setup-outreach-campaign

name	setup-outreach-campaign
description	Set up a complete outbound email campaign in Smartlead. Asks the user for campaign goal, audience, messaging, schedule, and mailbox allocation. Creates the campaign, adds leads, saves email sequences, sets schedule, and assigns available mailboxes. Use when a user wants to launch email outreach via Smartlead.
tags	["outreach"]
graph	{"provides":["smartlead-campaign","email-sequence"],"requires":["lead-list"],"connects_to":[{"skill":"company-contact-finder","when":"User doesn't have a lead list and needs to find contacts first","passes":"nothing (upstream source)"},{"skill":"contact-cache","when":"Before adding leads, deduplicate against already-contacted leads","passes":"lead-list (emails)"},{"skill":"luma-event-attendees","when":"User wants event attendees as the lead source","passes":"person-list"},{"skill":"conference-speaker-scraper","when":"User wants conference speakers as the lead source","passes":"person-list"}],"capabilities":["smartlead-api"]}

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

Input	Required	Default	Description
campaign_name	Yes	--	Name for the campaign (e.g., "Truewind - Accounting Firms - Feb 2026")
campaign_goal	Yes	--	What outcome the campaign drives (book demos, drive signups, etc.)
lead_list	Yes	--	CSV file path OR person-list JSON from upstream skill
value_proposition	Yes	--	Core pain point or benefit the emails address
cta	Yes	--	Call to action (e.g., "Book a 15-min demo", "Reply to learn more")
tone	No	semi-formal	Email tone: casual, semi-formal, formal
personalization_angle	No	--	Hook for personalization (event attendance, job posting, news mention)
timezone	No	America/New_York	Timezone for send schedule
send_days	No	[1,2,3,4,5]	Days of week to send (0=Sun, 6=Sat)
start_hour	No	08:00	Start of send window
end_hour	No	18:00	End of send window
max_leads_per_day	No	20	Max new leads contacted per day
min_time_btw_emails	No	10	Minutes between emails from same mailbox
num_mailboxes	No	5	Number of mailboxes to allocate
mailbox_selection	No	auto	"auto" (pick free ones) or "manual" (show list to user)

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": "[e-mail]",
      "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: [e-mail], [e-mail] (+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.

Endpoint	Method	Purpose
/campaigns/create	POST	Create a new campaign
/campaigns	GET	List all campaigns
/campaigns/{id}	GET	Get campaign by ID
/campaigns/{id}/schedule	POST	Set campaign schedule
/campaigns/{id}/settings	POST	Update tracking/stop settings
/campaigns/{id}/sequences	POST	Save email sequences
/campaigns/{id}/leads	POST	Add leads (max 100 per call)
/campaigns/{id}/email-accounts	GET	List mailboxes on a campaign
/campaigns/{id}/email-accounts	POST	Assign mailboxes to campaign
/campaigns/{id}/status	POST	Change campaign status (START/PAUSED/STOPPED)
/campaigns/{id}/analytics	GET	Top-level campaign analytics
/email-accounts/	GET	List all email accounts (offset/limit)

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)"