---
name: cold-email-outreach
description: |
  Writes cold email sequences (initial email plus 2 follow-ups) with
  personalization frameworks, value-first subject lines, and clear CTAs for
  sales prospecting and business development. Use when the user needs outbound
  email sequences, sales outreach templates, or cold prospecting messages. Do
  NOT use for professional workplace emails (use `professional-email`), newsletters
  (use `newsletter-writing`), or investor updates (use `investor-update-email`).
license: Apache-2.0
metadata:
  author: foundry-skills
  version: "1.0.0"
  tags: "email writing marketing-copy"
  category: "writing"
  subcategory: "content-marketing"
  depends: ""
  disclaimer: "none"
  difficulty: "intermediate"
---
# Cold Email Outreach

## When to Use

Use this skill when the user needs to write outbound email sequences to people who have not previously engaged with them or their company. Specific trigger scenarios include:

- The user is building a B2B sales pipeline and needs first-touch outreach to prospects by role, industry, or company size
- The user is a founder doing their own outbound sales and needs a repeatable sequence for cold prospecting lists
- The user is a business development professional seeking partnership outreach to companies in a complementary space
- The user is a recruiter (or a company recruiting directly) reaching out to passive candidates who have not applied
- The user needs outreach templates for conference follow-up or event-triggered prospecting (e.g., a prospect just raised a round, just got promoted, just posted a relevant LinkedIn article)
- The user is launching a new product or entering a new vertical and needs to generate first conversations with potential buyers
- The user needs to re-engage lapsed prospects from 6+ months ago with a fresh sequence

**Do NOT use this skill when:**

- The user needs internal workplace communication -- use `professional-email` instead
- The user wants to write email newsletters or content digests for subscribers -- use `newsletter-writing` instead
- The user needs investor update emails for their existing cap table -- use `investor-update-email` instead
- The user wants to write a formal business proposal document -- use `business-proposal` instead
- The user is responding to an inbound lead who already contacted them first -- an inbound response is warm nurture, not cold outreach, and the structure is fundamentally different
- The user needs a drip email series for an existing contact list inside a CRM -- that is a nurture sequence, not cold outreach
- The user needs a job application cover letter or networking email to someone they have already met -- use `professional-email` instead

---

## Process

### Step 1: Gather the Critical Outreach Context

Before writing a single word, collect the information that makes the difference between a sequence that gets 3% replies and one that gets 18%. Ask the user:

- **Target persona:** Job title, seniority level (IC, manager, director, VP, C-suite), company size (SMB under 100, mid-market 100-1,000, enterprise 1,000+), and industry vertical. These four variables determine the tone, word count, subject line style, and CTA structure.
- **Offering:** Product, service, or partnership -- and specifically what category of problem it solves. Push the user to distinguish between the feature (what the product does) and the outcome (what changes for the prospect because of it).
- **Relationship context:** Completely cold; warm because of a mutual connection; event-triggered (they attended your webinar, liked a LinkedIn post, visited your pricing page, their company just raised funding); or referral-sourced. Each requires a different opening strategy.
- **Desired conversion action:** Book a demo call, reply with interest for a conversation, download a resource, forward to the decision-maker, or agree to a pilot. The CTA must match what stage in the buying cycle the prospect is likely in.
- **Social proof assets:** Specific customer names (if shareable), specific metrics (percentage time saved, revenue increased, churn reduced), or recognizable company names in their industry that have used the product.
- **Competitive or market context:** What alternative is the prospect currently using or doing instead? This shapes the problem framing -- not "here is a new thing" but "here is why what you are doing now is costing you."

If the user cannot answer the persona, outcome, and social proof questions, pause and help them define those before drafting. A well-briefed cold email sequence is 80% research and 20% writing.

