Cold email template that names one specific thing about them
Two lines in, three cold emails out, each under 90 words, each opening on one true specific thing about the person, plus a follow up that is not just checking in.
- Works in
- Claude
- You need
- Who you sell to and what you sell, in two lines · One specific true thing about this prospect
- Written for
- cold email template
Scored by our own engine
This page, run through the audit we sell. Measured 16 August 2026.
Almost every cold email template on the internet is a fill in the blanks skeleton, and the blanks are exactly the part that decides whether it works. This one refuses to write anything specific that you did not give it, which means the output is only as good as the one true thing you found about the person, and that is the honest position.
What it gives you back
Run with “we sell to independent dental practices, and what we do is stop them losing new patient enquiries that come in after hours” and the specific thing “their contact form has no phone field and their voicemail says the practice is closed without giving any other way to book”:
EMAIL 1, the observation (74 words) subject: after hours enquiries
Your contact form does not ask for a phone number, and the voicemail after six says you are closed without offering another way to book. So an enquiry at seven in the evening either waits until morning or goes somewhere else.
We answer those enquiries for practices like yours and book them into the diary before the next morning.
Worth fifteen minutes to see whether it is happening to you often enough to matter?
EMAIL 3, the short one (41 words) subject: voicemail after six
Your after hours voicemail says closed and gives no way to book. Those callers do not usually call back.
We pick them up and book them in. Is that a problem worth fifteen minutes?
FOLLOW UP (58 words) subject: one more thing
One more thing I noticed: the booking link on your Google listing goes to the homepage rather than the booking page, so mobile callers land somewhere they have to navigate from.
Both are the same problem at different doors. Happy to send what we find and leave it with you either way.
The full run also returns email 2 and a one line recommendation of which to send.
The input is the whole thing
Rule 5 forbids inventing a fact, a statistic, a case study or a mutual connection. That constraint is what stops this producing the kind of email everyone deletes, and it has a consequence worth stating plainly: if you cannot fill in the second input, you are not ready to email this person. The prompt will not paper over it for you.
Five minutes of looking at their site produces a first sentence nobody else is going to write. That is the entire trade.
Send it plain
Worth knowing before you send anything at scale, because it is measurable and most people get it wrong. The address you send from is not what decides whether a message lands in the inbox or in Promotions. HTML formatting, an open tracking pixel, a List-Unsubscribe header and a Precedence bulk header are the signals that mark a message as bulk, and any of them can move a genuinely one to one email out of the inbox.
This came out of our own sending, where changing the From address changed nothing and dropping all four is what we ended up building a plain mode to do. The prompt writes plain text with no signature block and no tracking for the same reason, and the cost is that you will never know who opened it. For one to one outreach that is a good trade: replies are the only signal that means anything anyway.
You are writing cold emails. Output the emails first, with no preamble.
Produce exactly four things, in this order and with these labels:
EMAIL 1, the observation
Opens on the specific thing I gave you about this person or their company,
stated plainly, then connects it to the problem I solve in one sentence.
EMAIL 2, the consequence
Opens on what that specific thing tends to cost the person doing it, in
their terms, then names what I do in one sentence.
EMAIL 3, the short one
Under 50 words in total. No context, no build up. The specific thing, the
offer, the ask.
FOLLOW UP
Sent four working days after whichever of the three was used. It must add
something new: a second observation, a relevant example, or a narrower ask.
It may not refer to the previous email being unanswered.
Every email must follow all of these:
1. Under 90 words, except email 3 which is under 50. Count them and put the
count in brackets after each label.
2. A subject line of six words or fewer, lower case, no colon, no question
mark, and it must not be a sentence about a benefit. It should read like
an email from somebody who knows what they are talking about.
3. The first sentence must contain the specific thing I gave you. Never open
with a compliment, never open with "I hope this finds you well", never
open with who I am. They do not know me and do not care yet.
4. One ask, at the end, and it must be the smallest possible one: a reply, a
yes or no, or fifteen minutes. Never propose two times. Never attach a
calendar link in the first email.
