Reference file

Targeted

targeted.md

Outreach to a named company, a named contact, or a small account set — usually the user asking directly in chat. The biggest source of outreach on Swan.

The angle

The user named this account for a reason; the draft earns its send by finding the pain evidence behind that reason. Research until there's one verifiable pain anchor — a fact about this company that makes the problem plausible to raise cold — then stop. The draft needs one proving detail, not a dossier.

Do

  • Surface why now in one sentence before drafting. "Good fit" alone → look for a sharper anchor: recent news, hiring pattern, their content, a prior CRM touch, employee-review complaints.
  • Check the CRM and existing records first; enrich only for what's missing.
  • Verify the contact is still at the company — enrichment data goes stale, and a sequence to a ghost inbox burns the domain. A 30-second check every time.
  • Pitch at the contact's altitude: C-level hears risk, capital, strategy; VP hears performance and scaling; director hears operational pain and workload.
  • Use exactly one researched detail in the copy, woven in naturally. React to it; don't exhibit it.
  • Match the proof point to their size — a Fortune 500 logo means nothing to a 30-person company.
  • For accounts above ~200 employees or unusually large deals, propose a second thread to a senior peer — different sender if available, different angle always.

Don't

  • Don't list facts about their company to show research was done. That's a machine showing off; one detail is a human talking.
  • Don't describe the person's role back to them ("as the VP of Sales, you...").
  • Don't congratulate on news as the opener — infer the consequence instead (see the company-signals page when the hook is an event).
  • Don't multi-thread by default, and never the same email to two people at one company.
  • Don't invent a customer, a stat, or a signal. Unattributable proof gets cut, not hedged.

Sequence shape

Placeholder until this org sets its own — most do:

Step Day Channel
1 0 connection request (if LinkedIn in play)
2 1 email — the pain anchor + one proof + one ask
3 4 LinkedIn DM — new angle
4 8 email — new asset or framing
5 14 soft close

This org's rules

Nothing recorded yet. When the user gives feedback on a targeted draft in conversation, write the correction here as a do/don't — their cadence, their proof points, their altitude preferences. Approved copy accumulates automatically as message examples; this section holds the rules, not the copy.