---

### Step 2: Define the Personalization Framework and Signal Hierarchy

Personalization is not inserting [FIRST_NAME] into a mass blast. It is demonstrating that you observed something specific about the recipient's world before hitting send. Build a tiered hierarchy for the opening sentence:

- **Tier 1 (highest relevance, highest response rate):** Reference something the recipient personally did or said -- a LinkedIn post they published, a podcast interview they gave, a conference talk they delivered, a publicly stated opinion on an industry issue. This proves you read their content.
- **Tier 2:** Reference a company event specific enough that it could not be auto-generated -- a product launch with a detail, a specific job posting (signals a strategic initiative), a partnership announcement, or a funding round with a note about what the capital is likely for.
- **Tier 3:** Reference a role-specific pain point tied to a current industry trend -- a regulatory change affecting their sector, a market shift creating pressure, or a technology transition creating new operational demands. This requires research but can apply to a segment, not just one person.
- **Tier 4 (last resort for volume outreach):** Reference a company attribute -- industry, company size, business model -- in a way that explains why you are reaching out to this type of company specifically. This is weaker but better than nothing.

For each sequence, identify which tier is being used and flag where variables must be filled in by a human before sending. Never let a sequence leave as a template -- at minimum, Tier 3 requires a sentence written or reviewed per recipient segment.

---

### Step 3: Write the Three-Email Sequence with Clear Progression Logic

The three-email sequence is not three chances to say the same thing. Each email has a distinct job:

**Email 1 -- The Thesis Email**
- Word count target: 75-100 words for individual senders; up to 125 words for highly segmented B2B
- Opening sentence: About them (Tier 1-2 personalization). Not "I" or "We." Starts with "[Company name]" or "[First name]" or a direct observation.
- Value proposition sentence: One sentence, outcome-first. "X companies like yours use [product] to [specific result] without [specific pain]."
- Social proof: One sentence with a named company or a specific metric. Not vague ("many companies," "clients love it").
- CTA: One ask. Low commitment. Not "schedule a 30-minute demo" -- that is too high for a cold email. Use "Would it be worth a 15-minute look?" or "Does this map to anything you are working on?" or "Want me to send the one-page overview?"

**Email 2 -- The Insight Email (Day 3-5)**
- Do not open with "Just following up" under any circumstances.
- Lead with a new piece of value: a statistic relevant to their role, a short case study result (two sentences maximum), a question that reframes the problem, or a counterintuitive finding from your space.
- Reference Email 1 in one clause only -- do not re-pitch the entire product.
- Offer something tangible: a relevant case study PDF, a custom demo recording, a free audit, a specific template. Reduce the friction of engaging.
- CTA: Same ask or a slightly softer one ("Curious what your current process looks like here" invites a reply without asking for calendar time).
- Word count: 60-90 words.

**Email 3 -- The Permission-to-Close Email (Day 8-12)**
- This email does one job: make it psychologically easy to say either yes or no.
- Acknowledge the silence explicitly but without guilt. "I do not want to keep showing up in your inbox if the timing is off."
- Add one final piece of value -- a number, an observation, or a risk framing ("companies that delay this until Q4 typically lose the budget window").
- Ask a binary yes/no question: "Is this worth exploring this quarter?" or "Should I reach back out in 90 days?" A binary question has a higher response rate than an open-ended one because it is cognitively easier to answer.
- Make it genuinely easy to close the loop. "Either answer is helpful -- I just want to make sure I am not sending emails into a void."
- Word count: 50-75 words.

---

### Step 4: Engineer Subject Lines Specifically for Each Email

Subject lines determine whether the email is opened. Cold email subject lines operate differently from newsletter or nurture subject lines. Apply the following disciplines:

- **Character limit:** Keep to 35-50 characters. Most mobile inboxes preview 40-45 characters. Gmail on mobile shows approximately 30 characters in the notification. Subject lines over 60 characters are truncated on most mobile clients.
- **Avoid spam-trigger patterns:** All-caps words, excessive punctuation (especially exclamation marks and question marks), dollar signs, the word "free," RE: or FWD: in a first-touch email (this is deceptive and destroys trust when discovered), and hyperbolic adjectives ("revolutionary," "game-changing," "exclusive").
- **Subject line archetypes that perform in cold outreach:**
  - Company-name specificity: "[Company] + [topic]" (e.g., "Acme's sales reporting")
  - Role-specific curiosity: "VP Marketing + reporting time" (signals relevance)
  - Outcome framing: "10 hrs/week back for your team"
  - Shared context: "[Mutual name] suggested I reach out"
  - Observation: "Saw your expansion to APAC"
- **Email 2 and Email 3:** Use "Re: [original subject]" to continue the thread in the prospect's inbox. This increases open rates on follow-ups because it appears to be a continuation of a prior conversation rather than a new cold email. This is not deceptive -- it is literally a follow-up to your own prior email.
- **A/B test at volume:** If the user is sending to lists over 500, recommend testing two subject lines on a 50/50 split for Email 1 before sending the full sequence. Subject line tests need a minimum of 100 sends per variant to be statistically meaningful.

