Write a cold email sequence

Extract the ZIP. Copy its lc-cold-email-sequence folder into ~/.claude/skills/ for Claude Code or ~/.codex/skills/ for Codex, then refresh the native app. Ask for the skill by name and answer its questions. The package includes the same published instructions and result checks. Native host execution is not yet verified.

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Needed before the promised result: Who you’re writing to, What you offer. You can still copy the reusable prompt and provide these in your assistant.

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## LazyCoder conversation guide (conversation-v2)
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### Questions to ask only when missing
- What should I use for “Who you’re writing to”? [required] Their role and the kind of organisation, and what they care about or struggle with. Add a reason you are writing now, if you have one.
- What should I use for “What you offer”? [required] What it is, the problem it solves, and the price or how to start, if you want to say. It can be a product, a service, a partnership or a request.
- What should I use for “Your name, business and postal address”? [optional] Goes in every email’s footer. Anti-spam laws such as the US CAN-SPAM Act expect a real sender and a postal address in sales emails.
- What should I use for “Proof you can share”? [optional] Optional: a result, a customer who agreed to be named, a number or a short quote. Nothing is made up if you leave it blank.
- What should I use for “What you want them to do”? [optional] The one next step you are asking for. Authored default: reply to say whether it is worth a short call
- What should I use for “Where your recipients are”? [optional] Sets the spelling and which anti-spam rules the before-you-send list asks you to check. Authored default: not sure or mixed Choices: not sure or mixed; US; Canada; UK; EU; Australia; another country

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## Authored skill instructions
## 1. Outcome
Write a four-email cold outreach sequence the person can paste straight into their email or sending tool, in the sections set out in part 6. Done means: four emails ready to paste that pass every check in part 7, and everything that must be added before sending is listed.

## 2. Context
Who they are writing to: [WHO YOU’RE WRITING TO]
What they offer: [WHAT YOU OFFER]
Sender (name, business, postal address): [YOUR NAME, BUSINESS AND POSTAL ADDRESS]
Proof they can share: [PROOF YOU CAN SHARE]
What they want the reader to do: reply to say whether it is worth a short call
Where the recipients are: not sure or mixed

Who it's for: the person sending, who may be a business owner, a freelancer, a salesperson, a job seeker or someone looking for partners or sponsors; and the busy stranger who receives the emails and decides in a few seconds whether to reply. Write so that stranger finds each email relevant, honest and easy to answer.

Blank fill-ins: a value that still reads as a capitalised placeholder in square brackets (such as [PROOF YOU CAN SHARE]) was left blank.
- No audience or no offer: reply only "I need to know who you are writing to and what you offer. Fill those in and send again." Never invent an audience or an offer.
- No sender: write the footer as "[ADD: your name, business and postal address]" in every email, and put "Fill in the sender footer: do not send without it" first in the before-you-send list. Never invent a name, business or address.
- No proof: make no claim of results, customers or numbers. Use a question, an observation about the reader's problem or a useful resource for the angles instead, and add "Add a result you can share" to the before-you-send list.
- A vague audience (such as "small businesses"): write for the most likely decision maker in it, name who you assumed in section 1, and lean on the tags for the details.
- A vague offer: describe only what the person wrote, and say in section 1 what extra detail would make the emails stronger.

## 3. What to pull out
- The reader: their role, their organisation, the problem or goal the offer touches, and any reason to write now (a trigger, such as a new opening, a hiring push or a recent change).
- The offer: what it is, the one problem it solves, and the lowest-effort way to start.
- Proof: each result, name or number, exactly as the person gave it.
- The ask: the one next step.
- Four angles, one per email, each giving the reader something new:
  1. The problem and the offer, in their terms, with the ask.
  2. Proof (or, with no proof, a specific observation or a question about how they handle the problem now).
  3. Something useful with no strings: a tip, a short checklist, a free resource the offer description mentions, or a different benefit.
  4. The close: a polite last note that says this is the final email and leaves the door open.

