How to Build a Hyper-Personalized Email Campaign for VIP Prospects

If your sales emails aren’t hyper-compelling—they’re going straight to the trash (or worse, the spam folder).

It’s a harsh reality of outbound sales in 2023. We heard from an executive at ServiceNow that they dedicate 30 minutes daily to deleting unwanted cold emails.

To make your way through the noise and start conversations, you need to show buyers you know them by crafting an email designed for them.

Samantha McKenna, CEO at #samsales and former Head of Sales at LinkedIn Sales Navigator, has built a tried-and-true email writing strategy to get through to your highest-value prospects and build her 8-figure business. 

With open rates that could make a unicorn jealous (43%) and a reply rate that defies the laws of email physics (20%), Sam's Show Me You Know Me® method holds the secrets to getting replies from prospects you never thought possible.

Check out her exclusive Master Class now LIVE on the Apollo Academy!

The “Show Me You Know Me” Email

On average, cold emails have a 6% open rate and 0.9% response rate.

The bar is low. 

To build trust and drive more engagement, you need to show your buyers you understand them.

And that’s what “Show Me You Know Me” is all about.

It’s the practice of writing emails that demonstrate your knowledge to buyers and using that information to write intentional and personalized emails.

"The art of knowing your buyers as humans,” says Sam, “...and it trickles down to every single touchpoint you have with your buyer, from the very first email you send, all the way until you’ve had them as a client for 20 years.”

Here are Samantha’s 7 components of high-quality “show me you know me” emails.

1. Subject line: This should be unique to the recipient. It likely won’t make sense to anyone else but the person receiving the email (and that’s the sign of a perfectly personalized subject line!). 
2. The first sentence: Start with an authentic intro, rather than niceties or your sales pitch. 
3. The transition: Make a logical tie from the first sentence to your sales pitch.
4. The challenge: What can you solve for your buyer? Focus on the person, not the company.
5. The value proposition: Consider your hook and buyer’s pain points.  
6. Hidden or forthcoming objection: Think about the most common objection you receive and get ahead of it. 
7. The close: Always include a call to action, but don’t include a calendar link in your first email.

How to build a “Show Me You Know Me” email campaign

1. Identify your target buyers

The success of your email campaign starts and ends with who it is you're reaching out to.

Criteria like job title, company size, industry, technologies used, recent funding, and intent triggers, all have a dramatic impact on whether or not your email will compel the recipient to interact with you.

With Apollo, you have access to 65+ filters, making it easy to narrow your list, and find your ideal buyers. 

Once you’ve built a robust list of potential buyers, you can select the individual you want to create a custom “Show Me You Know Me” sequence for. 

Keep in mind that “Show Me You Know Me” is about quality, not quantity. You want to focus your time and efforts on your most valuable buyers. And don’t be afraid to go higher and reach out to directors or VPs. 

You won't be able to write highly personalized emails for everyone on your target list, so choose wisely. 

2. Do your research

Before you can craft the perfect email that leaves people itching to learn more, you need to roll up your sleeves and uncover information about your list of potential buyers.

Start with a simple search in Apollo. You can get an immediate overview of a prospect’s work history, intent signals, previous engagement, tech used, contacts from the same company, existing notes or activities, and more.

As you’re starting to build a file of information, you will also want to visit their company’s website.

Familiarize yourself with the product and how the company speaks about themselves. For example, if you wanted to reach out to Pilot Flying J’s, a simple Google Search will tell you that they refer to themselves as “travel centers” rather than “gas stations”.

Messaging matters. 

Then, it’s time to hop into LinkedIn.

Scroll through their posts, comments, and likes to get a better idea of what they care about, their role, and their team. You can also review past job experience, learn where they went to school, or identify groups they are involved in today.

A bonus here: You can streamline this workflow and bring Apollo data and engagement straight into LinkedIn with the Apollo Chrome Extension. Check out this video for a quick walkthrough!

Now that you have all the context you need, it’s time to start writing.

3. Craft your personalized email

Bring together the elements from the prior step and start crafting your email. 

As you’re writing the email, be sure to reference schools, organizations, company value props, and any other relevant information you learned from your search. Use of flattery and a little FOMO doesn’t hurt either. 

Since you’re working to build trust with your potential buyer, we don’t recommend including a calendar link in the first email. Wait until the recipient has shown interest and then offer your calendar booking link.

Here’s an example of a well-crafted “Show Me You Know Me” email using all the elements we discussed above – a tailored subject line, strong intro, relevant value proposition, and more. 

Want to see more examples of A+ emails? Check out our latest webinar with Samantha McKenna. 

To work your “Show Me You Know Me” email into a full campaign, add a “Manual Email” step into an automated Apollo Sequence. From there, it’s easy to surround your send with other relevant touchpoints like automatic emails, phone calls, LinkedIn messages, and personalized action items.

Apollo Sequences are one of the easiest ways to create personalized campaigns with messaging that convert.

Learn how to build your first one.

4. Facilitate next steps

You crafted the perfect email and got a response! Now what?

When someone replies to your email and expresses interest, you can offer next steps.

Remember when we said not to share your calendar in the prior step? Well, now’s the time. Ask them when it works best to chat, and offer your calendar link. 

Apollo Meetings enables you to easily and quickly schedule calls with your prospects or customers. With an Apollo meeting link, you can consolidate your sales tools by scheduling sales conversations directly from where you send outbound.

Using Apollo’s Chrome Extension, you can also drop your meeting link directly into an email with just one click.

For Sam's full approach on supercharging your email personalization efforts and unlocking record-breaking reply rates, check out her Master Class on the Apollo Academy.