Why robot-like emails fail with audiences

Your cold email probably isn’t getting ignored because it’s bad. It’s getting ignored because it sounds like a robot wrote it at 3AM. Let’s break it down: ❌ THE BOT VERSION “Hi there, I hope this email finds you well. My name is Jack. I wanted to reach out because I saw your company is growing, and I think we can help you scale faster…” Yeah, no one’s replying to that. Why? – It’s vague – It’s forgettable – It says absolutely nothing ✅ THE HUMAN VERSION “Hey Jack - just saw your team’s latest job post for 3 outbound reps. Curious - are you scaling that in-house, or exploring outside help at the moment?” Why this works: – Specific signal observed – Speaks to real intent – Feels like a real person noticed something and asked a smart question Most people think cold email is about writing a "good message". It’s not. It’s about starting a conversation. And conversations don’t start with fluff or fake familiarity. People see through it easily. They start with: ✔ a clear signal ✔ a sharp angle ✔ a relevant question Here’s what actually moves the needle: • Call out a signal Saw they raised a round? Mention it. Hiring fast? Reference it. Just swapped tools? Ask about it. • Ditch the pleasantries Skip the “hope you’re well” and get straight to the point. • Write like you’d talk in real life If it sounds like something you'd never say out loud, delete it. That’s exactly why we built our prospecting system on A-Leads. We’re not guessing who to contact. We’re not scraping outdated titles and hoping someone bites. We're not scraping lead lists where people have left their job 9 years ago. Or retired. We’re pulling live data on: → who’s hiring → who’s raising → who’s replacing vendors → who’s actively in motion for what we're offering Then we’re matching that to verified emails, matched to their ESP - and sending short, punchy emails based on what they’re doing right now, this second. No fake personalization, mentioning what the weather is in their {{City}}. If your emails still feel like they’re talking at someone instead of to them… It might be time to write like a human. And build your list like one too.

I still remember the day I almost gave up on cold emailing. I had spent hours crafting a pitch for a major advertiser- and sent it off with high hopes. When crickets answered, my first reaction was frustration: “What did I do wrong?” After a little self-reflection, the answer hit me: my email sounded like a robot. It was all bullet points and jargon with zero heart. So I went back to the drawing board and rewrote my pitch with one goal in mind: make it feel human. Here’s what changed: 1.    Empathy First:- Instead of opening with “Our platform delivers 3–5M USD monthly,” I started with, “I know your team must juggle dozens of offers and budgets, especially during peak season.” It showed I understood their world before jumping into numbers. 2.    Story Over Specs:- I replaced a laundry list of features with a mini-case study: “When we partnered with XYZ last quarter, they saw a 40% lift in performance simply by adding two transparency checkpoints in our reporting.” Real results, real people. 3.    A Genuine Question:- Rather than a hard “Can we jump on a call this week?”, I asked, “What’s been your biggest challenge with affiliate partnerships lately?” That opened a dialogue instead of a dead-end. 4.    A Dash of Personality:- I signed off with something memorable: “P.S. If you ever need a caffeine-fuelled brainstorming partner, I am just  a call away.” The outcome? The advertiser not only replied, they asked for a kick-off meeting and less than a week we had got the CPA campaign on a decent payout. Cold emails don’t have to feel cold. When you lead with empathy, tell a story, and invite real conversation, you’ll stand out in an inbox full of “blasts.” Give it a try—put the “human” back in your outreach, and you might be surprised by how warm your results become. What did you changed in your email to get the response from client? Share your story.. #humantouch #Coldemails #affiliatemarketing #performancemarketing

Main reason why your cold e-mails getting ignored → they look exactly like cold emails. People do not care about another e-mail starting with: “Hope you are doing well” "Hi {Name}, My name is ..." "I've been following your company for a while" They care when you show them you actually know their business. What triggers their mental SPAM filter: Basic personalization Asking for a call too soon Too many links or attachments Lack of social proof or credibility Pitch that could apply to anyone Overly formal or robotic language Long paragraphs with no clear structure No clear value or relevance to the recipient Low effort = no results Instead: 1. Show you've done your homework: Mention your observation - something specific about their business. 2. Get straight to the point: Cut the fluff. Make it clear why you're reaching out and how it benefits them. 3. Sound like a human (because you are): Write like you would in a real conversation. 4. Give before you ask: Offer a lead magnet, a quick win, or something valuable before pushing for a meeting. 5. Make it easy to say yes     Instead of "let's hop on a call," try a softer CTA like "Would this be relevant for you?" P.S. What would you add?

