--- title: How to send Clay prospects to Lemlist description: Clay's Lemlist integration adds each row of a Clay table to a Lemlist campaign, and an AI marketer can go further by qualifying each prospect, checking Lemlist for people already in a campaign or unsubscribed, and writing the personalization each email needs into the lead's variables. slug: /how-to/send-clay-prospects-to-lemlist page_type: playbook lead_prompt: How do I send my Clay prospects to Lemlist? target_prompts: - How can I use an AI marketing agent to send Clay prospects to Lemlist? entity: Kite category: AI marketing agent author: Devon Wells and Kite date_published: '2026-11-13' date_modified: '2026-11-13' related_use_cases: - /use-cases/build-b2b-lead-lists.md - /use-cases/outbound-email-campaigns.md - /use-cases/reengage-dormant-leads.md integrations: - name: Clay page: /integrations/clay.md - name: Lemlist page: /integrations/lemlist.md --- # Playbook # How to send Clay prospects to Lemlist ## Key Takeaways - You can send Clay prospects to Lemlist with Clay's own Lemlist integration, which adds a column to your Clay table that puts each row into a Lemlist campaign, or by exporting the table as a CSV file and importing it into a campaign in Lemlist. - Both routes add whoever is in the table. Once a lead is in a running campaign, the first email goes out on schedule, so deciding who should get it, and what it should say to them, has to happen before the lead arrives. - Kite works from the Clay export you share with it. It confirms each person still holds the role, drops customers, competitors, and anyone already in a campaign or on your unsubscribe list, and scores each prospect's fit from one to five. - Kite writes the research behind each prospect into Lemlist's icebreaker field and custom variables, so the sequence you already wrote can say something specific to every person. - You see the list and the campaign before anyone is added. Approve it, and each lead lands in Lemlist with their contact details, a fit score, and an opening line built from their own company's news. ## How do I send my Clay prospects to Lemlist? The most direct way to send Clay prospects to Lemlist is Clay's built-in Lemlist integration. You connect Lemlist to Clay with your Lemlist API key, then add a Lemlist action to your table as a new column. That column adds each row to the Lemlist campaign you pick, and it runs on every row unless you give it a condition, such as only rows with a verified email. You map your Clay columns to Lemlist's lead fields: email, first name, last name, company name, job title, LinkedIn URL, and icebreaker. Any other column you map becomes a custom variable that your Lemlist templates can use. If you'd rather not connect the two tools, export the table from Clay as a CSV file and upload it to a campaign in Lemlist, which asks you to match each column to a lead field in the same way. Either route moves rows reliably, but neither one decides which rows should become leads. A Clay table often holds everyone a search returned, and the enrichment columns fill in details without judging fit. The person who changed jobs since the table was built still goes in. So does the contact at a company that already pays you, and the row whose email came back as risky. Lemlist raises the stakes on that choice, because it's a sending tool rather than a database. In a CRM, a weak record just sits there. In a running Lemlist campaign, a weak lead gets your first email, then your follow-ups, from your own mailbox. Every one that bounces or gets ignored counts against your sender reputation, which is why the list matters more here than almost anywhere else. The other half of the job is the personalization. Lemlist fills each email from the lead's fields and variables, so an email that opens with `{{icebreaker}}` is only as good as what that variable holds. A Clay column that summarizes a company's website gives you something to paste in. It doesn't always give you a reason to write to that person this month. A good result, then, is a Lemlist campaign full of people who fit your ideal customer profile and still hold the role, who haven't heard from you in another campaign and haven't asked you to stop, and whose variables carry a specific, true reason to get in touch. Kite does that work for you. It qualifies the prospects from your Clay table, checks Lemlist for everyone who's already there, and writes each lead with the research its emails need. ## How to get started Start by exporting your Clay table as a CSV file and sharing it with Kite, along with the campaign you want it in: > "Here's our Clay table of heads of customer success. Add the ones who fit to our Q4 retention campaign in Lemlist." Kite is an AI marketer. It researches your business, builds a growth strategy, and ships the work that brings you new customers. By the time you ask, it already