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Agent skill

josh-braun-copywriting

Josh Braun's 5 cold email writing principles plus personalization best practices.

slowingReaches the webInstructions only274 words

Filed under Content and SEO.

From Frontal-so/outbound-skills · 73 skills · 4 · pushed 2026-07-14

What it does when it runs

Josh Braun's 5 cold email writing principles plus personalization best practices. Use when refining email copy, improving message quality, or reviewing outreach for common mistakes.

Read from the skill and the 0 files bundled beside it. A skill’s own description is written to be selected by an agent, so it describes the job and not the dependencies.

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Hosts it reaches
  • frontal.so
Tool permissions it declares
No allowed-tools in the frontmatter. It only issues instructions, so there is nothing to bound.
Actions present in the files
None. Instructions only.

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Install it

View source on GitHub ↗
git clone --depth 1 --filter=blob:none --sparse https://github.com/Frontal-so/outbound-skills.git /tmp/outbound-skills
git -C /tmp/outbound-skills sparse-checkout set "skills/josh-braun-copywriting"
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/josh-braun-copywriting
cp -R "/tmp/outbound-skills/skills/josh-braun-copywriting/." ~/.claude/skills/josh-braun-copywriting/

Picked up without a restart. A project skill of the same name is shadowed by your personal one. For one repository only, swap ~/.claude/skills for .claude/skills. Claude Code docs ↗

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The skill

Source on GitHub ↗

Reproduced in full from Frontal-so/outbound-skills/blob/27cd847be5ce7e9b749b1d672cbfb29935d911db/skills/josh-braun-copywriting/SKILL.md, which is licensed MIT (repository). 274 words, 8 headings.

Josh Braun Writing Principles

The 5 Principles

  1. Write with an eraser - Remove every unnecessary word
  2. Be cheeky - Personality matters, make them smile
  3. Be specific - Credibility comes through precision
  4. Don't say "we reduce costs" - Say "e-commerce companies doing $5k/month overpaying 10-15%"
  5. Use loss aversion - Frame around what they're losing, not gaining

Personalization Best Practices

DO:

  • Custom prompts based on research
  • Facts prospects consistently care about
  • Time business was founded (owners proud of longevity)
  • Recent company news/changes
  • Tech stack signals

DON'T:

  • Generic AI compliments ("Love your work!")
  • Content that sounds same as what they already have
  • Over-personalization that feels creepy
  • Complimenting LinkedIn posts without substance

Key Takeaways

  • Specificity = Credibility: "47% increase" beats "significant improvement"
  • Loss > Gain: People act more to avoid loss than to gain
  • Every word must earn its place: If it doesn't add value, delete it
  • Personality differentiates: Be human, not corporate

Combines with

SkillWhy
email-writing-frameworksApply principles to any framework
personalization-hooksCreate hooks that don't feel generic
sdr-outbound-rulesQuality checklist alignment
cold-email-templates-34Review templates against principles

Example prompts

Review this email using Josh Braun's 5 principles and suggest improvements.

Rewrite this email to be more specific and use loss aversion.

Make this email "cheeky" without being unprofessional.

Part of Frontal — free, open GTM skills for your AI agent. Browse the library →

Other skills for the same job

Different authors, same problem. Matched on the words in the skill name, across every library in the catalogue except this one.

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