You spent 45 minutes personalizing that email. They spent 3 seconds deleting it.

Hey [Name],

Let me paint you a picture:

You research a prospect for 45 minutes. Reference their college, their dog's Instagram, their Q3 earnings. Craft a beautiful, completely unique email.

Their response? "Unsubscribe."

Meanwhile, your colleague sends 50 emails saying "I noticed you're hiring SDRs, which usually means you need better lead routing. We fix that."

They book 3 meetings.

Guess who's hitting quota?

The 80/20 Rule of Personalization

Here's the uncomfortable truth: Most personalization is vanity metrics for marketers.

Prospects don't care that you know their dog's name. They care that you understand their problem.

The rule:

• 80% of your message can be the same
• 20% should be personalized to their situation

That 20% better be about their business, not their hobbies.

Templates That Don't Sound Like Templates

Everyone uses templates. The trick is making them not sound like templates.

My framework:

Subject: Quick question about [specific challenge]

Hey [Name],

[Specific observation about their company].

[How this usually creates specific problem].

[One sentence how you solve it + proof].

Worth a quick chat?

Real Example:

Subject: Quick question about your SDR ramp time

Hey Sarah,

Noticed you're hiring 5 SDRs this quarter.

Most RevOps leaders tell me ramping that many reps simultaneously means 2-3 months of chaos with lead routing.

We helped Acme Corp cut their SDR ramp time by 60% with automated territory assignment. Worth a quick chat?

See? Template, but doesn't feel like one.

What Actually Matters:

Stop caring about:
✗ Their college
✗ Their hobbies
✗ Generic company news
✗ Their "passion for innovation"

Start caring about:
✓ Recent changes affecting them
✓ Specific role challenges
✓ What competitors are doing
✓ Problems they've mentioned publicly

One relevant business observation > ten personal details.

My Copy-Paste System

Step 1: Build Base Templates (30 min)

• Post-funding companies
• Companies hiring
• Competitor's customers
• Trigger events
• Cold accounts

Step 2: Create Variables (20 min)

• {{Trigger event}}
• {{Specific challenge}}
• {{Similar customer}}
• {{Proof point}}

Step 3: 2-Minute Personalization

1. Check LinkedIn activity (30 sec)
2. Check company news (30 sec)
3. Pick template (10 sec)
4. Fill 2-3 variables (40 sec)
5. Sanity check (10 sec)

Done. Personal enough, scalable enough.

Channel-Specific Tips:

Email: Medium personalization

• Company-specific hook
• Role-relevant pain
• Maybe one personal detail

LinkedIn: Light personalization

• Reference mutual connection
• Comment on their post
• Keep conversational

Direct Mail: Heavy personalization

• Include their logo
• Reference specific initiative
• Solve exact problem

"Fake Personalization" That Works:

"Working with several Chicago-based fintechs..."
"In healthcare IT, compliance is everything..."
"Series B companies typically struggle with..."

Feels personal. Scales to hundreds.

Subject Lines That Work:

• "Quick question about [specific trigger]"
• "[Mutual connection] suggested I reach out"
• "Noticed you're [specific action]"
• "[Competitor] → [Your Company]?"

Opening Lines That Don't Suck:

• "Saw you're hiring [role], which usually means..."
• "Your recent post about [topic] resonated because..."
• "[Similar company] had the same challenge..."

Your action items:

1. Create 3 base templates for your scenarios
2. List your variables (what changes between prospects?)
3. Time yourself - personalize 5 emails in 10 minutes
4. Track which personalization elements get responses

Tomorrow: Multi-channel campaigns without the PhD in marketing automation.