cold-email

Trigger phrases

Phrases that activate this skill when typed to Claude Code:

• cold email
• prospecting email
• outbound email
• follow-up sequence
• nobody is replying to my emails

What it does

cold-email is a Claude Code skill from Corey Haines’s marketing-skills repo. It turns Claude into a cold email writer whose job is producing emails that read like a thoughtful colleague — not a template with {{FirstName}} swapped in. The skill activates when you mention “cold email”, “prospecting email”, “outbound email”, or “follow-up sequence”, and walks through subject line, opening, body, CTA, and a 3–5 step follow-up cadence.

The output of a session is a complete sequence: subject lines that look internal (2–4 words, lowercase), an opening that connects a research signal to a problem, body copy where every sentence earns its place, a low-friction CTA, and follow-up emails that each add a new angle instead of “just checking in”.

When to use it

Reach for it when:

• You have a research signal (funding, hiring, LinkedIn post) and want to turn it into a real opener
• Your reply rate is in the basement and you suspect the copy is the problem
• You’re spinning up a new outbound segment and need a sequence, not just a single email

When not to reach for it:

• You haven’t done any research on the prospect — the skill won’t fabricate signals, and a good cold email needs them
• For warm/lifecycle email, use email-sequence instead — different rules apply

Install

The skill is distributed via Corey Haines’s marketing-skills repo. Install via the repo’s recommended path — copy the cold-email SKILL.md into your project’s .claude/skills/cold-email/ directory, or use the repo’s plugin install if you’ve set it up.

Once installed, the skill activates on the trigger phrases above. The first time it runs, it will check for .agents/product-marketing-context.md (or .claude/product-marketing-context.md) — populating that file with your product context first dramatically improves output quality across all of Haines’s marketing skills.

What a session looks like

A typical session has three phases:

1. Inputs check. Who, what outcome, what value prop, what proof, what research signal. The skill works with whatever you give it but flags weak inputs.
2. First-touch draft. Picks a structure (Observation→Problem→Proof→Ask, Trigger→Insight→Ask, Story→Bridge→Ask) and writes a draft where the personalization is load-bearing — if you remove the opener, the rest stops making sense.
3. Sequence build. 3–5 follow-ups, each with a distinct angle (case study, contrarian take, useful resource, breakup), increasing gaps between sends.

The discipline that makes it work: every sentence has to serve the reader, “you/your” has to dominate over “I/we”, and the breakup email is honored — no zombie “circling back” forever.

Receipts

Honest reporting on what cold-email produces and where it has limits:

Where it works well:

• The “read it aloud” filter strips AI-tells like “I hope this finds you well” before you ever hit send
• Subject lines that look like internal forwards beat the “Quick question?” pattern by a wide margin
• The angle rotation in follow-ups gives each touch a real reason to exist

Where it backfires:

• On highly technical buyer personas the skill can default to mid-market SaaS register; you’ll need to tighten the voice
• Without a real research signal it produces competent-but-generic copy — the skill is honest that personalization carries the email

Pattern that works: feed it three actual signals (a hire, a funding round, a recent post) and ask for three first-touch variations. You’ll see which signal lands hardest before you commit to a sequence.

Source and attribution

Originally written by Corey Haines. The canonical SKILL.md and any supporting files live in the cold-email folder of his marketing-skills repository.

License: MIT. You can install, adapt, and redistribute the skill, with attribution preserved.

This page documents the skill from a practitioner’s perspective. For the formal spec and any updates, defer to the source repo.