So here's a weird thing about email marketing... I've been studying what actually works for 25 years, and almost everyone's doing it wrong. Here's why: We all learned how to write in school. You know the drill: • Proper grammar • Professional tone • Perfect punctuation • "Dear sir/madam..." And it's killing your results. Think about how YOU use email in real life: You write to friends. You share stories. You make jokes. You probably even trick your friends into clicking on totally inappropriate pictures. THAT'S how real humans use email. But the second we write "business" emails... We turn into robots: "Dear Valued Customer, I trust this email finds you well. I wanted to reach out regarding an exciting opportunity where I bore you to death as you read this very email ..." DELETE. Nobody reads that stuff. Here's what actually works: 1. Write Like You're At Happy Hour - Imagine you're telling a friend about something cool - Use normal words (not "marketing speak") - Keep it casual - Tell stories - Be real 2. Break Every Writing Rule - Start sentences with "And" or "But" - Use ... when you feel like it - Write short sentences - Add personality - Sound like a human 3. Stop Trying To Sound Important Instead of: "I'm pleased to announce our innovative solution..." Try: "Check this out..." Instead of: "As per our previous correspondence..." Try: "Like I mentioned..." Instead of: "We're offering a unique value proposition..." Try: "Here's the cool part..." 4. Use Natural Transitions Instead of: "Furthermore..." Try: "Oh, and get this..." Instead of: "In conclusion..." Try: "Bottom line..." Instead of: "Please be advised..." Try: "Quick heads up..." 5. The Most Important Rule If it sounds like "businessy" (totally a real word) ... Delete it and start over. Your prospects get hundreds of boring "professional" emails every day. They don't need another one. They need real conversations from real humans about real solutions to their problems. 😎 Want to see something cool? I did a live training recently where I showed how to take boring "professional" copy and turn it into EXCELLENT copy - in seconds. Used AI to do it too. This was all "without a net" ...so to speak. I just took people from the audience and made their stuff better. It's really simple to do (I show you exactly how in the class) and you can have it free if you want it. I put the recording up at https://oJoy.ai/221 You don't need to sign up for anything in order to see it. It's just a video on a page. P.S. Yes, I wrote this post exactly how I tell you to write emails. And you read the whole thing, didn't you? 😉

We’ve trained a generation of reps to automate embarrassment. If your SDRs had to say their cold email to the buyer’s face, they’d quit tomorrow. 𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: That the recipient won’t remember your name or hold you accountable. That you can send garbage because the cost of rejection is zero. No eye contact. No awkward silence. Just a click and move on. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀: Your rep walks into a room. A decision-maker is sitting across the table. And they say: “Hey… just bumping this to the top of your inbox.” You’d be embarrassed for them. No context. No insight. No relevance. And yet…we keep building GTM machines that normalize this behavior. We don’t coach better messaging. We just stack tools to send more of it. We don’t deepen customer understanding. We just prompt ChatGPT for a clever subject line. 𝗪𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗼𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗯𝘃𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀: Outbound isn’t broken because of volume. It’s broken because nobody feels the cost of being lazy. That’s why most AI SDRs fail. They automate mediocrity. They scale what doesn’t work. They remove friction but also accountability. We’ve got to do better as an industry. Because outbound isn’t broken, it’s just forgotten its roots. 𝗔𝘁 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲, 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲: ✅ Do the work, aka the research ✅ Understand the personas, aka the buyers ✅ Speak to what matters, aka what's in it for them ✅ Make the buyer feel seen by describing their problem better than they can If we want to earn our seat at the table again, it starts here. No tool can replace the research discipline, but you can train AI agents to think like you do and do the ground work for you. No AI prompt can fake the feeling of being understood, but you can train AI agents to turn contextualized research into meaningful outreach that resonates with your buyers. ➡️ The teams who remember that and operate like it matter will win with or without AI.

This cold email landed straight in the trash, despite being from an "AI SDR platform." Here's exactly why it failed: 1. Terrible intro personalization. "NAME - saw you went to Miami U. How was it?" This is lazy if it's your only layer of personalization. If you're going to personalize, do it right. The prospect knows immediately this is automated - and poorly done at that. Even basic Clay enrichment would have prevented this embarrassing mistake. 2. Too obvious of a pain point. "Do you ever get tired of manually researching prospects...?" This reads like every other cold email in their inbox. Prospects are numb to these generic pain points. You need to be more specific and tie it to their actual business challenges. Example, in this case: "I know how hard it is to find perfect fit accounts based on your existing clientele" 3. Over-reliance on "we" language. Every line is "we started," "we're an," "we're trusted." This is a classic mistake - focusing on yourself instead of the prospect. Your cold emails should be about THEM, not you. 4. Extremely weak social proof. "We're trusted by tons of companies." What companies? What results? This vague claim adds zero credibility. Name specific companies in their industry or share concrete metrics from case studies that matter to them. 5. Hard CTA with no value established. Jumping straight to "free demo next Tuesday" without establishing any real value is why this email failed. Always use a soft CTA that offers value first. Remember: Even AI tools need proper configuration. Poorly executed automation is worse than no automation at all. What's the worst cold email you've received lately?

