Template Personalizer

Merge-field personalization engine for outreach messages.

When to Trigger

Activate this skill when the user:

• Asks to personalize messages or outreach emails
• Wants to customize templates with contact data
• Needs to write tailored cold emails, DMs, or Slack messages
• Provides a template with placeholder fields and a contact list
• Says "personalize", "merge fields", "customize template", or "tailor outreach"

Template Syntax

Use double-brace merge fields in all templates. These are the supported fields:

| Merge Field | Source | Example Value | |--------------------------|--------------------------|----------------------------------------| | {{first_name}} | Contact record | "Alex" | | {{last_name}} | Contact record | "Chen" | | {{company}} | Clay enrichment | "Acme Protocol" | | {{role}} | Clay enrichment | "Head of Developer Relations" | | {{tech_stack}} | Clay enrichment | "Solidity, TypeScript, Foundry" | | {{mutual_connection}} | Clay enrichment | "Jordan from Paradigm" | | {{recent_achievement}} | Clay enrichment | "launched v2 mainnet last week" | | {{company_size}} | Clay enrichment | "50-100 employees" | | {{funding_stage}} | Clay enrichment | "Series A ($12M)" | | {{industry}} | Clay enrichment | "DeFi infrastructure" | | {{social_handle}} | Clay enrichment | "@alexchen" | | {{custom_hook}} | Generated per contact | Unique opener based on research |

Data Source: Clay MCP to Merge Field Mapping

Pull enrichment data and map it to merge fields:

1. Call find-and-enrich-company with the company domain

• Maps to: {{company}}, {{company_size}}, {{funding_stage}}, {{industry}}

1. Call find-and-enrich-contacts-at-company with the contact name

• Maps to: {{role}}, {{tech_stack}}, {{social_handle}}

1. Call ask-question-about-accounts with targeted queries

• "What recent news or achievements does this company have?" maps to {{recent_achievement}}
• "Who are mutual connections?" maps to {{mutual_connection}}

1. Generate {{custom_hook}} by synthesizing the above into a one-sentence opener unique to the contact.

Tone Controls

Set the tone before generating any messages. The user specifies one of four modes:

Formal (Enterprise)

• Full sentences, proper grammar, no contractions
• Professional sign-off ("Best regards", "Looking forward to connecting")
• Title-case subject lines
• Example: "Dear Alex, I wanted to reach out regarding a potential collaboration between our organizations."

Casual (Startup)

• Contractions, conversational flow, short paragraphs
• Friendly sign-off ("Cheers", "Talk soon")
• Sentence-case subject lines
• Example: "Hey Alex, saw what you're building at Acme -- super cool stuff."

CT-Style (Crypto / 0xJitsu)

• Lowercase preference, abbreviations welcome
• Community-native language ("shipping", "based", "wagmi")
• No formal sign-off, just a call to action
• Example: "hey alex -- your v2 launch was legit. building something adjacent, think there's overlap."

Technical (Dev-Focused)

• Lead with technical specifics, reference repos or tooling
• Include concrete technical value proposition
• Minimal fluff, direct to the point
• Example: "Alex, noticed your Foundry test suite on the v2 contracts. We built a gas optimization plugin that could cut your deployment costs by 40%."

Personalization Depth Levels

L1: Basic (Name + Company)

Fields used: {{first_name}}, {{company}}

Best for: Cold leads (score < 50), high-volume outreach, initial list validation.

Hey {{first_name}},

I came across {{company}} and wanted to connect.
We help teams like yours with [value prop].

Worth a quick chat?

L2: Targeted (Role + Tech Stack + Company Size)

Fields used: {{first_name}}, {{company}}, {{role}}, {{tech_stack}}, {{company_size}}, {{funding_stage}}

Best for: Warm leads (score 50-79), mid-funnel nurture, segment-specific campaigns.

Hey {{first_name}},

As {{role}} at {{company}}, you're probably dealing with
[problem relevant to {{tech_stack}}] as you scale past
{{company_size}}.

We built [solution] specifically for {{funding_stage}}
companies in your space. [Specific benefit].

Open to a 15-min walkthrough?

L3: Hyper-Personalized (Recent News + Mutual Connections + Custom Hook)

Fields used: All fields including {{recent_achievement}}, {{mutual_connection}}, {{custom_hook}}

Best for: Hot leads (score 80+), strategic accounts, executive outreach.

{{custom_hook}}

{{first_name}}, your {{recent_achievement}} stood out --
{{mutual_connection}} actually mentioned your team when we
were discussing {{industry}} trends last week.

Given your work with {{tech_stack}}, I think there's a
natural fit with what we're building. [Highly specific
value prop tied to their achievement].

Would love to compare notes. Free Thursday afternoon?

Output Format

For each contact, output:

1. Contact: Name, company, score, tier
2. Tone: Which tone mode was applied
3. Depth: L1, L2, or L3
4. Subject Line: Personalized email subject (if channel is email)
5. Message Body: Full personalized message text
6. Merge Fields Used: List of fields that were populated vs. fell back to defaults
7. Confidence: High/Medium/Low based on how many fields had real data vs. placeholders

If a merge field has no data from Clay, flag it and either:

• Use a graceful fallback ("your team" instead of {{company}})
• Skip the sentence that depends on it
• Never leave raw {{field_name}} in the output

Anti-Patterns

These are hard rules. Reject any output that contains them.

| Anti-Pattern | Why It Fails | What to Do Instead | |----------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------| | "Hope this finds you well" | Generic opener, signals mass email | Lead with a specific observation about them | | "I'd love to pick your brain" | One-sided value extraction | Offer value first, then ask | | "Just circling back" | Passive-aggressive, adds no new information | Add new context or value in each follow-up | | "As a fellow X]" | Fake familiarity if not actually shared | Only reference real mutual attributes | | "Quick question" | Subject line clickbait, erodes trust | Write a subject that reflects actual content | | "I know you're busy, but..." | Self-defeating opener, assumes rejection | Be direct and confident | | Exclamation marks in subject | Spam trigger and reads as desperate | Use periods or no punctuation | | ALL CAPS in subject | Spam filter trigger | Sentence case only | | More than 150 words in cold email| Too long, won't get read | Keep to 80-120 words max for initial outreach| | Sending without opt-out footer | Legal and ethical violation | Always append opt-out line |