{"id":178,"date":"2026-10-06T15:50:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T14:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aigtmstudio.com\/blog\/why-is-your-outreach-still-failing-most-offers-still-suck\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T15:57:01","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T14:57:01","slug":"why-is-your-outreach-still-failing-most-offers-still-suck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aigtmstudio.com\/blog\/why-is-your-outreach-still-failing-most-offers-still-suck\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Is Your Outreach Still Failing? Most Offers Still Suck"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taylor Haren recently shared the results<\/a> of a $5,722 AI personalisation test: 873,641 cold emails across 26 campaign variants, three of them using AI personalisation.<\/p>\n

His key take-away? Personalisation doesn’t produce better results.<\/p>\n

And if the whole thing is handled by AI, it has a negative impact.<\/p>\n

My take is that relevance and a strong offer are the two most important elements to make outreach successful, outside of technical issues like deliverability (for email).<\/p>\n

But most offers still suck. It’s where so much outbound fails.<\/p>\n

Where personalisation fits<\/h2>\n

To make outbound work, personalisation is not needed. And yes, it could actually be a distraction that runs counter to the performance.<\/p>\n

However it’s context specific, so really good personalisation combined with high relevance and a great offer may yield even better results.<\/p>\n

Just to optimise your campaign around it. If you can do it really well, think of it as a bonus. Otherwise, put your energy into the other elements.<\/p>\n

The sequencing I’d use is great offer first, relevance second, personalisation third (and optional).<\/p>\n

Asking for a call is not an offer<\/h2>\n

The majority of cold outreach still simply asks for a fifteen minute call, which is not really an offer.<\/p>\n

The type of offer I don’t really love is the one where you say you’ve got something for them, but don’t give it.<\/p>\n

So: “I’ve run a review of your website and have five SEO fixes that I could give to you. Do you want them?” I think almost everyone sees that as the equivalent of click bait now, and I don’t think there’ll be that many responses left.<\/p>\n

If you’re going to do that, then you need to at least show proof. You need to give a receipt. For example, send the Loom video of you running through those changes, and then maybe follow up with the files they need to actually make them. That turns a spurious offer into an authentic offer.<\/p>\n

Weaker offers will also be things that might be technically content, but they’re not actually that useful to the individual you’re sending it to.<\/p>\n

So it could be thin content or self-promotional content, content that’s purely written for and by your company with no external validation. Those are the types of “content offers” (air quotes!) that don’t tend to perform all that well.<\/p>\n

The test: would they pay for it?<\/h2>\n

The simplest heuristic to separate a good offer from a bad one is this: is it good enough for them to pay for?<\/p>\n

There are three different kinds of offers worth thinking about: content\/insights\/data, services, and events\/experiences. If your first messages DON’T contain at least one of these, there’s a strong chance you’re going to get ignored.<\/p>\n