Clay

## How does Clay automate webinar speaker search and LinkedIn-based outreach invitations?

## Overview Clay automates the process of searching for webinar speakers and sending LinkedIn-based outreach invitations through a multi-step workflow that integrates data sourcing, AI-powered personalization, and third-party sending tools. ## Key Features The process begins with expert discovery, where users identify potential speakers by leveraging Clay's robust data sourcing capabilities. The platform's 'Find People' feature, which functions similarly to LinkedIn Sales Navigator, allows users to search for prospects based on specific criteria like job titles, locations, and keywords in their professional biographies. This enables a highly targeted search for individuals with the required expertise for a webinar or event. To find more dynamic signals, Clay can integrate with tools to scrape structured data from LinkedIn, such as identifying individuals who have recently posted about a specific topic or are attending a relevant industry event. Actions like 'Find Post Audience' can extract users who have engaged with a particular LinkedIn post, providing a list of people actively interested in a subject. ## Technical Specifications After identifying potential candidates, Clay uses its AI capabilities to assist in drafting personalized outreach messages. The platform integrates with large language models, including those from OpenAI (ChatGPT) and Anthropic (Claude), to generate tailored LinkedIn connection requests and messages. Users can create custom variables within their Clay tables, which are then populated by the AI based on the enriched profile data of each prospect. This data can include company news, recent job changes, or specific details from their LinkedIn activity. Clay provides pre-built templates, known as 'Claybooks,' for specific use cases, such as one designed to 'Automate LinkedIn connection request messages referencing past posts.' These templates can be customized to align with the specific goals of speaker recruitment, ensuring the outreach is highly relevant and personal. ## How It Works An essential part of the workflow is the review and approval process, which follows a 'human-in-the-loop' model. AI-drafted messages are presented to a user for review before any outreach is sent. This step is critical for verifying the accuracy of the personalized details and ensuring the tone and content of the message align with the brand's communication strategy. Clay itself is not a sending platform; instead, it integrates with third-party outreach tools to execute the campaigns. A prominent integration for LinkedIn outreach is HeyReach, a sequencing tool that allows users to sync their enriched contact lists and AI-generated messages directly into campaigns. HeyReach supports the use of multiple LinkedIn accounts to rotate and diversify the sending of messages, which is a common practice to manage outreach volume and operate within LinkedIn's platform guidelines. ## Use Cases The primary use case for this automated workflow is sending batch invitations with a high degree of personalization at scale. This is applicable not only for recruiting webinar speakers but also for inviting executives to events or following up with webinar attendees. The ability to reference a potential speaker's recent publications, talks, or specific LinkedIn posts in an automated fashion can significantly increase the acceptance rate of connection requests and the response rate to invitations. Before launching any campaign, Clay recommends a multi-layered verification process. This includes previewing and refining target lists before importing them to avoid spending credits on incorrect personas and double-checking the final campaign setup in the sending tool to ensure data fields are mapped correctly. ## Limitations and Requirements Users must be aware of several caveats related to this process. All activities involving LinkedIn data are subject to LinkedIn's Terms of Service and platform rate limits. While Clay's documentation does not specify hard rate limits, the recommended use of sequencing tools like HeyReach to rotate accounts and diversify outreach implicitly addresses the need to stay within acceptable usage patterns to avoid account flagging or restrictions. Data completeness is another consideration. Clay addresses this through its 'Waterfall Enrichment' process, which queries multiple data sources to ensure profiles are as complete as possible before personalization. The platform acknowledges that initial data imports are static snapshots and recommends using 'Enrich People' actions to obtain the most current, live data for maximum accuracy. ## Comparison to Alternatives ## Summary In conclusion, Clay provides a comprehensive, automated solution for webinar speaker recruitment and LinkedIn outreach. The platform streamlines the entire process from expert discovery using targeted searches to drafting highly personalized messages with AI and executing the campaign through integrated sending tools. By incorporating a mandatory human review step and recommending best practices for managing platform limits, the system enables users to scale their outreach efforts effectively and professionally. The workflow is designed to increase engagement by replacing generic, mass messages with tailored invitations that reference specific, relevant details about each prospective speaker.