mailshake
  • Mailshake's Lead Drivers help discover which sequence step is converting. With Mailshake's Lead Catcher, leads can be targeted in one place, and recent chats are easily accessible.
  • Mailshake integrates with many third-party integrations, including Pipedrive CRM, Calendly, LinkedIn, and more. 
Source: Mailshake
  • With Mailshake's Sales Engagement Plan, the power phone dialer enables placing calls right from the website. It allows for outreach cadences with phone calls, email, and social media, providing a bird's eye view of the team's social, email, and dialer activity.

Mailshake's Email Sending Limits: What You Need to Know

Mailshake has daily email-sending limits that vary depending on your email provider. These limits are as follows:

  • Gmail: 500 emails per day
  • G-Suite: 2,000 emails per day
  • Microsoft: 1,000 emails per day
  • SMTP: 1,000 emails per day

Sometimes, your email provider may decide to limit your account for reasons beyond your control, which can prevent you from sending emails up to your daily quota. If this happens, you will be notified that you have reached your limit.

However, it may require entering email addresses using CSV files for all platforms except Salesforce, and the quality of email addresses may affect results. 

So, after diving into Mailshake's features and all, I have to be honest with you – while it's got some cool stuff, it's not without its drawbacks. Don't get me wrong; Mailshake's got its perks, but let's talk about why you might want to consider giving Salesrobot a try instead.

Mailshake's contact data quality has been called into question. Some users have reported incomplete or low-quality data, which can mean less effective campaigns and wasted time.

The pricing is also a bit complex. You might have to buy another plan on top of your current plan just to collect leads before you start your outreach. That's frustrating, right?

And then there's the deliverability issue. Some users have had problems getting their bulk emails delivered, which could raise Google's spam flag and hurt your email success rate.

But here's the kicker: the biggest and most common problem with email outreach is its response rate. Typically, you'll only get a 2-3% response rate. But with LinkedIn, you can get up to 35%!

That's why I think Salesrobot is a better option. It has strong LinkedIn prospecting capabilities and keeps your account safe. Plus, it's a one-stop shop for lead generation and multichannel outreach.

#1 Mailshake Alternative for getting more leads from LinkedIn (and cold email): Salesrobot

Just a quick note, we want to be transparent with our ratings and recommendations for Salesrobot, even though it's our growth hacking tool. 

We believe in making fair and unbiased evaluations, just as with any other software on our list. We aim to provide you with the best options for your business needs.

Salesrobot is a game-changing platform designed to help sales teams and lead generation agencies automate their sales efforts. Simply put, it optimizes the sales process, making it more efficient and effective. 

Salesrobot

The best part? 

Salesrobot's human-like messages give the impression that users are not communicating with a machine. 

This platform is perfect for many users, including start-ups, sales teams, recruiting firms, lead generation agencies, and small business owners.

So, how is it better than Mailshake, you ask? Let's see. 

How is Salesrobot a better alternative to Mailshake?

Robust LinkedIn Prospecting

  • Salesrobot is a LinkedIn prospecting tool that offers more automation features than Mailshake. 
  • It allows you to send 200 invitations and it can help you generate leads from LinkedIn polls, events, groups, and more. 
  • Salesrobot helps you create coordinated connection invitations, giving you a competitive edge over other LinkedIn sales efforts. 
  • It also uses LinkedIn as a sales tool, so you can personalize your outreach messages to increase your chances of success.
Salesrobot campaign

Better Contact Data Quality

  • Salesrobot does not offer contact data, but it allows you to target users who are on LinkedIn using Sales Navigator or LinkedIn Search
  • It is a more high-quality and reliable source of leads, as LinkedIn users are likely to be active and engaged.
  • Additionally, Salesrobot allows you to use multiple LinkedIn accounts with one Sales Navigator account

Simple Pricing

  • Salesrobot has a straightforward pricing structure. 
  • It includes only one plan that has all its features. 
  • You even get all of them in its 14-day free trial. It makes it easy to start and see if Salesrobot is the right tool for you.

Advanced Campaign and Sequential Tools

  • Salesrobot helps you edit and customize your campaign sequences however you like. It allows you to pause or stop a campaign at any time. 
  • It gives you much more flexibility and control over your campaigns. Once you are satisfied with the changes, you can unpause the campaign, which will resume sending where it left off.

