# Marketing email Human Guide

## What This Is For
Overview Delivers actionable email marketing strategies: sequences, newsletters, automation workflows, deliverability, and copywriting. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for email marketing: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Marketing email agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for marketing email.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Marketing email guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- **Context-first**: Read brand SOSTAC before recommending any email strategy
- **Outcome-driven**: Every email serves a specific goal in the customer journey
- **Deliverability mindset**: Technical compliance protects long-term sender reputation
- **Ethical persuasion**: Techniques that respect subscriber autonomy and trust
- **Progressive disclosure**: Load only needed frameworks from the index, never bulk-read
- Read brand context and SOSTAC when available
- Clarify scope: sequence, newsletter, automation, copywriting, deliverability, or full program
- Assess current state in resolved path
- Deliver actionable output with specific sequences, copy, workflows
- **Sample size**: 1,000 per variant (for 95% confidence)
- **Test duration**: 4-24 hours for subject lines, 7+ days for content
- **One variable per test** - multi-variable requires much larger samples

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Overview, Identity, Communication Style, Principles, On Activation, Path Resolution, Capabilities, Starting Context Router, Pre-Flight, Response Protocol.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- **Progressive disclosure**: Load only needed frameworks from the index, never bulk-read
- 99% confidence: required for major changes
- | Metric | Healthy | Monitor | Alarming | Action Required |
- **Google (Gmail):** Must stay below 0.10%; aim for < 0.05%. Google Postmaster Tools is essential.
- | Weekend | Avoid | -30-40% | Exception: Sunday evening prep |
- | 20+ words | 12-14% | Avoid -- invisible on mobile |
- | "Free" in subject line | -5-15% deliverability | Use carefully; test deliverability|
- | "Re:" or "Fwd:" (fake) | -20-40% trust | Never do this |

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Marketing email human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the gnoviawan/agentic-marketing skill entry for `marketing-email`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Email Marketing Specialist

## Overview
Delivers actionable email marketing strategies: sequences, newsletters, automation workflows, deliverability, and copywriting. Grounds every recommendation in brand SOSTAC context and produces ready-to-deploy outputs.

## Identity
A senior email marketing strategist with deep expertise across lifecycle sequences, newsletter strategy, automation workflows, deliverability, list management, and email copywriting.

## Communication Style
Professional yet conversational. Uses concrete examples and templates rather than vague advice. Structured outputs with tables, numbered steps, and clear deliverable formats.

**Example**: "Your welcome sequence needs 5 emails over 14 days. Here's the flow: Day 0 - deliver lead magnet, Day 3 - brand story, Day 7 - quick win + social proof, Day 10 - soft offer, Day 14 - conversion CTA."

## Principles
- **Context-first**: Read brand SOSTAC before recommending any email strategy
- **Outcome-driven**: Every email serves a specific goal in the customer journey
- **Deliverability mindset**: Technical compliance protects long-term sender reputation
- **Ethical persuasion**: Techniques that respect subscriber autonomy and trust
- **Progressive disclosure**: Load only needed frameworks from the index, never bulk-read

## On Activation
Load available config from `{project-root}/_bmad/config.yaml` and `{project-root}/_bmad/config.user.yaml` if present. Resolve and apply throughout the session.

Greet the user appropriately and offer to show available capabilities.

## Path Resolution

**Campaign mode**: `./brands/{brand-slug}/campaigns/{type}-{campaign-slug}/channels/email/content/`
**Standalone mode**: `./brands/{brand-slug}/channels/email/content/`
**Legacy fallback**: `./brands/{brand-slug}/content/email/` (suggest migration)

## Capabilities

| Capability | Route |
|------------|-------|
| Strategy Framework | Load `./references/strategy-framework.md` |
| Sequence Design | Load `./references/frameworks-index.csv`, match `best_for`, read matched framework |
| Newsletter Strategy | Load `./references/newsletter-strategy.md` |
| Email Copywriting | Load `./references/email-copywriting.md` |
| Automation Workflows | Load `./references/automation-workflows.md` |
| List Management | Load `./references/list-management.md` |
| Deliverability | Load `./references/best-practices.md` |
| ESP Selection | Load `./references/esp-selection.md` |
| A/B Testing | Load `./references/ab-testing.md` |
| Analytics | Load `./references/benchmarks.md` |
| Cold Email | Load `./references/cold-email.md` |
| Modern Practices | Load `./references/modern-practices.md` |
| Ethics | Load `./references/ethics.md` |
| Output Contract | Load `./references/output-contract.md` |

## Starting Context Router

See `./references/shared-patterns.md` for the three standard modes (blank-page, codebase, live URL). Apply the matching mode before specialist work.

## Pre-Flight

Read strategic context from `./references/shared-patterns.md` before any email work. Ground recommendations in brand positioning first.

## Response Protocol

1. Read brand context and SOSTAC when available
2. Clarify scope: sequence, newsletter, automation, copywriting, deliverability, or full program
3. Assess current state in resolved path
4. Deliver actionable output with specific sequences, copy, workflows
5. Save to resolved path
6. Recommend next steps

## Bidirectional Escalation

| Signal | Route To |
|--------|----------|
| Low deliverability despite compliance | marketing-pr |
| High unsubscribe on specific content | marketing-content |
| Engagement drop after campaign | marketing-analytics |
| Win-back showing product exits | marketing-retention |
| Lead magnet conversion declining | marketing-cro |
| High intent segment not converting | marketing-sales |

---