PeRSoNAlizE YouR MeSsAGing

Copywriting cold outbound emails is an art.

Unfortunately, salespeople get lost in the sauce:

• How long should my email be?
• What if their LinkedIn profile is empty?
• Is it creepy if I reference something I saw on their IG or Twitter (f*off Elon with your X ????)?

Call me a fanboy, or a lemming, but I think the biggest Sales & Marketing influencers are on to something when they publish their "work-hacks".

I'm using this article to consolidate my favorite LinkedIn content on "Personalization". Seriously, I keep a Notion site of all my favorite LinkedIn content, but I'm tired of clicking around looking for stuff and thought this would be a fun way to share useful things I actually reference all the time.

Kyle Coleman , bein the grandpappy of modern SDRs, already wrote the book on cold email copywriting - so you can read it here.

For this article, I'm focusing on the part that answers the questions...

1. How should I open my cold email?
2. How do I say why I'm reaching out in my cold-call opener?
3. How can I sound interesting enough for this person to reply, or let me drop my elevator pitch?

What is "Personalization"?

Let's debunk the obvious first - it isn't ONLY when you try to write something that feels "personal". You have to think of personalization as something you could only come up with by using that noodle floating in your cranium.

Please, throw your brain a paddle.

It's not impressive when you say...

"saw that you have [title], so [inserts unsolicited pitch about your product]"

or

"Saw your interview about liking turtles. I like zombie face paint! You should let me pitch you lol...

I like the recent trend about "having a Point of View (PoV)" as an alternative to saying "personalize your messaging".

How should I personalize stuff?

Some OGs in the game, like Julia Carter , kill it by just dumping a screenshot in the body of her emails ??.

So when you want to create a "line of personalization" (or relevance or customization or whatever), then use this list for inspiration about what to say to people in your Lead List.

I promise you'll sound smarter, and your Prospects will have less of a reason to leave you on "read".

1. Address persona-based problems (or best practices)
2. Highlight things competitors are doing
3. Point to trends in the industry
4. Incorporate snippets from press releases, 10-Ks, etc.
5. Quote them from LinkedIn, published works, interviews, etc (or that of their Executives, teammates, etc)
6. Point to posted job requirements
7. Make an observation about their career arc
8. Mention trends or stats about their hiring or department headcount growth (easy stat to find in SalesNav)
9. Have a genuine personal response to things they've written / posted
10. Use words or themes from company mission statements
11. Use their sportsball interests to inspire something (could be a tie-in to your value, or just mentioning a personal connection). I like to add #BeatLA in emails I send to Southern California sports fans.
12. Their hometown
13. Previous customers who moved to another company
14. Newly hired or promoted execs
15. Following your company on LinkedIn
16. Something about their current tech stack
17. Mutual connections with board, c-suite, etc.
18. Previous champions in deals
19. Drop a screenshot (or meme, or gif) showing before/after states or to make a point

And for the nerds in the room...

Yes.

Some people say, "if you can copy-and-paste a message, then it isn't personalized". They're liars. Kind of.

Or you misunderstood them.

If you chase a "hook" for every email like a vampire hunter looking for silver bullets, then you'll never get any emails or calls out! Like Van Helsing, you're going to spend an entire moving missing every shot anyway, so why waste time looking for a perfect message?

Your business solves a problem that many people have. By definition, you just need little tweaks (or "customization" if yer sippin Julia Carter's kool-aid), to get their attention. At its core, your message will sound a little recycled over time.

Welcome to the sales world - where you have to be comfortable with feeling uncomfortable.

Clear as mud?

Sources:

Kyle Coleman wrote the original list shown above, here

Kyle Coleman on what Personalization DOESN'T sound like

Julia Carter hopped off the Personalization train

Charlotte Johnson uses "triggers" to lead into a value prop

?? Will GPT made 75 slides, but I just needed like 3 of them (sorry bro, they're all so good, but I just needed a few for this article ;)