Five situations. Every one is complete without the AI section at the end.

These are structures, not fill-in-the-blanks. Everything in [BRACKETS] is yours and has to be specifically, verifiably true. A script where the brackets are filled with generic filler is worse than no script, because it reads as a template — and the one thing a pitch has to prove is that a person looked.

1. Cold — a brand you actually use

Subject: [PRODUCT] — short video idea

Hi [NAME],

[ONE SPECIFIC, RECENT, TRUE THING. Not "I love your brand."
 e.g. "I've had the [PRODUCT] since spring and it replaced a pan
 I'd been complaining about for four years."]

I make short-form video for [CATEGORY] brands — here's one:
[SINGLE LINK]

I'd make you a [LENGTH] [FORMAT] on [SPECIFIC ANGLE], because
[ONE-LINE REASON GROUNDED IN THE PRODUCT].

Worth a conversation?

[YOUR NAME]

What makes it work: the first paragraph is unfakeable and the fourth is a specific idea rather than an open offer. "Let me know if you ever need content" gives someone nothing to reply to.

One link. Not three, not an attachment.

2. Warm intro

Subject: Intro from [MUTUAL NAME]

Hi [NAME],

[MUTUAL NAME] suggested I get in touch.

I make short-form video for [CATEGORY] brands — recent work:
[SINGLE LINK]

[MUTUAL NAME] mentioned [WHATEVER THEY TOLD YOU ABOUT THE BRAND'S
 SITUATION]. If that's still where you are, I'd be glad to talk
 about [SPECIFIC THING].

[YOUR NAME]

Shorter than cold, on purpose. The introduction is doing the work the first paragraph does in a cold pitch. Don't spend it re-proving you know who they are.

3. Replying to an inbound brief

The moment most beginners lose money — by quoting immediately.

Hi [NAME],

Thanks for this — [SPECIFIC DETAIL FROM THEIR BRIEF, so they can
see you read it].

Six things before I quote, so the number is right first time:

1. How many deliverables, and in what format and length?
2. Where will it run — organic, paid, or both?
3. For how long, and in which markets?
4. Is there any exclusivity involved, and with whom?
5. How many revision rounds, and who signs off?
6. When do you need delivery, and what are your payment terms?

Happy to talk it through if that's easier.

[YOUR NAME]

Send this every time, even when the brief looks complete. It takes one message, it makes you look like someone who has done this before, and it prevents the most common failure — agreeing to something you hadn't priced.

The six questions are Section 2's, unchanged, and they map onto the rate calculator's scope table.

4. Following up on silence

Once. A week or so later, same thread.

Hi [NAME],

Bumping this in case it got buried — still happy to make
[THE SPECIFIC THING] if it's useful.

If it's not the right time, no problem at all. Would it be
alright if I checked back in a few months?

[YOUR NAME]

The second paragraph is the valuable one. It gives an easy out, which makes a reply more likely, and it converts a dead thread into a dated entry in your tracker.

One follow-up. A sequence reads as a campaign and people can tell.

5. Re-pitching after a no

Months later, and a meaningful share of work comes from here.

Hi [NAME],

You mentioned [MONTH] might be better — checking back.

Since we spoke I've made [ONE NEW RELEVANT THING]: [LINK]

Same idea as before, or something new if the priority's moved.

[YOUR NAME]

"You mentioned" — because you wrote it down. This script only works if the tracker was kept, which is what 04-outreach-tracker.md is for.

Never argue with a no. That's what buys you this message.

⎯⎯ AI section ⎯⎯

Everything above works without this. Blueprint §3.2 records the verdict here as AI leverage: genuine — these should be regenerate-able and personalizable per brand, never fill-in-the-blank.

The job it is good at: taking a structure that works and re-voicing it for a specific brand and a specific creator, so it reads as written rather than filled in.

The job it must not do: invent the specific true thing in paragraph one. That has to come from you, because it's the only part a brand can verify — and a plausible invented detail is exactly the failure this guide's own generation skills refuse to commit.

6A brief you can reuse

Rewrite this outreach message for a specific brand. Do not invent
anything about my experience with them.

THE STRUCTURE (keep the shape, change the words)
  [PASTE ONE SCRIPT FROM ABOVE]

THE BRAND
  Name:            [BRAND]
  What they make:  [ONE PLAIN SENTENCE]
  How they sound:  [PASTE 3–5 LINES OF THEIR ACTUAL PUBLISHED COPY]

WHAT IS ACTUALLY TRUE — do not add to this
  My experience with them: [WHAT YOU'VE ACTUALLY USED, HOW LONG,
                            WHAT YOU NOTICED]
  My relevant work:        [ONE LINK AND WHAT IT IS]
  My specific idea:        [THE ANGLE, IN A SENTENCE]

CONSTRAINTS
  - Under 120 words
  - No sentence beginning "I'm reaching out"
  - No adjectives about their brand that aren't in their own copy
  - Nothing about my experience that isn't in the block above
  - Plain, direct, no filler — it should read like one person
    writing to another

Give me three versions that differ in opening, not in content.

"Paste their actual published copy" is the highest-value line. It calibrates register against what the brand really sounds like rather than a guess — the same method Module 3 teaches for building a brand voice document, applied here to one email.

"Three versions that differ in opening" — the opening is what decides whether the rest gets read, and it's the part worth choosing between.

7Two rules

Read it out loud before sending. If you stumble, so will they.

If a version is better than anything you'd have written, ask why, then keep that. Over a few rounds you stop needing this section for the situations you send most.