How to write cold emails that make people think "how did they know that?" — and actually get replies.

<aside> 🚀

Sketchief researches each lead, finds the signals and golden nuggets, and writes personalised two-line openers and full email sequences automatically. Check it out here →

</aside>

Hey, I'm Ollie — founder of Sketchief.

Before I built Sketchief, I spent 8 months obsessing over cold email — going from a 2–3% reply rate to consistently hitting 11–16%. And one of the biggest things I learned is that personalisation, done wrong, is just as useless as no personalisation at all.

In fact, in 2026, bad personalisation might actually be worse than none. Because it signals to the recipient that you're using AI, you didn't actually look at them, and you're one of the 50 cold emails they're going to ignore today.

This guide is about how to do it properly.

Guide Sections

🤖 What AI Did to Personalisation

🚫 The Mistakes That Kill Personalisation

🧠 The Two Types of Personalisation

🔍 Type 1: Deep Research Personalisation

✍️ How to Actually Write the Opener

🎯 Type 2: Relevance Personalisation

📉 When Niching Replaces Individual Research

📬 What a Great Opener Actually Looks Like

🚀 Let Sketchief Do This For You