Cold Email

---
name: cold-email
description: >
  Use this skill when writing B2B cold emails or follow-up sequences. Trigger phrases include: "write a cold email," "draft an outreach sequence," "write a follow-up email," "help me reach out to prospects," "write an SDR email," "improve my subject line," "write a cold email sequence," or "draft outbound email copy." This skill covers subject lines, opening lines, body copy, CTAs, personalization, multi-touch sequences, reply rate benchmarks, deliverability basics, and SDR best practices. Distinct from warm lifecycle email.
---

# Cold Email Skill

## Mandatory Content Standards

- Match the output length to the task. For full audits, strategies, plans, or multi-part deliverables, write 1,500 to 10,000 words. For quick tasks, single assets, snippets, or narrow revisions, keep the output concise and provide only the useful variations, rationale, and next steps.
- Write in a way that sounds like a knowledgeable human wrote it. No robotic or templated phrasing.
- Use short sentences. One idea per sentence. One focus per paragraph.
- Use active voice. Never passive constructions.
- Address the reader directly using "you" and "your."
- Use bullet points only when they genuinely improve readability.
- Replace all em dashes with commas, parentheses, semicolons, or a new sentence. No hidden Unicode characters.
- End every sentence with a period.
- No hashtags, emojis, or asterisks.
- No introductory or closing filler phrases such as "in conclusion," "in summary," or "in a world where."
- No warnings, notes, or disclaimers. Stick to requested output.
- No AI cliches: no "game-changer," "unlock," "leverage," "dive into," "delve," "cutting-edge," "transformative," "revolutionize."
- No excessive adjectives or adverbs. Let specifics do the work.
- No broad generalizations. Every claim tied to specific context.
- Use specific examples, data, and scenarios.
- Pose at least one thought-provoking question per skill.
- Mobile-friendly: short paragraphs, clear headers, scannable.
- Practical and actionable. Every section connects to a next step.

---

## What This Skill Does

This skill writes B2B cold email copy, outbound sequences, and follow-up chains. It applies to SDR outreach, founder-led sales, partnership outreach, and any scenario where the recipient has not opted in and does not know you well. The output is ready-to-send email copy, not a template full of brackets.

Before writing anything, gather the following:

- Who you are sending to (role, company type, company size)
- What you want them to do (book a call, reply with interest, accept a connection)
- What specific problem you solve for that persona
- Any personalization signals available (recent funding, job posting, news, tech stack, content they published)
- Whether this is a single email or a sequence

---

## Why Cold Email Still Works

Cold email has more declared-dead moments than almost any other channel. It still works when done well. The reason is simple: people read their email. A well-targeted, well-written email to the right person at the right time will get a reply.

What does not work is spray-and-pray. Sending 5,000 identical emails with "Hi {FirstName}" and a paragraph about your company wastes budget, tanks your domain reputation, and trains prospects to ignore you. The channel is not broken. The execution usually is.

Here is a question worth sitting with: if you received the email you are about to send, would you reply?

---

## The Core Mechanics of a Cold Email

Every cold email has the same five parts. Get each one right before worrying about anything else.

### 1. Subject Line

The subject line has one job: get the email opened. It does not need to sell. It does not need to explain your value proposition. It needs to create enough curiosity or relevance that the reader opens the message.

Subject lines that work:

- Short (under 40 characters, ideally under 30)
- Specific to the recipient or their situation
- Not obviously promotional
- Occasionally a question

Subject lines that do not work:

- Anything that sounds like a newsletter
- "Quick question" (overused, now signals cold outreach)
- Your company name or product name in the subject
- All caps or excessive punctuation

Strong subject line examples for different contexts:

For a DevTools company targeting engineering leaders: "your deploy pipeline" or "three deploys this week?"

For a financial software company targeting CFOs at Series B companies: "burn rate question" or "noticed your Q3 hiring push"

For a recruiting platform targeting HR directors: "open roles at [CompanyName]" or "talent market in [City]"

The most reliable subject lines feel like they come from a colleague, not a vendor. They reference something specific. They do not ask for anything.

### 2. Opening Line

The opening line determines whether someone reads the rest of the email or closes it. Do not start with "My name is" or "I'm reaching out because." Both signal a cold email immediately and give the reader permission to stop.

Start with something about them. Specifically: something true, specific, and relevant to why you are reaching out.

Opening line structures that work:

Observation + relevance: "You just hired three product managers in the past month, which usually means your roadmap is getting more complex."

Trigger event: "Congrats on the Series B. Most companies at that stage start running into data tooling problems around month six post-raise."

Content reference: "Your post on [platform] about [specific topic] made me think about how you handle [specific problem]."

Mutual connection: "I talked to [Name] last week and she thought you'd be the right person to speak with about this."

The opening line should be one or two sentences. Get to the point.

### 3. Body Copy

The body explains what you do and why it matters to them. Keep it under 75 words. No paragraph should be longer than two sentences.

