AI prompt template
AI prompt to shorten a cold email
Most drafts are too long. This prompt cuts them while preserving the one thing that makes the email worth sending: the sourced fact.
When to use it
- A draft is over about a hundred words.
- You have a fact and a source in the draft that must survive.
- You want to see what was cut, not just the result.
The prompt
Paste it into the model you use, then replace each bracketed input.
Shorten this cold email to [WORDS] words or fewer. Keep these unchanged: [MUST_KEEP]. Do not add any fact, number, name or claim that is not in the draft. Do not add a greeting, link or sign-off that is not already there. Remove: filler, compliments, repeated asks, and any sentence that explains what the company does beyond one clause. Draft: [EMAIL] Return the shortened email, then a list of what you removed, one line each.
| Input | What to put there |
|---|---|
[EMAIL] | The draft. |
[WORDS] | The target length in words. |
[MUST_KEEP] | Facts and phrases that must stay unchanged. |
Why it works
- A protected list means the fact cannot be trimmed away.
- The removal list lets you restore anything that mattered.
- No additions means the model cannot slip in a new claim while editing.
An example
Illustrative. The companies and pages below are invented.
Input
WORDS: 60 MUST_KEEP: "your careers page lists a Senior Controls Engineer"
Output
Hi {{first_name}},
Your careers page lists a Senior Controls Engineer. I place only controls engineers for robotics. I can send two profiles before we talk about terms. If not, tell me and I will stop.
Removed: opening compliment; sentence on company history; second ask for a call.
(Illustrative.)Variants
To a subject line
Turn the email below into a subject line of at most six words, using only words and facts already in it. Do not add anything. Return three options. [EMAIL]
Phone-screen version
Rewrite the email below to fit one phone screen, about forty words, keeping [MUST_KEEP] unchanged. Add nothing that is not in the draft. [EMAIL]
Limits
What are the limits of the shorten an email without losing the fact prompt?
Related
Write a sourced first line
A prompt that writes a first line for a cold email from one quoted fact on the prospect’s page, refusing to flatter or guess when nothing is there.
Write honest subject lines
A prompt for plain cold email subject lines drawn from the email’s own fact: no fake Re:, no urgency, no clickbait, with a length limit.
Audit an email for unsourced claims
A prompt that checks every claim in a cold email against the sources you supply, flags what is unsupported, and flags deceptive or spam-like wording.
Cold email templates
Templates by situation and by role.
Research and writing, with a quote behind every fact
Outlevo runs these steps for each company it finds, and shows the page each fact came from.