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A cold email that sounds human

Short, specific outreach that reads like you wrote it in five minutes. Comes with three subject lines and a follow-up that adds something new.

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Claude Fable 5.1
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The prompt

Write a cold email from me to one specific person. It should read like I wrote it myself in five minutes, not like it came out of a sales tool.

Me and my company, in one line: [WHAT YOU DO]
The person: [NAME, ROLE, COMPANY]
Something specific I noticed about them: [A POST, A LAUNCH, A JOB AD, A TALK]
What I'm hoping for: [e.g. a 15 minute call]

Rules:
- Under 90 words.
- The first line is about them and the thing I noticed. Not about me.
- No "I hope this finds you well" and no "I wanted to reach out".
- One clear ask that's easy to say yes to. No calendar link in the first email.
- Plain text. No bold, no bullet points.

I need three subject lines (lowercase, under five words), the email itself, and a follow-up for four days later that adds something useful instead of "just bumping this".
  • email
  • outreach
  • b2b

What it generates

Example

Subject lines

  • your new checkout
  • question about mobile carts
  • one page checkouts

The email

Hi Dana,

I saw the one page checkout you launched last week. The address autocomplete is really nice. I am curious whether it changed your mobile abandonment, because that is usually where one page flows have trouble.

We help online shops win back abandoned carts with text messages that do not feel like spam. Outdoor Co. recovered 11% of their lost carts in the first month.

Would you be open to comparing notes on what you are seeing?

Sam

Follow-up, four days later

Hi Dana, one thing we noticed across 40 Shopify stores: carts abandoned at the shipping step come back about three times more often when the message shows the delivery date instead of a discount. Thought it might be useful either way.

Sam

NoteThis is an example. Results change between runs and model versions. Claude Prompts is a fan project and is not affiliated with Anthropic.

Getting the most from this prompt

When to use it (and when not)

For writing to one person you have a real reason to write to: a possible customer, a podcast guest, a mentor, a hiring manager. It's not for sending the same thing to five hundred people, and it'll produce bad email if you try.

The one line that matters

"Something specific I noticed" carries the whole email. A post from last week works. "I love what you're doing" doesn't. Adjust the word limit to your field, roughly 60 words for busy executives and up to 120 if you have something technical to explain. To get it closer to your own voice, paste two emails you've actually sent and add "match how I write".

Before you hit send

Check every fact. If you didn't give Claude a customer result to mention, delete that sentence rather than keeping a made-up one. Only send the follow-up if it adds something the first email didn't. Two short emails that each offer something useful will do better than five reminders.

How to use this prompt

  1. [01] Copy

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  2. [02] Fill in

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  3. [03] Vote

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