B2B Email Marketing Tips: Should You Ditch Links in Your First Outreach?

The average B2B cold email templates guide reply rate has dropped to roughly 4-5% in 2025, down from nearly 7% just two years earlier. Meanwhile, only about 83% of legitimate marketing emails actually reach the inbox. Every element of your message -- subject line, body copy, send time, authentication -- matters. But one factor consistently generates more debate than any other: should you include links in your first cold email?

The short answer: probably not, at least not in email one. The longer answer involves understanding why email providers penalize links, what the deliverability data actually shows, and how to structure a multi-touch sequence where links add value instead of risk.

Why Links Trigger Spam Filters (The Technical Reality)

Email service providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo use hundreds of signals to decide whether your message lands in the inbox or the spam folder. Links are among the highest-weighted negative signals for cold outreach, and the reasons are both technical and behavioral.

Phishing and Security Screening

Every hyperlink in your email gets scanned against known phishing databases and reputation indexes. ESPs check the domain behind the link, the redirect chain (if any), and whether the URL matches common patterns used by malicious actors. When you send a cold email to someone who has never corresponded with you, ESPs treat it with extra suspicion -- and links amplify that suspicion significantly. As EmailChaser's deliverability research notes, links can be used in phishing scams, and ESPs make it a priority to filter emails containing suspicious or unfamiliar links.

Tracking Link Red Flags

Most sales engagement platforms (Outreach, Salesloft, Apollo, CRM and sales tool integrations Sequences) automatically wrap your links in tracking redirects so they can report click data. The problem: these tracking links typically route through shared domains. If other users on that shared domain have poor sending behavior, the domain's reputation drops -- and your emails get filtered along with theirs. Clay's deliverability guide recommends setting up a custom tracking domain (a CNAME on your own subdomain) to mitigate this, but most teams skip this step entirely.

Even with custom tracking domains, Gmail has updated its policies to flag tracking pixels more aggressively. Open-tracking pixels -- invisible 1x1 images embedded in HTML emails -- are now increasingly treated as a spam buyer signal data.

Link-to-Text Ratio

Spam filters evaluate the ratio of linked content to plain text. An email with 50 words and 3 links looks fundamentally different to an algorithm than a 150-word email with zero links. The more links relative to your text, the more your message resembles promotional spam rather than a genuine one-to-one conversation. MailGenius's analysis confirms that the number of links directly correlates with spam filter scrutiny: more links equals more scrutiny.

What the Deliverability Data Actually Shows

Let's move beyond theory and look at what the data tells us about links and inbox placement.

Global Inbox Rates Are Declining

According to Validity's 2025 Email Deliverability Benchmark Report, approximately one in six emails never reaches the inbox, putting the global inbox placement average at around 84%. North America leads at 87.9%, while Europe sits at roughly 80.2% due to stricter privacy enforcement. These numbers have been trending downward, particularly after Gmail's February 2024 bulk sender requirements took effect.

Gmail and Microsoft Are Getting Stricter

In November 2025, Google ramped up enforcement on non-compliant senders. Messages failing authentication requirements now face temporary and permanent rejections -- not just spam folder placement, but outright bounces. GlockApps reports that Outlook inbox delivery dropped 22.56% and Google Workspace dropped 10.49% year-over-year in early 2025.

What does this mean for links? In an environment where ESPs are already filtering more aggressively, adding unnecessary signals like links and tracking pixels only compounds the problem. A link-free, plain-text email gives the algorithm fewer reasons to penalize you.

Plain Text Outperforms HTML in Cold Outreach

Multiple studies confirm that plain text emails -- which naturally contain fewer links and no tracking pixels -- dramatically outperform HTML emails in cold campaigns. HubSpot's research found that HTML emails with images had a 21% lower clickthrough rate compared to simple text-based messages. In B2B cold outreach specifically, WarmForge reports that plain text can deliver 4-9x better engagement rates compared to HTML templates.

Why? Because plain text looks like a real email from a real person. HTML templates with formatted links, buttons, and images signal "marketing blast" to both the spam filter and the human recipient.

