Let’s do a quick exercise. Pretend you’re a boss, or pretend you’re The Boss, and you need to hire someone. For any job. Doesn’t even matter what it is. And you get two cover letters in response to your ad, or even via a personal introduction from a common acquaintance. The first says:
Hi Mike,
I saw your job offer and I think I’m perfectly qualified for this job! My qualifications include [insert list here]. I’m looking forward to hearing from you,
Scott
Or, on the other hand, imagine you got this cover letter:
Hi Mike,
I saw that you’re looking for a [insert job summary here] on your job offer. I just deep-dived into your company’s web page, and after learning that you guys [insert something unique about the company] I got excited about the position because [connect what’s unique to something you’re passionate about]. In addition to that, your company’s vision to [insert one aspect of their vision here] is motivating to me because [of something about you]. I can’t wait to talk to you, please let me know when a good time to interview me is!
Scott
Okay, so you already realize that the second one is much better, and much more likely to be effective in getting you the interview than the first one. But why?
Above all, because it is personal and it is personalized.
There is a hypothetical world, 50 years ago, in which “spam” was just an affordable canned food or yellow letters you got in the physical mail that said, “You’ve won a million dollars, just cash this check!” But not today. Today, we live in a world in which every adult in the first world is bombarded with information non-stop—and most of it is low-quality. Separating the signal from the noise has become a crucial task, on an hourly or more basis, for survival.
And the same applies to the boss. By making your cover letter personal and personalized, you immediately put yourself out of the 99% spam category and into the top 1%.
An additional reason to do this is that it shows you’re willing to put in the time and effort for something important (i.e., getting this job.) Which, in turn, implies you’re a careful and thoughtful person. Personalizing content, takes time and energy, but it goes a long way.
Finally, it’s important to remember that the cover letter here is only an example. Forget applying for a job, forget this context. This same rule applies more broadly in life. Do you want to give a client a list of SEO suggestions? Should you give him a 20-item bullet point list you created last year (or worse, that you found online)? Or do you want to take that list and tweak it and personalize it for his particular case?
Sometimes, a little effort yields disproportionate rewards—and that is really just a reframing of the eternally-important 80/20 rule. Personalizing content yourself is in the category of “hacks” that more than carries its own weight.
