Individual
Cheat Sheet
Free
Cold Email Personalization Cheat Sheet
12 data points worth personalizing beyond {{first_name}}, exactly where to find each one in under 90 seconds, and a ready-to-adapt sample line for every one.
What's inside
- Recent LinkedIn post/comment — where to find it and sample line
- Job change signal (under 90 days)
- Funding announcement
- Open job postings as a hiring signal
- Company press release / product launch
- Competitor mention or switch signal
- Shared alma mater or past employer
- Podcast or webinar appearance
- Company tech stack lookup
- G2/Glassdoor review themes
- Earnings call or investor update commentary
- Conference/webinar attendance or speaking slot
- The 90-second pre-send research routine
- The rule that separates real personalization from decoration
12 data points worth personalizing beyond {{first_name}} — where to find each in under 90 seconds, and a sample line for each.
| # | Data Point | Where to Find It (under 90 sec) | Sample Line |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Recent LinkedIn post/comment | Their LinkedIn activity tab | "Saw your post on [topic] — the point about [X] stuck with me." |
| 2 | Job change (new role, <90 days) | LinkedIn profile + notifications, or Sales Navigator alerts | "Congrats on the move to [Role] — first 90 days in a new seat always reshuffles priorities." |
| 3 | Funding announcement | Crunchbase, company press page, or Google News search "[Company] funding" | "Saw the [round] news — usually means [specific operational change] follows." |
| 4 | Open job postings (hiring signal) | Company careers page or LinkedIn Jobs filtered by company | "Noticed you're hiring for [role] — that usually points to [specific pain]." |
| 5 | Company press release / product launch | Company newsroom page or Google News | "Saw the [product/feature] launch — curious how that's changing [team]'s day-to-day." |
| 6 | Competitor mention or switch signal | G2/Capterra reviews mentioning "switched from," or job postings naming a competitor tool | "Saw a review mentioning the move away from [Competitor] — what prompted that?" |
| 7 | Shared alma mater / employer | LinkedIn profile Education and Experience sections | "Noticed we both [went to X / worked at Y] — small world." |
| 8 | Podcast or webinar appearance | Google "[Name] podcast" or check the company's YouTube/webinar library | "Caught your appearance on [Podcast] talking about [topic] — one thing stood out." |
| 9 | Company tech stack | BuiltWith.com or Wappalyzer browser extension on their site | "Saw you're running [Tool] — that usually pairs with [related challenge]." |
| 10 | G2 / Glassdoor review themes | G2.com or Glassdoor company page, sorted by most recent | "Noticed a theme in recent reviews around [topic] — is that something your team's actively working on?" |
| 11 | Earnings call / investor commentary (public companies) | Company IR page transcript or Seeking Alpha | "In the last earnings call, [Exec] mentioned [priority] — curious how that's cascading to your team." |
| 12 | Recent conference/webinar attendance or speaking slot | Event website speaker/attendee list, or LinkedIn Events | "Saw you were part of [Event] — what was the one takeaway that's stuck with you since?" |
The 90-second research routine (run before every cold send)
- 20 sec — LinkedIn profile: current role, tenure, recent activity.
- 20 sec — Company LinkedIn page: recent posts, headcount trend.
- 20 sec — Google News: "[Company name]" for the last 30 days.
- 20 sec — Company careers page: open roles signal priorities.
- 10 sec — Pick the single most specific detail. Not the most impressive one — the most specific one. Specificity, not impressiveness, is what proves you did the work.
The rule that keeps personalization from becoming filler
Only use a data point in the opening line if it changes what you say next. If the personalized detail and the rest of the email would read identically without it, it's decoration, not personalization — and prospects can tell the difference.
How to use it
Before writing any cold email, run the 90-second routine, pick whichever data point from the table is most specific for that prospect, and build the opening line around it before writing the rest of the email.