Adding Personality Increased My Email Response Rate 50%

Read the last few emails you've sent to people you're trying to connect with. Did you say the same thing every time? Is 40% of of what you wrote jargon? Do you sound like a robot?

I answered "yes" to most of those questions not too long ago. But then I tried something that I'd like to recommend here.

Forget those emails for a moment. Instead, read any of the past three emails you've wrote to friends.

Did you say the same thing every time? Is 40% of it jargon? Did it sound robotic?

NOPE.

I spent years trying to sound like a professional, a CEO, a boss, trying to impress the people I was trying to learn from, sell to, or try to bring into my network. My emails sounded kind of like this:

But then when I was reading through my personal correspondences, I thought ... hey, that email was not annoying to read. Why don't my business emails ever come off that way? 

Since then, I've been trying two things:

1. Being myself - I consider myself a nice and thoughtful guy.

2. Being straightforward.

It's working at an alarming rate - my replies on connect emails are now over 50%. 

That's nice. Here's an example email I sent --

Clearly, using my personality paid off -- a little effort went a long way. If you decide to try infusing your emails with your personality, I'd love to hear the results!

Editor's note: This post was originally published in December 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.