In the middle of my workday, there is nothing I like more than my inbox inundated with offers for low mortgage rates, a get-out-of-debt seminar, insurance offers, or even a great deal at a random yet questionable online pharmacy. If anyone had done their research, they would have known that I was not the target audience for their fabulous hair care products. And while we are at it, I haven’t entered the international lottery, so I find it strange to be pronounced a winner. No, I really don't like this - nobody does.

So if we want to successfully build an instant connection and cut through the noise, we've got to pay attention to our target audience and find creative ways to use automation and best practices to do it at scale.

Although this is definitely not the business model you and I are engaging in, I don’t ever want my channels and messaging to be perceived in the same "does not apply to me" way.  Nobody wants to be spammed, so prospects recognize and appreciate when someone takes a personal interest in their business, their pain points, and has obviously done some research before making a connection.

Human nature makes each of us naturally receptive to forming meaningful connections with others, but the world is fast-paced and the personal bandwidth (and inbox space!) is limited for the prospect, as well as for your sales teams. We want to be able to scale a large audience, but be personalized and target those who will be most responsive so we can ultimately book more meetings.

How do we know it works?

We ran an experiment across 3 sequences and thousands of prospects. The results are clear:

#1 - 50% Personalization - pretty standard sequence

#2- 100% Personalization - to a targeted list of companies

#3- 100% Personalization -  to active LinkedIn members

The results - the LinkedIn community is on top of course!

#3 wins with 143 Meetings booked

#2 had 93 Meetings booked

#1 only had 47 meetings booked

Personalization at scale is the winner!  

Now that we know how effective it is, here are two ways to personalize at scale.

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Bucket Sequences

Step 1: Identify the most common personalization traits you find about a prospect. Maybe it’s the launch of a new product, or they have posted a great video, or they just raised their Series A.

Step 2: Create a sequence for each trait - name them accordingly “Recently Funded”, or “New Product launch”.

Step 3: Write the first subject line to reflect that personalization: “{{firstname}}, congrats on your series A”

Step 4: Write the first email body to match, “Hi {{firstname}}, Been following {{company}} on LinkedIn and saw the news about your Series A. We recently landed our own Series A, so I know how crazy exciting it can be.

Outplay works with hundreds of recently funded companies to scale the team and pipeline to get to the magical 3x. So I’m curious - what tools have you provided the sales team to ensure that growth?

Suggested Reading: What ingredients make a great outbound email?

‍High Personalization Sequences

This sequence involves doing the heavy lifting (research) in the first step of the sequence and then using fully automated emails.

Step 1: Create a custom field in your CRM or Sales Engagement Platform (think Outplay!). Let’s call it “Personalization”

Step 2: Create a sequence - the first step is just for doing the research, and writing a sentence around what you learned about them. So, as the sales rep is working the account, they are filling in the field for {{personalization}}

Step 3: Create the first email in this sequence that incorporates the {{personalization}} field, “Hi {{firstname}},

LinkedIn tells me that {{personalization}}. So, I was reaching out to set up a call to learn how you’re selling today, and share some of our best sequences with you.”

Personalization at scale will allow you to keep focusing on people, strengthen your connections, and keep the conversation warm so that when the time is right for your prospects, you will already be prepared to set that meeting, provide the solution, and close that deal!

Suggested Reading: A free eBook on sales sequences of 30 hyper-growth companies!