From Target List to Pipeline

A step-by-step operational guide to building and running the full 4-channel demand generation system — from scratch.

How to Use This Guide

This guide covers the full execution sequence for a 4-channel ABM demand generation programme — from building your first target account list to sending signal-triggered outbound at scale. Follow the phases in order. Each phase builds on the last.

This guide exists for two purposes. As a Lewis SOP: the canonical playbook for how demand.consulting programmes are set up and run. As a client deliverable: something a client’s internal team — or a hired operator — can follow to implement the system with or without hands-on support.

It is deliberately tool-specific. The concepts are in The Pipeline Generation Playbook. This document is about execution.

The 6 Phases

Phase	What You’re Building	Output
Phase 0 — Prerequisites	Foundation inputs before any tool is touched	ICP doc, account criteria, content pillars
Phase 1 — Target List	Named account list + contact enrichment in Clay	Enriched, verified list in Clay table
Phase 2 — LinkedIn Ads	Campaign Manager setup + audience from Clay list	Live warming campaigns to target accounts
Phase 3 — Content System	Organic posting architecture aligned to ad themes	Publishing cadence + theme alignment doc
Phase 4 — Intent Tracking	Teamfluence + website visitor ID + signal scoring	Live signal monitoring across social + web
Phase 5 — Clay Automation	Enrichment waterfalls + signal routing logic	Automated prospect qualification pipeline
Phase 6 — Outbound in Instantly	Sequence architecture + signal-triggered activation	Live outbound running on intent signals

 

Time to first campaign going live: If foundations are already in place (Phase 0), Phases 1–3 take approximately 5–8 working days to set up. Phases 4–6 take a further 3–5 days. Full system live in approximately 2 working weeks.

 

Tools Covered

Tool	Role in the System	Approx Cost
LinkedIn Campaign Manager	Paid warming ads to target account audiences	Ad spend: £500–£1,500/mo
Clay	Data sourcing, enrichment, signal routing, outbound trigger	£149–£800/mo depending on credits
Teamfluence	LinkedIn engagement monitoring on target list	~£99/mo
Website visitor ID (e.g. Leadfeeder / RB2B)	Identify companies/people visiting your website	£49–£199/mo
Instantly	Outbound email sequencing + deliverability infrastructure	£97–£358/mo
Taplio (optional)	LinkedIn organic scheduling + analytics	£39/mo

 

⚠  Watch out: Do not start Phase 2 (LinkedIn Ads) before Phase 1 (Target List) is complete. Running ads to a broad audience before you have a named account list defeats the purpose of the entire system. The audience must be built from your list — not from LinkedIn’s targeting filters alone.

PHASE 0

Prerequisites

The foundations that every tool in this system relies on. Get these right before you touch a single platform.

 

No tool setup in this guide will work without these three inputs. If they don’t exist yet, build them first. Every hour spent here saves five hours of misdirected execution later.

0.1 — Define Your ICP in Buyer Language

Your Ideal Customer Profile is not a demographic description. “Series B SaaS company, 50–200 employees, UK-based” is a filter, not an ICP. Your ICP — for the purposes of this system — is defined by the specific language your best-fit buyer uses when they’re searching for what you do.

Complete this exercise before moving on:

• Write down the exact phrase your best-fit buyer would type into Google at 11pm when the problem is keeping them awake

• Write down the three objections they’d raise in a first conversation with a vendor

• Write down the metrics they’re accountable to that your solution directly affects

• Write down the language they use in LinkedIn posts when they’re talking about the problem (search LinkedIn now — look at real posts from real people in your ICP)

 

Why this matters for the system: Your Clay enrichment queries, your LinkedIn ad copy, your content themes, and your outbound email openers all derive from this language. If you use your language instead of their language, every downstream element of the system will be slightly off — and the compound effect will work against you.

0.2 — Build Your Target Account Criteria

A target account list is a named list of specific companies. Not a segment. Not a filter. Named companies you would celebrate winning. To build it, you need clear selection criteria.

Define the following for your programme:

Criteria Type	Example	Your Value
Industry / Vertical	B2B SaaS, Professional Services, FinTech
Company Size (employees)	50–500 employees
Revenue Range	£5M–£50M ARR
Geography	UK, DACH, Nordics
Tech Stack signals	Uses HubSpot, Salesforce, has an SDR team
Trigger events	Recently hired VP Sales, raised funding, headcount growing
Negative criteria (exclusions)	Competitors, current clients, companies in legal disputes

 

⚠  Watch out: Keep your first list to 100–300 companies maximum. The tighter the list, the more precisely your ads, content, and outbound can be calibrated. You can always expand later. Starting broad wastes budget and dilutes the warming effect.