The structure that works most consistently:

One sentence on the problem you solve. One sentence on how you solve it. One sentence of social proof (a customer name, a number, a result). Then your ask.

Bad body copy: "At Acme Corp, we provide industry-leading solutions for enterprise data management that help organizations like yours streamline their operations and reduce costs through our proprietary AI-powered platform."

Good body copy: "We help DevOps teams cut deploy time by 40% without touching their existing CI/CD setup. Teams at Stripe and Notion use us. Would it make sense to spend 20 minutes walking through how it works?"

Notice the difference. The good version is specific, has a proof point, and asks for something small.

### 4. Call to Action

The CTA is where most cold emails fall apart. Asking someone who does not know you to "schedule a 30-minute discovery call" is a high-friction ask. They do not know if it is worth 30 minutes yet.

Ask for the smallest thing that moves the conversation forward.

Options that reduce friction:

- "Is this relevant to what you're working on right now?"
- "Worth a 15-minute conversation?"
- "Would it make sense to send over more detail?"
- "Open to a quick call this week or next?"

The CTA should be a single question. Not a list of options. Not a paragraph of context. One question.

Avoid Calendly links in the first email. Sending a booking link before someone has expressed interest presumes the meeting is already agreed upon. Get a "yes" first, then send the link.

### 5. Signature

Keep it simple. Name, title, company, phone number (optional), and website. No inspirational quotes. No social media icons. No legal disclaimers in the email body itself.

---

## Personalization at Scale

True personalization means writing something that only applies to one person. That is hard to scale. What you can scale is researched personalization, where you use data signals to create a first line or subject line that feels specific.

The best signals to use:

Job postings: If a company is hiring for a Head of Data Engineering, they probably have a data infrastructure problem. Reference it.

Recent news: Funding rounds, product launches, acquisitions, executive hires, earnings calls for public companies.

Content they published: Blog posts, podcast appearances, LinkedIn articles, conference talks.

Tech stack data: If you can see what tools they use (via BuiltWith, Clearbit, or similar), mention one that is relevant to your solution.

Review sites: What customers say about their product on G2 or Capterra tells you what problems they are solving and where they might be struggling.

For a sequence of 50 emails, writing a unique first line for each one takes about an hour. That investment typically doubles or triples reply rates compared to generic openers. The math is simple: fewer emails sent, more replies received.

---

## Multi-Touch Follow-Up Sequences

Most replies do not come from the first email. They come from follow-ups. The specific number varies by market and offer, but three to five touches is a reasonable range for most B2B outreach.

Here is a framework for a five-touch sequence:

Touch 1 (Day 1): The main email. Problem, solution, proof, CTA.

Touch 2 (Day 3): A short follow-up that adds a different angle. Do not just say "bumping this up." Add a piece of value, a different proof point, or a different angle on the problem.

Touch 3 (Day 7): A case study or result. One specific customer story in two to three sentences. What was the situation, what did they do, what happened.

Touch 4 (Day 14): A different question. Try approaching the problem from a different direction. If your first email focused on speed, this one might focus on cost.

Touch 5 (Day 21): The breakup email. Something like "I've reached out a few times and haven't heard back. I'll assume the timing isn't right. Happy to reconnect whenever makes sense." Short, no hard feelings, leaves the door open.

The breakup email often gets the highest reply rate in the sequence. People feel comfortable replying when they think the outreach is stopping.

---

## Reply Rate Benchmarks

Numbers to know, based on patterns across B2B outbound in 2024 and 2025:

Average cold email open rate: 20 to 30 percent for a well-targeted list with a good subject line. Below 15 percent usually means a deliverability problem or a bad subject line.

Average reply rate: 1 to 5 percent is typical for generic outreach. 5 to 15 percent is achievable with strong personalization, a well-defined ICP, and a clear offer. Anything above 15 percent usually indicates a very tight niche or an exceptional trigger event.

Positive reply rate (the percentage of replies that are "interested" vs "unsubscribe"): 30 to 50 percent of replies being positive is a reasonable target.

If your open rate is fine but your reply rate is low, the subject line is doing its job and the email body is not. If your open rate is low, start with the subject line.

---

## Deliverability Basics

Even the best email copy fails if it lands in spam. Here are the foundational rules.

Warm your domain before sending at volume. If you are using a new domain or subdomain for outbound, send low volumes for the first two to four weeks. Use tools like Instantly, Mailreach, or Lemwarm to run automated warmup.

Authenticate your domain. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are required. Without them, major email providers will route your messages to spam or reject them entirely.

Send from a real-looking address. sales@company.com works. noreply@company.com or outreach@company.com raise flags. firstname@company.com or firstname.lastname@company.com perform better.

Limit daily send volume per mailbox. Most deliverability experts recommend no more than 30 to 50 cold emails per day per mailbox. Use multiple mailboxes on different domains if you need higher volume.

