Personalizing Messages: 12 Tips to Master Custom Prospect Outreach

Are you sending tons of messages to your prospects – only to be met with silence or lackluster responses? Let's guess. Maybe, you're still following the conventional generic, one-size-fits-all approach. 

How, here's the catch. If you are in the B2B sphere, you can't ignore personalization. A generic email blast or a cookie-cutter sales pitch can no longer cut through the noise. 

Tailoring your messages to each prospect is essential for building a connection and expecting instant responses.

Personalized communication relies on the power of relevance and genuine connection – to build rapport and engagement.

In fact, 80% of customers are likelier to do business with a company that offers personalized experiences. 

So, to help you out, we’ve compiled a list of 12 practical strategies to guide you in composing custom communication for maximum impact.

Personalizing Messages: Customize InMails, Emails, and Others for Maximum Impact

Creating communication showcasing your concern for your clients demonstrates you value their unique needs and challenges. In return, you earn multiple benefits, such as: 

• Get the required attention your brand deserves
• Differentiate your business from others
• Build trust, credibility, and rapport
• Engage your prospects on a deeper level
• Gain recognition as a trusted advisor

Having said that, here are our best tips for creating custom messages:

1. Understand Your Prospect's Needs and Pain Points

• Start by gauging your B2B audience’s distinct requirements and challenges. 
• Thoroughly research and gather relevant information about their business roadblocks and goals.
• Then, tailor your messaging to address their specific requirements. 

Following the above steps will easily increase the chances of your communication resonating with your recipients.

In fact, even statistics prove that custom, pain-point-oriented communication significantly impacts prospect engagement and conversion rates. 

As per studies, 72% of customers will only engage with personalized messaging – demonstrating a deep understanding of their priorities. 

It highlights the importance of targeted communication in capturing prospects' attention and driving them toward a desired action.

You gain valuable insights by investing time and effort into researching your prospects. This information enables you to craft messages that directly address their pain points. 

For example, let’s say you contact a prospect in the technology industry who has expressed concerns about data security. 

Through thorough research, you discover that their industry is experiencing a rise in cyber threats.

The above challenge has resulted in potential data breaches and financial losses. Armed with this knowledge, you can do the following:

• Customize your messaging to highlight the specific security features of your product or service
• Emphasize how it can address their concerns and safeguard their valuable data

This tailored approach shows that you understand their pain points and positions you as a reliable partner who can offer a solution.

James Smith, Founder of Travel-Ligual, has given us some interesting insights on how to create custom messages per your prospect's pain requirements:

“For example, if your prospect's company focuses on adventure travel, explain how your services can help them make their offerings stand out and create a mutually beneficial relationship.

Keep in mind that the most important thing is to keep it real. Don't use canned language, and don't sugarcoat your message. Instead, share a personal travel story that speaks to their business goals and shows that you genuinely care about their success.”

2. Segment Your Audience for Targeted Messaging

By dividing your prospect list into segments, you can craft personalized messages that resonate with each segment's unique requirements. As such, it increases the effectiveness of your communication.

In fact, research has shown the following facts:

Using segmented email campaigns can result in a revenue increase of up to 760%.

The above stats emphasize the power of tailoring your communication to address the specific requirements of each segment.

When segmenting your audience, consider criteria such as:

• Industry
• Company size
• Job title
• Geographic location
• Past interactions with your brand

By doing so, you create subsets of prospects with similar characteristics. Thus, you can develop more focused and relevant messaging for each group.

Personalization as per segments enhances engagement and builds rapport with your prospects. Why? They perceive your messages as created specifically for them.

For example, if you're targeting both small startups and enterprise-level corporations, you can create separate segments for each group. 

Your messaging for startups may focus on:

• Affordability
• Scalability
• Agility

On the contrary, your messages for larger corporations may emphasize:

• Enterprise-grade features
• Tight security
• Integration capabilities

By addressing the particular priorities of each segment, you increase the likelihood of:

• Resonating with your prospects
• Driving them towards conversion

Additionally, targeted segmentation lets you precisely track and measure your campaigns' effectiveness.

You can monitor the:

• Response rates
• Open rates
• Conversion rates 

– of each segment.

Therefore, you can refine your messaging and optimize your future outreach efforts.