0.3 — Define Your Content Pillars

Before your LinkedIn ads go live and before your organic content starts publishing, you need three to five content pillars defined. These are the recurring themes that every ad, every post, and every outbound message traces back to.

Pillars are not topics. They are the specific tensions or problems your ICP faces that your approach resolves. For example:

• “Pipeline generation vs marketing activity metrics” — the tension between what sales needs and what marketing reports

• “Outbound that lands warm vs outbound that interrupts” — the modern vs legacy outbound framing

• “Demand gen as infrastructure vs demand gen as campaigns” — the always-on vs campaign-burst distinction

 

Write your three to five pillars now. Every piece of content and every ad in this system should connect back to one of them. Consistency is what creates the familiarity effect — not volume.

PHASE 1

Build Your Target Account List in Clay

From criteria to an enriched, verified list of named accounts and contacts — ready to power your LinkedIn audience and outbound sequences.

Tools used: Clay  ·  LinkedIn Sales Navigator (optional)  ·  Apollo / Cognism (optional data source)

Clay is the central nervous system of this demand gen stack. Everything flows through it — account data, contact enrichment, signal routing, and outbound triggers. Phase 1 is about getting your list into Clay and enriched to the standard the rest of the system requires.

1.1 — Create Your Clay Workspace and First Table

Step 1  Create a new Clay workspace

Go to clay.com and create a new workspace. Name it after your client or programme (e.g. “Acme Corp — Demand Gen 2026”). All tables for this programme live here.

Step 2  Create your Master Account Table

Click “New Table” and name it “Target Accounts — Master”. This table will hold your named company list with all enrichment. Think of it as your ABM database — every other workflow in this system references or pulls from it.

Step 3  Add your initial company list

You have three options for getting companies into Clay:(A) Manual import — if you already have a list in a spreadsheet, export as CSV and import directly into Clay. Map columns to Clay fields: Company Name, Website/Domain, LinkedIn URL if available.(B) Clay sourcing — use Clay’s built-in company search to find companies matching your ICP criteria. Go to “Add Rows” → “Search Companies” and enter your criteria (industry, size, location, tech stack). Review results and approve the ones that match.(C) Enrich from Sales Navigator — if you have LinkedIn Sales Navigator, build an account list there first using account filters, then export and import the CSV into Clay.

 

Recommended approach: Start with option (B) or (C) to find net-new accounts, then layer in any named accounts you already know you want to target via manual import. The goal is a combined list of 100–300 high-fit companies before moving to enrichment.

1.2 — Enrich Your Account List

With your company list in Clay, you now need to enrich each account with the data fields the rest of the system needs. Clay works by running “enrichments” — each one calls an external data source or AI to fill in a specific field.

Run the following enrichments on your Master Account Table in this order:

Field to Enrich	Clay Enrichment to Use	Why You Need It
Company LinkedIn URL	Clay built-in company search or Clearbit	Required to build LinkedIn ad audiences
Company domain / website	Clay built-in or manual	Required for website visitor ID matching
Employee count (verified)	Clearbit, Clay built-in	Validate against your ICP size criteria
Industry / vertical	Clearbit or Clay AI classify	Confirm fit before investing ad spend
Tech stack	BuiltWith via Clay integration	Identify tech signals (e.g. uses HubSpot)
Recent trigger events	Clay AI + web search	Funding rounds, exec hires, new job posts
HQ location	Clearbit	Confirm geography fits
ICP score (1–5)	Clay formula column	Weighted score based on criteria match — used for prioritisation

 

Step 4  Build your ICP score column

In Clay, create a Formula column called “ICP Score”. Assign 1 point for each criterion met (right size, right industry, right geography, tech stack signals, trigger events). The score ranges from 0–5. Only accounts scoring 3 or above move forward into the LinkedIn audience and outbound sequences.

1.3 — Build Your Contact List Within Target Accounts

Accounts are buildings. You need to find the people inside them. For each account in your Master Account Table, you need to identify two to three decision-maker contacts.

Step 5  Create a Contacts Table in Clay

Create a second Clay table called “Target Contacts — Master”. This table will be linked to your Account table. Each row is a specific person at a target account.

Step 6  Find contacts at each account

In your Contacts table, use Clay’s “Find Contacts at Company” enrichment. Set the job title filters to match your decision-maker criteria:For a CRO/Sales Director outbound programme, target: CRO, Chief Revenue Officer, VP Sales, Head of Sales, Sales Director, Commercial Director, Revenue Director.Set “contacts per company” to 2–3 maximum. You want the most senior relevant person plus one backup — not a spray of everyone.

