Hey everyone! Today, I wanted to decode one of my favorite topics - personalization at scale. People still debate whether or not it works in sales development, as there is no clear data to prove it. There’s also no guarantee that it will work for you specifically - it all depends on industry, persona, outreach channel, and so on.
However, the framework for personalized outreach at scale (based on hobbies and interests) that I would like to show you today proved to be successful for Reply’s SDR team.
I won’t be talking about the personalization on a company level, because it’s a completely different story and typically it works with the C-Suite buyers. In my experience, personalization on a personal level is way more effective. This includes personalization based on:
hobby (cooking or cycling)
interest (Harry Potter or technology)
brand they love (Nike or Netflix)
person they follow (Robert Downey Jr or Bill Gates)
Step 1. Scan Prospects LinkedIn Page
First of all, our SDRs start scanning the prospect’s LinkedIn pages from top to bottom, including:
Background photo
Job title
About section
Interests
What they care about
1.1. Background Photo
The very first thing that we pay attention to is their cover image.
This will typically be a work-related banner, but sometimes the image would also refer to the prospect’s hobbies, e.g., if it’s a photo from their recent trip, or a photo of them running, kayaking, cycling, etc. As a result, we can quickly find out what they are keen on — like instantly! It takes up to 10 seconds to identify what excites them based on their background image.
1.2. Job Title
If there’s nothing noteworthy about the background photo, we scan their job title line. Sometimes, instead of some official job titles like “SDR at Reply”, they use pattern interrupts as a part of their job title, e.g., “6x Sales Leader - 3x Founder - 3x Author - Sales Consultant - Strategic Advisor - Angel Investor” or “Family | Outdoors | Food | Virtual Academy”.
In most cases, they mention only work-related job descriptions, so typically we spend just 5-10 seconds here. If there is nothing cool here, we move on.
1.3. About Section
This section is the most interesting and the most important one. Aside from describing job-related things, people also tend to mention what they care about or how they spend their time outside of work.
For example, I’ve mentioned that I’m a Matrix, Tolkien, and Harry Potter fan. And, to be honest, I’ve already received at least a few dozens of highly personalized emails, LinkedIn connection requests, LinkedIn messages, personalized videos, and direct mail outreach touches. And that’s amazing 😀
Or here is another example:
Thus, it took us like 5 seconds to figure out that this person is keen on traveling and fitness.
It typically takes 30-60 seconds to go through the “About” section. But again, if this section is empty, we keep scrolling through the LinkedIn profile.
1.4. Interest
If the “About” section is empty or includes only work-related staff (or contains auto-generated text like the one below), we move on to the “Interests” section.
Here is what the “Interests” section looks like:
Here we have 4 categories:
Influencers > the list of LinkedIn influencers they follow
Companies > the list of companies they follow
Groups > the list of LinkedIn groups joined
Schools > the list of schools they follow
It’s usually hard to find some great ideas in this section, so we don’t spend too much time here. But I personally love double-checking the companies section. Here is my example:
In this case, it might be a good idea to personalize our outreach based on the prospect’s interest in video games.
1.5. Cares About
If all previous sections haven’t given you any clues about the prospect’s personality, what they love, or what their hobbies are, you can check the “Cares About” section. It is at the very bottom of the LinkedIn profile page.
Step 2. Personalized Outreach
Once we find something cool about them (e.g. their hobby), we need to kinda hook this interest to our pitch and value proposition.
Here is how we do that at Reply.io:
As you can see, we use 3 variables here:
Interests > Harry Potter, or Matrix, or “fitness”, or “cycling” (you name it)
Interests Snippet > it is a placeholder for an SDR to write a few words abot this hobby
Interests Value > it is a placeholder for an SDR to hook this hobby to our value proposition.
Now let’s review a few samples based on hobbies and interests like Harry Potter, Elon Musk, video games, traveling, and Adidas.
Harry Potter
Recently I’ve been viewing your social media profile and noticed that you’re a Harry Potter fan.
Just like Harry and Newton Scamander prove that good always triumphs over evil, Reply also proves that personalized, multichannel engagement wins hands down over spammy mass emailing.
Elon Musk
Recently I’ve been viewing your social media profile and noticed that you’re an Elon Musk fan.
Just like Elon redefines the way we perceive EV, AI, solar energy, and space, Reply also can redefine how your sales team does sales prospecting and outreach.
Video Games
Recently I’ve been viewing your social media profile and noticed that you’re a video games fan.
Just like video games has forever changed the way we perceive art, Reply can redefine how your sales team does prospecting and outreach
Traveling
Recently I’ve been viewing your social media profile and noticed that you’re a traveling fan.
Just like traveling allows us to discover new cities, countries, horizons and sunsets, Reply can help your sales team drive more revenue by targeting new ICPs and verticals and putting outreach on autopilot
Adidas
Recently I’ve been viewing your social media profile and noticed that you’re am Adidas fan.
Just like Adidas makes comfortable and cutting-edge sportswear, Reply can make prospecting effortless and enjoyable using cutting edge tech
We also use that {{Interests}} variable for our subject lines: {{Interests}}, {{Company}} and Reply.io. As a result, each prospect will see something unique and intriguing, like:
(BTW, I’ve decoded this subject line formula earlier)
That’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed reading this post. Next time, we will decode how to use Interests as an email intro or a P.S. sentence.
Stay tuned!