ListKit's co-founder recorded a walkthrough of this topic: https://listkit.wistia.com/medias/p3wppwls5z

Read this in your first weeks, especially if you've been sending for two weeks and seen little. That's normal. This article shows the real timeline, the one metric to watch and what successful customers do.

Write down what a client is worth to you over their whole lifetime, not just their first month. If you charge a $1,000 monthly retainer and keep clients for 10 months on average, a client is worth $10,000. Keep that number in mind when you look at the math below.

Branded inboxes take up to 72 hours to set up, then warm up for 14 days (about 2 to 3 weeks from signup). Pre-warmed inboxes skip warmup. After that, every inbox ramps up: it starts at 1 email a day and adds 4 on each weekday it sends in a live campaign (1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25), so it reaches 25 a day on its 7th sending day, about 9 calendar days.

Pre-warmed inboxes: you can launch as soon as setup is done. Sending then ramps up.

New branded domains: nothing sends for about 2 to 3 weeks after signup. Then the same ramp-up starts.

Either way, around day 46 to 60 you're through a full cycle of your list: new leads, follow-ups and late replies all land at the same time. That's when results start to compound.

Full speed isn't the same as enough volume. Reaching 25 emails a day per inbox is only the start. It still takes weeks to work through your whole list and follow-up sequence.

Weeks 1 to 2: little happens, and that's normal. Branded domains are still warming up. Pre-warmed inboxes are sending at low volume. A positive reply now is a bonus.

Weeks 3 to 4: replies start coming in. Out of office, not interested, and the occasional positive reply. This shows things are moving. It's not a verdict yet.

Weeks 5 to 8 (up to about day 60): positive replies become steady. You've worked through your list once, follow-ups are going out and new campaigns add to the activity.

Month 3: scale. You should have a working angle, consistent replies and booked calls, and be ready to add another Bundle to increase volume.

1 positive reply per 1,000 people contacted.

That's per person, not per email. With a 3-step sequence, your sent count is roughly 3 times the number of people contacted.

If this number is healthy, your deliverability and reply rate are working well enough. If it's low, test something new: new copy, new targeting, a new angle.

ListKit doesn't show an inbox health score. To check your inboxes, use this metric. See Is my inbox burned? How do I check inbox health?

For 10,000 people contacted (about 6 weeks on one Bundle sending 1,000 emails a day, with about 3 emails per person), that typically means:

If a client is worth a few thousand dollars or more, that's a strong return on a $597 monthly Bundle. This pipeline builds over the first 46 to 60 days, not in month one.

Bounce rate on its own. A high bounce rate doesn't automatically mean something is wrong. Some recipients' mail servers report bounces in ways outside ListKit's control. If positive replies are healthy, ignore it. If positive replies drop, then look at bounces and list quality. See Why is my bounce rate high and how do I fix it?

One campaign's results. Roughly 1 in 4 campaigns hits. Expect to test 3 to 4 campaigns before you find a winner worth scaling.

Your gut feeling in week two. The ramp-up period always looks worse than what follows.

Launch at least 4 campaigns in your first 30 days. Customers who launched 4 or more campaigns early were the ones booking calls and closing deals.

Judge each angle after about 1,000 people contacted. If a campaign reaches 1,000 people with no positive replies, change the copy, the list or the angle. Give cold email as a whole 46 to 60 days and several angles before you decide it doesn't work.

Keep launching new campaigns. Aim for at least one new campaign a week: a new list, a new angle or new copy. One customer selling coaching to realtors launches a new campaign every day for a different area and has generated 200+ interested replies.

Use the training included with your subscription. Take the course in Education (the last icon in the sidebar) and read the Cold email playbook articles in this help center, starting with Why aren't my cold email campaigns performing, and how do I fix them?

These counts are emails sent, which is roughly 3 times the number of people contacted:

Every one of them went through the same quiet first 1 to 2 weeks. The ones who kept going saw results.

If you launch at least 4 campaigns in your first 30 days and keep adding new ones weekly, expect your first replies in weeks 3 to 4, steady positive replies by about day 46 to 60, and a repeatable system you can scale by month 3.

I've been running my campaign for 2 weeks and have zero replies. Is something wrong?
No. That's the normal ramp-up window. Keep the campaign running and keep launching new ones.

Should I judge results by the month, since that's my billing cycle?
No. Judge each campaign angle after about 1,000 people contacted, and cold email overall after 46 to 60 days.

My bounce rate is high but I'm getting positive replies. Should I worry?
No. Focus on positive replies per 1,000 people contacted. Look at bounces only if positive replies drop.

How many campaigns should I run?
At least 4 in your first 30 days, then at least one new campaign a week.

One of my campaigns flopped. What now?
That's expected. About 1 in 4 campaigns hits. Change the angle, copy or list, launch again, and put more volume behind the winner.

Should I choose pre-warmed or branded domains because of this timeline?
Pre-warmed inboxes are recommended because they skip the 14-day warmup, so your clock starts about 2 weeks sooner. See What are pre-warmed inboxes, how do I set them up, and what if they're out of stock?