---

### Step 5: Apply Role-Specific Calibration

The same offering pitched to different seniority levels requires fundamentally different emails. Build calibration rules into the sequence before drafting:

**C-Suite (CEO, CRO, CMO, CFO, COO):**
- Maximum word count: 75 words per email. Executives receive 200+ emails per day.
- Lead with the P&L, growth, or risk implication -- not the operational mechanics.
- Never ask for a demo. Ask for a 15-minute strategic conversation or offer to send a 2-minute summary video.
- Subject line should be either your name/company or a board-level theme ("Revenue leakage in SaaS" or "Q4 pipeline risk").
- Avoid buzzwords entirely. Plain language, specific numbers.

**VP / Director Level:**
- Word count: 85-110 words. They care about outcomes and team capacity.
- Lead with the team pain point -- headcount, time, throughput, or quality of output.
- Offer a process improvement or a benchmark comparison ("how your team's process compares to what high-growth companies in your space are doing").
- CTA can be a demo or a technical assessment.

**Manager / IC Level:**
- These contacts can rarely approve budget but can be powerful internal champions if you give them something valuable.
- Lead with a tactic, tool, or technique they can use immediately -- even if they do not buy.
- Make the CTA about learning or resource access, not a sales call.
- Note to user: Manager-level outreach works best as a parallel motion to VP outreach, not as the primary decision-making contact.

---

### Step 6: Construct the Personalization Variable Map

For every sequence, produce an explicit variable map so the user (or their team) knows exactly what must be customized before sending:

- **Must be unique per recipient (cannot batch):** Opening observation sentence, any Tier 1 or Tier 2 personalization
- **Can be customized per segment (batched by persona type):** Industry-specific pain point sentence, relevant case study reference, benchmark statistic for that sector
- **Template (same for all recipients in the sequence):** Value proposition sentence, social proof metric, CTA sentence, closing sign-off

Label each element in the draft as [UNIQUE], [SEGMENT], or [TEMPLATE] so whoever is sending knows the minimum personalization work required. A sequence with no [UNIQUE] elements is a spam blast, not cold outreach.

---

### Step 7: Write Sequence Notes and Deployment Guidelines

Every sequence must include operational guidance, not just the email copy:

- **Send timing:** Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM in the recipient's timezone outperform Monday mornings (inbox chaos) and Fridays (mentally checked out). Avoid the first week of January, the week of major industry conferences, and the last two weeks of December.
- **Stop criteria:** Stop the sequence if the prospect replies with any message -- even a "not interested." Continuing to send after a reply (of any kind) is spam. Stop after Email 3 regardless of non-response. Add non-responders to a 90-day re-engagement list, not an immediate follow-up continuation.
- **Unsubscribe compliance:** Under CAN-SPAM (US), CASL (Canada), and GDPR (EU for B2C), cold emails require an opt-out mechanism. B2B cold email to business addresses is generally permissible under these frameworks but requires physical address, clear identification of sender, and an opt-out mechanism. Flag this for the user -- particularly for EU recipients, where GDPR applies more stringently even to B2B.
- **Deliverability basics:** Recommend the user send from a warmed domain (not a brand-new domain), keep daily sending volume under 200 per email address until the domain is established (3-4 weeks of warming), use a custom tracking domain for link tracking, and authenticate with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. Poor deliverability makes great copy irrelevant.
- **Sequence tool context:** If the user is using a sequencing tool (such as Apollo, Outreach, Salesloft, Lemlist, Instantly, or Mailshake), note that the personalization variables map directly to custom fields in those tools. The [UNIQUE] elements typically require manual input or AI-assisted variable generation; [SEGMENT] and [TEMPLATE] elements can be loaded as static copy.