Pre-made Templates

  • Salesrobot provides several pre-made templates for your outreach. 
  • You can even customize them according to your liking and prospecting needs. 
  • This makes it easy to get started and saves you time from having to create your templates from scratch.

Safe Configuration

  • Salesrobot can safely surpass the LinkedIn daily limits and get you the prospects you need. 
  • It is important because it ensures that your messages are delivered to your prospects' inboxes and not filtered as spam.
  • You can also send personalized messages to avoid spam filters in your prospect's inboxes. 
  • It helps to improve your chances of getting a response and moving the prospect down your sales funnel.

Better Reporting and Analytics

  • Salesrobot offers better insights into your outreach campaigns. 
  • It provides data according to your prospects' and location insights to help you optimize your strategy accordingly. 
  • You can even get automated reports in your email. It helps you to track your progress and make necessary adjustments to your campaigns.
Salesrobot Analytics

Ease of Use

  • Salesrobot has an intuitive and user-friendly interface. 
  • It is easy to navigate, and even if you stumble into something, the support makes it easy for anyone to use, regardless of their technical expertise.

Excellent Customer Support

  • Salesrobot has a proven record of amazing customer service. 
  • The dedicated customer support team is available to answer your query 24x7, even on weekends.
  • It means you can always get help when you need it, no matter what time of day or night.
User Review of Salesrobot

But how much does it all cost? Let's review the pricing of this Mailshake alternative. 

How Much Does Salesrobot Cost? ‍

Let me tell you about Salesrobot's pricing, and trust me, and it's as exciting as it gets! Salesrobot offers a Professional plan at $99 per month, but if you go for an annual subscription, you get an additional 20% discount automatically applied. And it's got everything you could ever ask for. 

Salesrobot Pricing

Here's what you get:

  • You can import contacts from various sources like CSV files, Sales Nav Search, Groups, etc.
  • The Smart Inbox and auto follow-ups will save you time and energy.
  • Oh, and did I mention that all integrations are included? Yep, Salesrobot's got your back!
  • With the handy dashboard feature, keep track of your actions, locations, and prospect insights.
  • Group messaging and event messaging options? Yep, you've got it!
  • And the best part is that you'll have access to all the contact information of your prospects, including their precious emails and phone numbers.
  • You can invite unlimited team members and control access.
  • Plus, you can automatically wish your connections a happy birthday, adding a personal touch to your outreach.

Also, they offer a 14-day free trial to test all their features without entering your credit card information.

I know how to make things even easier to understand. The following section will review the differences between Mailshake and Salesrobot. 

Salesrobot Vs. Mailshake 

Comparison between Salesrobot and Mailshake

Now that we have covered everything about Mailshake and its alternative, let's recap our Mailshake review with a conclusion. 

Conclusion

So, here we come at the end of the Mailshake review. After using Mailshake for 30 days, I have mixed feelings about the platform. On the one hand, it offers several useful features for sales outreach, such as:

  • Easy campaign management
  • Simple user interface
  • Personalization and customization
  • Email deliverability tools
  • Good customer support

However, there are also some drawbacks of the tool, including:

  • Poor contact data quality
  • Complex pricing
  • Deliverability issues
  • Learning curve
  • Template creation difficulty
  • Limited reporting metrics

Overall, I would not recommend Mailshake as a standalone tool for lead generation. The data quality is poor, the pricing is complex, and the deliverability issues can be a real problem.

If you are looking for a better alternative, I would recommend Salesrobot. Salesrobot is a more powerful and reliable tool than Mailshake, offering a simpler pricing structure. Salesrobot also has better prospect outreach capabilities and is easier to use.

Here are some of the reasons why I recommend Salesrobot over Mailshake:

  • More customization options: Salesrobot offers more customization options than Mailshake so that you can create more personalized and engaging emails.
  • Better support: Salesrobot has better support than Mailshake, so you can get help if you have any problems with the platform.
  • LinkedIn outreach: Salesrobot integrates with LinkedIn so that you can send personalized messages to your target audience directly on the platform. It is a great way to increase your response rates, as the typical email response rate is around 3%, whereas on LinkedIn, it is 35%.

If you are serious about effective cold outreach, I recommend checking out Salesrobot for the next 14 days. It's a more powerful and reliable tool than Mailshake, and it's worth the extra money.

I hope this helps!

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Get free leads for 14 days

Get Started
Stop relying on personal connections to get more customers

Start generating high-quality leads in next 60 mins
(like our 3000+ users do)