Cold Email Outreach

The final mile of the outbound pipeline. Takes leads from wherever the user has them, builds email sequences, loads campaigns into the user's chosen outreach tool, and launches.

Tool-agnostic: Asks the user which outreach platform they use. Defaults to Smartlead if they have MCP tools configured. Falls back to CSV export for any other tool or manual workflow.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• User says "launch a campaign", "send outreach", "email these leads", "set up cold email"
• User has a list of leads and wants to run an outbound email campaign
• User wants to create and configure a campaign in Smartlead or another outreach tool

Supported Outreach Tools

This skill does NOT assume a specific tool. It asks first, then adapts.

Tool	Integration	How It Works
Smartlead (default)	MCP tools (mcp__smartlead__*)	Full automation: create campaign, add sequences, import leads, allocate mailboxes, configure schedule, launch
Instantly	CSV import	Generate CSV matching Instantly's import format, user uploads manually
Lemlist	CSV import	Generate CSV with Lemlist-compatible columns
Apollo	CSV import	Generate CSV matching Apollo sequence import format
Manual / Other	CSV + instructions	Export leads + emails as generic CSV, provide setup instructions

Tool selection logic:

1. Ask user in Phase 0: "Which outreach tool do you use?"
2. If Smartlead → use MCP tools for full automation
3. If Instantly / Lemlist / Apollo → generate tool-specific import CSV
4. If Other or unknown → generate generic CSV (email, first_name, last_name, company, title, subject, body per touch) and ask user for their tool's import requirements

Prerequisites

Environment Variables

For Smartlead (full automation):

SMARTLEAD_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

All Smartlead API calls go to https://server.smartlead.ai/api/v1 with ?api_key=$SMARTLEAD_API_KEY appended. Rate limit: 10 requests per 2 seconds.

For CSV-based tools: No env vars needed.

Phase 0: Intake

Ask all questions at once. Organize by category. Skip any already answered.

Campaign Goal

1. What's the objective? (book meetings, drive demo requests, get replies, nurture)
2. What's the outreach angle or hook? (hiring signal, competitor displacement, event-based, pain-based, cold database)
3. What should we name this campaign?

Outreach Tool

4. Which outreach tool do you use? (Smartlead / Instantly / Lemlist / Apollo / Other / Just give me a CSV)

Lead Source

5. Where are your leads? Accept any of these:
   • CSV file — read the file, map columns to required fields
   • Pasted list — names, emails, companies pasted directly
   • CRM export — Salesforce, HubSpot, or other CRM data
   • Database query — if the user has a database, help them query it
   • Upstream output — data from a prior task in this conversation
6. Any exclusions? (specific companies, recently contacted leads, certain titles)
7. Max campaign size? (default: 200)

Minimum required per lead: email address. Nice to have: first_name, last_name, company, title.

Sequence Design

8. How many touches? (default: 3)
9. Timing between touches? (default: Day 1 / Day 5 / Day 12)
10. Personalization tier? (Tier 1: merge fields only / Tier 2: segment-specific / Tier 3: unique per lead)

Sending Config (skip if CSV export)

11. Which email accounts should send? (list accounts or "use all available")
12. Sending schedule? (default: Mon-Fri 8am-5pm in recipient's timezone)
13. Daily send limit per account? (default: 30/day)
14. Track opens and clicks? (default: opens yes, clicks no)

Phase 1: Lead Ingestion

Parse Leads

Accept leads from whatever source the user provides:

• CSV file: Read the file. Flexibly match columns:
  • email (required) — also matches Email, email_address
  • first_name — also matches firstname, first, First Name
  • last_name — also matches lastname, last, Last Name
  • company_name — also matches company, organization, Company
  • Any extra columns become custom fields
• Pasted data: Parse whatever format the user provides. Extract emails, names, companies.
• CRM/Database: Help the user query or export, then parse the result.

Validate & Deduplicate

• Remove rows without a valid email
• Deduplicate by email (keep first occurrence)
• Report: total rows, valid, invalid, duplicates removed

Present & Confirm

Show a sample table (10-15 leads) with:

• Name, Title, Company, Email

Tell user: total eligible leads, how many were invalid/removed.

Ask user to confirm or adjust before proceeding.

