Outreach Sequencer

Turns approved copy and a qualified target list into a staged, scheduled send queue.

This skill never sends anything. It builds the queue, applies the rules, and hands it to you. Sending is a separate, explicit, human action. An automated send loop attached to a language model and a conversation about someone's life's work is a bad idea everywhere. See references/compliance-and-ethics.md.

Step 0 — Preconditions

All four must be true. Stop if any is not.

1. thesis-profile.md exists, with senders (section 9) and compliance notes (section 10) filled in, not TBD. If it does not exist, stop and walk the user through creating it from templates/thesis-profile.md.
2. targets.csv is scored and enriched
3. Approved copy exists in outreach/
4. Contact routes exist with an email_status

🚧 HARD GATE — compliance

• Confirm the user has read references/compliance-and-ethics.md
• Confirm jurisdiction rules from section 10: GDPR/PECR for EU/UK owners, CAN-SPAM, CASL for Canada. Opt-out handling is permanent everywhere.
• Confirm the sending domain is separate from the buyer's primary domain

Step 1 — Apply suppression

Remove from the queue, in this order. Report the count for each.

inferred-DO-NOT-USE is never sendable. Not once, not for a Strong Fit. A bounce spike on a young sending domain can end your ability to send email at all.

Step 2 — Build the sequence

Default shape: 3 to 5 touches over 4 to 6 weeks. Owners move slowly and that is fine. A fast cadence reads as a broker blast; a patient one reads as a serious buyer. Do not exceed five touches.

Email track (primary)

Letter track (offline owners — no email, published address only)

LinkedIn track (where the owner is actually active)

Rules

• Each follow-up is shorter than the one before
• Each adds one new piece of information. Never just "bumping this"
• No guilt language. No "I noticed you haven't replied"
• Nothing in a subject line or envelope that reveals a possible sale to whoever opens the mail
• Stop the entire sequence the moment anyone replies
• Stop permanently on any opt-out, on every channel at once
• After the last touch, mark dormant with a revisit date. Silence from an owner is a not-now, not a no

Step 3 — Apply send caps

Volume discipline is deliverability, and with owners it is also reputation. These markets are small and owners talk to each other.

Spread sends across business hours in the recipient's timezone. Never send in one burst.

Step 4 — Stage the queue

Write outreach/queue.csv:

send_date,sender,channel,company,contact_name,email,linkedin_url,
segment,touch_number,message_variant,message_body,status

Every row starts with status = staged. Nothing is sent until a human moves it there after actually sending.

Also write outreach/schedule.md — a day-by-day view the user can actually read and sanity check, with the letter track listed separately.

Step 5 — The send gate

🚧 HARD GATE — the important one

Present:

• Total messages staged, broken down by day, sender, and channel
• Suppression counts with reasons
• The first ten messages in full, exactly as they would send
• The daily volume per sender, against the cap
• Confirmation that the sending domain is not the primary domain
• Confirmation that the do-not-contact list is suppressed

Then say plainly:

This queue is staged, not sent. Nothing has gone out. To send, export the queue to your sending tool, or send manually from the schedule. I do not have send access and will not send on your behalf.

Never claim anything was sent. Never imply it. If the user asks you to send, explain that you stage and they send, and offer the export.

Step 6 — Report

Sequence staged — not sent

Eligible after suppression:  71 of 118

Suppressed:
  Warm path exists           6  → routed to intro requests
  Email unsendable          24  (11 of these have a letter route instead)
  No route at all           10
  Already in pipeline        4
  Below-the-line fit         2
  Do-not-contact             1

Queue: 71 owners, 4 touches, 246 messages over 34 days

  Email track      58 owners   sender: [principal]
  Letter track     11 owners   (manual print and post)
  LinkedIn track    2 owners

Peak daily volume:  22 per sender  (cap: 25) ✓
Sending domain:     [separate domain confirmed] ✓
Do-not-contact suppressed ✓

Written to: outreach/queue.csv, outreach/schedule.md

Nothing sent. Export to your sending tool when ready.

Notes

• Start with 20 to 30 owners, not the whole list. Read the reply data, fix the copy, then scale. Burning your best targets on untested copy is the most expensive mistake available at this stage.
• Send your Strong Fits last. Test on segment C first. Your best targets deserve your best-tested message.
• Stop everything on reply. Route to reply-classification.
• Log every send to pipeline.csv. An untracked send is a send you will repeat by accident, to someone who remembers.
• Watch bounce rate. Above 3%, stop and re-verify. Above 5%, stop entirely and fix the list before you lose the domain.