Why Generic Outreach Gets Deleted and What to Do Instead
Decision-makers receive hundreds of messages a week. Here is the difference between ones that get read and ones that get deleted.
A marketing director at a mid-sized company receives somewhere between fifty and two hundred outreach messages a week. They have developed a filter that operates at near-unconscious speed. Within three seconds of opening a message they have decided whether it is worth reading.
Most outreach from agencies fails that test immediately.
What generic outreach looks like
It starts with something about the sender. We are a full-service digital agency with ten years of experience. The recipient does not care about your experience in the first sentence.
It continues with a list of services. We specialise in web design, SEO, social media, and content marketing. Still nothing about the recipient.
It ends with a vague call to action. Would love to jump on a call to explore how we might work together. This is not a reason to book a call. It is a reason to close the email.
What actually gets read
Outreach that gets read does three things. It demonstrates the sender knows something specific about the recipient. It makes a relevant observation about a challenge the recipient actually faces. And it makes a specific, low-friction ask that is easy to say yes to.
It does not need to be long. A four sentence message that is specific and relevant will outperform a twelve sentence message that is generic every single time.
The message is not the hard part. The targeting, the research, and the discipline to write something specific rather than something generic. That is the hard part. And it is the part that makes all the difference.