3. Use Dynamic Email Personalization

Dynamic email personalization is a tactic that includes the following steps:

• Using Merge Tags: It enables you to dynamically insert the prospect's name, company, or other relevant details into email templates.
• Incorporating Personalized Subject Lines and Preview Text: It helps grab the prospect's attention and improve engagement.

Dynamic email personalization allows you to create customized messages that make recipients feel valued and recognized. As such, it goes beyond a generic email blast and creates a sense of individualized communication. 

As David Foster, Adaptive Communication Advocate at ContinuumConnect, aptly surmised,

"Evolving personalization isn't a one-time effort. It's an ongoing journey. Dynamic personalization involves learning from each interaction and seamlessly adapting. This progressive approach transforms communication into an evolving dialogue, nurturing trust and showcasing your commitment." 

You can easily personalize various elements within your email templates by utilizing merge tags. They act as placeholders that automatically populate with the prospect's specific information when the email is sent. 

For example, you can insert merge tags to:

• Address the prospect by their first name
• Mention their company name
• Reference a recent interaction with your brand

Again, personalized subject lines and preview text are crucial in capturing the prospect's attention. 

• You create a sense of relevance by incorporating the recipient's name, company name, or a relevant reference. Hence, you pique intrigue, encouraging them to click further and explore the email. 
• Similarly, personalized preview text provides a glimpse of what's inside the email, enticing the prospect to open it and discover more.

Here’s an example of a subject line using merge tags:

• Subject Line: Join [Industry] Experts at [Event Name] - [Date] | Register Now.
• Merge Tags: [Industry], [Event Name], [Date]

Let’s now check out a template showcasing how you can implement dynamic email personalization:

4. Personalizing Email Components

Customizing the various elements of your emails creates an appealing experience for your prospect. Therefore, you multiply their chances of a positive response and conversion. 

Here’s how:

• Subject Line: Customize the subject line to catch the prospect's attention and highlight the relevance to their specific situation.
• Salutation: Address the prospect by their name to create a personalized touch.
• Email Body: Incorporate targeted content to personalize the email body with the prospect's company name, role, paint points/ requirements, or other relevant details.
• Call to Action (CTA): Tailor the CTA based on the prospect's needs to drive engagement.

Here’s how Amit Raj, CEO and Founder of TheLinksGuy, describes their personalization process as per an email’s different elements: 

“When it comes to messaging prospects we follow certain criteria in order to elicit a response from our targets.

We do this by addressing the recipient directly by their first name in order to establish a connection with them. Also, they won't feel a “cold” tone from the email.  

We then introduce ourselves so that they won't be puzzled until the end of the email. By doing this, it solidifies the connection we aimed to make when we greeted the. 

We then let them know why we are contacting them and how this message is relevant to them before getting into the details.

We close the email by thanking them by name and signing off with hyperlinks authenticating who we are

We take on an approach where we are professional through the interaction while still acknowledging that we are speaking to a person on the other end.

We take this approach so that the recipient does not feel like they are talking to a bot, but a natural person.”

5. Leverage Trigger Events and Recent Interactions

To up your game in personalizing messaging, leverage trigger events and recent interactions of your prospects. 

Monitor their activities, such as:

• Website visits
• Content downloads

As such, you can identify valuable opportunities to engage with them.

Next, you can tailor your messages based on these events. Hence, you’ll demonstrate relevance and timeliness – significantly enhancing your chances of success. 

For example, if a prospect recently visited your website and downloaded a whitepaper. In that case, you can craft an email that:

• Acknowledges their interest 
• Provides further relevant information
• Shares a personalized offer related to the topic they showed interest in

This approach grabs their attention and showcases your attentiveness to their needs.

Plus, tracking such activities allows you to create targeted and timely communications that make prospects feel understood and valued. 

It shows you actively pay attention to their actions and are ready to provide relevant solutions or insights based on their interests or needs.

6. Reference Mutual Connections or Shared Experiences

Did you know referencing mutual connections can significantly enhance your B2B messaging outcomes? In fact, mentioning shared experiences can significantly boost response rates.

