Write B2B cold emails and follow-up sequences that get replies — "cold outreach," "prospecting email," "outbound email," "SDR emails," "nobody's replying to my emails." Covers subject lines, openers, body copy, CTAs, personalization, and multi-touch follow-ups. For warm/lifecycle sequences, see email-sequence. For sales collateral beyond emails, see sales-enablement.
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---
name: cold-email
description: Write B2B cold emails and follow-up sequences that get replies — "cold outreach," "prospecting email," "outbound email," "SDR emails," "nobody's replying to my emails." Covers subject lines, openers, body copy, CTAs, personalization, and multi-touch follow-ups. For warm/lifecycle sequences, see email-sequence. For sales collateral beyond emails, see sales-enablement.
category: marketing
tier: on-demand
---
# Cold Email Writing
Write emails that sound like a sharp, thoughtful human — not a sales machine following a template.
## Before Writing
**Product context:** If `.agents/product-marketing-context.md` exists (or `.claude/product-marketing-context.md` in older setups), read it first and tailor output to it; only ask for what it doesn't cover.
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: a strong signal plus a clear value prop is 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
Read like someone who understands their world, not someone selling. 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.
### Personalization must connect to the problem
If removing the personalized opening leaves the email intact, the personalization isn't working — the observation should lead naturally 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" dominates "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, easy to say yes to with a one-line reply.
---
## Voice & Tone
**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
**Avoid these patterns — they signal template or AI-generated email:**
- Opening with "I hope this email finds you well" or "My name is X and I work at Y"
- Jargon: "synergy," "leverage," "circle back," "best-in-class," "leading provider"
- Feature dumps — one proof point beats ten features
- HTML, images, or multiple links
- Fake "Re:" or "Fwd:" subject lines
- Identical templates with only {{FirstName}} swapped
- Asking for 30-minute calls in first touch
- "Just checking in" follow-ups
- Sounding like a pitch deck compressed into paragraph form or a LinkedIn DM from a stranger
---
## Structure
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** — You noticed X, which usually means Y challenge. We helped Z with that. Interested?
- **Question → Value → Ask** — Struggling with X? We do Y. Company Z saw [result]. Worth a look?
- **Trigger → Insight → Ask** — Congrats on X. That usually creates Y challenge. We've helped similar companies with that. Curious?
- **Story → Bridge → Ask** — [Similar company] had [problem]. They [solved it this way]. Relevant to you?
Full catalog of frameworks with examples: [frameworks.md](references/frameworks.md).
---
## Examples
### Example 1: Observation → Problem → Proof → Ask
**Subject:** hiring sres
**Body:**
Noticed you're hiring 3 SREs — usually means the on-call load is getting unsustainable for the current team.
We built an alert routing layer that cut Brex's mean-time-to-acknowledge from 12 min to under 2. Their SRE team went from 24/7 rotation to business-hours-only within a quarter.
Worth a 15-min look at whether something similar applies to your setup?
### Example 2: Trigger → Insight → Ask
**Subject:** series b ops
**Body:**
Congrats on the round — saw the announcement this morning.
In my experience, the 6 months after a B usually surface a finance ops bottleneck: more vendors, more headcount, same 2-person finance team closing the books manually. Lattice hit that wall at almost exactly your stage and moved their close from 18 days to 5 after we helped automate the reconciliation piece.
If that resonates at all, happy to share what the first 30 days looked like for them.
---
## Subject Lines
Short, boring, internal-looking — the subject line's only job is to get the email opened, not to sell.
- 2-4 words, lowercase, no punctuation tricks
- Should look like it came from a colleague ("reply rates," "hiring ops," "Q2 forecast")
- No product pitches, urgency, emojis, or prospect's first name
Full data: [subject-lines.md](references/subject-lines.md).
---
## Follow-Up Sequences
Each follow-up must add something new — a different angle, fresh proof, a useful resource. "Just checking in" gives no reason to respond.
- 3-5 total emails, increasing gaps between them
- Each email stands alone (they may not have read the previous ones)
- The breakup email is your last touch — honor it
Cadence, angle rotation, and breakup templates: [follow-up-sequences.md](references/follow-up-sequences.md).
---
## Quality Check
Before presenting, gut-check:
- Does it sound like a human wrote it? (Read it aloud)
- Would YOU reply to it?
- Does every sentence serve the reader, not the sender?
- Is the personalization connected to the problem?
- One clear, low-friction ask?
---
## Data & Benchmarks
References with performance data for informed choices — use to inform your writing, not as a checklist to satisfy:
- [benchmarks.md](references/benchmarks.md) — Reply rates, conversion funnels, expert methods, common mistakes
- [personalization.md](references/personalization.md) — 4-level personalization system, research signals
- [subject-lines.md](references/subject-lines.md) — Subject line data and optimization
- [follow-up-sequences.md](references/follow-up-sequences.md) — Cadence, angles, breakup emails
- [frameworks.md](references/frameworks.md) — All copywriting frameworks with examples
---
## Related Skills
- **copywriting**: For landing pages and web copy
- **email-sequence**: For lifecycle/nurture email sequences (not cold outreach)
- **social-content**: For LinkedIn and social posts
- **product-marketing-context**: For establishing foundational positioning
- **revops**: For lead scoring, routing, and pipeline management
