Illustration for Email & lifecycle marketing skills
Email & lifecycle skill · v0.1.0

Cold email & outbound skill

B2B cold outbound that gets replies: targeting, first lines, follow-ups, deliverability and multichannel cadences.

Free · MIT licence · Copy needs a free sign-in

Category
Email & lifecycle
Works with
Claude, Codex, Cursor, any agent
Format
SKILL.md · 1,454 words
Version
v0.1.0
Price
Free · MIT

The Cold email & outbound skill file

cmo-cold-email/SKILL.md1,454 words · MIT
---
name: cmo-cold-email
description: B2B cold outbound that gets replies: targeting, first lines, follow-ups, deliverability and multichannel cadences.
---

Writes B2B cold emails that read like a thoughtful peer noticed something relevant, and sets up the outbound around them so they reach the inbox and turn replies into conversations. Covers targeting, personalisation that connects to the problem, short first touches with a low-friction ask, follow-ups that add something new, deliverability and compliance, multichannel cadences with LinkedIn, and reading results by replies rather than opens.

When to use

  • Writing or critiquing a first-touch email, a follow-up sequence or a breakup email.
  • Diagnosing poor results (low replies, wrong replies, spam placement).
  • Planning sending infrastructure and volume, or an email + LinkedIn cadence.
  • Not for: emails to opted-in subscribers (use cmo-email-sequences), building the prospect list (use cmo-prospecting), the manual LinkedIn comment and connection routine (use cmo-linkedin-engagement), sales collateral (use cmo-sales-enablement), pitching journalists (use cmo-public-relations).
Sign in to see, copy and download the whole skillIt's free. Copying also upvotes and saves it, so you'll find it again under Saved.
Preview: the workflow, output, example, quality bar and guardrails unlock when you sign in.

Adapts open work by alirezarezvani/claude-skills (MIT), ericosiu/ai-marketing-skills (MIT).

Everyday usage

How people use Cold email & outbound day to day

Ask in plain words. The agent picks this skill, asks for anything it needs and hands back the result. Words in a highlight are yours to change.

Most common · also on the Email & lifecycle page

Cold email that gets replies

Targeting, first lines and follow-ups for B2B outreach that stays compliant.

Ask your agentWrite a 3-step cold email sequence to marketing agencies.
  • First-touch emails with subject options and the reasoning
  • A follow-up sequence with a new angle in each touch and a breakup email
  • A deliverability checklist, volume math, stop-loss rules and a reply-handling guide

More things to ask

  • Write a cold email to this prospect
  • Build an outbound sequence
  • Nobody replies to our cold emails
  • Critique my cold email
  • Set up cold email so it doesn't land in spam
  • Plan an email + LinkedIn outreach cadence
How it works

From input to output

  1. 1You give it
    • The ideal customer: titles, company type and size, and who to exclude
    • The problem solved and one real proof point
    • Research signals per prospect or segment (hiring, funding, launches, posts, tech stack)
    • The ask (a reply, a short call, an intro) and the sending setup
  2. 2It works through the method
    • Asks what's missing, one question at a time
    • Follows the workflow step by step
    • Checks the result against its quality bar and guardrails
  3. 3You get
    • First-touch emails with subject options and the reasoning
    • A follow-up sequence with a new angle in each touch and a breakup email
    • A deliverability checklist, volume math, stop-loss rules and a reply-handling guide
Why a skill

The skill against the alternatives

Do it yourselfHire helpCold email & outbound skill
CostYour own timeAgency or freelancer feesFree, MIT licence
Time to a first resultHours, every timeDays to weeks, plus revisionsMinutes, in your agent
ConsistencyDepends on remembering every stepAs long as the retainer lastsSame steps and checks every run
The methodIn your headTheir process, often hiddenWritten down: read it, change it
Who does the workYou, from scratchSomeone learning your businessYour agent, following the skill
FAQ

Questions about the Cold email & outbound skill

What it does, what it needs and how to use it with your agent.

Still not sure?Try it free on your own website and see the first posts before you decide.
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What is the Cold email & outbound skill?

B2B cold outbound that gets replies: targeting, first lines, follow-ups, deliverability and multichannel cadences.

It's one of cmo.so's open Email & lifecycle skills: a SKILL.md file that tells an AI agent when to use it, what to ask you first, the steps to follow, the checks to pass and what to hand back, so the job is done the same careful way every time.

When should I use it?

Reach for it when you'd otherwise say something like “Write a cold email to this prospect”, “Build an outbound sequence”, “Nobody replies to our cold emails”. Your agent reads the skill's description and picks it for requests like these, so you don't need to name it.

If a request is close but not quite right, the skill says so and points to the related skill that fits better, instead of forcing a poor answer.

What do I need to give it?

It works best with the ideal customer: titles, company type and size, and who to exclude; the problem solved and one real proof point; research signals per prospect or segment (hiring, funding, launches, posts, tech stack); and the ask (a reply, a short call, an intro) and the sending setup.

You don't have to prepare everything up front. The skill asks for missing pieces one at a time and says plainly when it's working from an assumption instead of your data.

What do I get back?

You get first-touch emails with subject options and the reasoning; a follow-up sequence with a new angle in each touch and a breakup email; and a deliverability checklist, volume math, stop-loss rules and a reply-handling guide.

Every result comes from a written method with a quality bar, so numbers name their source, claims are checked and the output is ready to use or share rather than a rough draft.

Is it free?

Yes. The skill is open source under the MIT licence, so you can use it, change it and share it, including for client work.

Seeing, copying and downloading the whole file on cmo.so needs a free sign-in. Copying also upvotes and saves it, so you can find it again under Saved on the skills page.

Which AI agents can use it?

Claude Code installs it from the cmo.so marketplace. Any agent that reads SKILL.md folders, such as Codex or Cursor, can use it once the folder is in its skills directory.

You can also paste the copied skill into ChatGPT, Claude or any assistant at the start of a conversation and ask it to follow the skill.

How do I install it?

In Claude Code, run /plugin marketplace add AI-Marketing-OS-LTD/cmo-so-skills, then /plugin install cmo-so-email@cmo-so. That installs this skill together with the rest of the Email & lifecycle group.

For other agents, sign in, press Copy or Download above and put the file in your agent's skills folder as SKILL.md inside a folder named after the skill.

Do I need a cmo.so account to use it?

No. The skill works on its own with whatever your agent can already see and do: your files, the pages you share and the data you paste in.

A free cmo.so account only matters if you also want Maggie to plan, write and publish your marketing every day.

Which skills work well with it?

It pairs well with Prospecting & lead research; LinkedIn engagement & outreach; and Email deliverability. The agent can hand over from one to the next in the same conversation, for example research first, then the plan, then the writing.

Each of them has its own page with what it needs and what it returns, linked below.

Can I change it to fit my business?

Yes. It's a plain Markdown file, so you can edit the steps, add your own checks and examples, and keep your version in your own repo. The MIT licence allows it.

If your change would help others too, suggest it on the skills page or open a pull request on GitHub, and it may be folded into the library for everyone.

Where does the method come from?

It's written by cmo.so and adapts open work by others, credited on this page: alirezarezvani/claude-skills (MIT); and ericosiu/ai-marketing-skills (MIT).

Only permissively licensed work is adapted; copyleft repos are used for ideas only and repos without a licence aren't used at all.

Is my data sent to cmo.so when the agent uses it?

No. The skill only guides your own agent; your files, documents and data stay wherever your agent and its tools keep them.

cmo.so only sees what you connect to cmo.so. Your votes and saves on this page are stored against your cmo.so sign-in.

Ready when you are!

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