---

### Step 8: Audit for Anti-Patterns Before Delivering

Run a final check against each email in the sequence:

- Does Email 1 open with a sentence about the recipient, not the sender?
- Is every email under the word count ceiling for its target persona?
- Is there exactly one CTA per email?
- Does each email add a genuinely new piece of value rather than re-pitching?
- Are subject lines under 50 characters with no spam triggers?
- Is the social proof specific (named company or specific metric) rather than vague?
- Does Email 3 contain a binary yes/no closing question?
- Are personalization variables explicitly labeled so a human knows what to fill in?
- Is passive-aggressive language absent from all follow-up emails?
- Is the total sequence exactly three emails (never more)?

---

## Output Format

Deliver the full sequence in this structure:

```
## Cold Email Sequence: [Job Title] at [Company Type/Size/Industry]

### Personalization Variable Map

| Variable | Type | Description | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| [FIRST_NAME] | Template | Recipient's first name | Contact list |
| [COMPANY_NAME] | Template | Recipient's company | Contact list |
| [RECENT_EVENT] | Unique | Specific observable company or personal event | Manual research |
| [PAIN_POINT_DETAIL] | Segment | Role-specific challenge phrased for this persona | Segment script |
| [SOCIAL_PROOF_CO] | Template | Named reference customer | Static |
| [SOCIAL_PROOF_METRIC] | Template | Specific result metric | Static |

**Personalization level required before sending:**
- Unique (per recipient): [list which variables]
- Segment (per persona batch): [list which variables]
- Template (static for all): [list which variables]

---

### Email 1: Initial Outreach -- The Thesis

**Subject:** [subject line -- under 50 chars, no spam triggers]
**Send:** Day 0 | Tuesday-Thursday, 8-10 AM recipient's timezone
**Word count target:** [X words]

Hi [FIRST_NAME],

[OPENING SENTENCE -- UNIQUE: One sentence referencing a specific, observable
fact about the recipient's company or their personal content. Starts with
their company name or a direct observation. Never starts with "I" or "We."]

[VALUE PROP -- TEMPLATE: One sentence stating the outcome the recipient gets,
framed around what they want to achieve or stop suffering. No feature language.
Format: "[Similar companies] use [product] to [outcome verb] [specific result]
without [specific pain or cost]."]

[SOCIAL PROOF -- TEMPLATE: One sentence with a named company or specific metric.
Format: "[Named company similar to theirs] [specific result with number]."]

[CTA -- TEMPLATE: One low-friction ask. For VP+: "Is this worth 15 minutes?"
For Director/Manager: "Want me to send [specific resource]?"]

[Sign-off],
[Your Name]
[Title, Company] (optional -- some senders omit to reduce pitch-feel)

---

### Email 2: Follow-up -- The Insight

**Subject:** Re: [original subject line]
**Send:** Day 3-5
**Word count target:** [X words]

Hi [FIRST_NAME],

[NEW VALUE OPEN -- SEGMENT: Lead with a statistic, case study result, or
reframed observation relevant to their role. Not a reference to your product
yet. Format: "[Relevant stat or finding] -- [one clause connecting it to their
likely situation]."]

[PRODUCT CONNECTION -- TEMPLATE: One sentence connecting the insight to what
your product or service specifically addresses. Brief. Not a full re-pitch.]

[FRICTION REDUCER -- TEMPLATE: Offer something tangible and low-commitment:
a specific case study, a sample report, a 2-minute overview video, a free audit.]

[CTA -- TEMPLATE: Same ask as Email 1, or a softer curiosity question.]

[Sign-off],
[Your Name]

---

### Email 3: Final Follow-up -- The Permission to Close

**Subject:** Re: [original subject line]
**Send:** Day 8-12
**Word count target:** [X words]

Hi [FIRST_NAME],

[ACKNOWLEDGE SILENCE -- TEMPLATE: One sentence acknowledging non-response
without guilt. "I do not want to keep showing up uninvited." Never "I noticed
you have not responded" or "Just bumping this up."]

[FINAL VALUE -- SEGMENT or TEMPLATE: One risk-framing, time-bound, or
annual-cost observation that reframes the urgency. The "annual number" technique:
take a weekly cost and multiply it to show the year-over-year impact.]

[BINARY CTA -- TEMPLATE: A yes/no question that is genuinely easy to answer
either way. Include an explicit "no" option so they feel permitted to close
the loop. "Is this worth a conversation this quarter, or should I try back
in [specific month]?"]

[Sign-off],
[Your Name]

---

### Sequence Operational Notes

| Parameter | Guidance |
|---|---|
| Send timing | Tue-Thu, 8-10 AM recipient timezone |
| Email 1 → 2 gap | 3-5 business days |
| Email 2 → 3 gap | 5-7 business days after Email 2 |
| Stop trigger | Any reply (positive, negative, or neutral) -- remove from sequence |
| Post-sequence action | Non-responders: 90-day re-engagement list, not continued sequence |
| Compliance note | Include sender address and opt-out for US/CA; review GDPR for EU recipients |
| Deliverability | Send max 200/day per address from warmed domain with SPF/DKIM/DMARC |

**Personalization QA checklist (complete before sending):**
- [ ] Opening sentence of Email 1 is unique per recipient
- [ ] [RECENT_EVENT] variable is filled in and specific
- [ ] Social proof company name or metric is included in Email 1
- [ ] Each email has exactly one CTA
- [ ] No email exceeds the word count target for this persona tier
- [ ] Subject lines are under 50 characters
- [ ] Emails 2 and 3 use "Re:" threading
```