Step 7  Enrich contact details

Run the following enrichments on each contact row:

Field	Enrichment Source	Priority
Full name	Clay built-in	Essential
LinkedIn profile URL	Clay LinkedIn enrichment	Essential — used for Teamfluence monitoring
Work email address	Clay email finder (waterfall: Apollo → Hunter → Dropcontact)	Essential for Instantly sequences
Email verification	ZeroBounce via Clay integration	Essential — never send to unverified
Job title (current, verified)	LinkedIn enrichment	High — confirm seniority
Time in current role	LinkedIn enrichment	Medium — new in role = higher intent signal
Recent LinkedIn activity	Clay AI web scrape	Medium — do they post? Engage?
Mobile number (if available)	Cognism via Clay	Low — only for high-priority accounts

 

⚠  Watch out: Never skip email verification. Sending to unverified emails damages your sending domain’s deliverability. Run every email address through ZeroBounce before it enters an Instantly sequence. In Clay, create a filter column: if ZeroBounce status = “valid”, include. If “risky” or “invalid”, exclude.

1.4 — Export Your LinkedIn Audience List

Step 8  Export company list for LinkedIn matched audiences

Filter your Master Account Table to ICP Score 3+. Export as CSV with columns: Company Name, Company LinkedIn URL, Company Website/Domain. This CSV is what you’ll upload to LinkedIn Campaign Manager in Phase 2 to build your matched audience.

Step 9  Export contact list for LinkedIn matched audiences (optional)

For higher-precision LinkedIn targeting, you can also upload a contact-level matched audience. Export your Contacts Table with: First Name, Last Name, Job Title, Work Email, Company Name. LinkedIn will match these against its member database. Match rates of 40–60% are typical.

Account list vs contact list audiences: Account-level audiences (company list) give you broad reach within target companies — good for the awareness phase. Contact-level audiences (email list) give you precise targeting to specific individuals — use these for retargeting once the awareness phase has run for 4+ weeks.

PHASE 2

LinkedIn Campaign Setup

Building your warming campaigns — the paid layer that makes all downstream activity more effective.

Tools used: LinkedIn Campaign Manager

LinkedIn ads in this system serve one purpose: building familiarity with your target accounts before outbound begins. Every decision in this phase is in service of that objective — not lead generation, not demo requests.

2.1 — LinkedIn Campaign Manager Account Setup

Step 1  Ensure your LinkedIn Page is set up correctly

Your campaigns run from a LinkedIn Company Page. Before creating ads:— Profile completeness: logo, cover image, about section, website URL all filled in— Thought Leadership Ads require: a verified LinkedIn Page + admin access— Install the LinkedIn Insight Tag on your website now (even if you’re not running retargeting yet). This will collect website visitor data from day one. Tag installation: LinkedIn Campaign Manager → Account Assets → Insight Tag → copy and paste the script into your website’s <head> section or via Google Tag Manager.

Step 2  Create your Campaign Group

In LinkedIn Campaign Manager → Campaign Groups → Create. Name it: “[Client/Programme] — ABM Warming [Month Year]”. Set status to Active. Set a monthly budget cap — start with your planned monthly ad spend (e.g. £800/month). Do not set an end date — this programme runs always-on.

2.2 — Build Your Matched Audience

Step 3  Upload your company list as a Matched Audience

Campaign Manager → Plan → Audiences → Create Audience → Upload a List → Company List.Upload the CSV you exported from Clay in Phase 1, Step 8 (company name + LinkedIn URL + domain). LinkedIn will process and match the list — this typically takes 24–48 hours. LinkedIn requires a minimum of 300 matched companies to activate a campaign.If your list is under 300: go back to Clay and expand your account search criteria slightly, or lower your ICP score threshold from 3 to 2 temporarily until you hit 300+ matched companies.

Step 4  Add profile-level targeting on top of your matched audience

Matched audiences alone can deliver to everyone at your target companies — including people who are irrelevant. Layer in seniority and function filters to narrow to your decision-makers:— Job Seniority: Director, VP, C-Suite— Job Function: Sales, Business Development, Revenue, CommercialDo NOT add more filters beyond this. Adding industry, company size, or geography filters on top of a matched audience reduces your deliverable audience too much and increases CPM.

⚠  Watch out: Do not use LinkedIn’s “Audience Expansion” feature. This automatically broadens your audience beyond your matched list to reach “similar” profiles. In an ABM system, you need precision — not expansion. Turn this off in every campaign.

2.3 — Create Your Thought Leader Ad Campaign

Step 5  Create Campaign — Thought Leader Ads

Within your Campaign Group → Create Campaign.— Objective: Brand Awareness (NOT Lead Generation, NOT Website Visits)— Audience: Select your matched company audience from Step 3— Ad Format: Thought Leader Ad— Placement: LinkedIn feed only (uncheck LinkedIn Audience Network)— Budget: Daily budget — divide your monthly Thought Leader Ad allocation by 30 (e.g. £500/month = ~£17/day)— Bid Strategy: Maximum Delivery (LinkedIn optimises for reach within your budget)— Schedule: Start today, no end date

Step 6  Set up the Thought Leader Ad creative

Thought Leader Ads boost an existing organic LinkedIn post from a person (not the company page). To create:— The person whose post you’re boosting must have their LinkedIn profile connected to the Campaign Manager account— In the ad creative section, select “Use Existing Post” and choose the organic post you want to boost— The post must already exist on LinkedIn before you can boost itWhat to boost first: Choose Lewis’s (or the founder’s) most recent high-performing post that speaks directly to one of your content pillars. This sets the tone for what the target accounts will see first.

