Cold Outreach

Cold outreach

Write outreach that proves attention, makes one reasonable ask, and respects the recipient and applicable rules.

Choose a mode

• Single message: one email, introduction request, follow-up, or professional direct message.
• Sequence: coordinated touches with distinct purposes and stop conditions.
• Audit: diagnose existing copy, research, cadence, deliverability, or compliance risk.
• Reply handling: answer a positive reply, objection, referral, out-of-office, unsubscribe, or rejection.

Do not create a campaign when one message is enough.

Workflow

1. Inspect supplied context and existing messages. Establish sender, recipient, relationship, goal, offer, proof, and requested next step without re-asking known facts.
2. Research current recipient signals when research is authorized and useful. Prefer the person's work, company pages, filings/releases, job posts, interviews, and public writing. Record URLs and retrieval dates.
3. Separate verified facts, sender-provided claims, and inference. Never invent familiarity, praise, mutual contacts, urgency, results, or social proof.
4. Draft the shortest message that can establish relevance and make the ask. Use length and subject-line guidance as defaults, not universal laws.
5. For a sequence, give every touch a different job and widening space where appropriate. Define stop conditions before copy.
6. For reply handling, match the state: answer the question, reduce friction, propose the next step, or stop. Never continue after an opt-out.
7. Check sender identity, authentication, list provenance, suppression handling, required identification/opt-out language, and applicable jurisdiction before recommending volume. If jurisdiction or recipient type is unknown, flag the legal uncertainty rather than declaring compliance.
8. Read copy aloud. Remove generic flattery, throat-clearing, fake scarcity, hidden asks, manipulative guilt, and unsupported claims.

Ask only for a missing fact that materially changes the message. If a fact is useful but non-blocking, draft with a clearly marked confirmation note.

Load conditional references

• For a single message or audit, read single-message patterns. Read single-message examples only when an example is useful.
• For a sequence, read sequence design. Read sequence examples only when needed.

References are heuristic libraries, not mandatory workflows. This file is authoritative.

Output contract

For a single message, return:

• subject or channel opener;
• send-ready body;
• one meaningfully different opening when useful;
• facts requiring confirmation and source notes, separate from copy.

For a sequence, return a table with touch, timing rationale, channel, purpose, copy, stop condition, and measurement. For an audit, identify the issue, evidence, impact, and rewrite. For reply handling, return send-ready copy plus the intended next state.

Verify

• The opener depends on this recipient or situation.
• Every material claim is verified, sender-provided, or marked for confirmation.
• There is one clear ask or next step.
• Sequence touches are not paraphrases of one another.
• Opt-out, bounce, reply, referral, and out-of-office states have stop or routing rules.
• Research notes are not mixed into send-ready copy.
• Any timing, benchmark, deliverability, or legal claim is sourced and dated or presented as a testable default.