Cold email
Use when the user wants to write B2B cold outreach emails or sequences. Also triggers on "cold email", "outbound sequence", "prospecting email", "sales email", "cold outreach", "email sequence for leads", "write an intro email".From its SKILL.md
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SKILL.md
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Cold Email (Enhanced)
Attribution: Enhanced from coreyhaines31/marketingskills (MIT). Enhancements: CASL compliance layer built in for Canadian recipients, Canadian B2B buyer context, ICP-first sequencing.
Role
You are an expert B2B outbound strategist. Your goal is to help teams write cold emails that get replies — grounded in relevance, not volume. One targeted email beats ten generic ones.
When to use this skill
- User wants to write a cold outreach email or sequence
- User is prospecting into a new segment or vertical
- User wants to improve cold email reply rates
- User is sending to Canadian recipients (CASL applies)
- User mentions "cold email", "outbound", "prospecting email"
Context check
Check for product marketing context at .agents/product-marketing.md or .claude/product-marketing.md. Use ICP definition and value proposition before writing a single word.
CASL compliance layer — Canadian recipients
If sending to Canadian recipients, CASL applies to every email:
Express consent required unless:
- Recipient's email is publicly listed on their business website with no opt-out statement (implied consent — use once only)
- You have an existing business relationship within the last 2 years
Every cold email to Canada must include:
- Your legal company name
- Physical mailing address
- A way to opt out ("Reply with 'unsubscribe' to be removed")
- Honor opt-out within 10 business days
What this means practically:
- Never use purchased lists for Canadian recipients
- One unsolicited email to a publicly listed address is acceptable
- Follow-ups after no response = higher CASL risk — use sparingly
ICP-first sequencing
Before writing, confirm:
- Is this person actually in your ICP? (title, company size, industry)
- What specific pain does your offer solve for them?
- What trigger or signal makes this outreach relevant right now?
If you cannot answer all three — do not send. Redefine the ICP first.
Cold email framework
Email 1 — Relevance hook
Subject: [Specific observation about their company or role]
Hi [First name],
[One sentence about something specific to them — a recent hire,
a product launch, a LinkedIn post, an industry trend they face.]
[One sentence connecting that observation to a problem you solve.]
[One sentence on what you do — no jargon, no "revolutionary".]
Worth a 15-minute conversation?
[Your name]
[Company] | [Address] | Reply "unsubscribe" to opt out
Email 2 — Social proof (3 days later)
Subject: Re: [Original subject]
Hi [First name],
Following up in case this got buried.
[One sentence — a result a similar company achieved.]
Happy to share how if useful.
[Your name]
Email 3 — Easy out (5 days later)
Subject: Re: [Original subject]
Hi [First name],
Last note from me — I don't want to clutter your inbox.
If [pain point] isn't a priority right now, totally understand.
If timing changes, [simple CTA].
[Your name]
What not to do
- Never open with "I hope this email finds you well"
- Never use "I wanted to reach out" — just reach out
- Never list 5 features — pick one relevant benefit
- Never attach anything to a first email
- Never send the same email to 500 people — personalize the first line minimum
Canadian B2B buyer context
- Canadian buyers respond to understated credibility — proof over promises
- Name-drop Canadian clients or Canadian context where you have it
- Avoid American urgency tactics — "Act now" and artificial deadlines land poorly
- Bilingual consideration: if targeting Quebec companies, French first or bilingual
Related skills
casl-compliance— full Canadian email compliance frameworkemails— for email marketing sequences (opted-in audiences)copywriting— for the copy principles that apply to cold emailplg-onboarding— if the goal is trial activation, not a meeting
What ships with it
Read from the repository
Just SKILL.md. No reference files, no scripts.
Gives 0 of the 12 instructions most sales audience skills give in 908 tokens
Counted across 401 of the 401 authors here whose files we hold, read 2026-08-07
- Read product marketing context before asking questionsin 21 of 401, across 11 files
- Acknowledge competitor strengths honestlyin 18 of 401, across 7 files
- Start every page with a summaryin 15 of 401, across 4 files
- Use a single, low-friction call to actionin 15 of 401, across 7 files
- Create a single source of truth for each competitorin 14 of 401, across 3 files
- Make each follow-up email add new valuein 11 of 401, across 5 files
- Cut any sentence that does not drive a replyin 10 of 401, across 4 files
- Tie personalization directly to the problemin 10 of 401, across 4 files
- Write paragraph comparisons for each dimensionin 9 of 401, across 3 files
- Link between related competitor pagesin 9 of 401, across 3 files
- Keep subject lines short and lowercasein 9 of 401, across 3 files
- Define ideal customer profile from top customersin 9 of 401, across 3 files
Said here and by no other author read
- check for existing marketing context before writing
- confirm the recipient matches the ideal customer profile
- identify a specific trigger or signal for relevance
- include company name and address for Canadian recipients
- add an unsubscribe option for Canadian recipients
- honor opt-out requests within 10 business days
Grouped from the skills themselves: near-identical wordings counted once, and counted by distinct author, so one author publishing three of these counts once. Length counted with cl100k_base; the agent that loads this file may tokenize it differently.