Sondors claims one localized greeting lifted replies 20%

Frank Sondors says one variable in his sequences, written as localized_greeting, produced a 20% reply rate lift. The variable greets each lead in their own language. German leads get "Hallo", French leads get "Bonjour". His argument is that everyone else opens with "Hey" in English to a prospect sitting in Munich.

What is actually claimed

The post is one sentence of result and one sentence of mechanism. Sondors does not say how many emails went out, to which list, in which countries, or over what period. He does not say whether the 20% is a lift on an A/B split against the same copy with an English greeting, or a before and after across different campaigns. Without that, 20% is a number attached to a tactic, not a measured one.

He is also clear about why he thinks it works, and it is not clever personalization. It is that almost nobody bothers.

For people sending

If you already send into Europe, this is close to free to test. The greeting token sits at the top of email one, it does not touch your offer, your subject line or your sending volume, and it can be derived from country data you most likely already have on the row. That makes it one of the rare copy changes you can run as a clean split without rewriting anything else.

The failure mode is the same as every other language play. A localized greeting on top of an English body can read as a broken merge field rather than as effort, and if your country field is wrong you are greeting a London prospect in German. Both outcomes cost more than the greeting earns. If you test it, test it as a split against your current control and look at replies, not opens.

Treat the 20% as one sender's claim until somebody posts the send count behind it.

Frank Sondors 🥓

@franksondors

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The bar is so low that speaking someone's language is a competitive advantage.