Thought Leader Ad best practice: Rotate the boosted post every 7–10 days as new organic posts go live. You want the target audience seeing fresh, relevant content — not the same post for 8 weeks. In Weeks 1–4, boost awareness/problem posts. In Weeks 5–8 once familiarity is building, boost more specific framework or case study posts.

2.4 — Create Your Document Ad Campaign

Step 7  Create Campaign — Document Ads

Create a second campaign within the same Campaign Group.— Objective: Brand Awareness— Audience: Same matched company audience— Ad Format: Document Ad— Budget: ~£300/month (or 30% of total ad spend)— Everything else: same settings as Thought Leader campaign

Step 8  Create your Document Ad creative

Document Ads deliver a multi-page PDF/document directly in the LinkedIn feed. The reader can scroll through the document without clicking away.What to create for your first Document Ad:— A 5–7 page framework document tied directly to one of your content pillars— Page 1: The problem statement (written in ICP language from Phase 0)— Pages 2–5: Your framework for solving it— Final page: Brief “about” + website + how to get in touchDesign in Canva or Figma. Export as PDF. File size under 100MB. LinkedIn displays up to 300 pages but 5–7 is optimal for engagement.

Step 9  Set up frequency capping

To avoid over-exposing your audience (which causes ad fatigue and negative brand association), set frequency caps on both campaigns. In each campaign → Budget & Schedule → Frequency Cap → Set to maximum 4 impressions per member per 30 days for awareness campaigns. This ensures steady, non-intrusive exposure.

2.5 — Monitor and Optimise

In the first four weeks, check LinkedIn Campaign Manager once per week. You are watching three things:

• Audience match rate: Should be 40–60% of your uploaded list. If below 30%, your list data quality needs improving — go back to Clay and check company LinkedIn URLs are correct.

• Impression delivery: Are impressions being delivered to your target audience? If spend is under-delivering (not spending your budget), broaden slightly — remove the seniority filter for 2 weeks, then re-apply.

• Engagement rate on Thought Leader Ads: Benchmark is 0.3–0.8% for B2B awareness. If below 0.3%, the content isn’t resonating — try a different post. If above 1%, you have a strong post — keep it running longer.

PHASE 3

Content Architecture

Aligning your organic LinkedIn presence to your paid warming — so that every touchpoint reinforces the same message.

Tools used: LinkedIn (organic)  ·  Taplio (optional)

Organic content in this system isn’t for brand awareness in the abstract. It’s the second channel your target accounts encounter your thinking through. It must be thematically aligned to your ads — same pillars, same tensions, same frameworks.

3.1 — Align Content Themes to Ad Campaigns

Your content pillars (defined in Phase 0) are the themes that connect your ads and your organic posts. In the first 8 weeks of the programme, every post should trace back to one of those pillars. No off-topic posts, no trending content that doesn’t connect back to your ICP’s core problems.

Build a simple content calendar for the first 8 weeks:

Week	Pillar Focus	Post Format
Week 1–2	Pillar 1: Name the problem your ICP faces	Observation post — “here’s what I keep seeing”
Week 3–4	Pillar 2: Challenge the existing approach	Contrarian take — “the conventional wisdom is wrong”
Week 5–6	Pillar 1+2: Introduce your framework	Framework post — “here’s how to think about this”
Week 7–8	Pillar 3: Evidence / case study	Result post — “here’s what this looks like in practice”
Week 9+	Rotate across all pillars	Mix of formats — keep it fresh but thematically consistent

 

The alignment rule: If someone from your target account sees your Document Ad in week 2 and then reads your organic post in week 3, they should feel like they’re getting more of the same valuable thinking from the same expert — not encountering two different brands. Visual consistency (same colour palette, same headshot) and thematic consistency (same pillar language) are both required.

3.2 — Post Frequency and Format Mix

For the warming system to work, posts need to be frequent enough that your target audience encounters them multiple times per week. Recommended minimum:

• 3 posts per week on LinkedIn (Monday, Wednesday, Friday rhythm works well)

• Mix of formats: 2 text posts per week + 1 carousel or image post

• At least 1 post per week should reference the same framework or terminology as your Document Ad

• Never go dark for more than 5 days — consistency is more important than quality in the warming phase

 

⚠  Watch out: Avoid posting content that is unrelated to your pillars during the warming phase. A post about your personal weekend, industry news that doesn’t connect to your ICP’s problems, or promotional content about your company will dilute the thematic signal you’re trying to build. The target account contacts are developing an association between you and a specific domain of expertise — don’t confuse that.

