In B2B cold outreach, success depends on one thing above all: landing in the inbox. With average email deliverability across industries at just 85.7% according to Mailgun’s 2023 report, choosing the right platform can make or break your campaign.
Two names often compared are Mailchimp and Snov.io. Yet these platforms serve very different purposes, and understanding their strengths and weaknesses is critical before making your choice.
What Deliverability Means in Cold Outreach
Deliverability is your ability to consistently hit inboxes instead of spam folders. It’s influenced by sender reputation, authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), content quality, and engagement. Cold outreach makes this harder: Return Path found average cold email deliverability at just 78%, significantly below opt-in marketing emails.
Mailchimp: The Marketing Automation Giant
Mailchimp dominates the email marketing space with over 13 million users. Its infrastructure and reputation make it one of the strongest performers in terms of deliverability.
The platform’s investment in authentication protocols and ISP relationships means it achieves inbox placement rates of around 89.2%, according to EmailToolTester’s 2023 analysis. With billions of emails sent through its servers each month, ISPs tend to trust its traffic.
But there’s a catch: Mailchimp explicitly prohibits cold outreach. Their Acceptable Use Policy forbids emailing purchased lists or unconsenting contacts. Users who ignore this risk account suspension or permanent bans. This protects Mailchimp’s global deliverability reputation but makes it unsuitable for cold outreach campaigns.
Snov.io: Built for Cold Outreach
Snov.io takes the opposite approach, positioning itself as a sales automation and cold email platform. It offers tools tailored to prospecting, including list building, validation, drip campaigns, personalisation, and even warm-up services.
The platform reports average deliverability of around 87% for cold emails. While slightly below Mailchimp’s general performance, this is strong considering the inherent risks of cold outreach. Features such as IP rotation, sending time optimisation, and built-in validation help maximise inbox placement.
That said, Snov.io’s infrastructure faces tougher scrutiny. As ISPs know it’s commonly used for unsolicited outreach, users scaling campaigns too aggressively sometimes report deliverability dips. With a smaller overall sending volume than Mailchimp, Snov.io lacks the “trust halo” that comes with billions of sends.
Compliance Considerations
UK and EU businesses must weigh GDPR alongside deliverability. Cold outreach falls under “legitimate interest,” but requires clear opt-outs and careful targeting. Mailchimp’s anti-cold email stance inherently reduces compliance risk, since its permitted use cases align with GDPR.
Snov.io, however, puts compliance responsibility entirely on the user. This means businesses must take extra care with data sourcing and opt-out processes. The ICO has issued fines totalling millions for email marketing breaches — a reminder that compliance is as important as inbox placement.
Beyond Email: Multi-Channel Outreach
The truth is neither platform alone guarantees consistent success. Many high-performing B2B companies now combine email with other outreach channels. LinkedIn direct messages, website visitor identification, and cold calling add personal touchpoints that emails alone can’t achieve.
Salesforce research shows B2B buyers engage with around ten pieces of content before purchase. This means content marketing and thought leadership should complement your outbound efforts, creating more natural opportunities for email to succeed.
Which Platform Should You Choose?
For strict cold email prospecting, Snov.io is the more practical option — it’s built for the job and offers the tools Mailchimp deliberately avoids. However, deliverability still isn’t guaranteed, and compliance risks sit firmly with the user.
Mailchimp, while stronger on deliverability overall, simply isn’t designed for cold outreach. It’s better suited to opt-in email marketing, customer updates, and nurturing campaigns where compliance and engagement rates are easier to maintain.
The businesses seeing the best results today are those that treat email as one part of a multi-channel system. They use LinkedIn to warm connections, content to build trust, and targeted emails to follow up with prospects who’ve already engaged.
Cold email works best not as a standalone weapon, but as a piece of a broader prospecting strategy.