The 2024-2025 Gmail Sender Requirements (And Why They Matter)

Google's updated email sender guidelines created a new baseline for anyone doing cold outreach. Here are the key requirements that interact with your link strategy:

• SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication: All three are now mandatory for bulk senders (5,000+ messages/day to Gmail accounts). Fully authenticated senders are 2.7x more likely to reach the inbox.
• Spam complaint rate below 0.3%: Google recommends staying under 0.1%. Every email that gets marked as spam hurts your domain reputation. Links to unfamiliar or untrustworthy domains increase the likelihood a recipient flags your message.
• One-click unsubscribe: Required for marketing messages. For cold sales outreach (which is technically transactional/relational, not marketing), this is a gray area -- but adding an unsubscribe mechanism is increasingly considered best practice.
• Domain alignment: The From: header domain must align with either the SPF or DKIM organizational domain. This makes it harder to mask your sending identity, which means your reputation follows you.

The implication: your sending infrastructure and domain reputation now matter more than the content of any individual email. A link-heavy first email from a domain with moderate reputation could push you over the spam threshold, even if the same email would have landed fine from a high-reputation domain.

When to Skip Links Entirely (Email 1)

Based on the deliverability data and current ESP behavior, here is the case for going linkless on your first touch:

• You have a new or warming domain: If your outreach domain is less than 90 days old or you are still in the warm-up phase, links add unnecessary risk. Focus on building reputation with clean, text-only messages first.
• You are using a shared tracking domain: If you have not set up a custom tracking domain (CNAME) on your sales engagement platform, every link you include routes through a shared domain whose reputation you do not control.
• You are emailing enterprise prospects at large organizations: Companies like Fortune 500s often run aggressive email security (Proofpoint, Mimecast, Barracuda) that flag cold emails with links even more aggressively than consumer ESPs.
• Your reply rate goal is primary: If the goal of email one is to start a conversation (not drive a click), there is no functional reason to include a link. Ask a question. Reference something specific about their company. The link can come in email two or three.

A practical framework: treat your first cold email like a warm introduction at a conference. You would not hand someone a brochure before you have even finished saying hello. You would introduce yourself, reference something relevant, and suggest continuing the conversation.

When Links Actually Help (Emails 2-4)

Links are not inherently bad -- they just need to earn their place in the sequence. After you have established some recognition (even if the prospect has not replied), a strategically placed link can add genuine value.

High-Value Content Links

A link to a genuinely relevant resource -- a case study about a company in their industry, a third-party report addressing a challenge they face, or a short video walkthrough -- can shift the dynamic from "salesperson pitching" to "advisor sharing insight." The key is relevance. Generic links to your homepage or a blog post titled "10 Reasons Our Product Is Great" do not qualify.

Social Proof Links

If you are referencing a specific G2 review, a customer story, or a third-party validation point, linking to it adds credibility. One study from Corporate Visions found that 90%+ of B2B buyers trust peer recommendations and social proof over vendor claims. A link to an objective third-party source is more persuasive than any pitch you can write.

Calendar Links (Use Sparingly)

A Calendly or HubSpot meetings link in email three or four -- after you have provided value and context -- is a low-friction way to convert interest into a meeting. But in email one, a calendar link feels presumptuous. Gartner research shows 61% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience. A calendar link before any relationship exists reinforces the perception that you are another vendor trying to book time, not someone offering something useful.

The Link Decision Framework: A Step-by-Step Approach

Use this framework to decide whether a link belongs in any given email in your outreach sequence.

Step 1: Define the Email's Job

Every email in a sequence should have one clear objective. Typical jobs by position:

1. Email 1: Spark curiosity, establish relevance, earn a reply. (No link needed.)
2. Email 2: Provide value, demonstrate understanding of their world. (Link optional -- only if highly relevant.)
3. Email 3: Share proof or a specific resource. (One link appropriate.)
4. Email 4+: Direct ask or breakup email. (Calendar link or one CTA link.)

Step 2: Apply the Relevance Test

Before including any link, ask: "Would I send this link to a friend who works in this industry?" If the answer is no, the link is serving you (tracking, traffic, vanity metrics) rather than the prospect. Cut it.

Step 3: Check Your Technical Setup

Before you include links in any cold email, verify:

• SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are properly configured (Google's sender guidelines FAQ walks through verification).
• You are using a custom tracking domain, not your SEP's shared default.
• Your domain has been warmed for at least 3-5 weeks with gradually increasing volume (Skylead's warm-up guide covers the process).
• Your spam complaint rate is below 0.1% (check in Google Postmaster Tools).

Step 4: Limit to One Link Maximum

If the link passes the relevance test and your technical setup is solid, include a maximum of one link per email. This is the consistent recommendation across deliverability experts at Apollo, Woodpecker, and Lemlist. One well-chosen link is enough to provide value; two or more starts to resemble a marketing newsletter.

