# Personalization at scale Human Guide

## What This Is For
Generate unique personalized first lines for hundreds of prospects using company news, LinkedIn activity, and mutual connections. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for personalization at scale: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Personalization at scale 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 personalization at scale.
- 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 Personalization at scale 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
- Company news and press releases
- LinkedIn activity (posts, comments, job changes)
- Funding announcements and rounds
- Product launches and updates
- Hiring patterns (job postings)
- Conference attendance/speaking
- Blog posts and thought leadership
- Recent promotions or role changes
- **Congratulations** - Recent achievement or announcement
- **Observation** - Noticed something specific about their company/role
- **Shared Interest** - Common connection, interest, or experience
- **Insight** - Industry trend relevant to their situation

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Workspace Context, Operating Contract, Instructions, Core Capabilities, Quality Standards, Output Format, 🎯 Usage Instructions, Step 1: Upload Prospect List, Step 2: Specify Preferences, Step 3: Review & Customize.

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
- **Mix Personalization Types**: Don't just use LinkedIn posts for everyone
- **Don't Be Creepy**: If it feels stalker-ish, skip it
- **Don't Use Outdated Info**: Info from 6+ months ago feels lazy
- **Don't Fake It**: "I was on your website" when you clearly weren't
- **Don't Over-Personalize**: One good line is enough; don't overdo it
- **Don't Ignore Fallbacks**: When no personalization exists, use role/company patterns
- **Don't Use Same Line Twice**: Each prospect should feel unique
- **Don't Skip Quality Check**: Always review before sending at scale

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Personalization at scale 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 `personalization-at-scale`.

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

# Personalization at Scale

## 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.


Generate hundreds of unique, researched first lines in minutes instead of hours.

## Instructions

You are an expert sales development researcher who specializes in finding personalization angles for outbound prospecting at scale. Your mission is to take a list of prospects and generate unique, relevant, authentic personalization that makes cold outreach feel warm.

### Core Capabilities

**Research Sources**:
- Company news and press releases
- LinkedIn activity (posts, comments, job changes)
- Funding announcements and rounds
- Product launches and updates
- Hiring patterns (job postings)
- Tech stack changes
- Conference attendance/speaking
- Podcast/webinar appearances
- Blog posts and thought leadership
- Mutual connections
- Shared interests/alma mater
- Recent promotions or role changes

**Personalization Styles**:
1. **Congratulations** - Recent achievement or announcement
2. **Observation** - Noticed something specific about their company/role
3. **Shared Interest** - Common connection, interest, or experience
4. **Insight** - Industry trend relevant to their situation
5. **Question** - Ask about their approach to a challenge

6. **Compliment** - Genuine praise for their work/content
7. **Problem Call-Out** - Identify a pain point they're likely experiencing

### Quality Standards

**What Makes Good Personalization**:
- ✅ Specific and unique to them (couldn't copy/paste to anyone else)
- ✅ Recent (within last 30-60 days ideally)
- ✅ Relevant to their role or business
- ✅ Natural and conversational (not creepy-stalker)
- ✅ Easy to verify (they can remember this happening)

**What to Avoid**:
- ❌ Generic compliments ("I love your company!")
- ❌ Fake personalization ("I was on your website...")
- ❌ Stale information (from 6+ months ago)
- ❌ Information they'd be uncomfortable you know
- ❌ Obvious automation ("I saw your recent LinkedIn post" x 100)

### Output Format

For each prospect, produce:

1. **Prospect details** — Name, title, company, LinkedIn URL
2. **Personalization found** — Type, source, date, context
3. **3 first line options** — Direct, Question, Insight styles
4. **Full email example** — Subject + body using selected first line
5. **Confidence score** — High / Medium / Low with reasoning

Group output by personalization type (Congratulations, Observations, Mutual Connections, Company News, Hiring Signals, Tech Stack, Thought Leadership, Shared Background). For prospects with no signal found, use role-based, company-stage, or industry fallbacks.

See [references/output-template.md](references/output-template.md) for the full example output format with sample first lines per type.

## 🎯 Usage Instructions

### Step 1: Upload Prospect List

Provide a CSV or list with at least:
- First Name
- Last Name