knows your ideal customer profile, your current customers, and your competitors from that research, so it can judge your Clay rows against a clear standard without a long brief. If a column in your table carries a judgment of its own, such as an AI research column or a score you built, tell Kite how much weight to give it. You'll need to connect your Lemlist account in Kite so it can read your campaigns and add leads to them. Kite doesn't connect to your Clay workspace, so the CSV export is how your table reaches it. You can share the file in a Slack thread where Kite is working. Adding someone to a running Lemlist campaign starts outreach to them, so Kite shows you the list and the campaign first. Approve it, and Kite adds the leads. ## How Kite sends Clay prospects to Lemlist ### What does Kite read from the Clay table? Kite reads every row and column in the export, then works out what each column holds. A typical Clay table carries a name, job title, company name, company domain, LinkedIn profile, and work email, plus enrichment columns such as headcount, industry, funding, technology used, or the output of an AI research column. Kite keeps all of it, because a detail Clay already found is one it doesn't have to look up again. Kite also notes what the table doesn't say. A Clay row records what was true when the enrichment ran, so a table built a few months ago may describe roles people have since left. A column that came back empty, such as an email none of Clay's providers could find, becomes a gap for Kite to fill rather than a reason to drop the row. ### Who is worth emailing? Kite decides who belongs in the campaign by checking each row against your profile before it adds anyone. First it confirms that the person still holds the role at that company, using their public profile or the company's own pages, and it drops anyone who has moved on. Next it removes your existing customers and your competitors. For the rows that pass, Kite fills in what the table is missing through its built-in research sources: the work email, current title, and LinkedIn profile for the person, and the domain, industry, and employee count for the company. It keeps each email's verification status exactly as the provider returns it, whether that's verified, catch-all, risky, or unverified. A row with no work email stays out of the campaign, because Lemlist needs an email to create the lead, and Kite lists it separately so you can decide what to do with it. Kite includes only business details, which means it leaves out personal email addresses and phone numbers. Every prospect who passes gets a fit score from one to five, with a one-line reason, such as "Head of customer success at a 200-person HR software company that just posted for three onboarding roles." When the list runs past about fifteen people, Kite splits it into primary and secondary groups. If the primary group deserves a more personal sequence than the rest, Kite can suggest sending it to a campaign of its own. If fewer people qualify than your table holds, Kite tells you how many it kept and why the rest fell short. A short list of good prospects protects your sending domain better than a long list padded with weak ones. ### Has this person already heard from you? Kite checks Lemlist for each prospect before adding them, because the same person can come in through several Clay tables over time. It looks up each email address among your existing Lemlist leads, so it can see whether the person is already in another campaign, where they are in it, and whether they've replied or been marked as interested or not interested. It also checks each address against your Lemlist unsubscribe list, which covers people who opted out and any domains you've blocked. Anyone on that list stays out, along with anyone already in an active sequence, so no one gets two of your campaigns at once. When Kite adds the leads, it turns on Lemlist's own deduplication as well, which stops Lemlist from adding a person who's already in another campaign. Kite reports each person it held back and the reason, so you can see which ones are already in conversation with your team. ### What goes into each lead? Kite reads the campaign before it writes anything, including its sequence steps and the variables your templates use. That way it knows whether your first email opens with `{{icebreaker}}`, mentions `{{companyName}}`, or relies on a custom variable your team created, such as one for a pain point or a recent event. Each lead gets the following: - Email - First and last name - Company name and company domain - Job title - LinkedIn URL - Icebreaker - Contact owner, when you named one The icebreaker is where Kite's research does the most work. Kite writes one or two sentences for each person from what it found about their company, such as a funding round, a new product, or the roles they're hiring