instantly-campaigns

name	instantly-campaigns
description	Create cold email campaigns in Instantly with A/B testing. Use when user asks to create email campaigns, set up cold outreach, build email sequences, or configure Instantly campaigns.
argument-hint	[campaign-name]
disable-model-invocation	true
allowed-tools	Bash, Read, Write, Edit, Glob, Grep

Instantly Campaign Creation

Goal

Create three email campaigns in Instantly based on a client description and offers. Each campaign has A/B tested first emails and follow-up sequences.

Inputs

1. Client Description: Company name, industry, target audience, value proposition
2. Offers (optional): List of 3 offers. If not provided, will be generated.

Scripts

• ./scripts/instantly_create_campaigns.py - Creates campaigns via Instantly API
• ./scripts/read_sheet.py - Read lead data if needed

Process

1. Load Examples

Read .tmp/instantly_campaign_examples/campaigns.md for inspiration on personalization + social proof + offer structure.

2. Generate Campaigns

python3 ./scripts/instantly_create_campaigns.py \
  --client_name "ClientName" \
  --client_description "Description of the client..." \
  --offers "Offer 1|Offer 2|Offer 3" \
  --target_audience "Who we're emailing" \
  --social_proof "Credentials/results to mention"

3. Review Output

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

• Email 1: Two A/B variants
• Email 2: Follow-up bump
• Email 3: Breakup email

Campaign Structure

Email 1 (A/B Split Test)

• Personalization hook ({{icebreaker}} or custom opener)
• Social proof (credentials, results)
• Offer (clear value proposition)
• Soft CTA

Email 2 (Follow-up)

• Brief, friendly bump
• Reference original email
• Restate value
• Clear CTA

Email 3 (Breakup)

• Short, direct
• Last chance framing
• Simple yes/no ask

Available Variables

• {{firstName}} - Lead's first name
• {{lastName}} - Lead's last name
• {{companyName}} - Lead's company
• {{casualCompanyName}} - Informal company name
• {{icebreaker}} - AI-generated icebreaker
• {{sendingAccountFirstName}} - Sender's first name

Edge Cases

• No offers provided: Generate 3 distinct offers from client description
• API errors: Script retries once, then fails with detailed error
• Rate limits: Handled with exponential backoff

Output

{
  "status": "success",
  "campaigns_created": 3,
  "campaign_ids": ["id1", "id2", "id3"],
  "campaign_names": ["Campaign 1", "Campaign 2", "Campaign 3"]
}

Environment

Requires in .env:

INSTANTLY_API_KEY=your_key
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_key

API Learnings

• Schedule requires name field in each schedule object
• Timezone: Use America/Chicago (not all IANA values work)
• HTML: Instantly strips plain text outside HTML tags - wrap in <p> tags
• Model: Uses claude-opus-4-5-20251101 for generation

---

Schema

Inputs

Name	Type	Required	Description
client_name	string	Yes	Client company name
client_description	string	Yes	Company description and value proposition
offers	string	No	Pipe-separated offers (auto-generated if missing)
target_audience	string	Yes	Who we're emailing
social_proof	string	Yes	Credentials/results to mention

Outputs

Name	Type	Description
campaign_ids	array	3 Instantly campaign IDs
campaign_names	array	Campaign names

Credentials

Name	Source
INSTANTLY_API_KEY	.env
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	.env

Composable With

Skills that chain well with this one: scrape-leads, gmaps-leads, casualize-names, onboarding-kickoff

Cost

Claude API + Instantly plan