---

## Rules

1. **Never open Email 1 with the sender's name, company name, or any form of "I hope this email finds you well."** The first sentence must demonstrate awareness of the recipient's world. Any email that opens with "My name is [X] and I work at [Y]" will be deleted before the second sentence is read. The reader's first question is "why should I care?" -- answer that before introducing yourself.

2. **Never lead with features or product descriptions.** Features are what the product does. Outcomes are what changes for the prospect. "We are an AI-powered reporting platform" is a feature. "Your team gets 10 hours back every week that currently disappears into spreadsheets" is an outcome. Cold emails that lead with features convert at 2-4%; outcome-first emails convert at 8-15% in the same category.

3. **Never include more than one call to action per email.** Multiple CTAs create decision paralysis. When a prospect faces "book a demo, watch a video, download a guide, or reply to this email," they will do none of them. One email, one ask, one clear next step.

4. **Never use passive-aggressive follow-up language.** Specifically prohibited: "Just following up," "Bumping this to the top of your inbox," "I noticed you have not responded," "Circling back for the third time," "Did my last email get lost?" and "I know you are busy but..." These phrases signal desperation and create guilt -- both of which reduce reply rates and damage the sender's brand.

5. **Never exceed the word count ceiling for the target persona tier.** C-suite: 75 words per email. VP/Director: 100 words per email. Manager/IC: 125 words per email. Every word above the ceiling costs you attention. Count the words in the draft before delivering. If an email is over-length, cut -- do not ask the user to trim it themselves.

6. **Never send more than three emails in a cold sequence.** A fourth email in a cold sequence crosses into harassment territory and typically triggers spam filters or complaint flags. If the prospect has not responded after three touches, they are either not the right buyer, the timing is wrong, or the offer is wrong. The answer is a 90-day re-engagement, not a fourth email.

7. **Never allow the social proof element to be vague.** "We work with many companies like yours" is not social proof -- it is a marketing claim. Social proof requires specificity: a named company, a specific percentage, a specific dollar amount, a specific timeframe. "We helped [Company X] reduce their reporting time from 12 hours to 90 minutes in the first month" is social proof. If the user cannot provide a real metric, use a category reference: "a 300-person SaaS company similar to yours" with a specific number.

8. **Never use subject lines that trigger spam filters or appear deceptive.** Prohibited patterns: RE: or FWD: on a first-touch email (deceptive), all-caps words, dollar signs, the word "free," excessive question marks or exclamation marks, and subject lines over 60 characters. Deceptive subject lines may briefly lift open rates but destroy trust the moment the prospect opens the email -- and in some jurisdictions, deceptive subject lines on commercial emails are a legal violation under CAN-SPAM.

