Why does this matter?
Drafting the Instructions for your Play Agents is equal parts Art and Science.
When done well, you are giving your Play Agents the perfect structure, guidance and context they need to create outreach that aligns with your tone of voice and picks the perfect combination of research and value messaging.
Getting this wrong can lead to the typical, boring AI spam which completely fails to break through the noise of generic cold outreach.
It also risks getting your email and phone numbers flagged as spam, which is a costly and frustrating issue to overcome.
A typical generic spam email: No personalization; Nothing that directly appeals to me or shows any knowledge of my situation. No appeals to my pains or goals.
Result:
Nothing compelling me to respond.
Automatically flagged by Gmail as spam.
This article will share our best practice guidance for drafting instructions for your Play Agents to stick the landing.
Following these steps, you'll ensure you're putting all your Qualification, Research, Value Proposition and Playbook content to work so your Sales Reps trust and love working with your Evergrowth Plays!
Basics: How Evergrowth Play Agents Work
Before diving into instruction-writing best practices, it helps to understand what Play Agents use when drafting outreach.
How a Play Agent Approaches drafting a Play
What Play Agents Have Access ToWhile writing, Play Agents can call on:
| How They Use Your InstructionsThey combine these to write drafts:
|
Hardcoded Text vs. Instruction FieldsHardcoded text: When they must use a specific phrase, guarantee compliance, or require exact wording.
[replace me] instructions: When you want the Agent to interpret structure, apply research, or write original copy. | Advanced SettingsIf your instructions reference a specific signal, persona detail, or expertise insight, you should add conditions so the Agent only generates that section if: a) the required research is available, b) the contact matches the intended persona/expertise type This keeps outputs aligned with context and prevents inappropriate references! |
Our best practice guidance for Play Agent Instructions
Many of these notes are most useful when it comes to Email-writing Play Agents, where the text is the final output that gets shared with your prospects
(As opposed to call talk tracks, for instance, which allow for your reps to adapt and pivot on the fly if a line of messaging is not working)
However, these tips can be applied broadly to any type of writing
Avoid Overwhelming the Agent
Break your instructions into several bite-sized chunks.
Just like a human writer, an Agent is more reliable when focusing on a small set of instructions at a time. When everything is lumped together, the Agent is more likely to miss or drop instructions.
Practical tip:
Use separate sections for:
tone of voice
structure
each distinct section of a play
opening line
research/evidence/value messaging
CTA
Bad: Giant paragraph with vague instructions about the desired output
Good: Step-by-step instructions. Consistent structure coming from hard-coding combined with AI instructions.
Put Overarching Instructions Up Front
If a rule applies to the entire Play (such as "Write this in British English" or "Use a warm, confident tone") put it at the very top.
If added at the end, the Agent must revise everything it has already drafted, which increases the chance of missing corrections, or overwriting existing sections causing them to drift from their specific scope.
Use Negative Rules Sparingly and Place Them at the End
Too many “don’t do X” instructions at the beginning can get ignored as the Agent shifts focus towards drafting a coherent piece of content.
For better compliance:
Like the above tip, put your positive/active rules first (“Use X tone. Keep it value-first”),
Put "avoid"/warning rules at the end (“Avoid harsh phrasing… avoid sounding accusatory…”).
Pro Tip: This mirrors how AI Agents prioritize instructions in general
KISS (Keep It Simple, Seriously)
If you have a phrase or exact wording you want every rep to use:
Hardcode it
Then, surround the hardcoded section with instructions the Agent can interpret
Think of this method like modernizing an old-school template or snippet...but with smarter flexibility for an AI writer to work with.
When to Hard-code vs. Describe
For most of an email Play, you should describe what/how you want your Agent to write: tone, structure, what to mention.
For critical lines that must be consistent (e.g., disclaimers, legal language, a specific sales messaging framework), hard-coding the text directly ensures consistency.
To be an expert Play Agent instructor, you should aim to use hard-coding sparingly: overusing it will make the output rigid and hard for your Play Agent to adapt across Accounts or Verticals.
Even better is to only use them to guide your Play Agent down a predictable path, while leaving the flexibility to switch up the text based on what fits.
A perfect example is the below template where the word "with" is hardcoded to force the Agent to structure a sentence in a specific way, but the Agent has complete control
Make It Human
Agents default to very formal English.
If you want modern outreach that writes more how a human would:
Use k / m / % instead of writing out “ thousand”, “million”, or “percent”
Keep phrasing conversational
Use shorter, lighter sentences
This leads to drafts that sound more natural and less robotic.
