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Intermediate
Email
Sales
Lead Generation
Outreach

Build a Cold Email Campaign from Scratch

Go from target persona to live cold email sequences with personalization at scale — in a single day.

Time Required

3–5 hrs

Expected Result

A 3-step cold email sequence live in Instantly.ai with a verified list of 100+ prospects and personalized first lines for each.

1

Define and Source Your List

Use Apollo.io to build a filtered list of prospects matching your ICP — title, company size, industry, and tech stack. Export 100–200 verified emails.

Apollo.io
2

Enrich with Context for Personalization

Import the list into Clay and run enrichments: recent LinkedIn posts, company news, job openings, and funding rounds that give you personalization hooks.

Clay
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3

Write the Sequence

Use ChatGPT with a cold email framework prompt to write a 3-email sequence: opener with personalized first line, follow-up with a case study or insight, and a breakup email.

ChatGPT
4

Generate Personalized First Lines

Back in Clay, use its AI column to generate a unique first line for each prospect based on their enrichment data — one sentence referencing something specific to them.

Clay
5

Launch and Monitor

Import the sequence and personalized list into Instantly.ai. Set up sending accounts with warm-up enabled, configure the campaign, and monitor reply rates after 48 hours.

Instantly.ai
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