9. **Always label every variable in the sequence with its personalization tier ([UNIQUE], [SEGMENT], or [TEMPLATE]).** If the user or their team does not know what needs to be customized per recipient, they will send template emails with empty brackets or unfilled placeholders, which are worse than no personalization at all. The variable map is not optional.

10. **Always provide send-timing and stop-criteria guidance with every sequence.** A sequence without operational notes is a creative exercise, not a deployable tool. The user needs to know exactly when to send each email, what event stops the sequence (any reply), and what to do with non-responders after Email 3.

11. **Always include a genuine final value-add in Email 3 -- never make it a pure follow-up bump.** Email 3 must earn its place in the inbox by giving the prospect something they did not have before: a reframed number, a risk observation, a new piece of data. "Annual cost" framing (weekly hours × 50 weeks × average salary ÷ 2080 hours) is a reliable technique -- it converts a small-seeming weekly pain into a large annual cost that is harder to dismiss.

12. **Always ensure the CTA is calibrated to the appropriate stage of buyer awareness.** A prospect receiving a cold email has awareness levels ranging from "I did not know this problem existed" to "I am actively evaluating solutions." Match the CTA to a realistic level of commitment. Asking a cold prospect to "schedule a 60-minute demo" is asking them to make a large time commitment based on zero prior relationship. Start low: 15-minute conversation, resource delivery, or a reply to a question. Escalating commitment comes in later nurture stages, not cold outreach.

---

## Edge Cases

### No Observable Personalization Signal Exists

Sometimes a prospect has no LinkedIn activity, no recent company news, no job postings, and no publicly visible events. Do not invent a personalization signal. Instead, use Tier 3 personalization: identify a role-specific pain point that is statistically common for their title and industry, and frame the opening as an observation about companies like theirs. "Most VPs of Marketing at [INDUSTRY] companies with 100-500 people are running their attribution reporting out of spreadsheets by Q3 even if they started the year in a BI tool -- because the BI tool stopped keeping pace with channel growth." This is research-based pattern recognition, not fabricated personalization. It is weaker than Tier 1-2 but more honest and more effective than a generic opener.

### The Outreach Is for a Partnership or Channel Opportunity, Not a Sale

Partnership outreach requires a structural change. The opening still references their world, but the framing shifts from "here is what I can do for you" to "here is what our audiences or capabilities have in common." The social proof becomes collaboration proof: reference a similar partnership you have with a named company, or a complementary customer base that overlaps with theirs. The CTA is not a demo -- it is an exploratory conversation between counterparts. Avoid language that implies one party is pitching the other; good partnership outreach sounds like a peer-to-peer conversation, not a sales email with "partner" swapped in for "customer."

### Outreach to a Named Referral Source

When the user has a mutual connection who suggested the outreach, the referral must appear in the subject line and the opening sentence -- immediately. Do not bury it. Subject line: "[Mutual Name] intro -- [topic]." Opening sentence: "[Mutual Name] suggested I reach out because [specific reason the mutual thought this was relevant]." Referral emails that lead with the connection name have 4-6x higher open rates and 3-4x higher reply rates than identical cold emails without the reference. The referral is not a nice-to-have detail -- it is the most powerful element in the entire email. Use it in the first six words.

### C-Suite Recipients

Executive-level prospects receive 100-300+ emails per day from vendors. The rules for this tier are non-negotiable: maximum 75 words per email (count them), no operational details or feature specifics, lead with a P&L consequence or board-level risk, and ask only for a brief strategic conversation -- never a demo. If the user wants to send to both a VP and the CRO at the same company simultaneously, write separate sequences with different angles: the VP gets the operational/team efficiency angle, the C-suite contact gets the revenue or risk angle. Sending the same email to both levels is a mistake -- the executive will forward to the VP, and the VP will feel bypassed, which poisons the relationship before it starts.