Phase 2: Sequence Design

Present the sequence plan as a table before writing any copy:

Touch	Day	Email Type	Framework	CTA
1	1	Cold intro	Signal-Proof-Ask	15-min call
2	5	New angle / asset	PAS	Resource offer
3	12	Social proof	BAB	Open to chat?

Get user approval on the structure before generating copy in Phase 3.

Phase 3: Email Generation

Write the email copy directly using these guidelines.

Email Structure Formula

Every cold email follows this skeleton:

Hook (1 sentence) → Evidence (1-2 sentences) → Offer (1 sentence)

Word count targets:

• Cold intro (Touch 1): 50-90 words
• Follow-up (Touch 2-3): 30-50 words
• Breakup (final touch): 20-40 words

By Personalization Tier

Tier 1 (Generic): Generate one template per touch with merge fields ({first_name}, {company}, {title}). Same template for all leads.

Tier 2 (Segment): Generate one template per segment per touch. Segments are defined by role, industry, or signal type. Swap pain points and proof points between segments.

Tier 3 (Deep): Generate unique email per lead per touch. Cap at 50 leads — recommend Tier 2 above that volume.

Hard Rules

1. No filler openers. Never "I hope this finds you well"
2. No "just checking in" follow-ups. Every touch adds a new reason to reply
3. Under 150 words per email. Most should be 80-120.
4. One CTA per email. Always low-friction.
5. No selling in the first sentence. Lead with them, not you.
6. Subject lines under 50 chars. No caps, no exclamation marks, no emoji.
7. Sign off with name only. No "Best regards."

Review Loop

1. Generate sample emails for 3-5 leads first
2. Present to user for review
3. Iterate until approved (max 3 rounds)
4. Generate remaining emails after approval

Phase 4: Campaign Setup

If Smartlead (MCP Automation)

Full automation via MCP tools. Execute in this order:

Step 1: Find and allocate mailboxes

mcp__smartlead__get_email_accounts

Returns all email accounts with id, from_email, from_name, daily_sent_count, is_smtp_success, is_imap_success.

To find free mailboxes (not already assigned to active campaigns):

1. Fetch all campaigns: mcp__smartlead__get_campaigns
2. For each campaign with status ACTIVE or STARTED, fetch its email accounts: mcp__smartlead__get_campaign_email_accounts
3. Build a set of all email_account_id values currently assigned to active campaigns
4. A mailbox is "free" if its id is NOT in the active set AND is_smtp_success = true AND is_imap_success = true
5. Sort free mailboxes by daily_sent_count ascending (prefer least-used)
6. Select the requested number of free mailboxes

If fewer free mailboxes than requested, tell the user and ask how to proceed.

Present available/selected accounts to user for confirmation.

Step 2: Create campaign

mcp__smartlead__create_campaign
  name: {campaign_name}

Save the returned campaign_id.

Step 3: Add sequence steps

mcp__smartlead__save_campaign_sequences
  campaign_id: {campaign_id}
  sequences: [
    { seq_number: 1, subject: "...", email_body: "...", seq_delay_details: { delay_in_days: 0 } },
    { seq_number: 2, subject: "...", email_body: "...", seq_delay_details: { delay_in_days: 4 } },
    { seq_number: 3, subject: "...", email_body: "...", seq_delay_details: { delay_in_days: 7 } }
  ]

Merge variable mapping: Convert {first_name} → {{first_name}}, {company} → {{company}} (Smartlead uses double-brace syntax).

Note: Blank subject on emails 2+ makes them send as replies in the same thread.

Step 4: Import leads (batch 100)

mcp__smartlead__add_leads_to_campaign
  campaign_id: {campaign_id}
  lead_list: [{ email: "...", first_name: "...", last_name: "...", company_name: "...", ... }]

Smartlead accepts max 100 leads per call. Chunk the list and call for each batch. Extra columns become custom_fields.

Step 5: Assign sending accounts

mcp__smartlead__add_email_accounts_to_campaign
  campaign_id: {campaign_id}
  email_account_ids: [...]

