# Cold email writer Human Guide

## What This Is For
Write personalized cold outreach emails to hiring managers and founders — specific, human, not a pitch deck 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 Cold email writer 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 email writer.
- 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 email writer 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
- Write a cold outreach email to a hiring manager, founder, or recruiter
- Reach out about a job opening they weren't referred to
- Introduce themselves to a company they want to work at
- Mentions: "cold email", "reach out", "intro email", "outreach", "contact hiring manager"
- A specific number or stat from the company's materials ("only 5% of the market is online")
- A product decision that shows you understand the domain ("you're building from scratch alongside underwriters, not just distribution")
- A technical insight from the JD ("improving the data infrastructure for LLM usage, not just the model layer")
- Generic: "I love what you're building"
- Vague: "Your mission resonates with me"
- Flattering: "You're one of the most exciting companies in the space"
- Mention work as context, not as proof of greatness
- No achievement listings ("I increased X by Y%") — let the project speak

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: When to Use This Skill, Core Principle, The Template Structure, Subject, Opening — The Hook (2-3 sentences), Location Disclosure (if international), Experience Gap (if applicable), The Body — Who They Are (3-5 sentences), The Connection (1-2 sentences), Portfolio Link.

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
- Start with what genuinely pulled the candidate in. Must be specific to this company — not a generic compliment.
- **Minimum:** 150 words (don't strip out substance for brevity)
- Common Mistakes to Avoid
- ✅ Acknowledge gaps directly and move on — don't apologize

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Cold email writer 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 paramchoudhary/resumeskills skill entry for `cold-email-writer`.

## 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 Email Writer

## When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when the user wants to:
- Write a cold outreach email to a hiring manager, founder, or recruiter
- Reach out about a job opening they weren't referred to
- Introduce themselves to a company they want to work at
- Mentions: "cold email", "reach out", "intro email", "outreach", "contact hiring manager"

## Core Principle

Cold emails fail because they sound like cover letters. The goal is to sound like a smart person who genuinely noticed something specific about the company — not a candidate broadcasting their credentials.

**The email should feel like:** A colleague mentioning something interesting they read, not a sales pitch.

## The Template Structure

### Subject
```
Quick intro — [First Name Last Name]
```
Simple. No clickbait. No role title. Just a name.

### Opening — The Hook (2-3 sentences)
Start with what genuinely pulled the candidate in. Must be specific to this company — not a generic compliment.

```
I just came across [Company] and ended up spending more time on it than I expected.
[One specific thing that caught their attention — a stat, a product decision, a market insight from the JD or website]
```

**What makes a good hook:**
- A specific number or stat from the company's materials ("only 5% of the market is online")
- A product decision that shows you understand the domain ("you're building from scratch alongside underwriters, not just distribution")
- A technical insight from the JD ("improving the data infrastructure for LLM usage, not just the model layer")

**What makes a bad hook:**
- Generic: "I love what you're building"
- Vague: "Your mission resonates with me"
- Flattering: "You're one of the most exciting companies in the space"

### Location Disclosure (if international)
If the candidate is in a different country from the company, disclose it early and casually:

```
Before you read further, I should mention I'm based in [country]. But if we both
feel there's a strong fit, I'd be open to figuring things out.
```

### Experience Gap (if applicable)
If the role lists more years than the candidate has, acknowledge it briefly and redirect:

```
The role mentions [X] years of experience — I'm at [Y], but the work I've
shipped is production-facing and I'd rather you judge that directly.
```

### The Body — Who They Are (3-5 sentences)
Current role → relevant past → one or two projects. Keep it contextual, not a list.

```
A bit about me: I currently work at [Company], [one line on what the company does],
where I [what they actually do there — not a job title]. Before that I worked
with teams in [region], mostly around [relevant domain].

On the side I've been building [Project] ([link if applicable]) — [one line: what
it is and one proof point like "got to paying clients" or "20K downloads"].
```

**Rules:**
- Mention work as context, not as proof of greatness
- No achievement listings ("I increased X by Y%") — let the project speak
- If current company is remote with a European/international team, say so explicitly
- Keep project mentions to one or two max — the most relevant ones only

### The Connection (1-2 sentences)
Bridge between their background and the specific role. Should feel like an observation, not a claim.

```