How to tailor cold emails for maximum impact
When you’re writing a cold outreach email, your task may seem simple -- but it can actually be very difficult. Response rates are low, and decision makers’ inboxes are flooded with canned, generic sales emails from hundreds of other people trying to get their attention.
It may seem like a hopeless endeavor, but you can actually use the market’s overall disregard for personalization to your advantage - not only with what you say, but how you say it.
At Crystal, we call it personality tailoring, and it’s a proven way to help you:
In this guide, we’ll go over the basics of personality tailoring and give you a base of knowledge to start personalizing emails and getting incrementally better results with each tweak. This isn’t a silver bullet, but a new mindset for writing emails. Once you view people through the lens of their personality, rather than some assumptions about their job title or other general attributes, you’ll start creating your own mental models and systems to improve as you go.
The Crystal Personality Map (which is rooted in DISC) can tell us the basics about each personality type’s email preferences:
Northwest (D style)
Personalities that fall in the northwestern area of the personality map want email to be brief, to-the-point, and as efficient as possible.
Northeast (I style)
Northeastern personalities want email to be casual, expressive, and relational.
Southeast (S style)
Southeastern personalities want email to be warm, trustworthy, and friendly.
Southwest (C style)
Southwestern personalities want email to be detailed, informative, and accurate.
While it may seem like a trivial personal preference, your opening is one of the easiest but most impactful parts of your email to tailor.
Northwest (D style)
Use only the recipient’s name (like “Chris,”), without any “Hi” or “Hello.” It’s a subtle hint that you value their time and are not interested in fluff.
Northeast (I style)
Use a casual greeting like “Hey Chris,” or even “Hey Chris!”. The more relational, the better.
Southeast (S style)
Use a formal, standard greeting like “Hi Chris,” - it’s best that you stay friendly, but formal.
Southwest (C style)
For southwestern personalities, there isn’t a strong trend for the greeting, but you’re likely to succeed with the same strategy as the northwestern personalities (“Chris,”).
Different personality types have vastly different preferences for how you begin your message body. This often one of the biggest “shifts” for people to make away from their natural style when tailoring an email.
Northwest (D style)
Get right into the value you can provide, skipping any kind of personal introduction. Examples:
Northeast (I style)
Help them connect the dots - it may be mutual connections, interests, or anything else that may link you together.
Southeast (S style)
Introduce yourself formally, so they know information like who you are, where you work, and/or where you are.
Southwest (C style)
Specify precisely why you are contacting them before you get into any further detail.
In general, personalities in the north prefer shorter emails and those in the south prefer longer ones. However, there are a number of additional nuances to consider...
Northwest (D style)
You only have a little bit of time to keep their attention, so stick to the highest level of detail, use concise language, and keep the email to 3 sentences or less.
Northeast (I style)
Your email should be the first step in the conversation, with the goal of building a friendly relationship. Use casual language, express a little bit of emotion, and ask open questions.
Southeast (S style)
Your main goal should be to build trust, so include past experience, appeals to authority, and any other external references that can increase your credibility.
Southwest (C style)
You want to immediately meet their skepticism with data to prove your point. Back up any claim you make with external sources.
Every outreach email you write should have a specific call to action - the thing you want your prospect to do in response. However, as you can imagine by now, the different personality types have a range of preferences for responding to a cold email...
Northwest (D style)
Ask for permission to take an action, rather than requesting that they give you some of their time.
Examples:
Northeast (I style)
Suggest a real-world activity without pressure to make a decision (i.e. take it out of the email).
Examples:
Southeast (S style)
Get them to take a baby step towards your desired outcome, but keep it in the email and don’t ask for too much.
Examples:
Southwest (C style)
Ask them to answer a question (particularly an interesting or challenging question) via email, as they are much more likely to respond in writing than over the phone.
Your email closing doesn’t matter as much as the opening, but it’s an area to potentially slip up - people often have strong preferences and pet peeves for how others close their emails.
Northwest (D style)
Don’t even bother with a formal closing - just end with your name.
Northeast (I style)
End with a genuine expression of gratefulness or excitement.
Examples:
Southeast (S style)
End formally and with sincerity.
Examples:
Southwest (C style)
End with the same strategy as the northeast or southwest, depending on your personal preference. Avoid too much emotional expression.
Examples:
Use Crystal over LinkedIn to gather insights about your prospect’s personality, including what communication style is most likely to resonate, before you send the first email. Get 10 free monthly credits by signing up here.