--- name: cold-email-engagement-first-outreach description: Root skill for planning, drafting, auditing, and routing cold outreach to strangers across B2B sales, founder-led outreach, investor fundraising, recruiting, partnerships, PR, podcasts, and customer research. Use when the user needs a campaign bundle, one targeted email, reply handling, or a trust-preserving outreach operating workflow. --- # Cold Email Engagement-First Outreach Root skill for trust-preserving cold outreach. The operating sequence is: ```text right person -> right moment -> right reason -> right offer -> right ask -> right follow-up ``` The north star is qualified conversations started per unit of market trust consumed. ## When to Use - Plan or audit a cold email campaign - Draft one high-value targeted cold email - Choose between high-volume, strategic-account, single-target, reply-revival, investor, recruiting, PR, podcast, partnership, or customer-research modes - Diagnose low opens, low replies, bad-fit replies, poor meeting conversion, objections, or deliverability risk - Design the outreach operating workflow before sending - Decide which child skill should handle a weak input such as ICP, signal, offer, research, taste, deliverability, reply handling, or learning review ## Workflow 1. Choose exactly one mode: high-volume offer test, strategic-account sales, single-target relationship, reply revival, investor fundraising, recruiting, PR/podcast, partnership, or customer research. 2. Check the prime flow in order: right person, right moment, right reason, right offer, right ask, right follow-up. 3. Route to a child skill only if a specific input is missing or weak. Do not load children automatically. 4. Verify sender trust before any scaled sending. If deliverability is unknown, recommend manual or low-volume sending only. 5. Segment volume campaigns to one persona x one narrowing signal. Reject mixed lists. 6. Require a specific research anchor and bridge for strategic, single-target, investor, recruiting, PR, podcast, partnership, and relationship-sensitive outreach. 7. Prefer a useful artifact offer over a meeting ask: note, teardown, benchmark, signal report, sample, snapshot, deck, topic angles, or candidate slate. 8. Draft subject and preview before the body. Reject promotional, vague, money-word, or generic packaging. 9. Draft the body by mode and use one CTA: the smallest useful yes. 10. Add proof only when true, relevant, and approved. 11. Plan cadence by mode and define reply routes before sending. 12. Return a campaign bundle, per-email bundle, audit report, or child-skill routing plan. ## Child Skill Routing - Use `cold_email_icp_signal_design` when the target, persona, timing signal, or disqualifier set is vague. - Use `cold_email_offer_lab` when the offer is missing, meeting-first, too large, or not artifact-shaped. - Use `cold_email_research_anchors` when a high-value email needs a better anchor or bridge. - Use `cold_email_outreach_compiler` when inputs are ready and the user needs the finished bundle. - Use `cold_email_taste_review` when reputation risk, weak specificity, or fake personalization is the main concern. - Use `cold_email_deliverability_readiness` when scaled sending, cold domains, or inbox health matters. - Use `cold_email_reply_os` when replies arrive, silence needs revival, or objections need routing. - Use `cold_email_learning_review` after a test produces metrics, replies, objections, or buyer language. ## Output Contracts - Campaign bundle: mode, segment, sender check, offer, subject, preview, body, proof slot, CTA, cadence, reply routes, tracking targets, and refusal note if needed. - Per-email bundle: mode, anchor, bridge, subject, preview, body, CTA, proof, specificity grade, taste review, and follow-up plan. - Audit report: mode mismatch, sender gap, subject/preview issue, segment/research gap, offer gap, passive language, missing bridge, proof issue, cadence violation, reply-routing gap, and 3 rewrite candidates. - Routing plan: which child skill to load, why, and what artifact it should return to the root. ## Guardrails - Do not send, schedule, or publish outreach without human confirmation. - Do not fabricate research, proof, metrics, mutual contacts, customer names, or buyer-language claims. - Do not run mixed personas in one campaign. - Do not recommend volume sending without verified sender health. - Do not use "worth a chat" as the offer. - Do not use a Loom, deck, or calendar link as the cold value unless the mode specifically supports it. - Do not leave preview text to chance. - Do not use investor meeting-first cold emails. - Do not stack multiple offers or CTAs. - Do not exceed mode cadence limits. - Do not spend market trust casually. ## Examples ### User has a list but no clear segment - Load `cold_email_icp_signal_design`. - Return a segment definition and signal rubric before drafting. ### User has a target and a weak offer - Load `cold_email_offer_lab`. - Return an artifact offer and smallest useful yes before compiling the email. ### User has a drafted email and asks whether it is good - Load `cold_email_taste_review` if the risk is reputation/tone, or `cold_email_outreach_compiler` if the goal is a full rewrite. ## Notes - This is the runtime BuildOS skill. Public blog content may paraphrase it, but should point back to this file as the core skill source. - Deeper research lineage and public source analysis live under `docs/research/youtube-library/skill-drafts/cold-email-engagement-first-outreach/`. ## Portable References This skill ships with local reference files. Read them only when the current task matches the trigger. - `references/public-mode-router.md` — Public Outreach Mode Router (cold_email_engagement_first_outreach.public_mode_router): Portable public routing guide for choosing the right cold-outreach mode, required inputs, child skill handoffs, and output shape. - Read when: When using the portable bundle outside BuildOS. - Read when: When the task needs a fast decision between campaign, strategic-account, single-target, investor, recruiting, PR, partnership, or customer-research outreach modes.