I suppose I'm more of a pragmatist. I'm happy when someone spells my name right. ;)

But in all seriousness, I agree the more personal the better as long as they aren't fake personal, meaning: They glanced at your profile and mentioned something on it in an attempt to be more personal.

The challenge these days is you're likely a name on a list and part of the cattle call based on that to which you subscribed. With email automation, personalization goes out the window.

Yes, one could argue that there's a difference to opting into a newsletter vs someone, say connecting with you on social media and sending you a note (my pet peeve and whole separate topic).

But say, you did get a stranger's email address. How do you personalize? One way is research. I would never reach out to a reporter I didn't know without doing my research, reading their articles, following them on social media, and making a real connection.

However, if we are talking about sales, I personally believe that individual personalized emails will soon be a thing of the past. I still do get them, but then again, they are from complete strangers who got my email address somehow. That then teeters on the spam territory. Now my guard is up.

For me to be remotely interested, their note has to really get me: "Hey Kelly - How are all of the dogs?" Now, I know they've done their homework (or they're stalking me). Either way, they know what's deeply personal to me.

Reaching out and saying: "Hey Kelly - I see you co-founded a nonprofit animal rescue..." Yea, yea. That's on all of my social media profiles, now what the hell do you want?

I 100% agree entrepreneurs should be asking themselves deeper questions when it comes to outreach. I will take that step further: "What can I write that can give value to this specific person?" Otherwise, it's all "me, me, me."

I personally, think the best way to get someone's attention is to offer value from very beginning. Rather than personalized small talk, I think people want to know you care about them. That's what can get a response. Tell me why should I read on? Why would I care?

To me- and this is just me - I don't care what your intro says. As long as you get my name right, and you're giving me a good reason to hear what you have to say, I'm all ears, or er, eyes.

Sorry for the diatribe. Maybe I should turn this into a blog post.