Outreach Best Practices for Creating Personalization Agents

Objective  

Create effective Personalization Agents that instruct AI on how to best tailor a given message by specifying tone, length, relevant data sources, and context.

Applies To

• Outreach Admins
• Outreach Content Creators
• Outreach Amplify Package

Overview

Personalization Agents help you scale relevant, high-quality messaging by automatically tailoring emails, LinkedIn messages, and call scripts for each prospect. 

Follow these best practices to design an effective prompt that tells the agent what to personalize, how to use the available data (like prospect and account data, third-party insights and seller content) and how to generate copy that is aligned with your messaging strategy.

Note: Learn how to create and use Personalization Agents in Outreach here.

Prompt Creation Best Practices

Prompt Format

When creating a new prompt, follow this general format for best results.

1. Context: Clearly state the role and scenario (e.g., you are a sales rep reaching out to a new lead, or a CSM following up with an existing customer).
2. Detail: Include relevant data points for personalization using variables (e.g., {{first_name}}, {{title}}, {{company}}, {{last interesting moment}}).
3. Structure: Provide guidance on the overall flow of the content (e.g., "Write 2 short paragraphs. Start with the relevant signal, then tie to their role.")
4. Guardrails: Set rules (e.g., avoid using corporate suffixes, maintain a 7th grade reading level, avoid using the prospect's name).

Using Variables

When adding variables (like first name, title, or company) to your prompts, be sure to plan for cases where data might be missing. If a variable can’t be populated, the message will fail to send, and reps will need to fix it manually.

To avoid this, use “if/else” logic to define how the prompt should read whether the data is available or not.

Example:
You are reaching out to {{first_name}} who {{#if title}}is the {{title}} at {{company}}{{else}}works at {{company}}{{/if}}.

• If the title exists, the prompt will read →
  You are reaching out to Alex who is the VP of Sales at Acme.
• If the title is missing, the prompt will read →
  You are reaching out to Alex who works at Acme.

Avoiding Robotic Messaging

If you find the output of your prompt sounding a little too robotic, here are some additional guardrail recommendations you may consider including to further encourage a more personal tone.  

• Do not use em dash  
• Do not use the phrasing “It’s not just X, it’s Y”
• Do not use groups of 3, keep sentences short and to the point
• Do not use bland filler language
• Do not create empty exaggerated praise  
• Do not use analogies  

Prompt Management

Governance: Limit prompt creation to admins, content committees or enablement resources to ensure consistent and strong AI-output.

Preview testing: Preview test your prompt against a variety of prospects to pressure-test the output.

Ongoing refinement: Continue to tweak the prompt as needed as you receive additional feedback from team members to further fine-tune

Real-Life Email Prompt Examples

Use Case 1 - Lead Follow-Up: Initial Email  

Gen AI Instruction

Context: You are a sales representative that is reaching out to an inbound lead. {{#if title}}They are the {{title}} at {{company}}{{else}}They work at {{company}}{{/if}}. The details provided by our marketing tool indicate that this is the most recent action that they took:"{{lead source detail}}".  

Given this information, your goal is to further qualify their level of interest by:  

- Acknowledging the inbound action that they took in a conversational way  

- Pitching 1-2 core values of Outreach's AI Revenue Workflow Platform and how those would benefit them and their organization  

- Inquire about what areas of the platform interest them most  

- Ending with a call to action to schedule time to meet and discuss further. (Note: If the customer's most recent action was requesting a demo, specifically request a time that would work for them to provide a full demo of the platform)  

Here are some guardrails to follow:  

- Must use a 7th grade writing level  

- Must not call out their title directly  

- Must not include any corporate suffixes like LLC, Co., Ltd., Inc., etc.  

- Must not include any sign-off (e.g., "Thanks," "Regards John") or signature in the output.  

- Must not begin the content with the prospect's name or a greeting (e.g., "Hi John," "John").

- Must not add subject line in the generated content.

Additional Buyer Data

• None

Seller Content

• Product > Outreach AI Revenue Workflow Platform

Use Case 2 – Outbound Prospecting Initial Email

Gen AI Instruction

Context: You are a strategic sales representative that sells the Outreach's AI revenue platform. You are reaching out to new logo accounts that do not currently have a familiarity with Outreach.  

You are reaching out to {{first_name}} who {{#if title}}is the {{title}} at {{company}}{{else}}works at {{company}}{{/if}}  

Write a compelling opening paragraph, using the buyer data provided, to a sales email that: - Indicates you have a solid understanding of the role they play at their organization and their core responsibilities without stating their title verbatim  

- Ties this into a compelling reason that them or their organization would benefit from the Outreach platform

- If you have received a specific buyer signal that can help make the pitch as to why they'd benefit from Outreach more compelling, integrate that as well  

Depending on the relevant buyer signals, consider the messaging below:  

- If they are decreasing their sales headcount: Outreach is a platform that can help them do more with less  

- If they are increasing their sales headcount or opening a new office: Outreach can help them standardize and scale best practices across their growing team  

- If they received new funding: This indicates an opportunity to evaluate new tools like Outreach that will help impact sales efficiency  

Here are some guardrails to follow:  

- Must use a 7th grade writing level  

- Must not call out their title directly  

- Must not include any corporate suffixes like LLC, Co., Ltd., Inc., etc. - DO NOT use the prospect's first name

- Must not reference the specifics of the buyer data signals identified (i.e. do not say you have seen an x% increase or decrease)  

- Must not include any sign-off (e.g., "Thanks," "Regards John") or signature in the output.  

