video_outreach v1.0.0

name: "video_outreach" description: "Personalized video outreach for sales: decide when a short video beats a text email, build a 60-second script from one real observation about the prospect, record it fast with a laptop or phone, pair the thumbnail and subject line so the personalization shows before the click, and follow up on view signals. Use when planning or sending video prospecting, cold video emails, follow-up videos after a view, meeting recap videos, or proposal walkthroughs, or when a rep asks how to get more replies from outreach. For text-only cold email use a cold email skill, for social DM outreach use a DM sales skill."

Video Outreach

Purpose

A short video recorded for one named prospect earns replies a text email often does not, because the prospect can see a real person did real homework. This skill runs the whole send: the decision to use video, the research that gives the video something to say, the 60-second script, a no-studio recording, the thumbnail and subject line that get it opened, and the follow-ups keyed to view signals. It ships a planner, bin/outreach_plan.py, that turns a brief into a timed script, subject lines, thumbnail instructions, an email body, and a dated follow-up schedule.

Workflow

1. Decide whether video earns its cost. A one-off video takes 5 to 10 minutes once the routine is set. Spend it when the account value justifies it, when you have a specific observation to show on screen, when a prior text touch went unanswered, or when the message needs a face: an apology, a recap, a walkthrough of something visual. Stay with text when the prospect list is broad and shallow, when you have nothing specific to show, or when the ask is a one-line factual question. Video amplifies a good observation. It does not fix weak targeting.
2. Research one prospect, find one observation. Spend 3 to 5 minutes on their company page, careers page, recent posts, and news. You need exactly two things: a trigger (hiring round, launch, expansion, leadership change, funding) and an observation specific enough that the script could not be sent to anyone else unchanged. If you cannot find one, do not record a generic video. Send text, or move to a prospect you know something about.
3. Write the brief. Fill the JSON brief following assets/sample-brief.json: prospect name and company, sender name, trigger, observation, an optional insight, the value you will show on screen, an optional proof line, and one call to action. The proof line must be real and checkable, or left empty. The planner rejects a brief with a missing required field.
4. Build the pack. Run python3 bin/outreach_plan.py brief.json (add --out pack.md to save it, --json for machine-readable output). The planner assembles the five-beat script, counts words, estimates seconds at 150 words per minute, warns when the script runs past 75 seconds or contains generic filler, and prints subject lines, thumbnail instructions, the email body, and the follow-up schedule dated from send_date.
5. Fix warnings before recording. Over length: cut the insight beat, then the proof beat, and keep the observation and the value. Generic phrase flagged: replace it with the specific observation, that swap is usually the whole improvement. Vague call to action: rewrite it as a short meeting ask with two concrete time options.
6. Record with the checklist. Work through references/recording-checklist.md: eye-level camera, light in front, quiet room, name card ready for the first frame, prospect page open on screen. Record hybrid: face for the hook, screen plus camera bubble for the value beat, face again for the ask. Smile and hold the first frame a full second, it becomes the thumbnail. One take is the goal, two restarts maximum.
7. Pair the thumbnail and subject line. The thumbnail shows your face and the prospect's name or company, with a play button and the duration in seconds. The subject line names the person or company or the observation, for example "47-second idea for Acme Logistics". The pair has one job: prove before the click that this was made for one person. Never use a logo, a stock image, or a screenshot with no face.
8. Send with a short email body. The body stays under 60 words: greeting, one line on what the video shows, the thumbnail link, the same single call to action, your name. The video carries the message, so the body must not repeat it. No deck attached to a cold send.
9. Follow up on signals, not on hope. The planner prints the schedule. Same day as a reported view with no reply: one short message naming what they watched, one new detail, the same ask. Day 3: text only, with a new useful thing attached, never a bare bump. Day 7: a new angle or a second 30-second video on a second observation. Day 14: a polite breakup note, then stop and log the outcome either way.
10. Log and learn. Record per send: opened, viewed, percent watched, replied, meeting booked, and the observation type used (hiring, launch, expansion, published content, page issue). After 50 to 100 sends, read which observation types and which lengths earn replies in your market and cut the rest. Method and the honest state of the published numbers are in references/evidence-and-metrics.md.

Output Contract

• One outreach pack per prospect from bin/outreach_plan.py: a five-beat script with word counts and second estimates, total runtime of 30 to 60 seconds for cold outreach, up to 90 seconds for warm follow-ups and recaps.
• Four subject line options that name the prospect, the company, or the observation.
• Thumbnail instructions: face in the first frame, prospect name or company visible, play button, duration in seconds.
• An email body under 60 words that points at the video and repeats the one call to action.
• A follow-up schedule dated from the send date: view-triggered same-day note, day 3 value add, day 7 new angle, day 14 breakup.
• A send log entry with view, completion, reply, and meeting outcomes plus the observation type, kept wherever the team tracks outreach.

Operating Rules

1. One prospect, one observation, one ask. A video that could be sent to fifty people unchanged is a mass email with extra steps, and it performs like one.
2. Value before ask, always. The value beat shows something useful on screen (a marked-up page, a mini audit, one fix, one number from their own public data) before the call to action appears.
3. Every fact in the script gets checked against its source before recording: the trigger, the observation, and the proof line. Wrong details in a personalized video are worse than no personalization, they prove the research was faked. Unverifiable means cut.
4. Never invent proof. No borrowed case studies, no rounded-up results, no customer you cannot name if asked. An empty proof beat is a valid pack. The planner warns when proof is absent so the choice stays deliberate.
5. Length discipline: cold outreach 30 to 60 seconds. Vidyard's benchmark analysis of over 1.7 million business videos found 66% of viewers finish a video under one minute and completion falls as length grows, so the call to action must land while most viewers are still watching.
6. Vendor statistics are directional, not promises. The numbers behind this workflow come mostly from firms that sell sales video tools; cite them as vendor research, test against your own text baseline, and trust your own send log over any benchmark. Detail in references/evidence-and-metrics.md.
7. If you use an AI avatar or a generated voice, disclose it in the video or the email footer. A prospect who discovers the trick on their own reads every earlier line as a trick too.
8. Respect the basics of lawful outreach: a real identity, a working opt-out honored at once, and no sending after a breakup note or a no. Jurisdiction rules for commercial email vary, check the rules that apply where the prospect is.
9. Test one variable at a time, at least 30 sends per variant, judged on replies and meetings rather than opens. The sample brief and its proof line are illustrative: replace every detail with a checked real one before recording.