3.3 — Taplio Setup (Optional but Recommended)

Step 1  Connect Taplio to your LinkedIn account

Go to taplio.com → Connect LinkedIn profile → authorise. Taplio gives you: scheduling (so you’re not logging into LinkedIn to post manually), performance analytics (which posts are getting traction with which audiences), and basic AI drafting for when you need help with hooks.

Step 2  Schedule your first 4 weeks of content

Write and schedule all content for the first 4 weeks before your LinkedIn ads go live. This ensures you’re not scrambling for content once the programme is running. Use the content calendar from 3.1 as your framework.

Step 3  Tag posts by pillar in Taplio

Use Taplio’s label/tag feature to tag each post with its content pillar. After 4 weeks you’ll be able to see which pillar is generating the most engagement from your audience — use this to inform which themes to lean into in your outbound copy.

PHASE 4

Intent Tracking Setup

Configuring the signal monitoring that tells you when target accounts are warming up — and when to activate outbound.

Tools used: Teamfluence  ·  Leadfeeder or RB2B (website visitor ID)

Intent tracking is the mechanism that turns a passive warming programme into an active pipeline trigger. Without it, you’re generating warm prospects with no way to catch them at the right moment.

4.1 — LinkedIn Engagement Monitoring with Teamfluence

Step 1  Set up Teamfluence account

Go to teamfluence.io → Create account → Connect your LinkedIn profile. Teamfluence monitors who engages with your LinkedIn content and allows you to track engagement from specific people on a watchlist.

Step 2  Build your monitoring watchlist from Clay

Export your Target Contacts list from Clay as a CSV with: Full Name, LinkedIn Profile URL, Company Name. Import into Teamfluence as a watchlist. Teamfluence will now track when anyone on this list engages with your LinkedIn posts.

Step 3  Configure your signal alert thresholds

In Teamfluence settings, configure alerts for:— 1 engagement in a week: low signal (no action required)— 2 engagements in a week: medium signal (flag in Clay for nurturing — increase ad frequency to this person if possible)— 3+ engagements in one week: high signal (push to Clay → outbound trigger)— Comment on any post: immediate high signal (push to outbound trigger regardless of count)

Step 4  Set up Teamfluence → Clay webhook

Teamfluence can send data to Clay via webhook when a signal threshold is crossed. In Teamfluence → Integrations → Webhook → paste your Clay webhook URL (found in Clay under Settings → Integrations → Incoming Webhooks). When a contact hits your 3+ engagement threshold, Teamfluence automatically updates that contact’s row in Clay with a “Signal: LinkedIn Hot” flag. Phase 5 picks this up.

4.2 — Website Visitor Identification

Step 5  Choose your website visitor ID tool

Two strong options depending on your needs:Leadfeeder (now Dealfront): Identifies companies visiting your website using IP resolution. Shows company name, pages visited, visit frequency, time on site. Best for B2B companies with established traffic.RB2B: Identifies individual LinkedIn profiles visiting your website (US-focused, but growing UK/EU coverage). More precise than company-level — you see the actual person, not just the company. Use RB2B if individual-level identification is important for your programme.

Step 6  Install tracking script

Both tools provide a JavaScript tracking snippet. Install it in your website’s <head> section or via Google Tag Manager. Once installed, the tool begins collecting visitor data immediately.Critical: ensure the LinkedIn Insight Tag from Phase 2 is also installed. These two scripts together give you LinkedIn ad exposure data AND website visit data — the full intent picture.

Step 7  Connect visitor ID tool to Clay

Most visitor ID tools offer Zapier or direct webhook integrations. Set up an automation:— When: A company from your target account list visits your pricing page, case study page, or solutions page— Then: Update that company’s row in Clay with “Signal: Website — [Page Name] — [Date]”For RB2B (individual level): when a specific contact from your list visits, update their row in the Contacts table with the same signal.

Priority pages to monitor: Not all page visits are equal. Prioritise signals from: /pricing, /case-studies, /how-it-works, /solutions, /contact. A visit to your blog homepage is ambient signal — interesting but not urgent. A visit to /pricing is a hot signal — act within 24 hours.

4.3 — Signal Scoring in Clay

Step 8  Create a Signal Score column in your Contacts table

In Clay, add a Formula column called “Signal Score” to your Target Contacts table. This aggregates signals from Teamfluence and your website visitor ID tool:+3 points: Pricing page visit+3 points: 3+ LinkedIn engagements in one week+2 points: Case study or solutions page visit+2 points: LinkedIn comment+1 point: Single LinkedIn engagement+1 point: Blog/homepage visitThe formula checks your signal fields and sums the points automatically.

