Personalization is the most misunderstood part of cold email

"You have to personalize/add relevance to cold emails to get responses." 🙄

‍

You're officially behind the times if you're giving this advice.

‍

Personalization is the most misunderstood part of cold email.

‍

It's HIGHLY nuanced, and not all types of personalization are created equal.

‍

Buyers will respond more/less to different types of personalization based on their level of seniority.

‍

Here's what our study of 85M+ cold emails with Gong and 30 Minutes to President's Club found:

‍

✅ 5 types of personalization

‍

- Activity: Buying behavior or past interactions (closed/lost, etc)

- Company: Signals at the company level (hiring, M&A, etc.)

- Individual: Signals at the contact level (new job, school, etc.)

- Industry: Signals at the industry level (macro trends, etc.)

- None (baseline)

‍

✅ Director+ responds best to company-level personalization

‍

In fact, the reply rate is 50% higher when you connect your outreach to a business outcome or problem director+ is likely responsible for.

‍

This doesn't mean that you shouldn't personalize at the individual level. And "stack" personalization.

‍

But don't rely on contact-level personalization, like school or newly hired, as the only way to book a meeting.

‍

Acid test in your cold emails: Don't hit send if you don't explicitly point out something happening at the company-level.

‍

✅ Managers & ICs respond best to individual-level personalization

‍

This isn't shown in the graph. You may sell a solution that makes sense to start at the IC/Manager level.

‍

Here's the reply rate breakdown by personalization type:

‍

- 24% activity-based

- 23% Individual

- 18% industry

- 5% company

‍

Use individual and persona-level personalization to grab this persona's attention.

‍

‍

‍

‍

~~~

‍

Want to see what this looks like in action?

‍

Join me and 30 Minutes to President's Club tomorrow at 12pm PT for a free cold email clinic.

‍

Register here: https://hubs.li/Q03ssTfY0

‍

‍