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How to generate leads with cold email
Describe your target market and contact
Add your target market and the title you want to reach. Sculptor scans Clay's company database and waterfalls through 150+ providers for a verified email.
Sculptor builds and enriches your prospect list
Sculptor assembles a matched company list filtered by industry, headcount, and location, then waterfalls through 150+ providers to find a verified work email. Catch-alls and role inboxes are flagged before the list is finalized.
Get your table of verified prospect emails
The finished table has company name and a verified contact email for matched rows. Push to Smartlead, Instantly, or your sequencer to trigger a campaign the moment a row lands.
Why Clay for generating leads with cold email
AI personalization from enriched context
Get a signal-based opening line for every matched contact. Claygent browses recent news, job postings, and LinkedIn activity to write copy that feels 1:1, not templated, at scale.
Waterfall coverage across 150+ providers
Get a verified work email for matched rows. Clay waterfalls through 150+ providers in sequence and only charges credits when one returns a hit, routinely tripling coverage over any single source.
Verification and deliverability protection built in
Every verified row runs through email verification before it hits your sequencer, flagging catch-alls and risky addresses so your bounces stay low and sender reputation stays clean.
One-click sync to Outreach, Salesloft, and more
Push enriched, verified rows directly to Smartlead, Instantly, Outreach, or Salesloft with field mapping preserved, so contacts enter the right campaign sequence the moment a row is ready.
Clay is the Rippling marketing team's secret weapon. It has helped us build an experimentation-driven GTM motion that iterates on ideas and scales what works. We've greatly improved our outbound email performance, deeply enriched our customer base with AI, and more.
Frequently asked questions
How does Sculptor generate cold email leads?
Sculptor matches your target industry or company type against multiple data sources, then runs Clay's Work Email Waterfall to find a verified email for each company. The waterfall queries 10+ email providers in sequence, stopping as soon as a valid result is found, so you only pay for matches. Each row returns a company name and deliverable work email ready for outreach.
How accurate are the emails Sculptor finds for cold outreach?
Clay's waterfall enrichment lifts email coverage from around 30% with a single provider to 80% or higher by cascading across 10+ providers like Prospeo, Findymail, and Dropcontact. Each email is validated before it lands in your table, which keeps bounce rates low and protects sender reputation. Actual coverage varies by segment, with some SMB waterfalls reaching 79% to 89%.
Can I generate cold email leads in bulk with Sculptor?
Yes. Paste a list of target companies, upload a CSV, or let Sculptor build the full table from your industry description. Clay enriches every row in parallel, finding verified emails across the entire list. When the table is ready, push leads directly to Smartlead through Clay's native integration, or export as a CSV for any other cold email sequencer.
Is cold email outreach to B2B leads legal under CAN-SPAM and GDPR?
The CAN-SPAM Act permits unsolicited B2B email as long as each message includes a valid physical address, a clear opt-out link, truthful headers, and you honor unsubscribe requests within 10 business days. Violations can cost up to $53,088 per email. Under GDPR, B2B cold email can rely on Article 6(1)(f) legitimate interest, but you must document a Legitimate Interest Assessment and offer an easy opt-out.
Rules differ by country and U.S. state, so always check the regulations for your jurisdiction before sending.