Client Snapshot

Introductions GIF Industry: Visitor attribution SaaS (identifies up to 70% of U.S. website visitors)
Key Contact: Stephen, Founder
Targets: Marketing and revenue leaders (Demand Gen, Growth, RevOps, CMOs)

Key Results

  • End‑to‑end Clay → Smartlead pipeline automated with self‑hosted n8n
  • AI‑driven persona templates personalized by industry, company size, title, and role
  • Up to 1,000 emails/day with safe sending and governance
  • Reply rate lifted to 2%
  • Supabase used for clean data storage, suppressions, and logs

The Challenge

Running GIF The team could enrich prospects in Clay and had Smartlead ready to send, but they lacked:

  • A reliable way to sync “ready” records into the right Smartlead campaigns at scale
  • Cleanliness and governance (dedupes, suppressions for customers/competitors, opt‑outs)
  • On‑message personalization across industries and roles without breaking deliverability
  • A feedback loop to classify replies and route positives quickly

Manual CSV shuffling and inconsistent fields slowed launch and risked sender reputation.

The Goal

Ship a scalable cold outbound engine that:

  • Automatically syncs qualified records from Clay to the correct Smartlead campaigns
  • Personalizes copy by industry, company size, title, and role with AI‑assisted templates
  • Protects deliverability with inbox rotation, daily caps, and domain hygiene
  • Classifies replies and routes positives to book meetings fast
  • Provides clear logs and controls without adding a heavy CRM

Solution at a Glance

An n8n‑orchestrated pipeline that turns Clay tables into live, personalized Smartlead campaigns—with data governance and a closed‑loop on replies.

System Architecture:
Clay → n8n Orchestrator → Smartlead Campaigns → Reply Webhooks → n8n Router → Email/Slack Alerts + Supabase Logs

Inputs: Clay table/webhook with enriched, validated prospects
Orchestration: n8n maps fields, dedupes, applies suppressions, and assigns campaigns
Sending: Smartlead across rotating inboxes with daily caps and ramp schedules
Storage/Logs: Supabase for lead status, suppressions, and run history
Outputs: Replies classified; positives routed; OOOs rescheduled; bounces suppressed

Lightning‑Fast Process

  1. Prototype
    • Mapped Clay fields to Smartlead custom fields and campaigns
    • Staged safe personalization rules and fallbacks (fail‑closed)
  2. Iterate
    • A/B tested subject lines, first lines, and CTAs by persona and industry
    • Tuned send windows, inbox rotation, and daily caps
  3. Standardize & Ship
    • Added reply classification and positive‑reply routing
    • Implemented logging, alerts, and a simple tuning playbook

What It Does

Plans GIF

Clay Intake

  • Pulls “Ready” rows (valid email, persona tags, industry, company size)
  • Normalizes fields and verifies status before syncing

Data Hygiene

  • Dedupes by email and domain
  • Global suppressions for customers/partners/competitors and past unsubscribers
  • Optional catch‑all filtering based on risk tolerance

Personalization

  • AI‑assisted templates tailored by industry, company size, title/role
  • First‑line and proof‑point snippets derived from Clay context
  • Fallbacks if key fields are missing (never send half‑baked personalization)

Campaigning

  • Assigns to Smartlead campaign by persona/segment
  • Respects per‑mailbox daily caps, ramp plan, and time‑zone windows
  • Inbox rotation and staggered sends to protect reputation

Replies and Routing

  • Smartlead webhook → n8n classifier (positive/neutral/negative/OOO/bounce)
  • Positive → instant alert with booking link and owner assignment
  • OOO → reschedule on return date; bounce → suppress and log

Observability

  • Supabase log of every record, campaign, send status, and next action
  • Daily digest + error alerts via email/Slack

Email Optimization Highlights

Persona System

  • AI‑generated variants by industry (e.g., SaaS, eCommerce, B2B services) and role (Demand Gen, RevOps, CMO)
  • Value props framed to the product’s core proof (attribution on anonymous traffic → better retargeting, higher paid ROI, clearer pipeline attribution)

Copy Format

  • Short, plain‑text, mobile‑friendly; one clear CTA
  • Clay‑verified context only; no over‑specific claims

Testing

  • Subject lines, first lines, and CTAs by persona
  • Winner criteria focused on positive replies/meetings, not opens

The Results

  • Clay → Smartlead sync fully automated with governance and observability
  • Personalized outreach at scale without sacrificing deliverability
  • Up to 1,000 emails/day with safe sending and reliable routing of positives
  • Reply rate improved to 2% with persona‑specific messaging
Before (Manual/Ad‑hoc) After (Automated & Governed)
CSV imports and field drift n8n mapping and validation at the edge
Duplicates and bad targets Dedup + suppressions + safety checks
Generic, one‑size‑fits‑all AI‑assisted persona templates by segment
Missed replies and OOOs Webhook routing and automated reschedules

Performance & Reliability

  • Volume: up to 1,000 emails/day across rotating inboxes
  • Deliverability safeguards: SPF/DKIM/DMARC on sending domains/subdomains; gradual warmup and daily caps
  • Governance: idempotent keys (Clay row ID + email), retries with backoff, global suppressions
  • Monitoring: Supabase run logs; daily performance digest; error alerts
  • Hosting: self‑hosted n8n on VPS; credentials stored in n8n; least‑privilege access

Compliance & Brand

  • U.S. compliance: clear sender identity, physical address, functional opt‑out (CAN‑SPAM)
  • Honor unsubscribes and data subject requests; no sending to suppressed domains
  • Minimal data retained in Supabase; access scoped and rotated

Deliverables

Jump GIF

  • n8n workflows (JSON) for Clay intake, Smartlead sync, and reply routing
  • Field mapping and data dictionary (Clay → Smartlead)
  • AI‑assisted persona template library + testing plan
  • Supabase schema for leads, suppressions, and logs
  • SOPs, Loom walkthroughs, and a tuning playbook

Tech Stack

  • Orchestration: n8n (self‑hosted)
  • Prospecting/Enrichment: Clay
  • Sending: Smartlead (multi‑mailbox rotation, webhooks)
  • Data/Logs: Supabase
  • Alerts: Email/Slack
  • DNS: SPF, DKIM, DMARC for sending domains/subdomains

Like These Results?

Let’s connect Clay and Smartlead the right way—clean data in, safe sending out, and persona‑driven copy that gets replies.

Share your stack and goals. I’ll send a quick build plan and timeline.