# Outbound email strategy Human Guide

## What This Is For
Comprehensive outbound email strategy skill for cold outreach, email sequences, and multi-channel campaigns. 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 Outbound email strategy 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 outbound email strategy.
- 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 Outbound email strategy 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
- **Define ICP** — Who are you targeting and why?
- **Research Prospects** — Find personalization signals
- **Craft the Hook** — Lead with value, not a pitch
- **Build Sequence** — 5-7 touches across channels
- **Handle Responses** — Script for every outcome
- 2-4 words, lowercase, no punctuation
- Should look like it came from a colleague
- No product pitches, no urgency, no emojis
- Job postings (indicate priorities)
- "Saw your post about X — made me think of Y"
- "Noticed you're hiring X — usually means Y"
- "Hope this email finds you well"

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Workspace Context, Operating Contract, Quick Start, ICP Framework, Define Your Target, Questions to Answer, Writing Principles, Write Like a Peer, Not a Vendor, Every Sentence Must Earn Its Place, Personalization Must Connect to the Problem.

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
- Every Sentence Must Earn Its Place
- Personalization Must Connect to the Problem
- "You/your" should dominate over "I/we." Don't open with who you are.
- **Rule:** Never sacrifice personalization for volume.
- Authentication (Required)
- | Feature dump | They don't care yet | Lead with their pain |
- **Forbidden Knowledge** — "Secrets agencies don't want you to know"
- Track attribution carefully

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Outbound email strategy 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 manojbajaj95/claude-gtm-plugin skill entry for `outbound-email-strategy`.

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

# Outbound Email Strategy

## Workspace Context

Read bootstrap context before asking questions: `strategy/brand.md` for brand, audience, offer, channels, tools, constraints, and metrics; `about/me.md` for personal voice; `content/ideas.md` and `content/calendar.md` for content planning. Use legacy product-marketing context files only as fallback. Save generated drafts to `content/<platform>/drafts/YYYY-MM-DD_short-topic-slug.md`, and route durable learnings back to `strategy/brand.md`, `about/me.md`, or `content/ideas.md`.

## Operating Contract

This skill is self-contained for its frontmatter scope: use its local instructions, references, scripts, and assets as the playbook; ask only for missing task-specific inputs; hand off to adjacent skills instead of expanding scope; and return an actionable artifact, decision, plan, draft, or diagnostic.


Expert outbound email execution for B2B sales and business development. Build high-response cold outreach campaigns that feel personalized and drive conversations.

## Quick Start

1. **Define ICP** — Who are you targeting and why?
2. **Research Prospects** — Find personalization signals
3. **Craft the Hook** — Lead with value, not a pitch
4. **Build Sequence** — 5-7 touches across channels
5. **Handle Responses** — Script for every outcome

---

## ICP Framework

### Define Your Target

| Element | Question | Example |
|---------|----------|---------|
| Title | Who decides? | VP of Engineering |
| Company | What type? | B2B SaaS, $1-10M ARR |
| Pain | What hurts? | Content isn't converting |
| Trigger | Why NOW? | Just raised funding |
| Proof | Why YOU? | Helped similar company get result |

### Questions to Answer

> 1. What's their job title/role?
> 2. What company size/type?
> 3. What industry or vertical?
> 4. What pain are they experiencing RIGHT NOW?
> 5. Why should THEY specifically care?

---

## Writing Principles

### Write Like a Peer, Not a Vendor

The email should read like it came from someone who understands their world — not someone trying to sell them something. Use contractions. Read it aloud. If it sounds like marketing copy, rewrite it.

### Every Sentence Must Earn Its Place

Cold email is ruthlessly short. If a sentence doesn't move the reader toward replying, cut it.

### Personalization Must Connect to the Problem

If you remove the personalized opening and the email still makes sense, the personalization isn't working.

### Lead with Their World, Not Yours

"You/your" should dominate over "I/we." Don't open with who you are.

### One Ask, Low Friction

Interest-based CTAs ("Worth exploring?" / "Would this be useful?") beat meeting requests.

---

## Subject Lines

Short, boring, internal-looking. The subject line's only job is to get the email opened.

**Rules:**
- 2-4 words, lowercase, no punctuation
- Should look like it came from a colleague
- No product pitches, no urgency, no emojis

**Examples:**
- "reply rates"