### The User Wants to Reach Out About a Job Opportunity

This is not a cold sales email scenario. Cold email for job seeking has a fundamentally different structure: it is not pitch-first but value-exchange-first, requires demonstrating specific knowledge of the company's work, and should avoid the appearance of mass-blasting. Redirect the user toward a networking or informational interview approach. If they insist on cold email for job seeking, the structure should lead with a genuine observation about the company's work, demonstrate specific domain knowledge, offer something (a thought, an analysis, a useful resource) before asking for anything, and ask for a 15-minute conversation to learn -- not to pitch themselves. Never use sales-style social proof in a job-seeking email. The outcome the reader wants is not "save 10 hours per week" -- it is "make a good hire without a recruiter fee." Frame accordingly.

### High-Volume Outreach (500+ Recipients Per Campaign)

When the user is running outreach at scale, the personalization economics change. Tier 1 personalization (unique per recipient) is not feasible at 5,000 sends per month without AI-assisted variable generation. Guide the user toward building tight persona segments (10-20 segments maximum) where Tier 3 personalization (role-specific pattern observation) is pre-written for each segment and [SEGMENT] variables are filled in at the segment level rather than the individual level. The Email 1 opening sentence becomes the hardest problem at scale. Acceptable solutions: AI-generated opening sentences using scraped company data (requires quality review on a 10% sample), LinkedIn activity-triggered personalization for contacts who posted in the last 30 days (a sequencing tool feature in several platforms), or a manual Tier 2 personalization batch where a researcher fills in [RECENT_EVENT] for the top 20% of high-value prospects while the remaining 80% get Tier 3. At scale, deliverability is the bigger variable than copy -- a 0.3% spam complaint rate will get a sending domain blacklisted. Keep complaint rates below 0.1% by list hygiene, proper opt-out mechanics, and verified email addresses.

### The Prospect Has Already Received Cold Outreach from the Same Company

If a prospect has previously received a cold sequence from the user's company (even from a different sender), a fresh sequence should not be sent for at least 90 days, and it must acknowledge the prior contact in a non-awkward way. "I noticed my colleague [Name] reached out a few months ago -- I am coming at this from a different angle that might be more relevant for your current priorities." Sending a second sequence without acknowledging the first will look like a disorganized company that does not track its own outreach. This is a brand-damaging pattern even if the individual emails are well-written. Recommend the user audit their CRM contact history before launching any sequence.

---

## Example

**Input:** "I run a B2B company that helps SaaS companies reduce customer churn by identifying at-risk accounts earlier using behavioral data. I want to reach VP of Customer Success at SaaS companies with 50-500 employees. We helped a company called Pendo reduce their churned ARR by 22% in six months. I have no mutual connections with these prospects."

**Output:**

---

## Cold Email Sequence: VP of Customer Success at Mid-Market SaaS Companies (50-500 Employees)

### Personalization Variable Map

| Variable | Type | Description | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| [FIRST_NAME] | Template | Recipient's first name | Contact list |
| [COMPANY_NAME] | Template | Recipient's company | Contact list |
| [RECENT_SIGNAL] | Unique | Observable company or personal event (LinkedIn post, new product release, hiring for CSM roles, public churn discussion) | Manual research per recipient |
| [CHURN_PATTERN] | Segment | Role-specific churn challenge for this company's growth stage (early churn, expansion-to-churn, long-tail customer churn) | Research by segment |
| [SOCIAL_PROOF_CO] | Template | "Pendo" | Static |
| [SOCIAL_PROOF_METRIC] | Template | "22% reduction in churned ARR in six months" | Static |

**Personalization level required before sending:**
- Unique (per recipient): [RECENT_SIGNAL] in Email 1 opening sentence
- Segment (per persona batch): [CHURN_PATTERN] in Email 2 insight
- Template (static for all): Value prop sentence, Pendo social proof, all CTAs, Email 3 full body

---

### Email 1: Initial Outreach -- The Thesis

**Subject:** [COMPANY_NAME]'s at-risk accounts
**Send:** Day 0 | Tuesday-Thursday, 8-10 AM recipient's timezone
**Word count target:** 95 words

Hi [FIRST_NAME],

[RECENT_SIGNAL -- UNIQUE: e.g., "Saw [COMPANY_NAME] is scaling into the enterprise segment -- congratulations on the Series B. That move usually changes the churn profile significantly: longer sales cycles mean longer time-to-value, and the accounts most likely to churn six months in are often the ones that looked healthiest at close."]

