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beginner-workflow.md

beginner-workflow-md.md

Beginner Workflow — Step by Step

Source: Matt — Agency owner, 100K+ cold emails/month

The Complete Workflow

1. IMPORT DATA
   ↓
2. ENRICH MISSING EMAILS (waterfall or single provider)
   ↓
3. MERGE COLUMNS
   ↓
4. VALIDATE EMAILS
   ↓
5. GET COMPANY SUMMARY (cheap AI)
   ↓
6. CHECK IF FIT (better AI)
   ↓
7. PUSH TO SEQUENCER

Step 1: Import Data

Options:

  • CSV upload
  • HubSpot/Salesforce sync
  • Apollo integration
  • Clay's native "Find People"

Note: External data (Apollo) is often better quality than Clay native

Step 2: Enrich Missing Emails

Built-in Waterfall:

  • Add enrichment → Work Email Waterfall
  • Multiple providers: LeadMagic, Prospeo, etc.
  • Stops as soon as an email is found

External Provider (saves money):

  • Use your own API key
  • Connect Prospeo directly
  • Saves Clay credits

Step 3: Merge Columns

  • Merge emails from different sources
  • One clean "Final Email" column

Step 4: Validate Emails

Native Clay Providers:

  • Debounce, Enrichly, Hunter, LeadMagic, NeverBounce

Via API (recommended for catchalls):

  • ListKit/Listman.io = validates catchalls with precision
  • Configure an HTTP API call

CRITICAL — Conditional Formula:

Only run if /work_email is not empty

→ Don't waste credits on empty cells

Step 5: Company Summary (Cheap AI)

Model: GPT-4 mini ($0.00126/call)

Prompt:

I want you to visit this website /company_domain and give me
an exhaustive summary of what the company does in as many
paragraphs as possible.

Why separate:

  1. Reusable for other prompts
  2. Cheap model for intensive scraping
  3. Smart model for interpretation

Conditional Formula:

Only run if /listkit_results equals "valid" OR "catchall valid"

Step 6: Check Fit (Smart AI)

Model: Claude 3.5 Sonnet (better interpretation)

Prompt:

I'm going to feed you a company description and I want you
to tell me if the company is a B2B company or a B2C company.

If they are a B2B company then output "B2B"
If they are a B2C company then output "B2C"

Only output B2B or B2C, nothing else.

Here is the company summary: /company_summary

IMPORTANT: "Only output X or Y, nothing else"

  • Makes filtering easy
  • No paragraphs of justification

Conditional Formula:

Only run if /company_summary exists

Step 7: Push to Sequencer

Native integrations:

  • SmartLead
  • Instantly
  • Others via API

Conditional Formula:

Only run if /company_type equals "B2B"

Mapping:

  • First name, Last name, Email
  • Company domain, LinkedIn profile
  • Custom fields

Best Practices

Always test small:

  • Run 10 rows first
  • Check the outputs
  • Then run all

Save credits:

  • Cheap AI (GPT-4 mini) for scraping
  • Smart AI (Claude) for interpretation
  • Conditional formulas everywhere

Common mistakes:

  • Forgetting to feed data to the prompt (e.g., /company_summary)
  • Running before checking the conditional formula
  • Using expensive AI for everything