Technology has revolutionized how we interact with one another, often replacing human conversations with automated messages across email, phone calls, chatbots and more.
Despite the undeniable convenience this brings to our lives, it can also leave us feeling disconnected from one another – as though we’re communicating through a computer screen rather than speaking with an actual person. In light of that reality, many people yearn for deeper human connections in their daily communications; there’s nothing quite like interacting directly and authentically with somebody else!
That being said, it’s important for recruiters to add this level of authenticity to their outreach if they really want to stand out and get noticed. Teams can offer something that machines and automated messages cannot – genuine connection and understanding through conversation.
What do we mean by hyper-personalization?
Hyper-personalized outreach is key to ensuring your message resonates with your target individual and invites a response. Ultimately, it makes sure your email or message looks and sounds like it’s coming from a human.
It does this by speaking directly to that individual by making them feel like they are part of a two-way conversation, rather than one person on the receiving end of an automated message sent out to hundreds of other people.
It’s more than using a first name variable as let’s be honest, this level of personalization in outreach is now the norm. People expect more research and attention to detail than that. It’s about taking your content to the next level and making the target individual feel seen and valued.
Why a one-size-fits-all approach to your outreach won’t drive results
A one-size-fits-all approach to your sourcing and business development is a surefire way to miss the mark, as it ignores individual preferences and motivations. It instantly makes the candidate or client feel like they are being spoken to via mass automation or a bot. It’s important to remember that looking for a new role or growing a business can be a highly emotive experience, so to drive greater engagement from your recruitment process the key is to consider how you can add value every step of the way. Other disadvantages of adopting this high-volume, yet low-quality approach to your outreach include:
- Prospects will not feel like your message is specifically for them and turn to competitors that provide tailored experiences
- People are tired of dealing with automated forms of communication and are able to spot these pretty efficiently – it certainly won’t help you stand out, not for the right reasons anyway!
- Senders run the risk of having their email domain marked as spam
- Poor outreach can damage your brand and reputation on both a personal and business level
Five-step guide to creating outreach that drives results
To ensure that you are creating hyper-personalized emails that will deliver better results than your competitors, we recommend following these 5 straightforward steps:
1. Focus on targeting people who will actually care about the value you can deliver. For instance, look to see who is actually hiring, who is looking for a job or who fits the profile of what you are looking for. A well-researched list of 50 contacts is way more effective than a list of 1000 contacts who may or may not be interested.
2. Find something on their LinkedIn profile to mention in the opening line of the email, such as a mutual connection or a post they have made. This draws the reader into your message and makes a personal connection with them. Just going straight into the reason you are reaching out makes it less personal and more generic. Making an effort to mention that you really enjoyed a post they made, or that you saw they used to go to your university shows you’ve done your research and you are taking the time and effort to speak to them as an individual. Check out our example below:
3. Use emotion, such as exclamation marks or emojis to humanize your messaging. Always be mindful of who your audience is, however, as those reaching out to C-Suite targets may prefer to use more formal messaging.
4. Make your messages stand out from the crowd by using custom images or GIFs. Look for tools with enhanced outreach capabilities like using variables (such as the person’s first name, company, etc) inside images, so that you can add that extra level of hyper-personalization your competitors aren’t.
5. Ensure that you have enough follow-up steps in your campaign. This is the most underrated part of personalization. This is where 71% of responses come from – so many users miss out on conversations and opportunities because of the lack of follow-ups.
These only need to be 1 to 2 lines long as they are gentle reminders for the person to respond to your initial message. Having at least 3 to 4 of these follow-up messages will ensure that each target individual will have the best chance possible to view and respond to your message.
Hyper-personalization will lead to more effective messaging that will lead to more responses, more interest, and more follow-up calls from your sourcing and business development outreach.
