Consequences of lazy email templates

I started my freelance writer newsletter in 2018, and I used to find so much value in sharing leads with PR friends there. After an email went out, I'd receive many high-quality leads and sources in my inbox, and it made my job a lot easier. Not anymore. Now, I rarely share leads in my newsletter. Here's why. PR professionals who respond to them are not following instructions and are not putting much thought into them, and the value has majorly dropped. For instance, in my newsletter last week, I shared that I was looking for the following: -- Cruise lines offering new golf experiences -- Prestigious golf resorts with new activities catering to beginner golfers -- Golf resorts offering golf experiences/activities specifically geared toward women -- Destinations that have seen a rise in female travel groups booking trips that include golf -- Traditional golf resorts adding new amenities that cater to the whole family and go beyond just golf What I actually got? Dozens of responses from PR saying, "Here are all my golf clients; let me know if any are a fit for your stories!" with long, generic blurbs about each golf course or resort pasted into the email. Some even came in with the subject line, "Subject line" (if I wasn't confused enough). TL;DR: More thoughtfulness, less words. I would MUCH rather receive a *2-sentence* email from you, with a relevant subject line, that very briefly shares (in your own words) how your client fits into what I am looking for, than receive these long emails that take a lot of back and forth to actually get anywhere. A quick email that adds value and begins a conversation between us does wonders for building a relationship and greatly improves our chances of collaborating on a story. Freelance writer newsletters take a lot of time to produce, and sending garbage pitches through this route is only adding to the clutter, tarnishing yet another channel we use for leads. Fellow #freelancewriters, have you noticed more of these lazy responses lately? What do you do when PR pros don't follow instructions for submitting you ideas?

my team lost 3 weeks of email outreach. Here's why. We sent 2,000 cold emails. Open rate? Near zero. Replies? Nothing. Landed in spam? Almost all of them. The worst part — we didn't even know it was happening. Google's latest update didn't just filter our emails. It silently killed them before they even arrived. No bounce notification. No warning. Just... silence. That's the new reality for anyone doing email outreach in 2025. Here's what was hurting us (maybe you too): → No proper DMARC setup → Sending too many emails too fast → Copy-paste templates with zero real personalization → A spam complaint rate we never bothered to check Honestly? We deserved it. What we fixed: → Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC properly (took 1 afternoon) → Slowed down. 10/15 emails/day instead of 50 → Wrote emails like we were texting a colleague not selling to a stranger → Cleaned our list. Cut it in half. Results doubled. The hard truth: Google isn't punishing email outreach. It's punishing lazy email outreach. If your email wouldn't make someone smile or think it probably shouldn't be sent. Less volume. More intention. That's the game now. Are you still sending the old way? 👇

The Mistake 90% of Job Seekers Make When Cold Emailing 🚨 Last week, I posted about hiring for Product Manager Interns at SuperAGI. The response? OVERWHELMING. My inbox was hit with 1000+ resumes. 😵 But here’s the truth: 90% of those emails were a complete miss. 😓 Every email looked like a copy-paste job. The subject lines? Identical. The intros? ChatGPT-generated fluff. Here’s where most candidates went wrong: 1. Boring Subject Lines: “Application for Product Manager Intern” was literally every subject line. Imagine receiving 1000+ emails with the same subject line. Why would a recruiter or Hiring Manager click on your email? If your email subject isn’t grabbing attention, it’s getting lost. Make it BOLD, CREATIVE, and UNIQUE. 2. Generic, AI-Generated Content: I can spot an AI-generated email from a mile away. Most of the emails had the same opening paragraph, word-for-word. No personality, no originality. Show me YOU, not what an AI thinks you should be. 3. LAZY MISTAKES: Believe it or not, some emails still had “[Company Name]” or “[Relevant work at Company]” placeholders left in. If you’re not even taking the time to proofread, why would I or any Recruiter take the time to read? 4. Lack of Personal Connection: Why us? Why this role? If you don’t show you’ve done your homework on SuperAGI, you’re just another name in a long list. Personalize it, make it clear why you’re not just blasting this to 50 other companies. Here’s the hard truth: Your email is your first impression. If you’re blending in with the crowd, you’re already losing. So if you want to stand out, think outside the template, be bold, and SHOW UP. 🚀 Want me to share some of the best emails I received? Comment down below and I’ll share it in the next post.