5. Never invent a fact about them, a statistic, a result, a case study, a
mutual connection or a named customer. Everything specific must come from
what I gave you. If a sentence would be stronger with a figure I did not
provide, write the sentence without it.
6. No superlatives, no "quick question", no "just following up", no "circling
back", no "I'll keep this short" and then not keeping it short.
7. Plain text only. No formatting, no images, no signature block, no tracking
of any kind assumed.
8. Say what I do in the words a customer would use, not in the words on my
website.
After the four, one line: which of the three you would send to this person
and why, in fifteen words or fewer.
Do not ask me anything first.
Who I sell to and what I sell: [WHO AND WHAT]
One specific true thing about this prospect: [THE SPECIFIC THING]What to change
Everything in square brackets is yours to replace. Nothing else needs editing.
[WHO AND WHAT]- Two lines: the kind of person or company you are writing to, and what you actually do for them stated as an outcome rather than a category. "We fix the thing where their booking form silently drops mobile submissions" beats "we do conversion rate optimisation", and the emails will be as concrete or as vague as this line is.
[THE SPECIFIC THING]- The one true, checkable thing you noticed about this particular prospect. Something on their site, something they published, something about how their business is set up. This is the entire difference between a cold email and spam, and if you cannot fill it in, the honest answer is that you are not ready to email this person yet. Never write something here you have not actually verified, because the whole email rests on it.
How to run it
- 01Find the specific thing before you open the prompt
Five minutes on their site or their feed. It has to be true, checkable, and about them rather than about their industry. The prompt is forbidden from inventing one, so if you give it a generic input you will get generic emails, which is the correct behaviour and not a failure of the prompt.
- 02Run it once and read email 3 first
The short one is the honest test of whether you have anything to say. If the fifty word version reads as thin, the ninety word versions are the same email with padding and the problem is the input rather than the writing. Go back and find a better specific thing.
- 03Change the words that are yours
The one sentence describing what you do will be close but not quite how you say it. Fix it once, keep the fixed version, and reuse it. Everything else in the email should change from prospect to prospect, and that sentence should not.
- 04Send it as plain text and leave the tracking off
The prompt writes plain text on purpose. HTML, an open tracking pixel, a List-Unsubscribe header and a Precedence bulk header are all signals that this is bulk mail rather than a person writing to a person, and any of them can move a one to one email out of the inbox before anybody reads the subject line.
Questions people ask
What makes a cold email work?
One specific, true, checkable thing about the recipient in the first sentence, a single clear reason you are writing, and one small ask. Everything else is decoration. An email that could have been sent to a thousand people gets treated as though it was, because it was.
How long should a cold email be?
Under 90 words for a first email, and shorter is usually better. The prompt counts them and shows the count, because the most common failure is an email that felt short while writing it and reads as a wall of text on a phone, which is where it will be opened.
What should the subject line be?
Six words or fewer, lower case, and not a benefit claim. A subject line that sells is a subject line that identifies the email as marketing before it is opened. Something flat and specific, that reads as if it came from somebody who knows the topic, gets opened by the people you actually want.
When should I follow up, and what do I say?
Four working days later, with something new. A follow up that only says you are following up gives the recipient nothing to respond to and reminds them they ignored you. Add a second observation, a narrower ask, or a relevant example. The prompt is forbidden from writing just checking in.
Should I use open tracking in cold email?
Generally no. The pixel is one of several signals that mark a message as bulk mail rather than personal correspondence, along with HTML formatting, a List-Unsubscribe header and a Precedence bulk header. On our own sending, changing the From address made no difference to where messages landed and those four did, which is why we built a plain mode that drops all of them. For one to one outreach the tracking buys you very little anyway, because a reply is the only signal worth acting on.
Is cold email legal?
It depends on where you and the recipient are. Business to business cold email is permitted in many jurisdictions with conditions, and requires prior consent in others, notably for individuals under GDPR and for all recipients under some national rules. Check the rules that apply to your recipients before sending. Nothing here is legal advice.
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