AI can help automate many parts of marketing tactics and strategies, but real personalization isn’t one of them. If your B2B tech company is heavy on cold email and ABM campaigns, you have to personally spend the time necessary to learn who your target customers are.
By Erik Garcia
Marketing Specialist, Screenfire Media
Marketers are being encouraged to use AI applications for content creation whenever possible. All the experts are posting about implementing AI automations and “personalized” cold outreach into your GTM motions.
This is what every B2B tech company employee’s inbox looks like now because of this:
1. Introductions reeking of laziness
“Hi John, Your work at X company is really impressive.” That’s the whole intro. It doesn’t mention the specific role that person does at the company even. Just an unqualified compliment similar to first-date experiences. Yuk.
2. Uninspiring offers and pitches
“We help companies like yours save money on data storage.” Which group of companies do I belong to? More importantly, how do you do that? There are no numbers or unique value propositions.
3. Awkward salutations
“Looking forward to staying in contact.” There’s no clear call-to-action or mention of what the step is. You might as well have just played basketball with this person at the gym and mentioned that you’ll see them next week. Plus, it just sounds off-key.
4. No context.
“Your company looks like it values accurate reporting.” Where did you figure that out? You need to cut through the fat and say the problem you solve, the manner you solve it in, and how quickly you do.
How to Personalize Outreach in B2B Properly
Using AI to instill personalization is not simply inserting the lead’s name and company correctly. Here’s what stands out instead:
A. Mention a recent project your target was a part of
“John, your recent website content sharing the value of live shopping for e-commerce brands had unique insights. I shared it with my team because we have similar ICPs.”
B. Reference something relevant between you two
“Saw your latest video on content marketing strategies for tech founders. We’re actually building a tool for that space, and your paragraphs on time constraints were so true.”
C. Acknowledge their milestones.
“Congrats on the feature in TechCrunch about your funding round. Would love to hear how your approach to raising your Series A was different than your seed round.”
AI can’t pull off this information with a few prompts and target lists. Why is that? Because it takes more than five seconds and a LinkedIn filter.
If your only move is mail merge, you’re wasting your time and burning contact lists every time you hit send. If you prove you took time to learn about me, you get a shot.
Personalization is not a hack. It’s the minimum required if you want your outbound campaigns to be successful.
Reach out to Screenfire if you want to see how we can help your tech company improve its email marketing. Visit us at www.screenfiremedia.com.
