Cold Email — 4-touch sequence

Principle: speed and specificity win. Short, no pitch, one clear ask, a named observed gap. Multi-touch because most operators reply once and quit; the cadence runs whether you remember it or not.

Deliverability: send from a warmed domain, plain text, no images/links in touch 1, one soft link max later. See the internal playbook for the outbound infra.

Touch 1 — Day 0 — the observed-gap open

Subject: quick thing I noticed about [Company]

Hi [First Name],

I was looking at [Company] and noticed [SPECIFIC OBSERVED GAP — e.g. “a form fill on your site gets an auto-reply but no human follow-up for a day or two”]. For a business your size that usually means [CONSEQUENCE IN THEIR TERMS — e.g. “a handful of ready-to-buy leads a month going to whoever answers first”].

I help [CATEGORY] owners fix exactly that kind of leak with a one-week AI audit — I find the 3–5 places you’re losing time or leads, and hand you a plan with the numbers on each. Fixed fee, and if I don’t find one fix worth 5+ hours a week you don’t pay.

Worth a 30-minute call to see if there’s anything here? I’ve got [DAY] at [TIME] or [DAY] at [TIME].

[Your Name] — J&M AI Services

Touch 2 — Day 2 — make sure it didn’t get buried

Subject: re: quick thing I noticed about [Company]

Hey [First Name] — wanted to make sure this didn’t get buried. The short version: I think [Company] is leaving [HOURS or LEADS] on the table with [GAP], and I can show you exactly where in 30 minutes. No pitch, just the map. Open to [DAY/TIME]?

Touch 3 — Day 5 — value, not ask

Subject: how [SIMILAR BUSINESS TYPE] got 8 hours a week back

[First Name] — quick one. A [SIMILAR CATEGORY] owner I worked with was spending ~90 minutes every morning [SPECIFIC TASK]. We routed it through a Claude skill and it’s now a 5-minute review. That’s the kind of thing the audit surfaces.

If reclaiming a day a week sounds useful, I’ll hold [DAY] at [TIME] for you. If not, no worries and I’ll stop cluttering your inbox.

Touch 4 — Day 10 — the break-up

Subject: closing the loop

[First Name] — I’ll assume the timing isn’t right and stop here. If [GAP] ever starts costing you enough to fix, just reply with one word and I’ll send times. Either way, good luck with [SEASON / GOAL / THING YOU KNOW ABOUT THEM].

Notes

• Touch 1 subject and first line carry 90% of the open/reply. The [OBSERVED GAP] must be real and specific — pull it from category-hooks.md.
• Never state a price in the sequence. “Fixed fee” + the guarantee is enough. Price is a discovery-call conversation.
• If they reply asking price: give the range and pivot to the call — “For the audit it’s $999 for a solo operation, $1,999 with a team — but let’s make sure there’s something worth auditing first. 30 minutes [DAY/TIME]?”