𝐈 𝐫𝐞𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐈 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐃𝐅. This sounds harsh, but it is exactly what happens in recruitment offices every day. I post job alerts regularly to help my network, but I need to call out a concerning trend. More than 70% of the applications I receive come with a message that just says: - "Please find attached my CV." - Or worse "Hi." - Or even worse, a blank email with a file dropped in. Here is the reality check: Your email body is your first interview round. If you send a lazy message, you are signaling to the recruiter that you lack business communication skills. You are telling them you don't care enough to make an effort. In a competitive market, that is an instant rejection. Professionalism isn't just about the work you do; it's about how you present yourself before you even get the job. So, how do you fix this? Stop treating job applications like casual DMs. Write a Cover Note. It doesn't have to be long, but it must be structured: 1. Who are you? (e.g., "I am an ACCA Affiliate...") 2. Why you? (Highlight one key strength or experience) 3. Why them? (Show you know who you are emailing) 4. Formal Sign-off Treat every communication as a test of your professionalism. Because it is. #CareerAdvice #JobSearch #Professionalism #Recruitment #SoftSkills

We were sending 1,000 cold emails to Amazon Sellers a week... and hearing nothing but silence. A few months back, we noticed something strange. We were sending cold emails every week, same structure, same offers, same targeting. But reply rates started dropping. Fast. At first, we blamed the list. Then the offer. Then the tool. Typical agency reaction: tweak the tech, not the thinking. But one day, we sat down and actually re-read the emails we were sending. And the truth hit: we were writing for ourselves, not the sellers. So we flipped it. We started building every message around what sellers were already talking about. Tariff spikes. Profit margins. Review manipulation crackdowns. Logistics delays. Real stuff. The difference was instant. What started as a few experiments became a monthly broadcast — not just for us, but for the partner agencies in our circle. Every month, one message. Built from seller pain. And it works. That’s the lesson. Cold email isn’t dead. But lazy email is. Sellers don’t want a pitch. They want someone who understands the problem they’re losing sleep over. You do that, you earn the reply. #AuthorityContent #AmazonAgency #ColdEmailWakeUp #SellerLeads #EcommGrowth #EmailThatWorks #StorytellingInBusiness #AgencyLessons

Your sales emails suck. And guess what? I know because I get 30 of them a day. I see the same mistakes over and over...the boring intros, the endless rambling, and the generic pitches that make my inbox feel like a nightmare. Want to know why? Because your email has 3 seconds to make an impression. THREE. Seconds. That's how long you have before I hit "delete" So if you’re not cutting through the noise, you’re just part of the problem. Here’s why your outreach isn’t working: 🚫 Cut the fluff, now – “Hope you’re doing well” or “Just checking in” is a one-way ticket to the trash. No one has time for that. If you don’t get to the point within the first 5 words, you’re done. ✂️ Get to the point fast – Lengthy emails are a killer. Research shows emails under 50 words see 83% more replies. That means if you're writing a novel, you’re already losing. 📚 Personalize (like actually personalize) – "I see you're in [insert job title here]”—that's not personalization, it’s lazy. Do your homework and show that you understand my specific challenges and goals. If you don’t, I’m clicking delete before you even finish your sentence. 🎯 Relevance matters more than anything – If your email isn’t directly tied to what I’m trying to accomplish, it’s not going to get a reply. I don’t need a generic pitch; I need to know how you can help me solve my problems today. 🔥 Stop the lazy copy-paste – If I can tell you’re sending the same message to 100 people, I’m out. Your outreach should feel like you’re speaking to me, not to the entire world. Personalization isn’t just a buzzword. You’ve got 3 seconds to grab attention and show value. If you’re still using the same tired tactics, you’re wasting your time...and mine. 🎤 🫳 ALSO MASSIVE SHOUTOUT to the folks using video to prospect, can say that personalized video messages get a response from me every time. I LOVE them.

We are currently running email best practice training with my sales team and let me tell you, it has been both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because sharpening our skills, breaking down what actually captures a buyer’s attention, and refining our approach felt like leveling up. A curse because now… I can’t unsee bad prospecting emails. It continues to surprise me how many sellers are out there sending templated, impersonal, or lazy messages, completely missing the mark on what makes buyers engage. And it made me realize: this isn’t just a “nice to have.” It’s a reflection of our profession. Every poorly written email chips away at the credibility of salespeople as a whole. So what’s the point here? If you lead a sales team, invest in training and coaching. Not once a year. Not only for new hires. Make it a constant. Because every lazy email isn’t just a missed opportunity, it’s a reputational risk for your brand and for the craft of selling itself, and that’s something I’m determined to change. #salesrevolution #salesleadership #salesdoneproperly