Related: AI-powered sales platform.

What Matters More Than Links: The Personalization Gap

Here is the uncomfortable truth about the links debate: it is a distraction from the factor that actually moves the needle. Martal Group's 2025 cold email statistics show that highly personalized campaigns boost reply rates by up to 142% compared to generic blasts. Emails with advanced personalization (beyond first-name tokens) achieve roughly 17-18% response rates, compared to 7-9% for generic messages.

Yet Mailshake's data shows only about 5% of senders personalize every email. That is a massive gap. If you are spending time debating whether to include a link in email one but sending the same template to 500 people, you are optimizing the wrong variable.

Real personalization means referencing something specific about the prospect's company -- a recent product launch, a hiring trend, a competitive move, an earnings call quote. This is where tools like Autobound add genuine value: they surface real-time signals (news events, job changes, SEC filings, social activity) that give you something meaningful to say, without needing a link to prove it. The personalization itself is the hook.

How to A/B Test Links in Your Own Sequences

Every audience is different. What works for mid-market SaaS prospects may not work for healthcare executives or financial services compliance officers. Here is how to run a clean test:

1. Isolate the variable: Create two versions of the same email, identical in every way except one has a link and one does not. Do not change the subject line, opening line, or CTA wording.
2. Split evenly: Send version A (no link) and version B (one link) to equal-sized segments from the same domain, at the same time.
3. Measure the right metrics: Track reply rate (not just open rate, which is increasingly unreliable due to Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflating opens). Also monitor your spam complaint rate and bounce rate during the test.
4. Run for statistical significance: You need at least 200-300 sends per variant to draw meaningful conclusions. A 10-person test tells you nothing.
5. Check deliverability separately: Use a tool like GlockApps or MailReach to test inbox placement for both variants, since the link version may have a lower placement rate that does not show up in your SEP's reporting.

Compliance Considerations: CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and Unsubscribe Links

A related question many teams ask: "Do I need an unsubscribe link in cold emails?" The answer depends on jurisdiction and how your email is classified.

• CAN-SPAM (US): Requires a clear opt-out mechanism in commercial emails, with requests honored within 10 business days. Penalties reach up to $53,088 per email for violations.
• GDPR (EU): Requires clear, easily accessible unsubscribe mechanisms with prompt processing. Penalties can reach 4% of annual global revenue or 20 million euros.
• CASL (Canada): Similar requirements with fines up to $10 million CAD per violation.

If your cold email could be classified as commercial (and most sales outreach can), including an unsubscribe link is the safest approach. The irony: this means even "no-link" emails may need at least one link -- the unsubscribe link. The difference is that an unsubscribe link is expected and trusted by spam filters. It actually helps deliverability rather than hurting it, because ESPs interpret its presence as a signal of legitimate sending behavior.

A Practical Sequence Template

Here is how this all comes together in a four-email sequence:

Email 1 (Day 1): No Links

Plain text. Reference a specific, recent signal about their company. Ask a question. Keep it under 100 words. No signature links, no tracking pixels, no images.

Example opener: "Saw [Company] just opened a new office in Austin -- congrats. Curious whether scaling the sales team there is creating any challenges around consistent messaging across reps?"

Email 2 (Day 3): No Links or One Optional Link

Follow up with a specific insight or observation. If you have a truly relevant resource (not your product page), this is where one link can work.

Email 3 (Day 7): One Link

Share a case study, a relevant data point, or a third-party article. This is where social proof links earn their place. Frame it as "thought you might find this useful" rather than "check out our product."

Email 4 (Day 14): One Link (Calendar or CTA)

Direct ask. If you are going to include a calendar link, this is the place. Keep the email short and direct.

Key Takeaways

• Skip links in email one. The deliverability risk outweighs any potential benefit when the prospect does not know you yet.
• Fix your infrastructure first. SPF, DKIM, DMARC, custom tracking domain, and proper warm-up matter far more than any individual email element.
• When you do include links, limit to one per email and make sure it passes the relevance test.
• Plain text outperforms HTML in cold outreach by a wide margin. Stop using formatted templates for first-touch emails.
• Personalization is the real lever. A personalized, link-free email will outperform a generic email with a perfectly placed link every time.
• Test with your audience. Run proper A/B tests with sufficient volume to validate what works for your specific ICP.