We built a behavioral signal layer that shows CS teams which accounts are trending toward churn 60-90 days before they show it in health scores. Pendo used it to cut their churned ARR by 22% in six months.

Would it be worth 15 minutes to see what it would look like on your book of business?

Best,
Jamie

---

### Email 2: Follow-up -- The Insight

**Subject:** Re: [COMPANY_NAME]'s at-risk accounts
**Send:** Day 4
**Word count target:** 85 words

Hi [FIRST_NAME],

One finding worth sharing: in mid-market SaaS, 67% of accounts that churn in months 4-9 showed behavioral warning signals 8+ weeks earlier -- before any health score reflected a problem. [CHURN_PATTERN -- SEGMENT: e.g., "For companies your size expanding from SMB to mid-market, that window is when the churn tends to concentrate."]

We built detection specifically for that gap -- health scores are lagging indicators, behavioral patterns are leading ones.

I can send you a two-page breakdown of the signal types we track if that would be useful?

Jamie

---

### Email 3: Final Follow-up -- The Permission to Close

**Subject:** Re: [COMPANY_NAME]'s at-risk accounts
**Send:** Day 10
**Word count target:** 68 words

Hi [FIRST_NAME],

I do not want to keep showing up in your inbox if the timing is not right.

One last number: if your average contract is $30K ARR and you churn 15 accounts per year, that is $450K in lost ARR annually -- most of which behavioral signals would have flagged in time to act. That is the math Pendo ran before engaging us.

Is reducing churn worth a conversation this quarter, or should I check back in 90 days?

Either is fine.

Jamie

---

### Sequence Operational Notes

| Parameter | Guidance |
|---|---|
| Send timing | Tuesday-Thursday, 8-10 AM recipient's local timezone |
| Email 1 → 2 gap | 4 business days |
| Email 2 → 3 gap | 6 business days after Email 2 |
| Stop trigger | Any reply (book a call, "not interested," "wrong person") -- remove from sequence immediately |
| Post-sequence action | Non-responders: add to 90-day re-engagement list with a fresh angle (new case study, relevant industry report, product update) |
| Compliance note | Include company address in footer; provide opt-out mechanism; review EU GDPR requirements for any European contacts before sending |
| Deliverability | Warm sending domain minimum 4 weeks before campaign launch; max 150-200 sends/day per sending address; verify email addresses against bounce-checking tool before import |
| Sequencing tool notes | [RECENT_SIGNAL] maps to a custom field requiring manual input before Email 1 sends; [CHURN_PATTERN] can be set as a segment-level static field per batch |

**Personalization QA checklist (complete before each batch sends):**
- [ ] [RECENT_SIGNAL] is filled in with a specific, verifiable observation -- not a generic company attribute
- [ ] Pendo metric and name are included verbatim in Email 1
- [ ] [CHURN_PATTERN] segment variable matches the growth stage of this recipient batch
- [ ] Each email has exactly one CTA
- [ ] Email 1: under 100 words; Email 2: under 90 words; Email 3: under 75 words
- [ ] All three subject lines are under 50 characters
- [ ] Emails 2 and 3 use "Re:" threading from the Email 1 subject line
- [ ] No passive-aggressive language in Emails 2 or 3 ("just following up," "circling back," "bumping this")
- [ ] Opt-out mechanism is included in sending platform footer settings

**Sequence-specific angle notes:**

The strongest angle for VP of Customer Success is not product features -- it is the gap between what health scores show and what behavioral signals reveal 60-90 days earlier. That gap is the specific pain point that resonates at this seniority level because VPs of CS are measured on net revenue retention, and surprises are their enemy. The annual math frame in Email 3 works particularly well for this persona because CS leaders are accustomed to thinking in ARR terms and respond to concrete revenue numbers more than operational efficiency arguments.

If the recipient responds to Email 1 asking for more detail before agreeing to a call, treat that as a warm reply and exit the cold sequence. Send them the two-page signal breakdown mentioned in Email 2, then follow up with a direct calendar link two days later. At that point this is no longer cold outreach -- it is a warm conversation requiring a different skill.
