Please Personalize All Your Outreach

I mean it. Use your thoughts and your typing. Not a crappy automation.

That email is horrible. The incorrect casing of your brand name, awkward spacing, mismatching fonts, vaguely half-correct automated fill-ins. Not to mention the unclear “solution,” lack of value proposition, and non sequitur about a dog that’s meant to trick you into enabling images so the sender can know that you opened their email… so they can keep you in their sequence. (Prepare for nine more emails that don’t elaborate further while also demanding your attention.)

It’s basically formatted for you NOT to read, much less reply to it. And even if you were to click on that calendar link, you’d be faced with some garbage like this:

Oh, goodie. These times are obviously very convenient for me.

I hate this. It’s a waste of my time. It makes you and your brand look bad. And it’s a waste of your time and money.

Can’t we do better? You deserve better.

I’m no stranger to cold messages. I’ve sent a lot of them in my career (and I still do). For sales, for PR, for co-marketing, to source guest speakers, to pitch my colleague or executive for a speaking opportunity, and to shoot my shot for career opportunities.

And I usually get a response. Overall, here’s what I do:

I keep the message as short as I reasonably can. Though I don’t worry too much about length. I’d rather skew on the side of a longer email if I feel the extra sentence is crucial.

I explain my brand in plain speak. Minimal marketing fluff. Nope, no “leading provider of blah blah.” If I were to send a cold message on behalf of SparkToro, I would probably call us a “SaaS tool that helps marketers learn more about their audiences and where they hang out online.” Then I’d give a concrete description of that like, “We show you the most influential websites, podcasts, social accounts, YouTube channels, and Subreddits in your audience.”

I state my purpose. I don’t dance around with weird business-y sentences like, “I’d love to learn more about how I can help you reach your audience at scale as I believe we have the resources you need to make a decision that will impact your business with a positive ROI.” If I’m seeking a sponsorship, I ask for a sponsorship. I’ll say, “I’m planning our digital summit, SparkTogether, and I’m looking for sponsors. Since we share an audience of B2B marketers, I thought you might want to consider this.” (Oh by the way, I am indeed seeking sponsors. If you’re interested, feel free to reply to this newsletter and I’ll follow up with you!)

I tailor my message for the recipient. When it comes to job applications sent to hiring managers of the same type of role, I’ve gotten away with a lot of copying & pasting with minimal personalizations. But when pitching to reporters, I always send a custom message that appeals to the publication as a whole, to the reporter themself, and to their audience. I ask myself:

• Why would this publication cover my story/news?

• Why does it need to be covered by this particular reporter?

• And why should their audience care?

To answer these questions, I study up on their publication, read their recent coverage, read past coverage of the niche/industry I’m in, read the reporter’s recent work to understand their style, interests and expertise, and skim through the comments and social media followers to get a sense of what their audience is like. My best PR win leveraged all these tactics — and I ended up getting over 1,600 new customers with two earned media placements. You can read all about that story on the SparkToro blog, and borrow my frameworks.

I show receipts. Honestly. If I’m reaching out for that SparkTogether sponsorship, I’ll show our reach (55,000+ email newsletter subscribers; 11,000+ blog subscribers; 35,000+ social media followers. Seriously, hit me up for that sponsorship). If I were to reach out for a job opportunity, I’d contextualize a few achievements (launched SparkToro’s Office Hours webinar series which garners as many as 1,300 signups per episode).

Absent any notable achievements — let’s say I’m sending a cold message to pitch someone on something I don’t have bragging rights for, I’ll just be earnest about my enthusiasm and skills.

Years ago, when I pivoted into marketing and sent job applications, I told hiring managers:

“I don’t have formal marketing training, but I do have some marketing experience. I’ve managed social media accounts and I’ve written copy to promote conferences. I believe my journalism experience makes me uniquely positioned to be a solid content marketer. I’m coachable, I learn quickly, and there’s no job too small for me. I’d love the opportunity to learn from you and help grow your business.”

Sure, I didn’t get a ton of interviews. But I did get a lot of kind replies, and one startup did end up hiring me because they liked my attitude and honesty.

I know what I’m describing sounds like a lot of work. It is.

When you’re asking a stranger to spend time on you by reading your message, you owe them that consideration. And you owe yourself (and your brand) the respect of representing yourself well.

Otherwise, why would anyone want to work with you?

💼 Job Hunting Shouldn’t Be a Full-Time Job (Sponsored by: Teal)

It is true when they say job hunting is a full-time job in of itself. Especially when you write custom cold emails the way I do. 😂

You have to research opportunities, fill your pipeline with leads, send follow-up emails, and also clear space in your calendar to easily have time for interviews or serendipitous meetings. It’s a lot to keep track of, and I’ve always done it manually with ridiculous spreadsheets. But fortunately, now there’s Teal. It's an all-in-one, AI-powered job search platform that helps you tailor your resume, track your applications, optimize your LinkedIn profile, and more, so you can land a job faster. Over 300,000 people have turned to Teal to navigate their job search—and you can, too. Get started here.

🍰 Petits Fours

Four things that I think are worth your time for reasons.

How to pass any first-round interview (even in a terrible talent market): My very dear friend Coach Erika wrote this guest post on Lenny Rachitsky’s newsletter. It’s the 8th most popular post on his site and it is a fantastic read. Go Erika! (Also, take charge of your career and support her work by subscribing to her newsletter.)

Older millennials prefer streaming TV, while Gen Z opts for user-generated content: I’m always interested in differing media habits across generations. Was surprised to hear how overwhelmingly Gen Z doesn’t seem to care for TV. They prefer UGC, followed by music/podcasts, gaming, and only then TV.

An Employee’s Guide to Building a Personal Brand: ICYMI, here’s another recent blog post of mine. I know “personal brand” sounds cringe or icky, but really, it’s just a way to manage your reputation at scale. And whether you like it or not, you already have a personal brand. So you might as well take charge of it.

The Bear on FX/Hulu: I just finished seasons 1 and 2 and love this show so much. It captures precisely what it’s like to work in a restaurant kitchen. It might be my favorite show since Fleabag.

🥚 Food Tip: Optimize Space in Your Fridge With This Egg Drawer

I promise I am not one of those people who decants all her products into other separate containers. I only do this when I think it’s truly a good use of space. Case in point, my egg drawer.

Because I can stack items on top of it without blocking access, I’m able use my fridge space better. Whenever I need eggs, I just open the little drawer and grab ‘em. No need to remove the whole cardboard container just to get one or two eggs.

I felt a little silly buying it, but it’s three years later and I’m still using it.

👋 That’s all!

I’m trying to publish more often. Hope to see ya next week! If not, it’s only because I had nothing to say. 🙃