Step 6: Set schedule

mcp__smartlead__update_campaign_schedule
  campaign_id: {campaign_id}
  schedule: {
    timezone: "America/New_York",
    days_of_the_week: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5],
    start_hour: "08:00",
    end_hour: "18:00",
    min_time_btw_emails: 10,
    max_new_leads_per_day: 20
  }

days_of_the_week: 0=Sunday, 1=Monday, ..., 6=Saturday.

Step 7: Configure settings

mcp__smartlead__update_campaign_settings
  campaign_id: {campaign_id}
  settings: {
    track_settings: [],
    stop_lead_settings: "REPLY_TO_AN_EMAIL",
    send_as_plain_text: false,
    follow_up_percentage: 100
  }

Allowed track_settings: DONT_TRACK_EMAIL_OPEN, DONT_TRACK_LINK_CLICK, DONT_TRACK_REPLY_TO_AN_EMAIL Allowed stop_lead_settings: REPLY_TO_AN_EMAIL, CLICK_ON_A_LINK, OPEN_AN_EMAIL

If CSV-Based Tool (Instantly, Lemlist, Apollo, Other)

Step 1: Generate CSV

Columns depend on personalization tier:

Tier 1 (same template for all):

• CSV columns: email, first_name, last_name, company, title, custom_field_1 (signal/hook)
• Separate file with sequence templates (subjects + bodies with merge fields)

Tier 2/3 (per-segment or per-lead emails):

• CSV columns: email, first_name, last_name, company, title, touch_1_subject, touch_1_body, touch_2_subject, touch_2_body, touch_3_subject, touch_3_body

Step 2: Save file

Save to the current working directory:

{campaign-name}-{YYYY-MM-DD}.csv

Step 3: Provide tool-specific import instructions

Instantly:

• Upload CSV → Sequences → Create new sequence
• Map columns: Email → email, First Name → first_name, etc.
• Paste sequence templates into each step
• Set delays between steps

Lemlist:

• People → Import → Upload CSV
• Map custom variables to columns
• Create campaign → add email steps → insert variables

Apollo:

• Sequences → Create Sequence → add email steps
• Contacts → Import → Upload CSV
• Add imported contacts to sequence

Other / Manual:

• Provide the CSV path and explain the column structure
• Ask user what format their tool expects, adjust if needed

Phase 5: Review & Launch

Present campaign summary:

Campaign: {name}
Leads: {count}
Sequence: {touches} touches over {days} days
Sending: {accounts} accounts × {daily_limit}/day = {daily_volume} emails/day
Estimated completion: {date}
Tool: {smartlead/instantly/etc.}

Hard Approval Gate

Do NOT activate the campaign without explicit user confirmation. Present the summary, then ask: "Ready to launch? Type 'yes' to activate."

• Smartlead: mcp__smartlead__update_campaign_status → set status to START
• CSV tools: Tell user the file is ready for import, provide the file path

Smartlead API Reference

All endpoints use base URL https://server.smartlead.ai/api/v1 with ?api_key= query param.

Endpoint	Method	Purpose
/campaigns/create	POST	Create a new campaign
/campaigns	GET	List all campaigns
/campaigns/{id}	GET	Get campaign by ID
/campaigns/{id}/schedule	POST	Set campaign schedule
/campaigns/{id}/settings	POST	Update tracking/stop settings
/campaigns/{id}/sequences	POST	Save email sequences
/campaigns/{id}/leads	POST	Add leads (max 100 per call)
/campaigns/{id}/email-accounts	GET	List mailboxes on a campaign
/campaigns/{id}/email-accounts	POST	Assign mailboxes to campaign
/campaigns/{id}/status	POST	Change campaign status (START/PAUSED/STOPPED)
/campaigns/{id}/analytics	GET	Top-level campaign analytics
/email-accounts/	GET	List all email accounts (offset/limit)

Cost

Component	Cost
Smartlead campaign setup	Free (API included with Smartlead plan)
CSV export	Free
Email copy generation	Free (LLM reasoning)

Error Handling

Error	Fix
SMARTLEAD_API_KEY not set	Ask user to add it to .env or export it
Smartlead rate limit (429)	Wait 2 seconds and retry
Lead upload fails	Check email format, retry batch
No free mailboxes	Show all accounts, ask user which to use
Campaign creation fails	Check API key validity