Cold Email Campaigns

Cold Email Campaign Creator — Instantly Integration

Goal

Take a client description and a few words about their offers, then create 3 cold email campaigns in Instantly. The script finds the 3 closest existing campaigns in your Instantly account, then minimally rewrites them for the new brand (5-10 word changes per email).

Inputs

• Client name: The business name
• Client description: What they do, who they serve, their value proposition
• Offers (optional): Up to 3 distinct offers. If not provided, generates them from the description.
• Target audience (optional): Who we're emailing
• Social proof (optional): Credentials, results, experience to mention

Process

Step 1: Fetch Source Campaigns

The script fetches all existing campaigns from Instantly (via v2 API), then uses Claude to pick the 3 closest analogues based on offer structure, industry, and specificity.

Step 2: Fetch Sequences

Full email sequences are pulled from the 3 selected source campaigns.

Step 3: Minimal Rewrite

Claude rewrites each source campaign with 5-10 word changes only:

• Swap brand name, industry noun, offer noun
• Keep same sentence structure, paragraph count, tone, and pacing
• Do NOT add new sentences, rephrase, or get creative

Step 4: Run

python3 execution/instantly_create_campaigns.py \
  --client_name "ClientName" \
  --client_description "What the client does..." \
  --offers "Free audit|Demo session|Revenue share" \
  --target_audience "Agency owners, service businesses" \
  --social_proof "Built AI systems generating $1M+ in revenue"

Step 5: Review (Dry Run)

python3 execution/instantly_create_campaigns.py \
  --client_name "Test" \
  --client_description "Test company" \
  --offers "Free thing" \
  --dry_run

Campaign Structure

Each campaign (3 total) has exactly 2 steps:

Email 1 (2 A/B variants):

• Icebreaker
• Who you are + what you do (1-2 sentences)
• Clear offer with specifics
• Soft CTA

Email 2 (follow-up, day 3):

• 2-3 sentences max
• Restate the offer
• Low-pressure ask

Hard Rules

• No links or URLs in cold emails — they get flagged as spam. Never use {{web_site}} or any URL variable.
• Every email must state the offer — no vague "would love to chat" without saying what you're offering.
• Minimal rewrites only — find-and-replace industry nouns, don't rewrite sentences.
• Preserve source HTML — keep <p>, <div>, <br /> tags exactly as they are from the source.
• 2 steps only — opener + 1 follow-up. No breakup emails.

Available Variables

From Instantly's lead data:

• {{firstName}}, {{lastName}}, {{email}}
• {{companyName}}, {{casualCompanyName}}
• {{icebreaker}} — AI-generated opener
• {{sendingAccountFirstName}} — sender's name

Environment

Requires in .env:

INSTANTLY_API_KEY=your_api_key
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_anthropic_key

Both keys are always required (even for dry runs, since source campaigns are fetched from Instantly).

Edge Cases

• No offers provided: Generates 3 distinct offers from client description
• API rate limits: Handled with retry after 30s
• Missing API key: Exits early with helpful error
• Source campaign has 3+ steps: Drops everything after step 2
• Source campaign has links/URLs: Claude removes them during rewrite

First-Run Setup

Before executing, check if the workspace has a .gitignore file. If it doesn't, assume the user is new to this skill. In that case:

1. Ask the user if this is their first time running this skill
2. If yes, walk them through how it works and what they need to configure/set up (API keys, env vars, dependencies, etc.)
3. Let them know that Nick wishes them the best!