email-marketing-bible

The saved excerpt is a snapshot from when this skill was listed. The external source remains the complete and most current version.

---
name: email-marketing-bible
description: >
  Data-backed email marketing skill for AI agents. Use when building or running
  email automation, driving an ESP from an agent (MCP/connectors), diagnosing
  deliverability, writing or de-slopping email copy, directing AI email design,
  choosing a platform, or pulling benchmarks. Covers flows, segmentation,
  compliance, cold email, WhatsApp, SMS and RCS, and 19 industry playbooks.
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: george-hartley
  version: "2.7"
---

# Email Marketing Bible, Skill Reference

> v2.7, 8 Sep 2026. Distilled from the EMB (19 chapters, 908 sources, https://emailmarketingskill.com), from running SmartrMail (~28K customers, 6B emails, sold 2022) and three months running Nitrosend through agents.
> Part A is the operating manual, Part B the reference. Figures are mid-2026; verify anything volatile (inbox rules, ESP features, pricing, model names) before acting.

---

# PART A: OPERATING MANUAL

## 0. AGENT OPERATING RULES

Every segment, draft, campaign, flow or staged send on a real ESP is live. **Hard gates, never skip:**
- **No send or schedule to more than one recipient without explicit human approval in this conversation** ("send it" or equivalent). Single-recipient test sends still need a yes.
- **Preview before asking; show the packet before any send:** preview URL, audience size, exclusions/suppressions applied, subject, preview text, send time, from-name + reply-to, unsubscribe present, compliance risk.
- **Block the send** if authentication is missing, unsubscribe or physical address is absent, complaint rate is at or above 0.1%, consent basis is unclear, or the audience includes suppressed, bounced or complained contacts.
- **Never probe unknown mutating endpoints on a live audience.** `/send`, `/dispatch`, `/trigger`, `/fire`, `/publish` paths can dispatch immediately; if the approve-scheduled path is unclear, ask the human to click it. Test on sandboxes or cloned campaigns with seed lists.
- **Separate the modes.** Transactional, marketing, lifecycle and cold outbound have different rules, domains and consent bases. Never mix them.
- **Log every autonomous action** (segment changed, flow edited, campaign created, send staged) so the human can audit it.

## 1. TASK ROUTER

| Intent | Go to | Gather first |
|---|---|---|
| Audit a programme | §2, then the reference | read access, recent sends |
| Build a flow | §7 + §2 | model, trigger, audience, offer, exclusions |
| Send a campaign | §3 | segment, consent basis, copy, sender, timing |
| Diagnose deliverability | §11 | domain, ESP, bounce + complaint rate, recent changes |
| Write or de-slop copy | §4 | audience, offer, voice, one real proof |
| Design an email | §5 + §16 | brand tokens, archetype, goal |
| Pick a platform | §15 | list size, use case, stack, budget, agent-driven? |
| Pull a benchmark | Appendix | industry, email type |
| Cold outbound | §14 | offer, ICP, domains, volume |
| WhatsApp / SMS / RCS | §Messaging | channel, consent basis, region |

## 2. AI EMAIL AUTOMATION (the operating model)

The marketer moved from operator to director: brief the agent, govern it, own the send button. Most major ESPs now ship a human-gated prompt-to-campaign agent, an MCP server or a Claude/ChatGPT app (§15); advise on the surface the user runs.

**The loop: read state → reason → act → verify.** Read the account first (lists, flows, recent campaigns, deliverability, suppressions), act on one thing, verify it. Opening prompt: "audit my account and tell me what is missing".

**Automate:** send-time optimisation, subject-line variants + A/B, cart/browse triggers, post-purchase cross-sell, first-draft copy. **Keep human:** brand voice, strategy (segment priority, flow order), creative direction, domain and deliverability, the final send.

**Autonomy dial.** Ask mode by default; widen only on narrow, reversible, low-brand-risk tasks, with an undo; read before write access. Supervised autonomy is the production st