What is cold personalization?

Cold personalization uses third-party data only with approximately 2 data points per message, such as LinkedIn profile info and company website data. It's best used for top-of-funnel outreach to net-new prospects.

Data Report · 1M+ Assets Analyzed · Authors: Devin Reed & Livia Han

Marketing Personalization That Converts:

Q: Does personalization actually drive results?

Yes. Warm personalization drives 3× higher engagement rates compared to cold personalization.

Q: What is warm personalization?

Warm personalization combines first-party and third-party data with approximately 7 data points per message (3.5× more than cold). This includes deal stage, seller notes, closed-lost reasons, downloaded assets, product usage, progressive form fills, and stated goals. It's ideal for nurture campaigns, re-engagement, and pipeline acceleration.

What 1M AI-generated marketing assets reveals about cold vs. warm personalization — and why one drives 3× higher engagement.

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The BIG Question…
And the Shocking Answer

We analyzed over 1 million marketing assets created in Tofu to answer one question:

Does personalization actually drive results?

ENGAGEMENT RATE: COLD VS. WARM PERSONALIZATION

1×

Cold

3×

Warm

Warm personalization drives 3× higher engagement than cold outreach

Let's Define Personalization

Not all personalization drives the same results.

❄️

Cold Personalization

Third-party data only

~2 data points per message

LinkedIn profile info

Company website data

Use case: Top-of-funnel outreach to net-new prospects

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Warm Personalization

First-party + third-party data

~7 data points per message (3.5× more)

Deal stage

Seller notes

Closed-lost reasons

Downloaded assets

Product usage

Progressive form fills

Stated goals

Use case: Nurture campaigns, re-engagement, pipeline acceleration

Cold personalization says "I know who you are."

Warm personalization says "I know where you've been."

(Without being creepy 😅)

See the Difference in Practice

One feels like spam. The other feels like genuine help.

Cold Outreach

"Hi {{first_name}} , I saw you work at {{company}} ..."

2 generic merge fields. Easily ignored.

Warm Outreach

"Hi Sarah, I noticed your team downloaded our ABM playbook last month but hasn't moved forward. Given that you mentioned pipeline visibility was your top priority in Q4, I thought this case study on how [similar company] improved forecast accuracy by 34% might be helpful..."

7 contextual data points. Gets the meeting.

Tofu customers create 3.17× more warm campaigns than cold ones

And 100% of automated demand gen workflows use warm personalization.

What This Means for You

The shift is already happening. Companies are investing in tools like 6sense, RB2B, and Keyplay specifically to get more targeted data — to enable better personalization.

Deal cycles are getting longer and budgets are getting tighter. You can't afford to burn touchpoints on generic outreach anymore.

The marketers winning with AI aren't just personalizing — they're personalizing with data that proves they understand their prospects' specific situation.

The Playbook

How to get more people to click, consume, and convert on your campaigns.

Use cold personalization at top of funnel

It still works for first touch when you need scale.

Double down on warm for everything post-first-touch

This is where engagement matters most — and where you have the data to be helpful.

Automate warm workflows where it counts

Nurture sequences and closed-lost re-engagement should run on autopilot with first-party data baked in.

Ready to See It Work?

Pick your path depending on where you are.

🎯

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See warm personalization workflows in action with a live walkthrough.

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📋

Download 5 Warm Automated Campaign Plays

Plug and play template with 5 end-to-end lifecycle and demand campaigns.

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Bottom Line

Personalization works BIG time.

But personalization isn't the advantage anymore — everyone's doing it. The key is personalizing with context that proves you've been paying attention to your prospect's actual journey.

Stop asking "Are we personalizing enough?"
Start asking "Are we personalizing with the right data?"

That's the difference between missing and blowing out your pipeline targets.

Automate your warm demand gen campaigns today!

Start using these frameworks today in Tofu and see the difference in your AI-powered marketing workflows.

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