Automate Smartlead with Claude Code

Installation Guide HERE

This lesson covers two skills that handle the outreach side of your pipeline:

/smartlead-campaigns - Creates cold email campaigns in SmartLead with A/B tested sequences, uploads your leads, assigns sender accounts, and configures schedules.

/smartlead-autoreply - Automatically classifies and replies to incoming email responses using AI. When someone says "tell me more", it replies intelligently. When someone says "not interested", it leaves them alone.

Together, these turn your lead list into a live outreach system that sends emails AND handles replies.

How SmartLead Works (Quick Primer)

SmartLead is a cold email platform. Here's the basic structure:

Campaign

  • Sender Accounts (your email addresses that send the emails)
  • Sequences (the email steps - first email, follow-up, breakup)
  • Leads (the people receiving emails)
  • Schedule (what days/times to send)

Merge fields are placeholders in your email copy that get replaced with real data:

  • {{first_name}} - the lead's first name
  • {{company_name}} - their company
  • {{icebreaker}} - the personalized line from your earlier scraping

Important: SmartLead merge fields are snake_case. {{first_name}} works. {{firstName}} renders empty.

Part 1: Creating Campaigns

What Happens When You Run It

Tell Claude what your campaign is about:

/smartlead-campaigns "Roofing Companies"

Claude will ask you for:

  • Client name - who the campaign is for
  • Client description - what you're selling
  • Target audience - who you're emailing
  • Offers (optional) - if you don't provide 3 offers, Claude generates them
  • Social proof (optional) - stats, case studies, testimonials to include

What Gets Created

The skill creates 3 campaigns (one per offer), each with:

  • Step 1 (Day 0): Two A/B email variants - both personalized with icebreaker + social proof + soft CTA
  • Step 2 (Day 3): Follow-up - light bump, different angle
  • Step 3 (Day 7): Breakup email - last touch

A/B Testing: Each first email has 2 variants with different subject lines and angles. SmartLead splits sends 50/50 so you can see which performs better.

Important: Campaigns are created but NOT started. You review everything in SmartLead first, then manually hit "Start" when you're happy with it.

Email Copy Style

The skill follows strict rules for high-performing cold email:

Subject lines:

  • 3-6 words, lowercase, no punctuation
  • Curiosity-driven, not salesy
  • Examples: "quick question", "roofing leads", "free trial", "missed calls"

Body:

  • Max 80 words per email
  • ONE clear CTA per email
  • Include social proof with real numbers
  • No generic openers ("Hope this finds you well")
  • Sign off with name + title

Here's what an actual generated email looks like:

Subject: quick question

Hi {{first_name}},

Quick question - how does {{casualCompanyName}} handle calls when your crew is out on a job? We built a system for roofers that picks up every call, qualifies the lead, and books the appointment automatically. 24/7, no receptionist needed.

Already running this for roofing companies across Texas. We also throw in a free professional website.

Reply "yes" and I'll show you the demo.

Bohdan

Founder, Bosar Agency

Sender Accounts

The skill automatically fetches all your SmartLead sender accounts and assigns them to the campaign. SmartLead rotates between accounts automatically.

Why multiple accounts? Deliverability. Spreading sends across 10-12 accounts means each one sends fewer emails, keeping your reputation clean. Aim for at least 10-12 sender accounts before running campaigns.

Quality Checks Before Upload

Before uploading any leads, the skill runs a quality audit:

  • Email not on the blocklist (60+ blocked domains like amazon.com, google.com, wix.com)
  • First name is a real name (not a company word like "Big", "Water", "Total")
  • Icebreaker exists and isn't broken

Leads that fail get excluded automatically. You don't have to manually clean your list.

Sending Schedule

Default schedule:

  • Monday through Friday
  • 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM (recipient's timezone)
  • 40 leads per day per sender account
  • 8 hours minimum between emails to the same person

Part 2: AI Auto-Reply

What Happens When Someone Replies

When a prospect replies to your cold email, here's the flow:

  1. SmartLead detects the reply
  2. The AI reads the full email thread
  3. It looks up your knowledge base for that campaign
  4. It classifies the reply (interested? pricing question? out of office?)
  5. It generates a smart reply
  6. The reply gets sent through SmartLead
  7. You get a Slack notification

How Replies Get Classified

Every incoming reply falls into one of these categories:

Interested ("yes", "tell me more", "show me")

  • AI replies with enthusiasm, includes your booking link, mentions demo site if available

Pricing Question ("how much", "what's the cost")

  • AI gives a range but doesn't quote exact pricing
  • Pushes to a call: "easiest to hop on a quick call so I can give you an exact number"

Out of Office (auto-replies)

  • Skips for now
  • Automatically follows up when they return (extracts the return date from their auto-reply)

Not Interested ("no thanks", "pass", "we're good")

  • Does NOT reply. Ever. Respecting this saves your sender reputation.

Unsubscribe ("remove me", "stop emailing")

  • Does NOT reply. Removes them silently.

Already Handled (call booked, deal closed)

  • Skips to avoid duplicate outreach.

The Knowledge Base

The AI needs context about what you're selling to write good replies. This lives in a Google Sheet - one row per campaign with:

  • Campaign name and ID
  • What you sell, how it works, pricing ranges, common objections and answers
  • 2-3 example replies showing your tone and style

If no knowledge base exists for a campaign, the system does NOT reply. This prevents sending generic garbage.

The Claude Code prompt during installation helps you set this up.

Reply Quality

Replies are generated by Claude with extended thinking - meaning it actually reasons through the best response strategy before writing. The rules:

  • Match the lead's style (casual if they're casual, formal if they're formal)
  • 3-8 sentences max
  • Include your booking link when suggesting a call
  • For interested leads, offer 2 specific time slots
  • If a demo site was generated, include it with context
  • Sign off with first name only

The Complete Picture

Here's how everything connects from lead to booked call:

Your lead list (from scraping + personalization)

-> /smartlead-campaigns creates the campaigns

-> Emails go out via SmartLead

Prospect replies

-> AI classifies the reply

If interested:

-> AI replies with booking link + demo site

-> You get a Slack notification

-> Call gets booked

If pricing question:

-> AI gives a range, pushes to call

-> Includes booking link

If out of office:

-> Logged for automatic follow-up

-> Sends email when they return

If not interested / unsubscribe:

-> Skipped automatically, no reply sent

What You'll Need

Before running these skills:

  • A SmartLead account with sender accounts set up and warmed (2-3 weeks of warmup before sending)
  • Your SMARTLEAD_API_KEY and ANTHROPIC_API_KEY (the installation prompt handles this)
  • A knowledge base Google Sheet for auto-reply (the installation prompt helps you create this)
  • A webhook deployed for auto-reply (Claude walks you through this during setup)

Cost

SmartLead subscription: ~$39-94/month depending on plan

Auto-reply per response: ~$0.05-0.10 (Claude with extended thinking)

Webhook hosting (Modal): Free tier covers most usage

For a typical campaign of 500 leads, you're looking at under $20 total to scrape, personalize, and launch the entire outreach with AI auto-reply.

← Previous
Next →