Edge cases:
- More than one audience: write for the first one and note the others at the top of section 1.
- A trigger that applies to everyone in the audience (such as "they are all hiring this month"): use it in email 1's opening line. A trigger for one named person: use it exactly as written in that person's personal-line tag. With no trigger, the personal line is a tag whose fallback is to leave the line out, and the email must still read well without it.
- An ask that is a booking or sign-up link: email 1 still ends with a one-line reply question and has no link. The link goes in email 2 as its one link, and may be repeated in email 4. Never invent a link; use only the one the person gave.
- Outreach that isn't a sale (a job enquiry, a partnership, a sponsorship, a press pitch): keep the same structure, swap sales wording for the right request, and keep the sender footer and opt-out line.
- Country notes for the before-you-send list. Add the note for where the recipients are; for "not sure or mixed", add all five; for "another country", say to check that country's rules. Each note ends with "check before sending".
  - US: no consent is needed first, but the sender, subject and postal address must be honest and real, and opt-outs must be honoured within 10 business days.
  - Canada: the anti-spam law generally needs the reader's consent first, with some exceptions, such as a work address the person published themselves with no "no marketing" note, when the email is about their job.
  - UK: marketing emails to individuals, sole traders and some partnerships usually need consent; emails to company addresses need a legitimate reason and an easy way to object.
  - EU: the rules vary by country, and several need consent even for work addresses.
  - Australia: the Spam Act generally needs consent, which can be express or inferred (for example, a work address the person published themselves with no "no marketing" note, when the email is about their job); every email must identify the sender and have a working unsubscribe, and opt-outs must be honoured within 5 working days.
- Proof that names a customer: keep the name only if the person's text says they agreed to it; otherwise describe the customer by type ("a café in Harrogate").

## 4. Steps
1. Work out the reader, the offer, the proof, the ask and the four angles from part 3.
2. Write the fill-in tags you need and a fallback for each.
3. Write email 1, then each follow-up, keeping each within its word limit and adding something new.
4. Write two or three subject lines for each email.
5. Add the footer to every email, then write sections 4 to 7 of part 6.
6. Run the self-check, fix any failure, then reply.

## 5. Rules
- Never invent a result, customer, number, quote, award, partner or fact about the reader. Use only what the person gave.
- Fill-in tags use single curly braces, such as {first_name} and {company}. Use at most four kinds of tag. Each needs a fallback that reads naturally ({first_name} falls back to "Hi there,"; {company} falls back to "your team").
- Send days: Day 1, Day 3, Day 8 and Day 15, counting the day email 1 goes out as Day 1. Use these exact days wherever days appear.
- Word limits count everything from the greeting through the sign-off, including the call to action, and exclude the footer: email 1 at most 120 words, email 2 at most 80, email 3 at most 60, email 4 at most 40.
- One call to action per email: a single question or request the reader can answer in one line. No list of options, no link of any kind in email 1 (a booking link waits for email 2, as part 3 says), and at most one link in any email.
- Never write "just checking in", "just following up", "bumping this" or "circling back". Each follow-up opens with its new angle.
- Subject lines: 2 to 7 words, describe what is actually in the email, sentence case. Never "Re:" or "Fwd:" unless the email truly is a reply in an existing thread, never a fake personal or transactional subject ("Our call", "Your invoice", "Quick favour"), no false urgency, no all caps, no emoji, no money symbols. Prices and money symbols are fine in the email itself.
- No spam-trigger wording: no "free!!!", "guaranteed", "act now", "risk-free", "100%", "limited time", and no exclamation marks.
- Plain text only: no HTML, no images, no bold, no tracking pixels or attachments.
- The From name is the sender's real name. Every email ends with this footer, word for word apart from the sender details:
  --
  <sender name>, <business>
  <postal address>
  Not the right person, or not interested? Reply "no thanks" and I won't email you again.
- Never say the emails are compliant, legal or approved under any law. Point the person to the rules to check instead.
- Spelling for where the recipients are: American for the US, Canadian for Canada, British otherwise, including "not sure or mixed".
- Write like a person writing to one person: short sentences, "you" more than "we", no jargon from the offer that the reader wouldn't use.

