Learn how to personalize cold emails to boost engagement and response rates with tailored strategies and tipsCopy-paste done. 

Added to Hubspot for your entire prospect list. 

And hit Send. 

Congrats, you've executed your first cold email campaign. Excited to hear the buzz of replies from prospects?

Crickets..

Welcome to the world of cold emailing. 

Do you think cold emailing is as simple as that?

Dear reps, in the world of cold emailing, you need to go beyond cliched templates and step into the world of personalization. 

Let’s look at how you can incorporate personalization better in your daily cold emailing routine.

What is cold email personalization?

Cold email personalization means crafting cold emails relevant to each recipient based on different characteristics. 

Most people think personalization boils down to including the prospect's first name, company, team size and geographical location. 

However, a good and relevant personalization includes the following elements such as website updates, rebranding, geographical expansion, event attendance, company performance, acquisitions, tech stack, leadership changes, and product updates.

Why is personalization important in cold emails?

The success of your cold email campaigns is dependent on two factors:

1. The emails are not landing into spam
2. The emails are getting a good response rate

Let's understand in detail why these two factors get you the best out of personalization. 

Improves email response rate

When you send the same copy-pasted email to multiple prospects, they can easily know it's the same generic template your company has been sending everyone. Result? They either move the email to trash or it keeps sitting in their inbox for days. 

But when you personalize your email for each prospect, they know you've done your research. This gets you replies faster. 

Increases email deliverability

When you send emails in higher volumes all at once—emails that are just copy-pasted and look similar to other emails—ESPs think you're spamming the inbox. So, they block you from landing in the prospect's inbox. 

When you personalize the email, all the emails you send are unique. This results in the emails landing to the primary folder—resulting in increased email deliverability. 

How to personalize your cold emails

There are a ton of ways to personalize cold emails. But most of them are generic and not personalized enough. 

Here are 5 ways you can personalize your cold emails and give them a complete makeover: 

Highlight the technologies they use

Find out about the prospect’s technographic information—their current tech stack and the products they’re using.

Doing so, you can get a good idea of all the tools they're using in their organization. Chances are they might be using a competitor tool or no tool at all.

• When the prospect is using a competitor tool. You can highlight the competitor tool and mention what the competitor is missing out on which your product offers.
• When the prospect is not using any tool. You can emphasize on how your product can solve their problem and bring in visible improvements. 

For example:

• Since you’ve been using Hypefury for a while to schedule content, we think you’ll love TweetHunter. Do check us out!”
• Saw that you've been using Highperformr for a while. How has your experience been using the tool?”

Note: When the prospect is not using any tool relevant to your offering, make sure to do additional research and find out their pain points. If the pain points align with your product offering, only then pitch the product to the prospect. 

Mention what you like about the prospect

Do you like their product? Or do you like the way they’re positioning themselves on social media? Or the kind of content they’re publishing on their blog? What is it that you like the most?

Here’s an example:

“I really like the ad campaigns you've been running on LinkedIn lately. Great work!”

Mention how you found the prospect

Did you find the prospect through mutual LinkedIn connections? Or did you attend any event they conducted or participated in? Tell them exactly how you found them and build up on the conversation.

For example:

“I read the case study you shared on your blog”.

“I attended the webinar you did with [X]”

Show them that you’ve done your research about the company

Maybe the prospect recently partnered with a leading brand, received funding, or made improvements in their product. Mention it in your email. 

For example:

• “Awesome to see the new features you’ve been rolling out for [product name] lately.”
• “Have been reading about the awesome work you've been doing for your clients on LinkedIn, especially the one you did for [client name]. Absolutely loved it.”

Include relevant case studies

If you’re following up with the prospect, send them case studies. Make sure to send case studies relevant to the prospect’s industry and goals. This helps you showcase your credibility to the prospect. 

For example, Toplyne’s BDR sent a drip email campaign to a prospect. When the prospect didn’t respond to the first email, he sent a follow-up email with a case study to showcase their credibility. 

How can AI help create personalized cold emails?

9 in 10 companies are using AI-driven personalization to drive growth in their business. And so should you. Here are different ways you can personalize your cold emails using AI. 

Create DISC profiles

Happysales uses AI to analyze the prospect's communication styles and personality traits to create a detailed DISC prospect personality assessment profile for each prospect. This allows sales reps to adjust their approach, messaging, and overall style so that the email resonates with the prospect’s unique personality and preferences. 

Develop conversation starters and role-specific messaging

Happysales AI analyzes the prospect’s personality and pain points to generate conversation starters to use in cold emails. It also creates multiple versions of value propositions for each prospect based on their roles in the company. 

Generate real-time summaries from LinkedIn

You can extract AI-generated summaries for each prospect based on their personality type, work experience, pain points, etc.—from the prospect’s LinkedIn profile.

Craft hyper-personalized emails

With Gen AI in sales, reps can generate hyper-personalized cold emails relevant to each prospect and fine-tune them to suit their tonality. 

3 cold email personalization best practices to follow

Want to get the most out of your research? Use these best practices for researching and personalizing your emails.

Check their LinkedIn profile

There are two aspects to researching on LinkedIn. One is the prospect’s LinkedIn company page. Two, the prospect’s LinkedIn personal profile.

LinkedIn Company page

Let’s say, you’re sending a cold email to ButterDocs. 

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Image Source

So, you’ll look for three things on ButterDocs’s LinkedIn company page: About section, Posts, and People. 

• About section. Check the description—website and the team size.
• Posts. Check the company’s recent posts. 
• People. Look through the list of employees and connect with them on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn personal profile

Once you’re done with research on the prospect’s LinkedIn company page, move to their profile. 

Here, you’ll focus on elements like their About section, featured section, work experience, recent updates they've shared, past companies they've worked with, and mutual connections.

