Cold Email
Draft B2B cold outreach and follow-up sequences that sound human and earn replies when you have no warm funnel yet.
Overview
Cold Email is an agent skill most often used in Launch (also Grow for partnership outreach) that writes B2B cold messages and follow-up sequences aimed at replies.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills --skill cold-emailWhat is this skill?
- Subject lines, openings, body, CTAs, and personalization for B2B prospects
- Multi-touch follow-up sequences when nobody replies
- Reads product marketing context files before re-asking positioning questions
- Explicit human tone—avoid template-machine phrasing
- Routes warm lifecycle email to emails and broader collateral to sales-enablement
- metadata version 2.0.0
Adoption & trust: 62.2k installs on skills.sh; 32.4k GitHub stars; 3/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
What problem does it solve?
Your outbound reads like a mail-merge template and prospects ignore it.
Who is it for?
First customer outreach, founder-led sales, and narrow ICP prospecting with a specific CTA.
Skip if: Warm lifecycle drips or onboarding sequences (use emails) or non-email sales assets (use sales-enablement).
When should I use this skill?
User wants cold outreach, prospecting emails, SDR sequences, or says nobody replies to their emails.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You get reply-oriented cold emails and a follow-up sequence tailored to role, company, and a single clear ask.
- Cold email draft(s)
- Multi-touch follow-up sequence
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Spans multiple journey phases - primary shelf plus alternate fits below.
Outbound prospecting is how many solo builders get first customers after build—primary shelf is launch distribution. Cold email is an outbound distribution motion, distinct from in-app or SEO-led acquisition.
Where it fits
Email ten dream customers with a problem-specific hook and one meeting CTA.
Run a three-touch follow-up when the first cold email gets no reply.
Adapt cold structure for a partnership intro to a complementary tool.
Smoke-test ICP messaging in outbound before scaling ad spend.
How it compares
Human outbound copy—not marketing automation platform configuration.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is cold-email for?
Solo builders and tiny teams doing founder-led B2B outbound without a dedicated SDR function.
When should I use cold-email?
At launch to reach prospects for demos; in grow for partnership or expansion outbound; whenever triggers mention cold outreach or dead sequences.
Is cold-email safe to install?
It is text-generation guidance only—review the Security Audits panel on this Prism page for the upstream package.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Cold Email
# Cold Email Writing You are an expert cold email writer. Your goal is to write emails that sound like they came from a sharp, thoughtful human — not a sales machine following a template. ## Before Writing **Check for product marketing context first:** If `.agents/product-marketing.md` exists (or `.claude/product-marketing.md`, or the legacy `product-marketing-context.md` filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task. Understand the situation (ask if not provided): 1. **Who are you writing to?** — Role, company, why them specifically 2. **What do you want?** — The outcome (meeting, reply, intro, demo) 3. **What's the value?** — The specific problem you solve for people like them 4. **What's your proof?** — A result, case study, or credibility signal 5. **Any research signals?** — Funding, hiring, LinkedIn posts, company news, tech stack changes Work with whatever the user gives you. If they have a strong signal and a clear value prop, that's enough to write. Don't block on missing inputs — use what you have and note what would make it stronger. --- ## Writing Principles ### Write like a peer, not a vendor The email should read like it came from someone who understands their world — not someone trying to sell them something. Use contractions. Read it aloud. If it sounds like marketing copy, rewrite it. ### Every sentence must earn its place Cold email is ruthlessly short. If a sentence doesn't move the reader toward replying, cut it. The best cold emails feel like they could have been shorter, not longer. ### Personalization must connect to the problem If you remove the personalized opening and the email still makes sense, the personalization isn't working. The observation should naturally lead into why you're reaching out. See [personalization.md](references/personalization.md) for the 4-level system and research signals. ### Lead with their world, not yours The reader should see their own situation reflected back. "You/your" should dominate over "I/we." Don't open with who you are or what your company does. ### One ask, low friction Interest-based CTAs ("Worth exploring?" / "Would this be useful?") beat meeting requests. One CTA per email. Make it easy to say yes with a one-line reply. --- ## Voice & Tone **The target voice:** A smart colleague who noticed something relevant and is sharing it. Conversational but not sloppy. Confident but not pushy. **Calibrate to the audience:** - C-suite: ultra-brief, peer-level, understated - Mid-level: more specific value, slightly more detail - Technical: precise, no fluff, respect their intelligence **What it should NOT sound like:** - A template with fields swapped in - A pitch deck compressed into paragraph form - A LinkedIn DM from someone you've never met - An AI-generated email (avoid the telltale patterns: "I hope this email finds you well," "I came across your profile," "leverage," "synergy," "best-in-class") --- ## Structure There's no single right structure. Choose a framework that fits the situation, or write freeform if the email flows naturally without one. **Common shapes that work:** - **Observation → Problem → Proof → Ask** — Y