## 6. Output
Use these sections in this order. Write "None" under any that is empty. If you run out of space, finish the section you are on and end with "Reply continue for the rest."
1. Plan: who you are writing to, as you understood it; the four angles, one line each; and any notes required by part 2 or 3.
2. Fill-in tags: a table Tag | What to put in | Fallback when empty. Then one line: "If your tool uses another tag style, such as double braces, find and replace these tags before importing."
3. The four emails. For each, a heading "Email <n>: Day <d>, <angle>", then:
   - Subject lines: 2 or 3 options, the first one recommended. For emails 2 and 3, which go in the same thread, give 2 options written as new-email subjects, with no "Re:", and say "Sent as a reply in the same thread, so it keeps email 1's subject. Use these only if you send it as a new email."
   - The email, inside one plain-text code block so it copies cleanly: the greeting with its tag, the body, the call to action and a sign-off with the sender's first name, all within the word limit, then the footer.
   - Word count: "<n> words, greeting to sign-off (limit <n>)".
4. Threading: emails 2 and 3 go as replies in the same thread as email 1, so they keep its subject with the "Re:" the reply adds; email 4 starts a new thread with its own subject, so it looks fresh in the inbox. One line on how to set this in most sending tools (a "reply in thread" or "same thread" option on each step).
5. Schedule and stop rules: start the sequence on a Tuesday, so every send lands on a Tuesday or Thursday, and send mid-morning in the reader's time zone. Stop the sequence for that person on any reply (even "no"), a bounce, an out-of-office that says they have left, or an opt-out, and never email them again after an opt-out.
6. Before you send: a checklist covering, in this order: anything marked "[ADD: …]"; that every address was obtained in a way the reader would expect (bought lists cause legal and delivery problems in many countries); that the opt-out line works and opt-outs are kept in a do-not-email list (if your tool adds its own unsubscribe link, keep that too); that the sending domain is set up with SPF, DKIM and DMARC (ask your email provider); a test send to yourself; and "Check the anti-spam rules where your recipients are: for example, CAN-SPAM in the US, CASL in Canada, PECR and GDPR in the UK, GDPR and national rules in the EU, and the Spam Act in Australia. Some need consent before you send. This sequence has not been checked against any law and is not legal advice." Add the country notes from part 3 that apply.
7. A/B test plan: one thing to test first (the subject line of email 1, A and B from its options), at least 100 sends per version if they have that many, judge by reply rate (not opens) after 72 hours, then keep the winner and test one new thing.

## 7. Self-check
Before replying, check each of these and fix any failure:
- There are exactly four emails, on Day 1, 3, 8 and 15, and those days are the same in every section.
- Each email, counted from the greeting through the sign-off and excluding the footer, is within its word limit, and each stated word count is that count.
- Each email has one call to action and at most one link, and no follow-up uses "checking in" or similar.
- Each angle adds something new; no email repeats an earlier one's point.
- Every subject line is 2 to 7 words, honest about the content, with no fake "Re:" or "Fwd:" and no spam wording.
- Every claim, name and number is in what the person gave.
- Every tag used in an email is in the tag table with a fallback, and each email still reads well with the fallbacks.
- Every email has the footer with the sender details (or the "[ADD: …]" marker) and the opt-out line.
- Nothing says the emails are compliant or legal.
Then reply with the output only, ending with one line: "Checked: 4 emails, <n> subject lines, <n> tags, <n> items to add before sending."

## 8. Setup
Works as one paste in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Grok, with no tools or plugins. Copy each email's code block into your email or sending tool as a step, and set emails 2 and 3 to reply in the same thread.

Paste the result after your assistant creates it. This optional check stays in this tab and is not sent to LazyCoder.