What is relevance-based personalization vs token-based?

These two approaches to personalization differ fundamentally in their impact.

Token-based personalization:

• Inserts data into template fields
• Hi [FIRST_NAME], I noticed you work at [COMPANY]
• Easy to scale but obvious to recipients
• Better than nothing but not differentiating
• Feels automated because it is automated

Relevance-based personalization:

• Explains why this outreach makes sense for this person
• Connects their specific situation to your offering
• Requires understanding, not just data
• Harder to scale but much more effective
• Feels human because it requires human judgment

Examples:

Token-based: Hi Sarah, I see you're VP of Marketing at TechCorp.

Relevance-based: Noticed TechCorp just raised Series B. When companies scale marketing teams at this stage, they often struggle with [specific challenge you solve].

Practical application:

• Use tokens for necessary customization (names, companies)
• Use relevance for opening hooks and value propositions
• Segment audiences to enable relevance at scale
• Invest more personalization effort in higher-value prospects