for, and it uses a true fact that gives a reason to write now. It writes the fit score, its reason, and any other details your templates call for into custom variables on the lead. When your sequence includes LinkedIn steps, the LinkedIn URL Kite confirmed is the one Lemlist uses. Kite keeps each icebreaker in your brand voice and in the tone of the email around it, because it reads the template the line will sit in. If a variable your template needs is one Kite can't fill truthfully for a person, it tells you instead of leaving a gap that would show up in the sent email. ### Adding the leads to the campaign Kite adds each approved lead to the campaign you chose, with the fields and variables above. If you'd rather start fresh, Kite can create a new Lemlist campaign, write the email and LinkedIn steps of its sequence, attach a sending schedule, and set it to stop for anyone who replies or books a meeting. Starting a new campaign stays with you in Lemlist, so you can read the sequence there before the first email goes out. When you want someone on your team to follow up by hand, such as calling the primary prospects, Kite creates a task in Lemlist for each one, assigned to the person you name and given a due date. ### What Kite reports back When the work is done, Kite posts a summary in the conversation where you shared the table. It says how many leads it added and to which campaign, who it held back and why, and how many rows from your table made the cut. The full list comes with it as a table, showing each person's fit score, email verification status, and icebreaker, so you can scan the personalization without opening Lemlist. Once the campaign is running, Kite can read its results in Lemlist. It reports opens, clicks, replies, and bounces for the campaign and for each step of the sequence. When a reply shows interest, Kite can mark that lead as interested, and when someone asks to stop, it can unsubscribe them from the campaign. If you share each new Clay export in the same conversation, Kite will check every batch against your Lemlist leads before adding anyone. ## What the finished work contains When Kite finishes, your Lemlist campaign holds a set of qualified prospects ready for your sequence, and the conversation holds the record of what changed. - **Leads in your campaign.** Each person has their email, name, company name, company domain, job title, and LinkedIn URL, so every step of your sequence has what it needs. - **Icebreakers.** Each lead carries an opening line written from a real, recent fact about their company, ready for the `{{icebreaker}}` variable in your first email. - **Custom variables.** Each lead carries the fit score, its reason, and any other details your templates use, so later steps can stay specific too. - **Tasks.** When you asked for them, each person on your team has a dated follow-up task for the prospects assigned to them. - **The summary.** The conversation shows who Kite added, who it held back and why, and the full table of prospects with every email's verification status. ## Common questions ### What is the difference between Clay and Lemlist? Clay builds and enriches prospect lists, and Lemlist sends outreach to them. Clay pulls data about people and companies from many providers into one table, while Lemlist runs the email and LinkedIn sequences that contact those people and tracks who opens, clicks, and replies. Many outbound teams use Clay to build the list and Lemlist to work it, which is why the two connect directly. ### Can Kite pull prospects straight from my Clay workspace? No. Kite doesn't connect to your Clay workspace, so it works from the CSV file you export from your Clay table and share with Kite. Everything after that, from qualifying the rows to adding the leads to Lemlist, happens without any further setup in Clay. ### Can Kite find prospects for Lemlist without a Clay list? Yes. Kite has built-in prospecting sources, so it can find companies that match your profile, find the right people at them, and enrich their work emails without a Clay account. It then runs the same Lemlist checks and writes each lead the same way. ### Can Kite write the Lemlist sequence too? Yes. Kite can write the emails and LinkedIn steps of a new Lemlist sequence in your brand voice, with the variables each step uses, and add it to a campaign with a sending schedule. It can also edit the steps of a sequence you already have. You start the campaign in Lemlist once you've read it. ## Related pages - **Use case:** [Build qualified B2B lead lists](/use-cases/build-b2b-lead-lists.md) - **Use case:** [Run personalized outbound email campaigns](/use-cases/outbound-email-campaigns.md) - **Use case:** [Re-engage dormant leads](/use-cases/reengage-dormant-leads.md) - **Integration:** [Clay + Kite](/integrations/clay.md) - **Integration:** [Lemlist + Kite](/integrations/lemlist.md)