Personalizing Your Cold Emails
Have you ever received an email that was written to no one (or looked like it was written to everyone in the world)? Whether it was a personal email or a business email, how did it make you feel? You didn’t feel included or involved, right? Did it make you want to purchase something (or take an action)?
In Marketing, it’s important to make sure that you are writing to a person, not to the world. If it’s a cold email, try making it sound like you know who they are a little bit (by mentioning something about their company or accomplishments). A little personalization can go a long way, but an effective email can look like a true 1-on-1 conversation. In something like this article, I can’t personalize it like I can a cold email, but I can write it in a less formal way to make you more interested and more involved.
So, how can you personalize an email? There are many different ways to do so, but before I get into that, be sure that you have a well-defined niche so that the non-personalized parts of the email can still be similar to the person you’re emailing. In my first article on Medium, I wrote about that: https://medium.com/marketing-for-entrepreneurs/how-to-target-your-right-audience-3a7756dec352. Let’s get on to the different ways to personalize your email. If you’re writing your email from a CRM, you can use templates. This way you can use key things like first name, company name, etc., and be able to use the tips below in an easier way.
First of all, make sure to mention the person’s first name in the beginning (but not first and last, as you wouldn’t refer to a friend as John Smith, you would call him John). Since you’ve never met him, it might be OK to say Mr. Smith, especially if he’s an executive of the company you’re writing, but if he’s not a leader of a company, it’s probably OK to start off with “Hi John,” depending on several factors.
Even if you’re writing to many people at once (such as a mass email), it’s still good to personalize the first paragraph or so. You can comment about their company, their company’s (or personal) accomplishments, or even mention where you came across their name (I was talking to my friend Jane Doe, and she recommended me to talk to you). Just make sure that whatever you put in this paragraph is true, and not just saying it to get them to keep reading.
Keep your first email fairly short, with a brief introduction of your company and how you help others like him. End it with a call-to-action, but not asking him to be a client. Say something like “Do you have time this week for us to talk about (this issue you have) and how it can be solved?” Either provide a link to your calendar scheduler (such as Arrangr) or ask them to give a few times they’re available to meet (online or in-person).
*Please note that you still have to follow CAN-SPAM laws. Check out this article from to learn more about how to make it legal: https://www.propellercrm.com/blog/cold-emailing-legal#:~:text=The%20short%20answer%20is%20yes,stuck%20with%20a%20hefty%20fine. None of this advice is legal advice. You’ll need to do research on legal sites to get legal advice on cold emailing.*