Avoid spam trigger words in subject lines and body copy. Words like "free," "guarantee," "limited time," "act now," "earn money," and excessive punctuation or capitalization increase the chance of spam filtering.

Monitor your bounce rate. A hard bounce rate above 2 percent damages your sender reputation. Validate your list before sending using tools like ZeroBounce or NeverBounce.

---

## SDR Email Best Practices

If you are running an SDR team or building outbound sequences for one, these are the practices that separate high-performing reps from average ones.

Personalize the first line for every contact. Non-negotiable at the individual level. Templates are fine for the structure of an email. The opening should always be specific.

Send at the right time. Tuesday through Thursday, 8am to 10am or 3pm to 5pm in the recipient's timezone, tends to outperform other windows. Do not obsess over this. Getting the timing perfect matters less than getting the copy right.

Do not pitch on the first touch. The goal of the first email is to get a reply, not to sell the product. Many reps pack in too much information too early. One problem, one solution, one ask.

Track your metrics by segment. Reply rates for different industries, company sizes, and personas will vary. Do not average them together. Know which segments respond and double down on those.

Use calling in parallel with email. Cold email works best as part of a multichannel sequence that includes phone calls and LinkedIn touches. Email-only sequences leave replies on the table.

Write your own sequences. Templates from the internet are fine for learning the structure. A template that your entire industry has seen performs poorly. Write copy that sounds like you.

---

## Common Cold Email Mistakes

These are the patterns that kill reply rates.

Too long: Most cold emails should be under 150 words. Under 100 words is often better. If you need more than 150 words to explain your offer, the offer is too complicated for cold outreach.

About the sender, not the recipient: "We were founded in 2019 and serve over 500 customers" means nothing to someone who does not yet care about you. Make the email about their situation.

Vague claims: "We help companies improve efficiency" says nothing. "We reduced onboarding time by 60% for a 300-person SaaS company" says something specific that a reader can evaluate.

Asking for too much too soon: Asking for a 45-minute demo in the first email is a big ask from a stranger. Ask for a 15-minute conversation first.

No follow-up: Most reps send one email and give up. Most replies come from the second, third, or fourth touch. Build the sequence from the start.

---

## What to Ask the User Before Writing

When this skill is triggered, ask for:

1. The product or service being sold
2. The ideal customer profile (role, company size, industry)
3. The specific problem solved for that persona
4. Any personalization details available (company name, recent news, job postings, content they published)
5. Whether you need a single email or a full sequence
6. Any examples of existing emails that have worked or failed
7. The desired CTA (book a call, reply with interest, something else)

If the user provides a company URL, research the positioning, target market, and differentiation before writing. Do not write generic copy that could apply to any company.

---

## Output Format

For a single cold email, output:

Subject line (two to three options)
Email body (full, ready-to-send)
CTA note (brief explanation of why this CTA was chosen)

For a full sequence, output:

Each email labeled by touch number and send day
Subject lines for each email
A brief note on the purpose of each touch

Keep the output practical. No lengthy explanations between emails. Give the user copy they can put into a tool and send.

---

## Example: Full 5-Touch Sequence

Below is an example for a fictional B2B data pipeline tool called Streamline, targeting VP of Engineering at Series B SaaS companies with 50 to 200 employees.

Touch 1 (Day 1)

Subject: your data pipeline

Hi [FirstName],

Noticed [CompanyName] is scaling its engineering team fast. At that stage, data pipelines usually become the bottleneck before anyone expects it.

Streamline helps engineering teams at companies like Loom and Coda move data reliably without building custom infrastructure. Most teams are up and running in under a week.

Worth a quick call to see if it's relevant to where you're headed?

[Signature]

---

Touch 2 (Day 3)

Subject: re: your data pipeline

[FirstName], following up in case this got buried.

One thing I didn't mention: we also handle schema changes automatically, which is usually the part that breaks other pipelines and forces someone to drop everything to fix it.

Happy to show you how it works. 20 minutes?

[Signature]

---

Touch 3 (Day 7)

Subject: how Loom handled this

[FirstName], quick story.

When Loom's data team was at 4 engineers, they were spending 30% of their time maintaining pipeline jobs instead of shipping features. After switching to Streamline, that number dropped to under 5%.

If that kind of overhead sounds familiar, it might be worth a conversation.

[Signature]

---

Touch 4 (Day 14)

Subject: different angle

[FirstName], most of the teams I talk to at your stage aren't worried about pipeline reliability yet. They usually start worrying about it right after a customer-facing incident caused by a broken data job.

If you'd rather not learn that lesson the hard way, happy to talk through what prevention looks like.

[Signature]

---

Touch 5 (Day 21)

Subject: signing off

[FirstName], I've sent a few emails and haven't heard back. I'll assume the timing isn't right and won't keep reaching out.

If things change or the data infrastructure question comes up again, feel free to reach out. Happy to help when it makes sense.

[Signature]

---

This sequence uses a different hook in each email, progresses the story logically, and ends cleanly without burning the relationship.