"One size fits all" works great for tube socks 🧦 and novelty hats 🎩. But I’ve been getting a lot of AI SDR emails lately that feel... generic. Default. One-size-fits-all. And that’s a problem. Here’s what AI SDRs are great at—and where they still fall short (as of today)—plus how to work around those weaknesses. 👍 AI SDRs are great at automation... 😓 …but they struggle with designing the right automation flow. They don’t know: - Who in the org to reach out to first - How to space out touchpoints - How many messages is too many—or not enough Most AI SDRs are simply executing a flow pre-defined by their creator—or worse, generated by an ML model that hasn’t been trained on your audience, your product, or your goals. 👍AI SDRs are great at synthesizing information... 😓…but they’re poor at prioritizing what matters for your target audience and product fit. They can gather facts—industry, headcount, geography, product scope—but they can’t consistently answer: - What actually makes this company more or less likely to buy? - What matters about this org’s size, structure, or offerings? Human SDRs and founders build a mental model of the buying committee. They tailor outreach based on that model—asking for a meeting in one case, sharing collateral in another. That nuance is missing in most AI-generated outreach. 👍 AI SDRs write coherent sentences... 😓…but they don’t strike the right balance between confidence and humility. Good SDRs acknowledge gaps. They admit—explicitly or implicitly—that they don’t know everything, and they invite the prospect to help fill in the blanks. The best messages walk a fine line: confidence in the product, humility in the ask. AI often misses this balance, coming off as too polished, too sure, or too robotic. At Senders, our Triggered Outbound service takes a hybrid approach: ✅ Design custom signal flows based on client and target fit ✅ Structure outreach hierarchies using real market knowledge ✅ Prompt AI with clear parameters—or insert human-in-the-loop QA—to maintain the right tone and avoid overconfidence Let’s leave “one size fits all” to the tube socks 🧦 and novelty hats 🎩🪄.

Your AI-written emails suck. No way around it. Nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to read your em—dash happy (what even is that thing?), pompously phrased, over-punctuated emails. Why?
Because they reek of AI. Ever since CSMs handed their inboxes to ChatGPT or Gemini, emails lost all purpose and personality. Everyone sounds the same. Every. Damn. Time. You know that feeling when you just know a bot wrote it?
You stop reading. You stop caring. You move on. That’s your email now. AI-written content is so easy to spot. Even easier to ignore. All it really does is make you sound lazy. Or worse, like you're not even capable of writing in that language. Or any, for that matter. “But here’s the kicker:” (sound familiar?) The problem isn’t AI. It’s you. You’re outsourcing your thinking. Your tone. Your job. Here’s an idea:
Write the damn email yourself first.
Then let AI tighten it - not replace it. Yes, AI saves time.
Yes, it can polish rough edges.
But if it strips away your voice, what’s the point? And please don’t tell me it can write in your own voice. We’ve all seen how that turns out. Communication isn't just about passing info.
If that’s all you're doing, you might as well send a PDF. CSMs who can’t communicate with clarity and authenticity can’t build trust. And if you’re not building trust, what exactly are you doing? *No AI was harmed writing this post. #customersuccess #aI #emails #relationships #csm

The lowest level of communication is 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐡é 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. During an introductory call, the Startup CEO told me: "Priya, I am sick of seeing '𝐈 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥' in all our employee's emails." I laughed. But I knew exactly what he meant. Corporate emails are drowning in robotic phrases. ❌ "Hi, how are you?" ❌ "I hope you are doing well" ❌ "Just checking in..." ❌ "Looking forward to your response!" ❌ "As per our last discussion..." These statements are so generic and repetitive. You can't build better connections with these phrases. None of these add value. None of these feel human. Why? 1️⃣ It’s Overused & Predictable Phrases like "Hope you're doing well" or "Just checking in" have become so common that they often feel robotic and insincere. 2️⃣ Lacks Personalization If you send "I hope this email finds you well," it could be addressed to anyone. There’s nothing specific about the person, their situation, or your relationship with them. It doesn’t stand out. 3️⃣ Doesn’t Add Value A message should engage the recipient or provide something meaningful. Generic greetings don’t contribute to a conversation - they’re just fillers. ➡️ Instead of: "Hope this email finds you well..." Try: "Loved your recent post on AI Agents - quick question for you!" ➡️ Instead of: "Just checking in..." Try: "Following up on Project A - any updates?" ⛔ People don’t want formalities. ✅ They want clarity. ✅ They want real conversations. Let’s make corporate communication human again. What’s one corporate phrase you’d love to see disappear forever? Drop it in the comments! 👇 P.S. If you spend hours writing professional emails, it's high time to learn "Email Etiquette."📩 DM me for more! #emailetiquette #corporates #training #softskills #writing #professionalwriting #businesswriting #persuasivecommunciation #connections #startups #trainers #corporates