The fundamental promise of personalised cold email is that the sender chose this specific person for a specific reason. When there is no real research behind the email, that promise is broken in the first line — and the recipient knows it immediately. The gap between "I researched you" and "I targeted you" is visible to every professional who receives cold email regularly, which is every professional.
Research does not mean spending an hour on every contact. It means having enough specific, observable information about the person and their situation to write one sentence that could not have been written to anyone else. Five minutes of focused research produces this. Zero minutes of research produces another generic template.
Where to Research Cold Email Prospects
- LinkedIn: Recent posts (what they care about publicly), recent job changes (what they are focusing on in this role), skills endorsements (what their peers value in them), company updates (what is happening at the organisation).
- Company website and press releases: Recent product launches, new partnerships, expansion announcements, executive hires. These are the trigger events that make outreach timely and relevant.
- Job listings: A company's current job postings are a window into their current priorities, technology stack, and growth areas. If they are hiring 10 engineers in one specific area, they are investing there.
- Industry news and trade press: Sector-specific events, regulatory changes, competitive moves that affect the prospect's industry specifically.
How to Use Research Without Being Creepy
Reference professional and public information only — their published work, company announcements, publicly visible career changes. Do not reference personal information or demonstrate knowledge of the prospect's life outside their professional context. The goal is to signal "I read your professional work" not "I have been watching you." There is a line, and staying on the right side of it is both ethical and strategically necessary.