Free Email Personalization Checker Tokens, Spintax & Depth
{{firstName}} is not personalization it's mail merge. This checker measures real personalization depth: token usage, spintax for variation, references to triggers (funding, hiring, launches), and flags generic filler phrases that read as bulk mail.
How this check works
- 01
Detects merge tokens ({{...}} or {...}) and counts distinct variables.
- 02
Detects spintax blocks ({option1|option2}) used for variation at scale.
- 03
Scans for trigger vocabulary (raised, hiring, launched, promoted, expanded) vs generic filler ('I hope this email finds you well').
- 04
Outputs a personalization depth score with concrete upgrade suggestions.
How to fix common problems
Token-only personalization
Add one sentence tied to a company-level trigger. Even a light 'saw you're hiring SDRs' outperforms name tokens alone.
Generic openers
Delete 'hope you're well' openers. Start with the observation about them it's the only line guaranteed to be read.
Example
'Hi {{firstName}}, I help companies like yours grow' scores shallow. 'Saw Acme just opened a second clinic usually when owners call us about pipeline' scores deep.
FAQ
- What is spintax in cold email?
- Spintax is {option A|option B} syntax that sending tools rotate to vary copy across sends, reducing fingerprinting. It helps deliverability but is not personalization.
- How personalized should cold email be?
- First line: genuinely specific. Body: segment-relevant. Scaling beyond that has diminishing returns vs list quality.
- Can AI write the personalized lines?
- Yes Clay + an AI step can draft trigger-based first lines at scale. Keep them short and fact-checked against the enrichment data.
Want this handled end-to-end?
We build and run the whole outbound system infrastructure, lists, and copy live in 10 days.
See the cold email system