Therefore, when reaching out to a prospect, identify any mutual connections or shared experiences you have. It could include:

• Shared contacts
• Previous collaborations
• Attending the same industry events

By referencing these connections in your communication, you establish a sense of familiarity and trust with the prospect.

For example:

• You could mention that you both know John Smith from XYZ Company.
• You could say you attended the same conference where their presentation inspired you. 

Here are a few introductory subject lines that'll work perfectly with your custom emails:

• "Just caught the interview you had with (Person's Name)"
• "I'm a fellow alum from (University Name) and would like to connect"
• "I'm a fellow (Job Title) at (Company Name) and would love to connect"
• "Had a quick question about your article on the (Company Name) blog!"
• "I love that (thought, idea, or opinion) you shared in (Publication)"
• "Would you be attending (upcoming event)?"
• "It was great meeting you at (networking event)..."
• "Reaching out again to connect and talk about (topic)"
• "It was nice meeting you; here's the information I promised"

By highlighting such experiences, you create a common ground. Therefore, you can effortlessly break the ice and establish a rapport immediately. Hence, your prospects start trusting you from the beginning.

That being said, David Reid, Sales Director at VEM Tooling shares an utterly unique perception from his experience:

“Imagine I'm reaching out to a capacity client within the tech enterprise. Instead of specializing in their industry tendencies, I delve into their current achievements, like a product release or an award. I contain these specifics in my message, showcasing that I've accomplished my homework and care about their achievement.

But here's the twist: I also leverage my network. If I know a colleague who has worked with them earlier, I point it out. This diffused connection establishes a level of agree with, making them extra receptive to our communication.

Moreover, I keep away from clichés. Rather than pronouncing, "We're the quality inside the enterprise," I percentage a success tale from a comparable agency we've got assisted. This real-international evidence speaks volumes greater than singing his praises.

Through this method, I've finished better reaction quotes and built relationships that enlarged beyond the initial sales pitch. The artwork of mixing tailor-made information with real networking indeed sets personalized messages apart.”

7. Showcase Industry Knowledge and Insights

Your prospects perceive you as a valuable resource when you demonstrate industry-specific expertise. Therefore, providing evidence about your knowledge through case studies, testimonials, and data.

Vaibhav Kakkar, CEO and Founder of DigitalWebSolutions – sheds further light on this approach:

"A personalized approach, incorporating the prospect's industry-specific terminology and context, enhances the relevancy of the messaging. Finally, consistent and coherent messaging across all touchpoints ensures a cohesive brand image and reinforces the value proposition, guiding prospects smoothly through decision-making."

For example, 

• You could share a recent business report highlighting key trends and the potential impact on their industry. 
• Then, you can relate those trends to their specific business challenges. 

Hence, you showcase that you deeply understand their industry landscape and how it relates to their goals.

In addition, by sharing domain intelligence, you can differentiate yourself from competitors. 

8. Personalize LinkedIn InMails

Did you know that personalized LinkedIn InMails have a higher chance of grabbing a prospect's attention and generating a response? 

According to research, 

Custom InMails have a 15% better performance than bulk messages.

"Recommended Matches" or "Open to Work" candidates are 35% more likely to respond.

Now, one effective strategy for personalizing messages on LinkedIn is to reference the prospect's professional achievements or recent activities. 

For example, you could mention:

• A recent award they received
• A milestone in their career
• An article they published

By acknowledging their accomplishments or activities, you show a genuine interest in their professional journey. Hence, you establish a connection right from the start.

Additionally, create concise and compelling messages that communicate how your offering or opportunity aligns with their aspirations by:

• Focusing on the value you can provide
• Relating your solution to their professional goals 

Therefore, you increase the likelihood of capturing their interest and driving a response. 

Finally, video is an emerging and highly effective approach to creating a personalized InMail message. Nick Poninski, Marketing Expert for UK-Based Business Consultants, explains, 

“Videos are bespoke and allow us to communicate much more than just words. I use it on LinkedIn repeatedly:

• To send a personalized hello so I'm not another faceless contact
• To review something they've done and share some insight into how it could be better.
• To reply to comments on LinkedIn posts so the nuance of my reply isn't lost and the "commenter" gets a better understanding of what I'm saying. 

For me, there's no better way to "build your brand" and personalize messages to contacts than through video.”

