On Cold-Emailing- Personalization Is Not Relevance

Dear friend,

When it comes to cold emailing, a personalized pitch does not equal a relevant pitch.

Here is what I mean:

Personalization

tr. vb : to make personal or individual

Relevance

noun: (a) In relation to the matter at hand.

As you can see, to personalize is to make something personal, to tailor a solution to a specific person in mind.

Whereas,

Relevance is about timeliness. To provide a solution the person needs at the exact moment.

Look, you can talk about your prospect's Twitter post about their kid's toy all you like- if your offer is irrelevant to their current status, they might not reach out.

In fact, the initial talk might seem like you're trying to pull their leg or being smart. Great cold emails don't feel like you're smart or creative. It should feel genuine, well-researched, and timely.

People talk a lot about warming up your lead.

• Following them on Linkedin

• Writing thoughtful comments on their posts

• Tagging them in your post

• Connecting them to people who share their thoughts

These techniques will only work if you pitch a relevant service. That's why your email must be PERSONALISED and RELEVANT to stand a real chance.

In 2022, when I did content marketing in the Occupational Health and Safety niche, I sent a cold email that got a response in 5 hours from a client that agreed to pay me $1500/ for four blog posts per month.

Zero warming up leads. Zero referrals. Zero initial contact. Just a really cold, personalized, and relevant pitch.

Here is the template:

Sent at 00:26

Got a response at 05:11 (5 hours!)

Here is why I think it worked:

1. Personalization:

From the headline, my email showed that I deeply researched my prospect's business. The first thing Paul said at the meeting was that my email was amazing and that it seems I've been following them for a long time.

The subject line "Great Work on the e-WorkSAFE Version 12.3.2" is super specific. I didn't just say, "Great Work on the new update."

I mentioned the updated version and followed up with more specific details.

"Correcting the display of Arc Flash PPE on mobile screens in the latest version of e-WorkSAFE shows excellent attention to your user's experience."

Do you know what's more amazing? The app was not available on Playstore.

So I searched for its APK and read the developer information about the latest version, where I discovered that they'd corrected the display of Arc Flash PPE on mobile screens.

Little details like that are hard to ignore.

2. Relevance:

My pitch was relevant because I offered a solution that was currently needed. Here is how I knew.

I studied the website and discovered the following pointers:

• The website had a fantastic design–meaning they hired a professional. Therefore, I assumed they cared about their digital image.

• The homepage and landing page were not optimized for keywords. Therefore, I assumed they hadn't worked with any content marketer yet.

• The blog posts are very short and were written, thrice monthly by Alex- the CEO & Co-founder. Therefore, I assumed they tried to keep a continuous publication going but did not have time.

For this type of pitch, given the pointers above, I understood that I did not need to overwhelm them with data and details like- I can increase your website traffic by 102% in December, or I can bring in 20 new customers for you. You know, the usual buff.

I imagined that was not their next line of action at the moment. It won't entice them.

By the way, we will increase site ranking and traffic if we produce more SEO articles. Plus, they might not even understand what those terms mean. Know your prospect and speak their language.

So, I simply asked: Would you like to publish more articles in Q2?

Then I introduced myself- not just as a content writer. But as a niche expert:

"I help software-based EHS/OHS companies like you develop strong topic authority with high-value safety technology articles."

Simple. Relevant. And Genuine.

3. CTA-Don't leave it hanging.

Most people will pitch their service and end with something like

"I hope to hear back from you on this.

Thank you"

What you did is equivalent to talking to a lady you really admire and would like to take out on a date but didn't actually propose a time for a date.

Don't leave it hanging. Don't let the prospect do the hard work for you.

You've personalized your email. You've pitched a super-relevant service. Propose a time to talk.

In my case, I did only half the job by simply asking What time this week can we talk more about this?

I could have taken it further by asking: Does 5 pm Monday (PST) work for you?

That's much better.

Nonetheless, as you can see from the example, Paul reached out to me with a specific time for a call.

Bonus: Send a personalized and relevant cold email this weekend with this technique.

It is important that the service you're pitching is what your prospect really needs. I know this is hard.

So here is a technique I think you can try this weekend.

Let's say you do content marketing for SaaS brands.

• Look for brands that have just released a new product feature.

• Study the feature, what it does, how it works etc.

• Find emails of the Head of Marketing, VP of Marketing, or Content Manager.

Now, don't pitch them to be an addition to their content team- that might work, but you're essentially asking them to help you out.

Instead, pitch them a content update service where you create an internal link for their old article to the new product feature.

According to your research, you've seen that they have 13 articles ranking on the first page for keywords relating to their product's solution. But the new product feature is not mentioned.

Since their new articles will be linked to that feature, it also makes sense to update old articles for that feature. So, your job is to:

• Identify those articles (you can focus on comparison and alternative pages)

• Write short paragraphs linking to the new features

• and even update with fresh stats and facts while you're at it.

Why this might work

• Most content teams don't do this- especially if it's a small team.

• Those who want to do it probably need more hands since their existing writers are working on new articles.

• You're not promising to move a mountain- you just want to make a tiny, genuinely important change.

• You're not asking them to hire you full-time.

• You did your research. Your pitch is personalized. Your pitch is relevant.

Tools to use for this (free)

• SalesQL to find 100 free verified emails on LinkedIn.

• Semrush domain analysis to see keywords a domain ranks for.

• Your Googling skills

So, what do you say?

Would you try it this weekend? Let me know if you need any help.