Automate Your Outreach in 30 Minutes with DenchClaw

Outreach automation doesn't require an expensive tool and a six-month implementation project. With DenchClaw, you can automate personalized email outreach in 30 minutes using contacts you already have, from email accounts you're already logged into.

This guide is practical and direct. You'll have working outreach automation by the end.

What You're Building#

• A contact list segmented for outreach
• AI-generated personalized email drafts
• A review-before-send workflow (you approve each email)
• Automated follow-up scheduling
• LinkedIn outreach via the browser agent

Prerequisites: DenchClaw installed (npx denchclaw) and a People/Contacts object set up. See the zero to CRM guide if you need to start from scratch.

Step 1: Define Your Target Segment (5 minutes)#

Good outreach starts with a tight segment. Instead of emailing everyone, create a filtered view of exactly who you want to reach.

In DenchClaw's chat:

Create a view called "Outreach Batch 1" showing contacts where:
- Status = Lead
- Last Contacted is more than 30 days ago OR never contacted
- Email is not empty
- Tags does not contain "do not contact"
Sort by Company ascending

This gives you a clean, qualified list. Open it in your sidebar — that's your outreach list.

Step 2: Write a Template (5 minutes)#

Create an outreach template as a document:

Create a document called "Outreach Template - Q2" with this content:

Hi {{First Name}},

[Personalized opening based on their company and role]

[2-3 sentence pitch relevant to their industry]

[Specific ask or CTA]

[Your signature]

This is the skeleton. DenchClaw will fill in the personalized parts for each contact.

Or use natural language — no formal template required:

My outreach is: I'm reaching out to introduce DenchClaw, a local-first CRM that replaces HubSpot. The pitch is that they own their data and the AI is built in. Target is early-stage startup founders and sales leaders. Keep it under 100 words.

Step 3: Generate Personalized Emails (10 minutes)#

Here's where the AI earns its place. Select your first 10 contacts from the Outreach Batch 1 view and run:

Generate a personalized outreach email for each contact in Outreach Batch 1 using the "Outreach Template - Q2" pitch. For each person:
1. Look up their company and role
2. Personalize the opening to something specific about them or their company
3. Adjust the pitch based on their industry
4. Save the draft email to their entry document
5. Mark their Status as "Outreach Drafted"

DenchClaw works through the list, pulling context from each contact's record, enriching where needed, and writing individual emails. It then saves each draft to the contact's document and updates their status.

You can also do it one at a time:

Write an outreach email to Marcus Rivera, Head of Sales at Acme Corp. They're a Series B SaaS company of ~80 people. Mention that we saw their job posting for a RevOps manager (hint: they're scaling sales ops).

Step 4: Review and Send (5 minutes per batch)#

DenchClaw doesn't send email without your approval. Open your "Outreach Drafted" view:

Create a view called "Outreach Drafted" showing contacts where Status = "Outreach Drafted"

For each contact:

1. Open their entry document
2. Read the draft email
3. Edit if needed
4. Ask DenchClaw to send it: "Send the outreach email to Sarah Chen via Gmail"

For faster review of multiple emails:

Show me all draft outreach emails in a review list, one by one

DenchClaw presents each draft and waits for your "send", "edit", or "skip" response.

Step 5: Set Up Follow-Up Automation#

When a contact's Status changes to "Outreach Sent", schedule a follow-up:
- If no reply in 3 days, draft a short follow-up email and set status to "Follow-up Ready"
- If no reply in 7 days, send me a Telegram notification to manually decide
- If they reply, set status to "Replied" and notify me immediately

The AI checks email threads (via Gmail integration) to detect replies. When a reply comes in:

Sarah Chen replied to the outreach email. Update her status to "Replied", log the reply summary to her notes, and suggest next steps.

Step 6: LinkedIn Outreach#

Email isn't always the right channel. For LinkedIn:

Open LinkedIn and send a connection request to Marcus Rivera at Acme Corp with a note: "Hi Marcus, saw your work on building out the RevOps team at Acme — would love to connect and share how we're thinking about AI-native sales tools."

DenchClaw opens LinkedIn in your browser (you're already logged in), navigates to Marcus's profile, and sends the connection request. The message is logged to his contact record.

For batch LinkedIn outreach:

For the first 5 contacts in Outreach Batch 1 who are on LinkedIn (check their LinkedIn URL field), draft LinkedIn connection messages and queue them for my review

Step 7: Track Your Results#

After your first week of outreach, check performance:

Show me outreach metrics: emails sent this week, open rate (from Gmail), reply rate, contacts converted to Prospect status

Which companies have the highest reply rates from my outreach this month?

Use this data to improve your targeting and messaging.

Advanced: Automated Enrichment Before Outreach#

Before reaching out to a batch of contacts, enrich them first:

For all contacts in Outreach Batch 1, enrich each one with their current company, role, and LinkedIn URL, then update their records

This takes 5-10 minutes for 20 contacts. When you write their personalized emails afterward, you have fresh, accurate context.

Things This Doesn't Do (And Shouldn't)#

• Mass blast without review. Every email goes through your approval. This is a feature, not a limitation.
• Fake from addresses. Emails come from your actual Gmail.
• CAN-SPAM violations. DenchClaw doesn't suppress unsubscribes automatically — manage that in your Gmail.

For the full feature breakdown, see what DenchClaw is. For team outreach workflows, see the team CRM setup guide.

Frequently Asked Questions#

Does DenchClaw send emails automatically without me reviewing them?#

No — by default, every email requires your explicit "send" command. You can configure automated sending for follow-ups if you want, but the first contact email always goes through review.

Does this work with email providers other than Gmail?#

Yes. DenchClaw supports any IMAP/SMTP account via the Himalaya skill. Gmail is the easiest to set up with OAuth.

Can I send outreach from multiple email addresses?#

Yes. Set up multiple email accounts and specify which to use per outreach campaign.

How does personalization work without an API key?#

DenchClaw uses the AI model you've configured (Claude, GPT-4, or a local model) to generate personalization based on your contact's data and any web enrichment it does. No third-party personalization API required.

What's the best batch size for outreach?#

Start with 10-15 per day. Review quality, adjust messaging, then scale. Quality personalized outreach at 15/day outperforms 150 blasted emails every time.

Ready to try DenchClaw? Install in one command: npx denchclaw. Full setup guide →