# Cold outreach Human Guide

## What This Is For
Building outbound sequences for new personas or segments Personalizing cold email / LinkedIn outreach at scale Diagnosing low open or reply rates in existing sequences Designing follow-up. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for cold outreach: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Cold outreach 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 cold outreach.
- 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 Cold outreach 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
- Building outbound sequences for new personas or segments
- Personalizing cold email / LinkedIn outreach at scale
- Diagnosing low open or reply rates in existing sequences
- Designing follow-up cadences for SDR/XDR or founder-led sales
- **Core Principles** – pattern interruption, value before ask, authentic personalization, mobile-first formatting, single CTA.
- **SPARK Flow** – Subject hook → Personalized opening → Agitate problem → Relevant value → Kick-off CTA.
- **Channel Mix** – email templates + LinkedIn touches + call follow-ups working together.
- **Cadence Design** – 3-touch follow-up over 14 days with new insights each step.
- **Experimentation** – test subject/openers/value props/CTAs/send times; watch ≥30% opens, ≥10% replies.
- Subject line bank ("Quick question about [initiative]", "Noticed you're hiring [role]", etc.)
- Email templates (Observation & Insight, Problem/Solution, Referral) plus LinkedIn connection + post-accept scripts.
- Personalization trigger sheet (company + individual signals) and follow-up schedule checklist.

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: When to Use, Framework, Templates, Tips.

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
- Keep all templates in a shared library with progressive disclosure to avoid template fatigue.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Cold outreach 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 gtmagents/gtm-agents skill entry for `cold-outreach`.

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

# Cold Outreach Mastery

## When to Use

- Building outbound sequences for new personas or segments
- Personalizing cold email / LinkedIn outreach at scale
- Diagnosing low open or reply rates in existing sequences
- Designing follow-up cadences for SDR/XDR or founder-led sales

## Framework
1. **Core Principles** – pattern interruption, value before ask, authentic personalization, mobile-first formatting, single CTA.
2. **SPARK Flow** – Subject hook → Personalized opening → Agitate problem → Relevant value → Kick-off CTA.
3. **Channel Mix** – email templates + LinkedIn touches + call follow-ups working together.
4. **Cadence Design** – 3-touch follow-up over 14 days with new insights each step.
5. **Experimentation** – test subject/openers/value props/CTAs/send times; watch ≥30% opens, ≥10% replies.

## Templates
- Subject line bank ("Quick question about [initiative]", "Noticed you're hiring [role]", etc.)
- Email templates (Observation & Insight, Problem/Solution, Referral) plus LinkedIn connection + post-accept scripts.
- Personalization trigger sheet (company + individual signals) and follow-up schedule checklist.
- Power phrase/reference list and industry-specific angle cheatsheets (SaaS, e-comm, financial services, healthcare).

## Tips
- Anchor every opener on a real trigger (funding, hiring, post) and keep lines <60 chars for mobile readability.
- Offer a resource or benchmark before requesting time; it increases reply rate.
- Log A/B test results weekly to evolve templates, and share top-performing subject lines with the team.
- Keep all templates in a shared library with progressive disclosure to avoid template fatigue.

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*Progressive disclosure: load full templates/examples only when actively generating outreach copy.*