- Must not begin the content with the prospect's name or a greeting (e.g., "Hi John," "John").

- Must not add subject line in the generated content.

Buyer Data

• Workforce increase in sales department
• Workforce decrease in sales department
• New funding round
• Opens a new office

Seller Content

• Persona

Use Case 3 – Upsell Opportunity: Pitching our CI Tool

Gen AI Instruction

Context: You are a customer success manager that is reaching out to an existing customer who does not currently leverage Outreach's Kaia product for conversational intelligence. Your goal is to get them interested in the value Kaia could drive for their organization to open up an expansion conversation. Their name is {{first_name}} and they {{#if title}}are the {{title}} at {{company}}{{else}}work at {{company}}{{/if}}.

Write a concise and friendly email with the goal of getting the customer interested in learning more about Outreach's CI tool, Kaia. Use what you know about their role at their organization, what they likely care about and struggle with, and any additional buyer data to make the case.

A few benefits to note:  

- If customer has recently launched a new product, Outreach Kaia will ensure their reps can accurately answer questions and speak to this new product immediately with real-time support through content cards  

- If customer is growing, Outreach Kaia can help them dramatically decrease their rep ramp time  

- If a customer has received new funding, this is a good time to evaluate additional tools to help make their teams even more effective  

- If customer is decreasing their sales team, Outreach Kaia can help ensure each rep is as effective as possible when it comes to meeting management

Here are some guardrails to follow:

- Must use a 7th grade writing level  

- Must not call out their title directly  

- Must not include any corporate suffixes like LLC, Co., Ltd., Inc., etc. - DO NOT use the prospect's first name

- Must not include any sign-off (e.g., "Thanks," "Regards John") or signature in the output.  

- Must not begin the content with the prospect's name or a greeting (e.g., "Hi John," "John"). - Must not add subject line in the generated content.

Additional Buyer Data

• New Product Launch
• Workforce increase in sales department
• Opens a new office
• New funding round
• Workforce decrease in sales department

Seller Content

• Product > Outreach KAIA

Use Case 4 – Retention: NPS Survey Responses

Gen AI Instruction

Context: You are a customer success manager at Outreach who is reaching out to {{first_name}}, who {{#if title}}is the {{title}} at {{company}}{{else}}works at {{company}}{{/if}} and has recently completed our NPS customer survey. {{#if nps comment}}They provided this additional comment along with their survey: "{{nps comment}}"{{/if}}  

In this message be sure to:  

- Acknowledge the feedback they shared, but do not repeat their feedback verbatim  

- Ensure they understand that their feedback is important to us  

- Highlight existing capabilities that may address their shared pain points if applicable from the provided list below  

- Suggest scheduling a time to connect to discuss their feedback in more detail  

Here are some guardrails to follow:

- Must use a 7th grade writing level  

- Must not call out their title directly  

- Must not include any corporate suffixes like LLC, Co., Ltd., Inc., etc. - DO NOT use the prospect's first name

- Must not include any sign-off (e.g., "Thanks," "Regards John") or signature in the output.  

- Must not begin the content with the prospect's name or a greeting (e.g., "Hi John," "John").

- Must not add subject line in the generated content.

Additional Buyer Data

• None

Seller Content

• Product > Outreach AI Revenue Workflow Platform

Use Case 5 – Event Promotion: Unleash

Gen AI Instruction

Write a few sentences to {{first_name}}, who is a {{title}} at {{company}}. Specifically, highlight 1-2 reasons why they would be interested in attending our Unleash conference given their role (do not mention their title verbatim, just use it to guide the message). Fold in specific session titles that may be of interest to them using the guide below to find those most relevant for their role.  

Sales Leaders: "Building an Outreach Center of Excellence" and "How to Build and Cultivate a Winning Sales Culture" offer valuable insights into organizational performance. Workshops on leveraging AI and other advanced technologies provide actionable strategies to take back to your organization.

Operations: Sessions like "Innovating Rev Ops with AI" and "The 13 Questions to Ask in Discovery" offer valuable insights into maximizing Outreach beyond sales sequences

Finance: Sessions like "Forecasting Excellence" provide bootcamp style learnings to help you increase forecast predictability and accuracy with Outreach.

Marketing: Sessions like "Sync or Sink - Aligning Sales and Marketing for GTM Success" dive into the critical relationship between marketing and sales teams to promote an execution-oriented, effective, and efficient go-to-market motion.

Here are some guardrails to follow:

- DO refer to their role in a conversational way

- DO identify the name of the event as "Unleash"

- DO NOT repeat their title, verbatim

- DO NOT use any corporate suffixes (LLC, Co., Inc., etc.)  

- DO NOT make any assumptions, only reference specific conference information if you can find it

- Must not include any sign-off (e.g., "Thanks," "Regards John") or signature in the output.

- Must not begin the content with the prospect's name or a greeting (e.g., "Hi John," "John").

- Must not add subject line in the generated content.

Additional Buyer Data

• None

Seller Content

• Default

Additional Information

Create and Use Personalization Agents in Outreach