Step 9  Create signal tiers

Add a second column: “Signal Tier” based on the Signal Score:5+ points = HOT → Immediately queue for outbound3–4 points = WARM → Queue for outbound within 48 hours1–2 points = AMBIENT → Stay in nurture, increase ad exposure0 points = COLD → No action yet

PHASE 5

Clay Automation & Enrichment Waterfalls

Turning your Clay tables into a live pipeline qualification system — automatically enriching, scoring, and routing contacts to outbound.

Tools used: Clay  ·  ZeroBounce  ·  Apollo / Clearbit / Dropcontact

By Phase 5, Clay is receiving live signals from Teamfluence and your website visitor ID tool. This phase is about making Clay act on those signals automatically — enriching contacts the moment they show intent, and routing them to Instantly when the threshold is met.

5.1 — Enrichment Waterfall for New Contacts

When a new contact enters your Clay table (either from manual import or via a signal from Teamfluence), you want to automatically enrich their details without manual intervention. Set up the following waterfall — Clay tries each source in sequence and stops when it gets a valid result:

Field	Waterfall Order	Notes
Work email	Apollo → Dropcontact → Hunter → Clearbit	Stop at first valid result. Verify with ZeroBounce.
LinkedIn URL	Clay LinkedIn search → Clearbit People	Essential for Teamfluence watchlist and personalisation
Current job title	LinkedIn enrichment → Clearbit	Verify title is current — check against profile
Company domain	Clearbit → Clay built-in	Used for website visitor ID matching
Email verification	ZeroBounce (always run last)	Filter out anything not “valid”

 

Step 1  Set up the waterfall in Clay

In your Contacts table, click on the email column → Edit Enrichment → Add Multiple Sources. Add your sources in priority order. Clay runs them sequentially and stops at the first successful result. This minimises credit usage while maximising data quality.

5.2 — Automatic Outbound Trigger

Step 2  Create a Clay automation for HOT contacts

In Clay → Automations → Create New.Trigger: When “Signal Tier” column changes to “HOT”Action: Push contact row to Instantly (via Clay’s native Instantly integration)Map the following fields from Clay to Instantly:— First Name → {{firstName}}— Last Name → {{lastName}}— Email → {{email}}— Company → {{company}}— Signal trigger → {{signalTrigger}} (e.g. “pricing page visit” — used in outbound copy)— LinkedIn URL → {{linkedInUrl}}— Recent post topic (if scraped) → {{recentPost}}

Step 3  Create a Clay automation for WARM contacts

Set up a second automation:Trigger: When “Signal Tier” changes to “WARM”Action: Add contact to a separate Instantly sequence called “Warm — 48hr queue” (you’ll build this in Phase 6)Delay: 24 hours (gives you a window to review before sending)

Review gate for high-value accounts: For your top 20 target accounts (your priority tier), add a manual review step instead of automatic push. When a contact from these accounts hits HOT, Clay sends a Slack notification (via Slack integration) or email alert. Lewis (or the client) reviews and manually approves before the contact enters the Instantly sequence. This ensures premium accounts get a human-reviewed email, not just an automated one.

5.3 — Personalisation Data Scraping

Step 4  Set up Claygent for contextual personalisation

Claygent is Clay’s AI web scraper. For contacts moving to HOT status, trigger a Claygent enrichment to gather personalisation signals:Prompt template: “Search the web for recent information about [First Name] [Last Name] at [Company]. Look for: any LinkedIn posts they’ve published in the last 30 days, any company news or announcements, any interviews or quotes, any awards or recognition. Return a 1–2 sentence summary of the most relevant and recent thing you found that relates to [content pillar topic].”The output of this Claygent run populates a “Personalisation Signal” field in Clay — which maps directly into your Instantly sequence as the contextual opening line.

⚠  Watch out: Claygent uses AI credits — run it only on HOT contacts (Signal Tier = HOT) to avoid burning credits on contacts who may never enter outbound. Do not run it on your entire list on setup.

PHASE 6

Outbound Sequencing in Instantly

Building the signal-triggered email sequences that convert warmed, intent-flagged prospects into conversations.

Tools used: Instantly  ·  Clay (via integration)

By the time a contact reaches Instantly, they are not cold. They have been through the warming programme and triggered a buying signal. The sequences you build here should reflect that context — not read like cold outreach.