9. Utilize Social Media Listening

Monitoring and engaging with prospects' social media activities is a powerful strategy for personalizing messages. So, actively listen to their online conversations and interactions.

As such, you can gain valuable insights to initiate tailored and meaningful discussions.

Here's an example of how you can use social media listening:

As per research:

In fact, social media listening allows you to go beyond traditional profiling and understand your prospects more personally. It helps you:

• Establish meaningful connections
• Increase engagement
• Drive conversions in your B2B messaging efforts

10. Provide Value with Personalized Content Recommendations

Offer customized advice on relevant resources that align with your prospects' requirements and problems. 

When making content recommendations, consider the following:

• Explain why the suggested content is relevant to the prospect
• Highlight how the content can address their specific pain points
• Demonstrate how such resources can help them overcome their challenges

For example, a prospect might be interested in improving their lead generation strategies. In that case, you can recommend a comprehensive guide on effective lead-generation tactics. 

In your recommendation, explain how the guide provides:

• Actionable insights
• Real-life examples
• Proven strategies

– to optimize lead generation efforts. 

This personalized approach showcases your expertise and adds value to the prospect's journey. It significantly enhances your prospect's engagement and increases the likelihood of them progressing in the sales process.

11. Personalization Techniques for Other Messaging Platforms

To extend the power of personalization beyond traditional email and InMails, you can utilize personalized techniques on other messaging platforms. 

Here is how you can start personalizing messages on some of the most popular platforms:

Use the Art of 'Unselling'

Personalization extends beyond showcasing advantages; it involves proactively tackling objections. Skillfully construct messages that gracefully handle potential concerns. Master the art of ‘unselling’ – i.e. demonstrating your dedication to transparency and cultivating trust right from the outset.

Share Direct Messages on Social Media

Use customized introductions when contacting prospects via direct messages. Reference specific shared content or interactions to demonstrate that you have taken the time to understand their interests and engage with their online activities.

Embrace Emotionally Intelligent Automation

Technology enables us to personalize messages on a broad scale. True. However, you should not underestimate the influence of emotional intelligence. Create messages that convey empathy and authentic comprehension. Such communication has the potential to forge a deeper bond and evoke a more positive reaction.

Utilize Chatbots

Leverage chatbot technology to deliver personalized responses based on prospect data and preferences. Use the prospect's name to address their needs or inquiries to create a more tailored experience.

Embed Narratives

Rather than simply explaining how your product resolves an issue, construct a storyline that enables prospects to envision their triumph using your solution. This narrative strategy engages their aspirations, transforming the message into more than just personalized content—it becomes utterly enthralling.

Leverage Sensory Personalization

Integrating sensory vocabulary that resonates with various senses can elevate the level of personalization. For instance, elucidating how a software solution 'fine-tunes workflows with meticulous accuracy' stimulates the prospect's senses, rendering the message more memorable.

12. Continuously Test and Optimize Your Personalization Efforts

Finally, adopt a continuous testing and optimization mindset. Regularly analyze response rates and engagement metrics – to evaluate the effectiveness of your customization approaches.  

Here's how you can test and optimize your personalization efforts:

Analyze Response Rates and Engagement Metrics:

• Monitor key performance indicators such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to gauge the effectiveness of your personalized messaging.
• Identify patterns and trends in the data to understand which personalization techniques or messaging strategies resonate most with your audience.

Experiment with Different Personalization Techniques and Messaging Strategies

• Continuously test different personalization techniques, such as:

• Dynamic content
• Personalized subject lines
• Tailored CTAs

– to see which ones yield the best results.

• Play with various messaging strategies. Check the following:

• Tone of voice
• Content length
• CTA placement

– to optimize the impact of your personalized messages.

Elevating Your B2B Messaging through Personalization

Remember, the key to successful personalization lies in continuous improvement. Therefore proactively test and optimize your customization strategies on an ongoing basis.

Plus, you can deliver more relevant and impactful messages and ultimately drive better results in your B2B lead generation activities. So, start personalizing your B2B messaging today and watch your revenue soar. 

If you're ready to take your lead generation to the next level and achieve remarkable growth, partner with Revnew. Our professionals will help you discover the complete potential of your personalized messages. Contact us now to get started!