You can use these elements as your icebreakers when sending the cold email. 

💡Pro tip: Don't want to spend extra time digging through the prospect’s LinkedIn profile? Happysales AI will provide you with real-time summaries based on the prospect’s personality, challenges, and work experience. 

Check out their Twitter feed

This works similarly to LinkedIn. Go to the company’s Twitter page and scan for important product updates and news. Next, go to the prospect’s Twitter profile and look for the information they share. 

Are they sharing Build in Public (showcasing behind the scenes of their product and business)  tweets and threads? If so, read them and jot down important points that you think can be useful in your communication with the prospect. If not, see what else they are sharing. Are they sharing informational, industry-led content? Are they sharing behind the scenes stories about their product? Gather all the information you can. 

Find company updates on their website

Check the product updates section on the company’s blog. Have they made any changes to their product? Have they recently acquired funding?

Usually, companies have a section on company and product updates in their blog. So, read it to extract some useful additional information. 

Examples of personalized cold emails

Now that you know everything about cold emailing, let's understand the different levels of AI-powered personalization with examples. 

Using the prospect’s name 

This is the most common personalization. All you have to do is include the prospect’s first name—either in the subject line or email body. 

For example, GiftedSEO, a marketplace for backlinks, sent an email to a potential customer. And personalized the subject line with the prospect’s name. 

Based on the buyer's persona

Imagine your team members receive the same email, word by word that you received, but without any personalization or differentiation elements. It’s likely to go into the trash. That’s why you must personalize the emails based on each prospect’s persona. 

For instance, this cold email by SocialSense is sent to one of their buyer persona, a LinkedIn creator. They emphasized on the creator’s goals and showed them how they could achieve them using SocialSense. 

Now, if SocialSense’s team was sending this cold email to another buyer persona i.e., agency owners, here’s what the cold email would look like:

Hi {first name},

I see that you’ve been using Taplio to schedule LinkedIn content for your agency clients. How's it working for you?

In case Taplio’s features seem too overwhelming or you find it a bit costly, try SocialSense. Here’s what you can find: 

• Content inspiration dashboard to get unique ideas
• Curated and personalized posts based on your LinkedIn profile and persona
• Unified ecosystem to manage all content types for all clients under a single roof

Want to find out more about SocialSense? Start with a 7-day free trial. 

Cheers,

{Signature}

Using trigger events

Did the prospect receive seed funding? Did they launch a new product feature they had been talking about for months? Are they hiring new employees? These are time-sensitive events and require quick action—creating opportunities for reps to personalize their emails and get quick responses. 

For instance, if your prospects have just launched a new product on Product Hunt, you could send them a cold email like this:

“Hi {first name},

Congrats on the launch of {product name}. I have been following all the behind-the-scenes and snippets you have been sharing about the launch and I must say, it's looking awesome! 

As I was watching your launch unfold, I had an idea I wanted to share with you. What if we can join you as your first integration partner to streamline the workflow for your users? 

I feel this fits in well with your product since our ICPs complement each other. What are your thoughts on this, {prospect's first name}?

Cheers,

{Signature}”

Using compliments

Maybe you found the prospect’s product commendable or noticed a personality trait that makes them stand out. Ensure you compliment them on it. 

For example, a company reached out to a freelance writer to work with them. They started off the cold email by complimenting the work the writer has done for another organization.

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Using image personalization

Want to add interactive elements to your cold emails? Use image personalization. When you personalize your email using images, it breaks the monotony of texts and increases conversion rates. 

Here's an example of the image personalization by Lemlist:

“Bonjour {{firstName}},

I reached out to you a few days ago but haven't heard from you since then... I know that your time is valuable, so what do you think about the following:

You, me... a 10-minute call on Thursday at 5 pm ET?

For you, a tall, non-fat latte with caramel drizzle 😇

Me, well…

Image Source

Let me know which day suits you best so I can pass by... 😊

Best,

{{signature}}”

Using pain points

What are the pain points in the prospect’s workflow they're seeking a solution for? Pinpoint on their challenges in your cold email. 

Let’s say you’re selling an interactive demo automation tool that lets users create product tours and guides within a few minutes. 

Here’s the cold email that you’ll send to your prospect, a B2B SaaS company looking to automate demo creation:

“Hi {first name},

I saw your LinkedIn post about the struggle you go through to create product demos manually. I know, it’s super hard. 

What if I could help you with a solution you would love? Something that can turn this manual labor of hours and days into a matter of a few minutes. This will not only save you time but skyrocket your engagement rates.

If you’re curious about it, let's get on a call and chat?”

FAQs

What level of personalization should you use in your cold email?

You should use relevant personalization in your cold emails. This includes using elements like the prospect’s pain points, good and bad company reviews, job openings, product updates, funding, and so on. 

How to personalize the subject line in cold emails?

To personalize the subject line in cold emails, use the recipient’s name, and highlight a mutual connection, pain point, solution, or statistic. 

How to choose the best time to send emails?

To choose the best time to send emails, look at factors such as your industry, the recipient’s location, and the success of your past campaigns. 

How do you personalize cold emails using Happysales?

To personalize your cold emails using Happysales, identify the prospect's DISC profile, uncover their pain points and value propositions 

How can I personalize cold emails at scale? 

To personalize your cold emails at scale, use the mail merge method to add personalization variables. 

Don't *just* personalize

Yes. Don't. Just like generic emails, gone are the days of basic personalization. You need to level up. Dig into the rabbit hole of research. Find everything about the prospect's company, their products, and about them. That’s called relevance. And that's the level of personalization prospects respond to. 

Wondering how to do this high-level research? Use Happysales AI. It will help you do everything—from analyzing the prospect’s behavior to identifying their pain points and generating summaries through their LinkedIn profiles. Get started here.