Want to scale your cold outreach campaigns without sacrificing personalization? Clay.ai is your answer. This platform lets you create highly targeted, scalable outreach strategies by combining data from 50+ sources with advanced automation and AI tools.
Today, I’ll walk you through setting up a personalized LinkedIn campaign using Clay.ai, step-by-step, so you can generate high-quality leads in no time.
Clay.com specializes in taking the “manual” out of manual work, delivering automated solutions that are scalable and designed for laser-focused precision. Whether you’re hunting for email addresses, LinkedIn profiles, or job titles, it scrapes data across multiple platforms to build your campaign fast—saving you weeks or even months of legwork.
Trust me, Clay.ai is a game-changer for your lead generation process.
Creating a New Workspace in Clay.com
First things first: once you’re inside Clay.ai after signing up (hint: you can get 3,000 free credits using the link in the description), you’ll land on the workspace dashboard. This is your command center.
Here’s what you’ll want to do next:
- Click on the “Create New” button
- Select Table to create a fresh database
- Select your data source—in this case, we’re using LinkedIn’s people search
You’ll be able to pull in data from various places like LinkedIn, Google, GitHub, and even your CRM systems like HubSpot. For this example, let’s zero in on managers in a specific location—let’s say Florida—and get at least 10 months of job experience.
In just a few clicks, you’ll have access to information about thousands of potential leads.
Data Enrichment: Turning Raw Data Into Gold
The real magic of Clay.com happens during the data enrichment phase. Using the platform’s powerful waterfall technique, Clay Ai digs through multiple databases to get richer, more detailed profiles on your potential leads.
Once your initial search is complete, you can move on to the enrichment phase. Here’s what you can achieve:
- Find personal emails
- Extract work emails
- Grab their mobile phone numbers
- Add details like bios, education, LinkedIn profiles, and more
For instance, let’s enrich our initial list by fetching some emails. Simply click “Add Column,” head to the Add Enrichment section, and choose to find personal or work emails. The system will scan multiple data sources and deliver results in no time.
This means you don’t have to manually scour the internet for email addresses or job data—it’s all bundled up and ready in minutes.
Meet the Waterfall Technique
Here’s how Clay.ai excels at data enrichment: it starts by scanning one data provider for information and, if it comes up empty, moves to the next provider. This process continues until data is found, which ensures you get the maximum amount of information without wasting time.
That’s right, Clay combines multiple data aggregators for you, so you’re not limited to a single source. This saves countless hours of slow, inconsistent manual research.
Exporting Data Like a Pro
What good is all this data if you can’t use it? Luckily, exporting data in Clay.com is super simple:
- Click the “Export” button
- Download your data as a CSV file
Clay.ai doesn’t just pull profiles—it gives you complete, detailed tables. Each row includes all acquired emails, job titles, company details, and other enriched information you’ve set up.
From here, you can either use this data immediately in your email campaigns or further filter it as necessary.
Taking It to the Next Level with AI-Generated Emails
Here’s where things get really fun. Let’s build personalized cold emails using Clay.ai’s automation tools. With its AI-driven capabilities, you can skip the tedious task of writing the same email over and over. Automate it.
Here’s how to get started:
- Click on Start Email Campaign in Clay.com.
- Choose Draft Messages to open your email editor.
- Type your email template, using variables like the recipient’s first name, company name, or job title.
For extra personalization, you can add an AI-generated intro. Imagine this: instead of starting every email with a generic line, let AI craft a unique opener for every lead, based on their job title or company. Want a quick example? You’ll get something like, “Your leadership at [Company] sets the standard for excellence.”
It’s not just about getting emails; it’s about adding that personal touch that gets responses. AI-generated content enhances your outreach, making each message feel like it was written specifically for the lead.
Combining Data for Maximum Efficiency
Maybe you found both work and personal emails for one person, but you only want to email one address. Clay.ai has a solution for that too. By creating a formula that merges both columns, you can generate a custom column that chooses the best available email—a helpful tip for cleaning up your dataset.
Personalizing at scale has never been this easy. Whether you’re looking to pull data from LinkedIn, filter it based on job titles and locations, or draft powerful outreach emails, Clay.com is the tool you want in your corner.
And it goes beyond just emails. The integrations with CRMs, email platforms, and other data providers ensure that Clay.ai isn’t just creating organized lists—but also helping you use that data efficiently to get results.
Ready to get thousands of personalized leads in minutes? Start with Clay.com today and level up your cold outreach game.
For more advanced automation tips, check out my upcoming post on web scraping with Clay.ai, or watch this tutorial on how I created an AI-driven phone booking bot. Stay tuned.
