Cold Email Copy with an Approval Gate

What it does

AI writes each email from something real it saw about the prospect (their site, reviews, an ad), in a short structure with one question at the end. Everything lands as "Pending approval". Only what you mark approved goes into the campaign.

When to use it

• You want personalization at scale without generic emails or made-up facts.
• AI assistants are writing emails in your name.
• Your list is verified and your mailboxes are warmed up.

Steps

1. For each prospect, the AI notes one real observation and its source.
2. It writes the email: short subject, personal first line, problem, offer and question.
3. It writes 2 short follow-ups that each add something new.
4. Everything sits as "Pending approval" in a sheet or your CRM.
5. You approve, edit or discard each one.
6. Only approved emails get loaded into the sending tool.

The skill

---
name: cold-email-approval-gate
description: Write short, personalized cold emails (with follow-ups) from real observations about each prospect, and leave them as "Pending approval" for human review before anything sends. Use when the user asks for cold email copy, outreach sequences or personalization at scale.
---

# Cold Email Copy with an Approval Gate

## Golden rule
You write, the human approves. Never send, schedule or load into a campaign anything not marked `Approved` by the user.

## 1. Research per prospect (2 minutes max)
Note ONE real, checkable observation, with its source:
- Something on their site (no online booking, broken form, no WhatsApp).
- Their reviews (complaints that nobody answers the phone).
- An active ad, a job post, a new location.
If you find nothing real, use an industry observation and mark it `generic`.

## 2. Email structure (under 90 words)
- **Subject:** 2 to 4 words, no forced caps, no sales punctuation.
- **Line 1:** the observation, in natural language.
- **Line 2:** the problem it usually causes.
- **Line 3:** what you do about it, in one sentence.
- **Close:** one easy question ("Want me to send an example?").
- Sign with a real name. No images or links in the first email.

## 3. Follow-ups
- Follow-up 1 (3 to 4 days later): a new fact or idea, never "did you see my email?".
- Follow-up 2 (5 to 7 days later): a polite close that leaves the door open.

## 4. Forbidden
- Stats, clients, results or testimonials the user did not give you.
- Fake familiarity ("as we discussed"), fake urgency, misleading subjects (fake "Re:").
- Prices, unless the user asks.

## 5. Approval gate
Deliver in a sheet or the CRM with these columns:
`prospect | email | observation | source | subject | body | follow_up_1 | follow_up_2 | status`
`status` starts as `Pending approval`. The user changes it to `Approved`, `Edit` or `Discard`. Only `Approved` gets loaded into the sending tool.

For Claude Code, save it as ~/.claude/skills/cold-email-approval-gate/SKILL.md. In Cursor, ChatGPT or another assistant, paste it as project instructions.

Works with