6.1 — Instantly Account Setup and Deliverability

Step 1  Set up your sending infrastructure

Before writing a single sequence, your sending infrastructure must be correct. Poor setup here negates everything built in the preceding phases.Domain setup:— Never send outbound from your primary domain (yourcompany.com). Use a sister domain (yourcompany.co or getyourcompany.com).— Purchase 2–3 sending domains. Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records on all of them.— Create 2 inboxes per domain (e.g. lewis@ and lrennison@). Do not create more than 2 per domain.Inbox warm-up:— In Instantly → Accounts → Add new mailboxes → enable Unibox warm-up for each inbox.— Run warm-up for a minimum of 4 weeks before sending any outbound. During warm-up, send zero outbound manually.— Warm-up volume: start at 3 emails/day and let Instantly auto-scale to maximum 25/day.Sending limits (once warm-up is complete):— Maximum 25 emails per inbox per day— Maximum 50 emails per domain per day— For 3 sending domains with 2 inboxes each: maximum 300 outbound emails per day

⚠  Watch out: Skipping or shortcutting the warm-up period is the single most common reason outbound programmes fail at the deliverability level. A domain that hasn’t been properly warmed will be flagged as spam within weeks. The 4-week wait is non-negotiable.

6.2 — Build Your Sequence Architecture

You need three sequences in Instantly, each for a different signal tier:

Sequence Name	Trigger	Steps
HOT — Signal-Triggered	Pushed from Clay when Signal Tier = HOT	3 emails over 12 days
WARM — 48hr Queue	Pushed from Clay when Signal Tier = WARM	4 emails over 21 days
Re-Engagement — Soft Close	Contacts who went through HOT/WARM with no reply (30+ days ago)	2 emails, 14 days apart

 

6.3 — HOT Sequence: Step-by-Step

Step 2  Email 1 — The Signal-Referenced Opener (Day 1)

This email sends within hours of the signal trigger. It references the specific signal directly.Subject line formula: Re: [what they were looking at] OR [Their company] + [relevant topic]Example subjects:”Re: the case study you were reading earlier””Pipeline generation at [Company]””Saw you’ve been looking at [topic]”Body structure:— Line 1–2: Reference the signal specifically (“Noticed you were on our pricing page earlier this week” — this is auto-populated from Clay’s {{signalTrigger}} field)— Line 3–4: Connect to their situation using {{company}} and {{personalisation signal}} from Claygent— Line 5–6: One-line relevant proof point (case study reference or outcome)— Line 7: Low-pressure ask (“Worth a brief conversation to see if there’s a fit? 20 minutes, no deck.”)— Sign-off: First name only. No company logo. No email signature with 8 social links.

Step 3  Email 2 — The Value Add (Day 5)

No reference to email 1. A standalone piece of value — a relevant framework, a short insight, or a reference to a piece of content that speaks directly to their problem.Subject: Different from email 1. Can reference your content: “The framework behind [outcome]”Body: 3–4 lines. Share one genuinely useful thing. End with a soft check-in: “Still happy to talk through this if the timing is better now.”

Step 4  Email 3 — The Soft Close (Day 12)

Keep this short. Assume they’re content with their current situation (removes pressure and creates a different dynamic).Subject: “Closing the loop”Body template:”Hey [First Name] — closing the loop on this one.Assuming the timing isn’t right or you’ve got this covered on your end — completely understand.If things shift on the [problem area] side, we’re building some interesting things at [your company] that have been relevant for teams in similar spots. [One-line case study reference.]Happy to reconnect whenever the timing makes more sense.[First name]”Do not ask for a meeting in this email. The lack of ask is what makes it work.

6.4 — Sequence Settings in Instantly

Step 5  Configure sequence settings

In Instantly, for each sequence:— Sending schedule: Monday–Thursday, 8am–5pm (recipient’s timezone). Never send Friday or weekends.— Daily sending limit per contact: 1 email only (never more than one per day to the same person)— Reply detection: ON — stops sequence automatically when a reply is received. This is critical. Do not follow up with someone who has already replied.— Tracking: Open tracking ON (useful for signal data). Click tracking OFF (click tracking pixels can damage deliverability).— From name: Use a real person’s name (Lewis Rennison) — not “The demand.consulting team”— Email signature: Minimal. First name, title, website. No image, no social icons, no “sent from iPhone”.

Step 6  Connect Instantly to Clay for reply data

When a contact replies to an Instantly sequence, you want Clay to update automatically. In Instantly → Integrations → Webhooks → Set webhook for “Reply received”. Point this webhook to Clay to update the contact’s row: “Status: Replied — [Date]”. This feeds your pipeline attribution data and ensures anyone who replies is removed from further automation.

