What Is Spintax? And Should You Use It In Your Cold Emails?

Updated October 2024

Some people say that spintax improves your cold email deliverability.

However, I argue that spintax is an outdated technology.

In this article, I’ll explain why spintax isn’t effective, and I’ll share a superior alternative.

- What is spintax?
- How does spintax work?
- Should you use spintax in your cold emails?
- Introducing a superior alternative

What is spintax?

Spintax is a way of rotating alternative words and phrases into an email.

For example, if you start your email with “Hi”, then you can use spintax to update “Hi” with similar alternatives, such as “Hey” and “Hello”.

When you enter spintax into your email, it looks like the following:

{{RANDOM |Hi | Hey | Hello}} {{first_name}},

The above spintax would rotate “Hi”, “Hey” and “Hello” into your cold emails, meaning that not all of them would be the exact same.

image showing example email with spintax

The reason why people use spintax is because if you send the exact same email too many times, then your emails will go to spam. It doesn’t look natural when an email account sends the exact same email hundreds of times.

You can learn more about this in my article Does Sending The Same Cold Email Multiple Times Affect Deliverability?

How does spintax work?

Spintax works by inserting variables into your cold email template. This allows you to rotate the words and phrases used so that there is variation in your emails.

Spintax only works when used in specialized cold email software, you cannot use it in regular email inboxes like Gmail.

Below is an example of spintax being used in an email:

image showing spintax being used in an email

Should you use spintax in your cold emails?

I recommend that you don’t use spintax in your cold emails.

Spintax is no longer effective.

It isn’t difficult for email service providers to detect that your emails are still fundamentally the same, even with some variation being used via spintax.

Spintax doesn’t change each email in a real way, the changes are superficial and detectable.

Fortunately, there is a better alternative that replaces the need for spintax.

image showing a man deciding whether he should use spintax or not

Introducing a superior alternative

As the founder of Emailchaser, I’m proud to share one of our most popular features.

Emailchaser has integrated OpenAI’s most recent GPT technology to automatically rewrite each email that is sent, so that the original message is still kept, but the wording is slightly different.

image showing how open ai changes text

For example, if you send a cold email to a thousand leads with Emailchaser, then we will automatically rewrite each email that is sent so that they are all different, while still maintaining the same original message and style.

This is fundamentally better than spintax because this isn’t simply adding superficial variation, but instead, makes each email truly different, while still maintaining the original email’s message.

This helps when you are sending a high volume of cold emails.

Imagine sending an email to more than a thousand leads; if you are using spintax, then there are still going to be hundreds of emails that are basically the exact same.

If you use Emailchaser, then each email will be slightly different. No two emails will be identical.

The best part is that this all happens automatically in the background, meaning that you don’t need to do anything. You don’t need to insert complicated spintax variables like in the above examples.

Emailchaser’s solution is both superior from a deliverability perspective, and also easier to use.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between spintax and custom variables?

Spintax rotates certain words and phrases used in your emails, whereas custom variables insert lead data into your emails, such as prospects’ first names.

Why do people still use spintax if a superior alternative exists?

Spintax is an old technology that has been used by people for over a decade. Emailchaser is the first company to introduce this new alternative, which is why most people are still not aware of it.

Final thoughts

I recommend that you don’t use spintax, since it is outdated and ineffective.

Instead, you should use Emailchaser to send your cold emails. Emailchaser uses OpenAI’s GPT technology to automatically rewrite each email so that no two emails are identical. It does this while still maintaining the original email’s message.

If you want to learn more about how to prevent your cold emails from going to spam, then check out my article 13 Ways To Prevent Your Cold Emails From Going To Spam.

You may also enjoy my article What Are Custom Variables? (& How To Use Them In Your Cold Emails).

picture of George Wauchope

Article by

George Wauchope

Founder of Emailchaser.

I have been working in the sales & marketing industry for nearly a decade.

When I’m not working on my business, I enjoy eating sushi & doing jiu-jitsu.

About the author