Campaign gets no replies
Diagnose a Victoria AI campaign that sends but gets few or no replies, from deliverability to copy and targeting.
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First check that the campaign is actually sending. On Campaigns → your campaign → Analytics, Contacted should be growing. If it isn't, see Leads aren't moving. If it is, work through deliverability, then copy, then targeting.
Give a campaign enough volume before judging it: a reply rate on a few dozen contacted leads changes a lot with one reply. Outbound benchmarks has typical ranges, and Diagnose a campaign by its bottleneck has the full checklist.
No replies: emails may not be reaching the inbox
Signs: plenty of Emails sent, almost no replies on email while LinkedIn gets some.
- Domain authentication: on Sender Accounts, check the mailbox's SPF, DKIM and DMARC result. A failing domain is often filtered as spam. See DNS setup.
- Bounces: a mailbox whose recent emails often go to dead addresses is throttled automatically. More than 8% of its last 7 days of emails going to unreachable addresses (once it has sent at least 50) pauses its sequence emails until the rate drops. Use verified emails, such as those found through the Lead database.
- Links and attachments: links in sequence messages hurt deliverability and read as spam. Keep sequence messages free of links and attachments; let the Appointment Setter share a link when a prospect asks.
- Open rate is a weak signal. Privacy features hide opens, so don't read a low open rate as proof of spam on its own.
Fix: correct DNS, clean the lead list, and follow Cold email principles.
No replies: LinkedIn requests aren't accepted
Signs: low Accept rate, so few leads reach the Yes path where LinkedIn messages go out.
- A connection note that pitches gets ignored. A blank request often does better.
- Your LinkedIn profile is what the prospect sees first: photo, headline and summary.
Fix: see LinkedIn connection requests, and make sure the No path has emails so people who don't accept are still reached.
No replies: the copy doesn't earn a reply
Signs: messages are delivered and connections accepted, but replies are rare or negative.
- Openings about you instead of them.
- Long messages with several ideas.
- Asking for a meeting in the first message.
- Claims the prospect can't check.
Fix: rewrite with the Playbook: one idea per message, a question as the first ask, short first-person sentences. Test a new angle against the current one with A/B testing.
No replies: the leads are the wrong audience
Signs: replies that say "not relevant" or "wrong person", or silence across every channel and copy variation.
Fix: tighten the lead criteria: titles, seniority, company size and industry. See Find leads in the Lead database. Make sure the offer in the copy matches a problem those people own; see Value proposition.
Replies arrive but no meetings are booked
Signs: Positive replies but few Meetings booked.
- Check that the Appointment Setter is on, in Autonomous mode, with a working Booking link.
- Read the conversations in the Inbox for questions the agent couldn't answer, and add those facts to its Knowledge base.
- Remember Meetings booked counts only confirmed bookings.
Fix: see Appointment Setter, After a positive reply and Appointment Setter configuration.