125: 3 Prompts to Write Personalized Emails

Welcome back to The Practical Prospecting Newsletter!

Today, I’m sharing 3 subtle ways you can make your emails feel more one-to-one (and not just another automated spam email).

Agenda

• The 3 Rules of Cold Email Messaging

• Method #1: Colleague Name

• Method #2: Customer Name

• Method #3: Competitor Name

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The 3 Rules of Cold Email Messaging

There are questions I ask myself before sending a cold email:

1. Is this a relevant problem?

2. Is the offer compelling and believable?

3. Does it feel like it could only be written for one person?

#3 is more important now than ever.

It’s no secret that email volume is increasing, and our buyers’ inboxes are more flooded than ever.

On top of that, AI has made it so easy for anyone to send thousands of “personalized” emails.

In reality, the bar is still super low.

One of the easiest ways to stand out from the 99% of emails, is by including subtle snippets of personalization.

This is now ridiculously easy (and cheap) to automate with AI.

Below are 3 different personalization snippets you can use in just about any email. Plus, you’ll get the prompt to do it.

Method #1: Colleague Name

A surefire way to make your email feel 1 to 1 is by mentioning that person’s colleague.

We do this in a natural way with this CTA:

“Would you be open to learning more? Or would this make more sense for [their colleague’s name]?

We’ve seen reply rates literally double just from this one change.

It’s as simple as finding the next best person at the company (usually another senior leader in their department).

You can do this manually, of course, by looking on LinkedIn. Or you can automate this using AI prompts in Clay.

Click Here for the Prompt

Method #2: Customer Name

The best cold emails use pattern interrupts.

When decision makers skim their inbox, they see the same tired intros over and over.... their instinct is to delete.

That’s why personalizing the preview line makes such a big difference. It breaks the pattern and earns you a second of attention.

Remember: the goal of an email is to get them to read the subject → opening line → next line → CTA… and then reply.

Here’s an opener we use for this:

“I read the work you did with [Case Study Customer] and wanted to connect…”

It’s simple, specific, and shows you actually did your homework.

From there, you can naturally tie your solution to how they serve customers like that: showing how you help them do it faster, cheaper, or better.

That way, the personalization flows into the pitch.

Click Here for the Prompt

Method #3: Competitor Name

Every decision maker has one thing in common:

They’re constantly thinking about their competitors.

Which is why referencing a competitor is one of the fastest ways to grab their attention in cold outreach.

There are lots of ways to do this, but the simplest is to frame your email around how you can help them get ahead of (or keep up with) a competitor they already know.

Here’s an example of one of the best cold emails I received that uses this strategy.

I received it when I was working for Mailshake (and it came from my now friend, Kyle Rasmussen)

Subject: ​​Mailshake or Outreach??

Hi Jed,

Out of curiosity, how often are you in competitive deals against Outreach?

Tried booking a demo and found I can't live-chat w/ sales or schedule demos outside business hours with them.

With 35-50% of deals in the sales engagement space going to the first responder, not having this capability results in losing 50%+ of interested prospects to competitors. Opportunity cost = 2x increase in booked demos every month.

I realize this probably isn't on your radar, but are you open to seeing if there's a fit?

Talk soon,

Click here for the prompt we use to quickly find a company’s most prominent competitor.

Thanks for reading,

Jed