Write a Cold Outreach Email Worth Reading

Prompt

Help me write a short cold email to {{recipient}} about {{purpose}}. Rules: under 120 words, no fake flattery, no 'I hope this finds you well', state in the first two sentences exactly who I am and what I'm asking for, make the ask specific and small, and make it easy to say no. Here's my context:
{{context}}

Fill in these placeholders

• {{recipient}}
• {{purpose}}
• {{context}}

How to use it

Give real context about why you're contacting this specific person — a generic email to fifty people is spam no matter how well it's written. Personalize the draft before sending.

Example use case

Asking a professional you admire for 20 minutes of advice about their field.

Why this prompt works

Cold emails fail on relevance rather than wording, so the prompt's demand for a specific reason you are contacting this particular person carries the weight. Requiring a small, easy ask matters too: large requests from strangers get ignored regardless of how well the sentences are constructed. Length limits do the rest, because a short email signals you value their time.

Common mistakes

• Sending the same generated email to a list. That is spam whatever the quality of the writing.
• Flattery as an opening. It reads as automated because it usually is.
• Asking for a call as the first request. It is a large ask from someone with no reason to say yes.

Variations worth trying

• Add 'make the ask something answerable in one sentence' — replies are far likelier than meetings.
• Ask for a version that assumes they will never reply, which strips out everything performative.
• Ask it to cut the email in half. Cold emails almost always survive it.