Cold emails, or prospecting emails, sent to scientists had on average a 10.7% open rate and a 4.2% reply rate according to The Science Sales & Marketing Survey 2026 run by SciLeads. People with the highest reply rates used more channels in their outreach (email, LinkedIn, phone, and video messages most commonly cited) and referenced the individual’s publications or presentations in their message.
Note these figures are specifically for cold emails, going to prospects who are not necessarily subscribers. This is completely different to marketing emails e.g. newsletters, promotional emails, or mass emails to promote specific content like a webinar or white paper.
There was little variation between types of scientific suppliers, with scientific software/data products and emails to non-bio scientists (e.g. in semiconductors, cosmetics, food, batteries) getting slightly better reply rates than average.
What are the best channels for cold outreach to scientists?
Sales teams targeting scientific buyers revealed they use email (93% of respondents), LinkedIn (59%), Social Media Posts (35%), Phone (29%), and Video (2%) in their cold outreach or prospecting – figures from The Science Sales & Marketing Survey 2026 run by SciLeads.
Top performers, with the best reply rates, were more likely than average to report using phone calls and social media posts in their mix, alongside email and LinkedIn. The top performers are also using more channels overall – showing that a multi-touch approach to prospecting drives results. Those with a 20%+ reply rate used on average 4 channels, while those getting 0-5% reply rates used on average 2 channels.
Those getting higher reply rates from cold outreach to scientists are using more channels – notably they are more likely to be using phone calls and social media posts alongside email and LinkedIn messages.
How to personalize cold emails to a scientists
The best way to personalize a prospecting or cold email to a scientist is to reference their papers (publications) or presentations they have delivered at conferences. People with the highest reply rates from cold outreach to scientists were 1.6x more likely than average to reference the scientist’s presentations, and 2.2x more likely than average to reference their presentations.
Respondents reported that they personalize their cold emails to scientists by;
- Referencing the company’s website (18% of respondents)
- Referencing the company’s news (36%)
- Referencing the individual’s publications (61%)
- Referencing the individual’s presentations (44%)
See all the tactics science sales and marketing teams are using in 2026 – read the full report here.