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- How to skyrocket your reply rates
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💼 Topic: How to skyrocket your reply rates
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TOPIC
How to skyrocket your reply rates
If you follow tech news, then the name Soham Parekh might just ring a bell.
Last week, he was trending all across Silicon Valley headlines.
Not for being a cracked engineer, or for starting the next unicorn.
This guy was secretly working as a full-time SWE at 3-4 different start-ups.
Well, not so secret anymore as he’s since been fired.
But regardless, there’s something we can all learn from his story.
And it’s how he networked his way into these jobs despite a rough market.
The thing is, interviewing is a skill on it’s own, and Soham mastered this skill.
He wasn’t only great at doing passing technical coding assessments, he was also great at cold emailing hiring managers and CEOs.
In today’s article, we’ll be analyzing one of Soham’s many emails that got him hired and the 3 things that made his message so effective.
One of Soham’s actual emails
Using “Re:” in the subject line
When I first noticed this, my immediate reaction was:
Holy sh*t this is smart, why didn’t I do this?
Normally, “Re:” only appears when you’re replying to an email.
Or when someone’s replying to you.
But if you add “Re:” to a cold email, it tricks the reader into thinking they’ve already interacted with you, even though they didn’t.
By doing this subtle yet powerful trick, Soham made his readers believe they already had a previous conversation.
And if they believe they already interacted before, why not keep the conversation going?
It’s an instant nudge of credibility.
This only increases your chances of them opening the email though.
The next goal is having them read it.
Providing a TLDR
The next part of Soham’s strategy was to add a TLDR (too long didn’t read) section at the very beginning of each email.
He knew his audience (mostly CEOs and start-up founders) were incredibly busy.
By adding a TLDR section and sprinkling in some humour, Soham made his emails super easy to digest.
Don’t have 5 minutes to read an email?
Fine, here’s a 10 second TLDR that delivers the same message.
The beauty of this is if your TLDR is captivating enough, it’ll entice the reader to follow through and read the rest.
So far, Soham gave his readers a reason the open, and read his emails, the last part is giving them a reason to reply.
Emphasizing aligned value
Soham knew how to sell himself really well.
Here’s the remainder of that same email.
He does pitch himself, but in a way that makes sense.
If you take look closely, he doesn’t just list off all his achievements.
He first starts by explaining his love and passion for Happenstance; the company he’s emailing.
By mentioning the company first, Soham is laying the foundation for the rest of his achievements to relate to their values.
It’s like saying,
“Here’s what makes you cool and special, and here are all my skills that can make you even more cool and special.”
Remember, the person reading your email is asking “what’s in it for me?”
Answer that, and you’ll give them a reason to reply.
The big picture
The next time you send a cold email, try these 3 Soham-certified hacks.
✅ add a “Re:” at the start of your subject line
✅ include a TLDR section at the beginning
✅ sell yourself, but make it about them
Just don’t end up working at like, 4 different companies.
And if you do, don’t get caught!
That’s all for today. If you enjoyed this post, share it with a friend!
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See you next Tuesday 🤝
-Michael Ly
P.S.
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QUICK LINKS
Running the web
Posts I run across on LinkedIn
🔗 A quick recap of the Soham story [Read post]
🔗 The CEO of Astronomer’s daughter created a TikTok account [Read post]
🔗 5 brutal interview mistakes to avoid [Read post]
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