---
name: cold-outbound-sequence-writer
description: Write high-converting cold outbound email sequences: multi-touch, plain-text, personalized, deliverability-safe. Use this skill whenever a user needs cold emails, an outbound campaign, a Smartlead or Instantly sequence, a sales cadence, or says 'write me a cold email', 'build an outbound sequence', 'we need more meetings booked', or 'our reply rate is terrible'. Trigger for any cold B2B outreach, including a single email, because the sequence and the framing are where replies are actually won.
---

# Cold Outbound Sequence Writer

## What this does and why it matters
Cold outbound is the highest-leverage top-of-funnel motion a services firm has, and it is almost always done badly: feature dumps, fake pleasantries, hard asks on the first touch, and HTML emails that land in spam. This skill writes a full multi-touch sequence that reads like a human wrote it to one person, protects deliverability, and optimizes for the only metric that matters early: positive reply rate. A good sequence turns a cold list into booked meetings without burning the domain or the brand.

## Inputs to gather
Ask only for what you cannot infer:
1. Who is being targeted (title, company type, size) and what they care about.
2. What the sender sells and the specific outcome it produces (in numbers if possible).
3. One or two proof points (a result, a client, a mechanism that makes the outcome believable).
4. The sending tool and whether merge fields and spintax are supported.
5. The desired call to action (a reply of interest, a short call, a resource).

## Method

### 1. Relevance before personalization
A merge field is not personalization. Open with a line that could only be sent to this kind of buyer: a specific pain, a trigger event, a role-specific tension. The reader should think "this is about me" within the first sentence. Generic "I hope this finds you well" openers signal a blast and get deleted.

### 2. One idea per email
Each touch carries exactly one message. Touch 1 earns attention with a problem. Later touches add a new angle (a proof point, a different pain, a reframe, a short case), never a nagging "just bumping this". If an email needs two subjects, it is two emails.

### 3. Structure each email as Problem, Implication, Soft ask
Lead with the problem the buyer feels. Add the implication (what it costs them). Close with a low-friction ask that tests interest rather than demanding calendar time. "Worth a quick look?" outperforms "Book 30 minutes here" on a cold first touch because it lowers the cost of saying yes.

### 4. Keep it short and plain
Target 50 to 90 words per email. Plain text, no images, no signature graphics, no tracking-heavy HTML, and no links in the first one or two touches (links depress deliverability and trigger filters). Short emails read as personal and get replies; long emails read as pitches and get ignored.

### 5. Protect deliverability with spintax and clean formatting
Where the tool supports it, provide spintax on greetings, transitions, and CTAs so no two sends are byte-identical, which reduces spam-filter pattern matching. Avoid spam-trigger words (free, guarantee, act now), excessive punctuation, and all-caps. Use merge fields with fallbacks so a missing value never prints a blank or a bracket, for example a company-name field that falls back to "your team".

### 6. Cadence and spacing
Space touches across roughly three weeks so the sequence is present without being pushy. A proven shape is touches on days 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 16, and 20, mixing angles. The final touch is a genuine breakup email, which often pulls the highest reply rate because it removes pressure and prompts a response.

### 7. Subject lines
Short, lowercase or sentence case, and curiosity or relevance driven, not salesy. Two to four words often wins ("quick question", "[company] hiring", "your intake process"). Never use the offer in the subject.

## Output format
ALWAYS produce:

# Cold Sequence: [Audience] to [Offer]
## Sequence overview (goal, tone, CTA logic)
For each email:
### Email N | Send day D | Angle: [problem / proof / reframe / breakup]
- Subject options: [2 to 3]
- Body: [50 to 90 words, plain text, spintax where supported]
- CTA: [the specific soft ask]
- Why this works: [one line]
## Merge fields used (with fallbacks)
## Deliverability notes

## Anti-patterns to avoid
- "I hope this email finds you well" and any filler opener.
- Feature dumping instead of naming a problem.
- A hard calendar-link CTA on the first touch.
- Walls of text and formatted HTML signatures.
- "Just bumping this to the top of your inbox" as a follow-up. Add value or a new angle every time.
- Personalizing only with a first-name merge field and calling it custom.

## Compliance note
Cold outbound must follow applicable law (CAN-SPAM, GDPR, CASL and similar): use accurate headers and sender identity, honor opt-outs, and include a real way to unsubscribe or reply-to-stop. Flag for the user that B2B rules vary by region and that suppression and consent handling are their responsibility.

## Example
Audience: managing partners at small law firms. Offer: an AI intake system that cuts response time.
Email 1 (day 1), angle problem, subject "your intake": "Most firms your size lose a chunk of inbound leads simply because no one replies fast enough. By the time intake gets back to a prospect, they have already called the next firm on Google. Curious how you are handling first-response time right now. Worth a two-line reply?"