Avoid Subjective Terms
Subjective rules (“make this shorter than the previous sentence”) are hard for an Agent to interpret consistently.
If you know what you want, be explicit:
Instead of: “shorter than above” or "not too long"
Use: “11–13 words”
This reduces the Agent’s reasoning load while making the output predictable.
Word Count Matters (A Lot)
The entire length of a play of course matters to readers.
Too long and people will lose interest. Too short and you can't really tell any compelling story and convey the richness of the context needed to use your research and value proposition.
But there's another way this applies: in how constrained your Agent is with regards to structure.
Defining word count ranges is always recommended, but this often leads to 2 common pitfalls:
1. Too strict
If you restrict the Agent to something like “<10 words” (especially when combined with hardcoded phrases) you give it almost no room to produce a natural-sounding sentence.
If previews feel awkward or clipped, increase the word budget.
2. Too loose
If outputs feel inconsistent or meandering, tighten:
sentence length
total word count
or increase your ratio of hardcoded phrases
Small adjustments dramatically improve consistency.
Example Prompt:
It seems [continue the sentence with a fact found in public data/research criteria that is independently useful to the prospect]
6-8 words: Too short. Not enough room for context or smooth phrasing.
"It seems your hiring jumped last quarter suddenly."
10-14 words: Balanced. Enough space for richer context and range for flexible phrasing.
"It seems your hiring activity picked up last quarter after that leadership change.
15-20: Too loose. Leads to meandering and 'fluff'
"It seems your hiring activity started picking up quite a bit last quarter, especially once that new leadership team settled in."
Design CTAs around a Pain + Proof combo
In your instructions, your CTA can just be a simple message with a low-barrier to entry...
However, if you want to appeal to technical buyers or really lean into value-based message, you can instead specify a pain you want the agent to reference in the CTA.
Example instruction:
[End with a short CTA that invites a conversation about reducing a pain obtained from the persona research, and mention that similar customers have achieved an improvement (e.g., ‘Some of our customers have cut this work by 60%’)
Avoid Suspicious Tone
(This is more of a Sales tip than an AI tip), using neutral observational language is less confrontational and invites the prospect to correct or agree with your assumptions
Prefer phrases like: “It seems…”, “From what I can see…”, or “It looks like…”
Instead of: “I noticed…” or “I’ve been tracking…”, which can sound creepy or overly surveillant.
In your instructions, you can even weave hard-coding this pattern into agent instructions, forcing your Play Agent to use it as their structure:
Example: From what I can see [add a contextual insight from enrichment criteria—connect it to a business pain or opportunity, using actual names, numbers, shorten dates, or locations]
Email Example: Signal–Value–Evidence
Email Example
Below is all the text from our "Signal-Value-Evidence" Expert Play Agent template
We'll break down why we've drafted the instructions the way we have:
Preface: Why This Works
The email instructions are broken into smaller sections ("Avoid Overwhelming the Agent" principle)
Style/tone rules are clear and placed upfront
Each section contains only a few instructions
Rules are placed in order: overarching → structure → specific line-level constraints → negative rules last
Word limits are explicit
Intro Specifications
This section defines the non-negotiable guardrails.
By locking in tone and language first, you remove ambiguity and ensure every downstream instruction builds on a consistent foundation.
Opening Line + Signal
This is where you shape the email's first impression.
The instructions create enough structure to guarantee clarity and allow for personalization, giving the Agent room to adapt to each prospect's research insights.
We are very prescriptive about elements to avoid and the tone to strike in this opening line for a simple reason: people judge cold emails very quickly.
If the first line feels AI-generated, or irrelevant, it's game over!
Evidence
This block reinforces credibility.
It guides the Agent to weave in proof that supports the opening message without scripting the exact example, building up the relevance and authenticity.
CTA
The final instruction aims to close with purpose.
It guides the Agent toward a confident, low-pressure action that feels natural and aligned with the prospect’s context.
Additional Reading 📚
📖 Plays - Get a complete overview of how to configure and use Play Agents
📖 Play Templates - Learn how to add and use Play Agent Templates (including how to find our tried-&-tested Expert Play Templates library)
Articles Coming Soon ⏳
📖 Play Testing - Learn the simplest way to test and refine your Play Agents, like running a mini workshop with a new colleague!
📖 Best Practice Leveraging Plays - Once your Play Agents draft world-class copy, learn the best ways to put them to work for maximum efficiency and autonomy.