Skills wiki

email-marketing-bible

A Claude Code skill embedding a 908-source email marketing knowledge base — benchmarks, deliverability rules, automation flows, segmentation, compliance, cold email, and 19 industry playbooks.

Pull battle-tested email benchmarks and frameworks on demand

Source CosmoBlk
License MIT
First documented
MarketingEmail

Trigger phrases

Phrases that activate this skill when typed to Claude Code:

  • email marketing audit
  • email deliverability
  • email automation flows
  • email benchmarks
  • diagnose my email setup

What it does

email-marketing-bible is a Claude Code skill that embeds a 68K-word, 17-chapter email marketing reference base into Claude’s context. It’s not a step-by-step workflow skill — it’s a knowledge base. When you ask a question, Claude answers by drawing on the embedded content rather than its general training.

The upstream source is EMB V2.0, which draws on 908 cited sources and 4,798 documented insights. The breadth is the point: it covers strategy, deliverability, automation flows, copywriting, segmentation, compliance, cold email, and 19 vertical-specific industry playbooks in a single install.

The 17 chapters cover:

  1. Fundamentals — key metrics, the email stack, tags vs segments vs lists
  2. List building — lead magnets, popups, double opt-in tradeoffs
  3. Segmentation and personalisation
  4. Automation flows (the revenue-generating sequences)
  5. Copywriting
  6. Design and technical
  7. Deliverability — the rules that have changed since February 2024
  8. Testing and optimisation
  9. Analytics and measurement
  10. Compliance
  11. Industry playbooks (19 verticals)
  12. Platform selection
  13. Cold email and B2B outbound
  14. AI and email
  15. Company case studies
  16. Expert directory
  17. Email design best practices (new in V2, covering 57 designs)

A few benchmarks embedded in the skill that are worth knowing before you install it: $36 ROI per $1 spent (vs. 122% for newsletters, 28% for social), automation flows generating 30x more revenue-per-recipient than broadcast campaigns, and a spam complaint threshold of 0.1% — above that, deliverability starts degrading with most providers.

The 2024 Google/Yahoo mandate material (SPF, DKIM, DMARC requirements that became non-negotiable for bulk senders in February 2024) is documented in Chapter 7. The skill treats these as table stakes, not advanced topics.

When to use it

Reach for it when:

  • You’re auditing an email setup and need to know what “good” looks like numerically — open rates, click-through, unsubscribe thresholds, inbox placement
  • You’re deciding which flows to build first and want a framework for prioritization
  • You’re troubleshooting deliverability and need a structured checklist rather than a search session
  • You’re entering a new vertical (SaaS, ecommerce, nonprofit, agency, healthcare) and want its specific benchmarks and known-good flows before you start designing
  • You have a strategic question mid-project — “should we switch to single opt-in for purchasers?”, “what’s a good CTOR for a re-engagement sequence?” — and want a direct answer rather than a round-trip through documentation

When not to reach for it:

  • Writing custom-voice email copy — for that, copywriting and email-sequence are better suited; this skill explains what good copy looks like but doesn’t generate it in your voice
  • Building a sequence from scratch — use email-sequence for the design work; bring this skill in when you need to check a benchmark or validate a decision during that process
  • Very narrow tactical questions where general search is faster

Install

Copy SKILL.md from github.com/CosmoBlk/email-marketing-bible into .claude/skills/email-marketing-bible/SKILL.md in your project or global ~/.claude/skills/ directory.

.claude/
  skills/
    email-marketing-bible/
      SKILL.md

No additional configuration required. The skill activates on the trigger phrases above. Note that the SKILL.md is large — it’s a 68K-word knowledge base, not a brief instruction set. That’s intentional.

What a session looks like

The skill operates as a reference you can query, not as a workflow that walks you through steps.

Benchmark queries are the fastest use case: “What’s a good click-to-open rate for a SaaS onboarding sequence?” gets a direct answer with context — the benchmark, why post-Apple MPP open rates are now directional-only, and what metric to use as a primary signal instead.

Deliverability diagnosis works well because the skill has the 2024 Google/Yahoo mandate details embedded — SPF, DKIM, DMARC requirements, the 0.1% spam complaint threshold, the inbox placement ranges that signal a warming problem. You describe the symptom; it maps it to a likely cause.

Flow prioritization is another strong use case: “What flows should I set up first?” draws on the embedded data (automation flows generate 30x more RPR than campaigns; the welcome, cart-abandon, and post-purchase flows are the core three for ecommerce) and gives a reasoned answer, not a generic list.

Industry playbook queries: “What does a good SaaS B2B email program look like?” triggers the vertical-specific content — behaviour-based onboarding, one CTA per email, target benchmarks of >20% open and >12% CTOR, re-engagement at defined inactivity windows.

The 19 verticals with dedicated playbooks are: Ecommerce DTC, SaaS B2B, SaaS B2C, Newsletter/Creator, Nonprofit, Agency, Healthcare, Financial, Real Estate, Travel, Education, Retail, Events, B2B Manufacturing, Restaurant, Fitness, Media, and Marketplace.

Receipts

Where it works well:

  • “What open rate is good for SaaS?” — gets a direct answer with context (the post-Apple MPP caveat, what CTOR to watch instead) rather than the generic “it depends” you’d get from general training
  • Deliverability diagnosis — the 2024 authentication mandate material is specific and current; describing a deliverability symptom gets a structured response, not a search suggestion
  • Pre-project calibration when entering a new vertical — asking “what does email look like for a nonprofit?” before designing any flows saves the false-start of applying B2B SaaS defaults to a 3:1 value-to-ask ratio context
  • Mid-project sanity checks — querying a specific benchmark or compliance rule during an email-sequence session, then returning to the design work

Where it backfires:

  • Custom-voice copywriting — the skill explains principles but doesn’t write in your brand voice; use copywriting for that
  • Questions that require real-time data (current deliverability status of a specific domain, live platform pricing) — the knowledge base is static
  • Very short questions where the answer is in the first search result; the skill adds value on questions where synthesis across multiple topics matters

Pattern that works: treat it as a senior email strategist on call, not as a writing tool. The question to ask is “what does the data say about X?” or “what should I be checking when Y?” — not “write me an email.” The knowledge base answers the first type well. The writing tools handle the second.

Source and attribution

Originally compiled by CosmoBlk. The canonical SKILL.md lives at github.com/CosmoBlk/email-marketing-bible.

The underlying knowledge base (EMB V2.0) draws on 908 sources and is separately published at emailmarketingskill.com. Chapter-level deep dives are available there for any section where the embedded summary isn’t sufficient.

License: MIT. Install, adapt, and redistribute 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.

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