6.5 — Launch Checklist

Before activating any sequence, run through this checklist:

Sending domains set up with SPF, DKIM, DMARC All inboxes warmed for minimum 4 weeks Sending limits set (max 25/inbox/day) Reply detection turned ON in all sequences Click tracking turned OFF Test emails sent to personal inbox — checked for spam triggers

Clay → Instantly integration tested (dummy contact pushed through) Signal tiers validated in Clay (HOT contacts pushing correctly) Personalisation fields mapped and populated ({{signalTrigger}}, {{company}}) First 10 contacts reviewed manually before automation runs Unsubscribe link present in all emails Sending schedule set to business hours only

 

The golden rule of outbound activation: Send the first 10 emails from any new sequence manually — review each one before it goes. This quality check catches personalisation field errors, tone issues, and mapping mistakes before they scale. Once you’ve manually reviewed and sent 10 and received at least 2 replies (positive or negative), it’s safe to let the automation run.

APPENDIX

Reference Materials

 

A. Full Tool Stack Summary

Tool	Monthly Cost (approx)	What breaks without it
LinkedIn Campaign Manager	£500–£1,500 ad spend	No warming — outbound lands fully cold
Clay (Growth plan)	£149–£400/mo + credits	No enrichment, no automation, no signal routing
Teamfluence	~£99/mo	No LinkedIn engagement monitoring
Leadfeeder or RB2B	£49–£199/mo	No website visitor signals
Instantly (Growth)	£97/mo	No outbound sequencing or deliverability management
ZeroBounce	Pay-per-use (~£0.003/email)	Email validation fails — deliverability damaged
Taplio (optional)	£39/mo	Manual LinkedIn posting — no scheduling or analytics
Apollo (data source)	£49/mo	Reduced contact find rate in enrichment waterfall
TOTAL (lean)	~£1,000–£2,500/mo + ad spend

 

B. Timeline Overview

Week	Activity	Output
Week 1	Phase 0 + Phase 1	ICP doc complete, Clay table with 150–300 enriched accounts
Week 2	Phase 2 (LinkedIn setup + audience upload)	Campaigns live, audience matched, ads running
Week 2–3	Phase 3 (content calendar built + first posts live)	4 weeks of content scheduled in Taplio
Week 3	Phase 4 (Teamfluence + website visitor ID)	Signal monitoring live, webhook to Clay active
Week 3–4	Phase 5 (Clay automation + signal scoring)	Enrichment waterfall running, signal tiers active
Week 4–5	Phase 6 (Instantly setup + warm-up running)	Inboxes warming — NO outbound yet
Week 5–8	All channels running. Warming phase.	LinkedIn ads building familiarity. Organic posting daily.
Week 8	First HOT signals expected	First contacts pushed to Instantly automatically
Week 8+	Signal-triggered outbound live	Warm conversations beginning. Pipeline starting to build.
Week 12	First programme review	Pipeline contribution assessed, system optimised

 

C. Troubleshooting — Common Problems

Problem	Likely Cause	Fix
LinkedIn audience size under 300 — can’t activate	Target list too small or match rate too low	Expand account list in Clay to 500+ companies. Check LinkedIn URLs are correct. Use company domain as backup matching field.
LinkedIn ads under-delivering (not spending budget)	Audience too narrow after layered filters	Remove seniority/function filters for 2 weeks. Re-apply once delivery stabilises.
Email open rates below 20%	Subject lines not resonating OR deliverability issue	Test 3 subject line variants. Run MXToolbox check on sending domain. Check spam score via mail-tester.com.
No replies after 50 sent	Wrong signal threshold OR personalisation not landing	Review email 1 copy. Check {{signalTrigger}} is populating correctly. Verify you’re reaching the right seniority level.
Clay enrichment finding emails but ZeroBounce marking invalid	Data source returning old/inactive emails	Prioritise Dropcontact over Apollo in waterfall — Dropcontact has better freshness on European data.
Teamfluence not detecting engagements	LinkedIn URL format mismatch in watchlist	Ensure LinkedIn URLs in Clay and Teamfluence watchlist are identical format (linkedin.com/in/username/ with trailing slash).
Signal Score not updating in Clay	Webhook from Teamfluence not configured correctly	Test webhook in Teamfluence → Integrations → Send test payload. Check Clay webhook URL is the correct table-level URL.

 

D. Key Metrics to Track Weekly

• LinkedIn ad impressions delivered to matched audience (target: 500+ per week)

• Audience match rate (target: 40%+ of uploaded list)

• Organic post engagement rate from target account contacts (track manually in Teamfluence)

• Teamfluence signals triggered per week (WARM + HOT combined)

• Website visits from target accounts (via visitor ID tool)

• Contacts pushed to Instantly (HOT + WARM) per week

• Outbound open rate (target: 45%+)

• Positive reply rate (target: 6–12% for signal-triggered warm outbound)

• Meetings booked from sequence (track in CRM)

• Pipeline created attributable to programme (quarterly review)

 

Lewis Rennison  ·  B2B Demand Director & Fractional CMO

demand.consulting  ·  lewis@demand.consulting

This document is confidential. Do not distribute without permission.