Setup Outreach Campaign

setup-outreach-campaign

Set up a complete outbound email campaign in Smartlead: create the campaign, add leads, write a 2-3 email sequence, configure the schedule, and allocate mailboxes.

Inputs

Setup

Requires a Smartlead account with API access.

export SMARTLEAD_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

All API calls go to https://server.smartlead.ai/api/v1 with ?api_key=$SMARTLEAD_API_KEY appended.

Rate limit: 10 requests per 2 seconds.

Procedure

Step 1: Gather Campaign Info

Ask the user the following questions. Group them conversationally — don't dump all at once.

Campaign identity:

• "What is the name for this campaign?" (e.g., "Truewind - Accounting Firms - Feb 2026")
• "What is the goal?" (e.g., book demos, drive trial signups, conference follow-up)

Audience & leads:

• "Who is the target audience?" (ICP: title, company type, size, industry)
• "How are you providing the lead list?" — options: CSV file, output from a prior skill (company-contact-finder, luma-event-attendees), or "I need to find leads first" (chain to company-contact-finder)

Messaging:

• "What is the core value proposition or pain point?"
• "What is the call to action?" (e.g., "Book a 15-min demo")
• "What tone — casual, semi-formal, or formal?"
• "Any personalization angle?" (e.g., reference their job posting, event, industry news)

Schedule:

• "What days should emails be sent?" (default: Mon-Fri)
• "What hours and timezone?" (default: 8am-6pm ET)
• "Max new leads per day?" (default: 20)
• "When should the campaign start?" (default: tomorrow)

Mailboxes:

• "How many mailboxes to allocate?" (default: 5)
• "Auto-select free mailboxes, or show me a list to choose from?"

After gathering answers, present a summary and confirm before proceeding.

Step 2: Create the Campaign

POST https://server.smartlead.ai/api/v1/campaigns/create?api_key=$SMARTLEAD_API_KEY

Body:
{
  "name": "<campaign_name>",
  "client_id": null
}

Response:

{
  "ok": true,
  "id": 3023,
  "name": "Test email campaign",
  "created_at": "2022-11-07T16:23:24.025929+00:00"
}

Capture campaign_id from id. All subsequent calls use this.

Step 3: Find and Allocate Mailboxes

This step determines which mailboxes are available and assigns them to the campaign.

3a: Fetch all email accounts

GET https://server.smartlead.ai/api/v1/email-accounts/?api_key=$SMARTLEAD_API_KEY&offset=0&limit=100

Returns a list of all email accounts with id, from_email, from_name, daily_sent_count, warmup_details, is_smtp_success, is_imap_success.

3b: Identify which mailboxes are currently in use

Fetch all campaigns:

GET https://server.smartlead.ai/api/v1/campaigns?api_key=$SMARTLEAD_API_KEY

For each campaign with status = "ACTIVE" or "STARTED", fetch its email accounts:

GET https://server.smartlead.ai/api/v1/campaigns/{campaign_id}/email-accounts?api_key=$SMARTLEAD_API_KEY

Build a set of all email_account_id values currently assigned to active campaigns.

3c: Filter for free mailboxes

A mailbox is "free" if:

1. Its id is NOT in the active-campaign set from 3b
2. is_smtp_success = true AND is_imap_success = true (account is functional)

Sort free mailboxes by daily_sent_count ascending (prefer coolest/least-used mailboxes).

3d: Select and assign

If mailbox_selection = "auto": select the first N free mailboxes.

If mailbox_selection = "manual": display all accounts as a table (name, email, daily_sent_count, status) and let the user pick.

If fewer than N free mailboxes are available, tell the user: "Only X free mailboxes found. Proceed with X, or pick some currently-in-use mailboxes?"

Assign selected mailboxes:

POST https://server.smartlead.ai/api/v1/campaigns/{campaign_id}/email-accounts?api_key=$SMARTLEAD_API_KEY

Body:
{
  "email_account_ids": [101, 204, 305, 412, 518]
}

Step 4: Ingest Leads

4a: Parse the lead list

From CSV: Read the file, map columns to Smartlead fields. Flexible column matching:

• email (required) — also matches Email, email_address
• first_name — also matches firstname, first, First Name
• last_name — also matches lastname, last, Last Name
• company_name — also matches company, organization, Company
• Any extra columns become custom_fields

From upstream skill (person-list JSON): Map fields:

first_name  <- name.split()[0]
last_name   <- name.split()[1:]
email       <- email
company_name <- company
custom_fields <- { "title": title, "linkedin_url": linkedin_url }

4b: Validate and deduplicate

• Remove rows without a valid email
• Deduplicate by email (keep first occurrence)
• Report: total rows, valid, invalid, duplicates removed

4c: Upload in batches

Smartlead accepts max 100 leads per call. Chunk the list and call for each batch:

POST https://server.smartlead.ai/api/v1/campaigns/{campaign_id}/leads?api_key=$SMARTLEAD_API_KEY

Body:
{
  "lead_list": [
    {
      "first_name": "Jane",
      "last_name": "Smith",
      "email": "jane@example.com",
      "company_name": "Acme Corp",
      "custom_fields": {"title": "CFO"}
    }
  ],
  "settings": {
    "ignore_global_block_list": false,
    "ignore_unsubscribe_list": false,
    "ignore_duplicate_leads_in_other_campaign": false
  }
}

Response:

{
  "ok": true,
  "upload_count": 95,
  "total_leads": 100,
  "already_added_to_campaign": 2,
  "duplicate_count": 1,
  "invalid_email_count": 2,
  "unsubscribed_leads": 0
}

Report totals across all batches to the user.

