Cold Email Personalization

When to Use

• Writing cold outreach, sales prospecting, or outbound B2B emails
• Personalizing email openers from prospect research signals
• Building multi-touch follow-up sequences
• Reviewing or scoring email drafts before sending

Workflow

1. Map the ICP — Complete [ICP & Objection Mapping](assets/icp-objection-mapping.md). Gate: persona, top 3 objections, and desired next step are defined.
2. Research signals — Follow the [Research Playbook](assets/research-playbook.md) to find custom signals from the last 90 days. Gate: at least 2 verified signals per prospect.
3. Choose campaign path — Pick Custom Signal, Creative Idea, Whole Offer, or Fallback from [Campaign Types](assets/campaign-types.md).
4. Draft the email — Apply [Email Structure](assets/email-structure.md) rules: plain text, 60-120 words, one CTA. Use [Variable Schema](assets/variable-schema.md) for merge fields.
5. QA and score — Run the [QA Checklist](assets/qa-checklist.md), then score with the [Scoring Rubric](assets/scoring-rubric.md). Gate: score >= 80 and 3:1 recipient-to-sender ratio.
6. Build sequence — Add follow-ups per [Follow-Up Strategy](assets/follow-up-strategy.md), rotating value props each touch.

Principles

• Message-market fit over cleverness — Show you understand the prospect's situation immediately.
• Research is the personalization — Custom signals prove homework; never fabricate facts.
• One job per email — Single sharp question or CTA; earn a reply, not a meeting.
• Two personalization paths — Path A: custom signal research. Path B: whole-offer strategy. See [Creative Ideas](assets/creative-ideas.md) for Path B tactics.

Example

Signal found: Prospect's company posted a VP Sales hire on LinkedIn 2 weeks ago.

Subject: {{first_name}}, growing the sales team?

Body: Hi {{firstname}}, saw {{company}} just brought on a new VP Sales — congrats. Specifically, it looks like you're scaling outbound to {{customertype}}. We helped [similar company] ramp 3 new reps to quota 40% faster by templatizing their top performer's research workflow. Worth a 15-min look?

Why it works: Uses a verified, recent signal in the first line; ties it to a specific, relevant outcome; single clear CTA.

References

• [Research Playbook](assets/research-playbook.md) — Finding custom signals
• [Variable Schema](assets/variable-schema.md) — Standard merge variables
• [Email Structure](assets/email-structure.md) — Subject lines, body, punchiness
• [Campaign Types](assets/campaign-types.md) — Four campaign patterns
• [Creative Ideas](assets/creative-ideas.md) — Generating credible prospect ideas
• [Follow-Up Strategy](assets/follow-up-strategy.md) — Sequence logic and value rotation
• [ICP & Objection Mapping](assets/icp-objection-mapping.md) — Persona and objection prep
• [QA Checklist](assets/qa-checklist.md) — Pre-send verification
• [Scoring Rubric](assets/scoring-rubric.md) — 0-100 quality score
• [Examples](assets/examples.md) — Full campaign examples