---
title: ABM Automation Pipeline — Clay + Custom Script
type: article
created: '2026-04-05'
updated: '2026-04-05'
source_docs:
- raw/2026-02-16-monday-call-w-melissa-122659240.md
tags:
- abm
- automation
- clay
- hubspot
- outbound-sales
- bluepoint
- citrus
- papertube
- aviary
layer: 2
client_source: null
industry_context: null
transferable: true
---

# ABM Automation Pipeline — Clay + Custom Script

## Overview

Asymmetric runs highly personalized Account-Based Marketing (ABM) campaigns at scale by combining Clay for email/contact discovery with a custom automation script for sending. The goal is to deliver individually tailored, pain-point-focused outreach to primary targets across 200+ companies per client — without requiring manual copy-paste effort from the sales rep for each send.

This approach was first built out for [[clients/bluepoint/index|Bluepoint]] and is being extended to [[clients/citrus/index|Citrus]], [[clients/papertube/index|PaperTube]], and [[clients/aviary/index|Aviary]].

---

## Research Foundation

Before any email is written, deep company research is generated for every target account. Each research document includes:

- Company overview (website, HQ, founding date, size, business model)
- Leadership and buying committee members
- **Pain point hypothesis** — specific friction points relevant to the client's product/service
- **Primary target** — the single best first contact, with rationale
- **Secondary target** — fallback if primary is unresponsive
- **Executive sponsor** — for later-stage engagement
- Coverage gaps (contacts still needed)
- Competitive context
- Personalization hooks — specific talking points tailored to the account

This level of detail is generated for every company in the target list (200+ per client engagement).

---

## Email Strategy Documents

Alongside the research doc, each account gets a corresponding **strategy document** containing the full multi-touch email sequence. Each email in the sequence is written specifically for the primary target at that company — referencing their pain points, role, and context.

### Sequence Structure (~10 emails over several weeks)

| Step | Type | Notes |
|------|------|-------|
| 1 | Email — Initial outreach | Pain-point focused, personalized to primary target |
| 2 | Email — Follow-up | Revenue case / value framing |
| 3 | Task — LinkedIn connection | Manual task assigned to sales rep (cannot be automated) |
| 4 | Email — Direct/blunt | Acknowledges their focus area, asks for conversation |
| 5 | Email — Pain Point Deep Dive | Deeper engagement on specific friction |
| … | Additional emails | Continued nurture through the sequence |

LinkedIn connection requests are surfaced as tasks for the sales rep (Mike) because platform restrictions prevent automation.

---

## Automation Script

The custom script eliminates the manual bottleneck of copy-pasting individual emails. Previously, the sales rep had to open each strategy document, copy the day's email for each of 50 primary targets, and send them one by one.

**With the script:**
- All emails due to go out on a given day are queued automatically
- The rep hits send once; all emails dispatch
- Each send is logged in **HubSpot** as a sent activity against the contact record

This preserves full CRM visibility while removing the per-email manual effort.

---

## Targeting Logic

A key design decision is that **only the primary target receives the personalized sequence**. Sending the same highly personalized email to multiple people at the same company risks exposure — if two colleagues compare inboxes and see identical "personalized" messages, it signals automation and damages credibility.

### Progression Rules

1. **Primary target** receives the full ~10-email sequence
2. If no response after the sequence completes → shift to **secondary target**
3. If a primary target engages at any point → **pull them from the sequence** and hand off to direct sales follow-up

Tier 2 and Tier 3 targets (beyond primary/secondary) receive lighter, more templated outreach — still personalized where possible, but not the full bespoke sequence.

---

## Active Client Rollouts

| Client | Status | Target Count |
|--------|--------|-------------|
| [[clients/bluepoint/index\|Bluepoint]] | First build; automation script in progress | 200+ |
| [[clients/citrus/index\|Citrus]] | In progress | Several hundred |
| [[clients/papertube/index\|PaperTube]] | In progress | TBD |
| [[clients/aviary/index\|Aviary]] | Started | TBD |
| Quora | Planned; not yet started | — |

---

## Tooling Summary

| Tool | Role |
|------|------|
| **Clay** | Contact and email address discovery |
| **Custom script** | Automated email dispatch, sequencing |
| **HubSpot** | CRM logging of all sent emails and engagement |
| **LinkedIn** | Manual connection tasks (rep-executed) |

---

## Related

- [[knowledge/outbound-sales/abm-research-methodology|ABM Research Methodology]]
- [[knowledge/client-audits/automated-audit-pipeline|Automated Client Audit Pipeline]]
- [[clients/bluepoint/index|Bluepoint]]
- [[meetings/2026-02-16-monday-call-melissa|Monday Call w/ Melissa — 2026-02-16]]