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Struggling with outbound?
...We did too, untill we automated it.
You might’ve noticed I went quiet for the past two weeks.
Not because I forgot; just wanted to make sure we’re sending you something that’s actually useful, not stuff you can find online.
So I took a step back, planned it out, and now I’m back!
From now, you’ll hear from me every Wednesday with tips, ideas, and behind-the-scenes stuff that’ll save you time and help you do better work.
Starting with today’s topic:
👉 “Who am I even emailing?” - the outbound problem no one talks about!
You’ve pulled a list of names.
Maybe job titles.
Maybe even scraped some LinkedIn URLs.
But deep down, you ask:
Are these even the right people?
Are they from the right kind of companies?
Is your outreach landing… or just floating in the void?

A few months ago, our outbound efforts were all over the place.
We were spending hours building lists, manually enriching data, filtering companies and still ending up with questionable leads.
Fast forward to today, and we’re sending out 300+ highly-targeted emails every single day.
What changed? Two things:
AI-powered workflows
Clay
Together, they’ve helped us flip the script on outbound.
Let’s talk about how you can do the same.
Outbound isn’t a numbers game; it’s a data game
The old playbook says: “Send more emails. Play the volume game. Eventually, someone will respond.”
The new playbook?
“Get smart with your data. Let AI do the heavy lifting. Spend your time where it actually matters.”

We now have a system that ensures every single email we send goes to the right person at the right time.
And you can build this too.
Here's how we do it and how you can too:
1. Start with sharp ICP research
Before you pull a single contact, get brutally clear on who you want to reach.
In our case, we use Clay to extract firmographic data:
Industry
Company size
Geography
Recent funding
Even company news
✅ What you can do:
Define 3–5 non-negotiable ICP traits.
Then use Clay to pull companies that match those parameters.
Bonus: Layer in real-time triggers like “hiring for marketing” or “just raised a seed round.”
2. Classify and filter like a machine
Once we’ve got our ICP-aligned list, we go deeper.
Clay lets us filter using logic-based rules.
Want to remove competitors?
Only target B2B SaaS in the US with <200 employees?
Clay makes that happen in seconds.
✅ What you can do:
Use Clay’s “if-this-then-that” filtering to slice your list precisely.
The more you refine, the better your outreach performs.
3. Refine by company size and recency
One of the easiest ways to waste time? Emailing the wrong-sized companies—or leads you already contacted 6 months ago.
We segment our list by size (e.g. 11–50, 51–200) and automatically remove:
Existing clients
Stale contacts
Irrelevant verticals
✅ What you can do:
Set logic to eliminate old leads or mismatches.
This keeps your pipeline fresh and focused.
4. Use Clay’s auto-update like a superpower
Static spreadsheets are a nightmare. With Clay’s auto-update feature, your data stays alive.
When a company grows, raises funding, or expands to a new region, your list reflects that in real time.
✅ What you can do:
Enable auto-sync in every Clay table.
Whether you're pulling from LinkedIn, Crunchbase, or custom sources, it stays fresh.
5. Integrate and send without friction
Once the list is clean, enriched, and auto-updated, we connect it to our email platform.
Clay → Instantly → CRM.
The result:
Zero copy-paste. No CSV exports.
✅ What you can do:
Use Clay’s integrations (or Zapier if needed) to push your data straight into your email tool.
Most modern tools (like Instantly, Smartlead, Mailshake) support native or easy integrations.
And the results show they are worth it:
✅ Open rates above 60%
✅ Reply rates over 15%
✅ New business conversations daily
The team’s no longer drowning in spreadsheets or wasting hours guessing who to contact.
They’re focusing on writing better emails and closing deals; not building lists.
It’s about sending smarter emails, and that starts with better data.
You don’t need a huge team. You don’t need a data analyst.
You just need a system that does the heavy lifting, so you can focus on what actually moves the needle.

If outbound has felt like a time-sucking mess lately…try this approach.
Start by building just one clean list using Clay.
Run a 100-lead experiment. Watch what happens when every email goes to someone who actually fits.
You’ll feel the difference in your reply rates and your energy.
Untill next time,
Karthick Raajha.