How to Automate Deep Lead Research with Clay

Every founder and marketer knows the pain of manual lead research. You find a list of potential clients, but then you spend hours checking their websites, finding their emails, and looking for a specific ‘reason’ to reach out. Clay changes this by turning your spreadsheet into a living research assistant that does the heavy lifting for you.

Step 1: Import Your Basic Lead List

Start by importing a list of LinkedIn profiles or company URLs into a new Clay table. If you don’t have a list yet, you can use Clay’s built-in ‘Find People’ search to build a targeted list from scratch based on specific job titles, locations, or industry keywords.

Step 2: Set Up an Enrichment Waterfall

Instead of relying on just one data provider, Clay uses a feature called ‘Waterfalls.’ You can set it up to check one service for an email address (like Hunter.io), and if it fails to find it, Clay automatically checks a second or third service (like Apollo or Dropcontact). This ensures you get verified contact info without manual searching.

Step 3: Use Claygent for Custom AI Research

This is the most powerful part of the tool. Use ‘Claygent’ (Clay’s AI agent) to visit a prospect’s company website or LinkedIn page with a specific mission. For example, you can tell it: ‘Look at their career page and tell me if they are currently hiring for a Head of Marketing.’ Claygent will scrape the site and summarize the finding in a new column in your sheet.

Step 4: Push Data to Your CRM or Email Tool

Once your table is filled with verified emails and personalized research notes, use the one-click integration to push the data directly into HubSpot, Salesforce, or your cold email platform like Instantly or Lemlist. You now have a highly personalized list ready for outreach without spending all day on Google.