Step 5: Craft the Email Sequence

Write a 2-3 email sequence based on the user's inputs from Step 1. Default structure:

Email 1 — Cold intro (Day 0)

• Subject: short, curiosity-driven or relevant to their pain
• Body: 3-5 sentences. Acknowledge their world, surface the problem, introduce the solution briefly, clear CTA
• Personalize with {{first_name}} and any custom fields

Email 2 — Follow-up (Day 3)

• Subject: different angle (metric, case study, specific outcome)
• Body: 2-4 sentences. Add value, restate CTA
• Leave subject blank to send as same-thread reply

Email 3 — Breakup (Day 8)

• Subject: brief, direct ("Still relevant?", "Closing the loop")
• Body: 2-3 sentences. Acknowledge they're busy, keep door open, soft CTA

Present the full sequence to the user as a formatted table. Wait for approval or edits.

After user approves, save:

POST https://server.smartlead.ai/api/v1/campaigns/{campaign_id}/sequences?api_key=$SMARTLEAD_API_KEY

Body:
{
  "sequences": [
    {
      "seq_number": 1,
      "seq_delay_details": { "delay_in_days": 0 },
      "seq_variants": [
        {
          "subject": "Subject line here",
          "email_body": "<p>Email body as HTML</p>",
          "variant_label": "A"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "seq_number": 2,
      "seq_delay_details": { "delay_in_days": 3 },
      "seq_variants": [
        {
          "subject": "",
          "email_body": "<p>Follow-up body</p>",
          "variant_label": "A"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "seq_number": 3,
      "seq_delay_details": { "delay_in_days": 5 },
      "seq_variants": [
        {
          "subject": "",
          "email_body": "<p>Breakup body</p>",
          "variant_label": "A"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Note: blank subject on emails 2+ makes them send as replies in the same thread.

Step 6: Set the Schedule

POST https://server.smartlead.ai/api/v1/campaigns/{campaign_id}/schedule?api_key=$SMARTLEAD_API_KEY

Body:
{
  "timezone": "America/New_York",
  "days_of_the_week": [1, 2, 3, 4, 5],
  "start_hour": "08:00",
  "end_hour": "18:00",
  "min_time_btw_emails": 10,
  "max_new_leads_per_day": 20,
  "schedule_start_time": "2026-02-25T00:00:00.000Z"
}

days_of_the_week: 0=Sunday, 1=Monday, ..., 6=Saturday.

Step 7: Confirm and Optionally Start

Present a full summary:

Campaign: "Truewind - Accounting Firms - Feb 2026"
Campaign ID: 12345
Leads added: 87 (3 rejected as duplicates)
Email sequence: 3 emails (Day 0, Day 3, Day 8)
Schedule: Mon-Fri, 8am-6pm ET, starting Feb 25
Mailboxes: jane@truewind.ai, alex@truewind.ai (+3 more)
Status: DRAFTED

Ask: "Do you want to START the campaign now, or leave it as a draft?"

If start:

POST https://server.smartlead.ai/api/v1/campaigns/{campaign_id}/status?api_key=$SMARTLEAD_API_KEY

Body:
{ "status": "START" }

If draft: skip. User can start from Smartlead UI later.

Optional: Update Campaign Settings

If the user wants to configure tracking or stop conditions, use:

POST https://server.smartlead.ai/api/v1/campaigns/{campaign_id}/settings?api_key=$SMARTLEAD_API_KEY

Body:
{
  "track_settings": ["DONT_TRACK_EMAIL_OPEN"],
  "stop_lead_settings": "REPLY_TO_AN_EMAIL",
  "send_as_plain_text": false,
  "follow_up_percentage": 100,
  "enable_ai_esp_matching": true
}

Allowed track_settings: DONT_TRACK_EMAIL_OPEN, DONT_TRACK_LINK_CLICK, DONT_TRACK_REPLY_TO_AN_EMAIL Allowed stop_lead_settings: REPLY_TO_AN_EMAIL, CLICK_ON_A_LINK, OPEN_AN_EMAIL

Smartlead API Reference

All endpoints use base URL https://server.smartlead.ai/api/v1 with ?api_key= query param.

Example Prompts

• "Set up a Smartlead campaign for Truewind targeting accounting firms"
• "Create an outreach campaign — I have a CSV of leads"
• "Launch a cold email campaign to CFOs at mid-market companies"
• "Set up a 3-email sequence in Smartlead and allocate 5 free mailboxes"

Metadata

metadata:
  requires:
    env: ["SMARTLEAD_API_KEY"]
  cost: "Free (Smartlead API included with plan that has API access)"