Outreach

Outreach reaches leads already in your database in one push, including reactivating cold or lost ones. You pick who to reach (everyone, one of your smart lists, or a group you describe to Gene), let Gene draft the message or pick an HTML template or a Listing Newsletter, add follow-ups if you want them, and start.

It is the Outbound tab in Flows (Flows > Outbound), and runs as three short steps: Who, Message, Start.

Overview#

The page lists the outreach you have launched, with a New outreach button. With nothing launched yet it opens straight into the three steps.

1. Who: Everyone, A Smart List, or Ask Gene.
2. Message: pick the kind of message (Free text, HTML template or Listing Newsletter). For free text Gene drafts the first message for that audience. Edit it, have Gene rewrite it, pick the channel, and add follow-ups for leads who stay quiet.
3. Start: see how many leads can be reached right now (the anti-spam gate and send cap are already applied to that count) and start.

The audiences#

There are three choices:

To reach only Lost, Abandoned or quiet leads, use a smart list with those rules, or describe them to Ask Gene.

Ask Gene opens a popup headed "Ask Gene" ("Say who you want to reach. Gene turns it into a smart list you can reuse."). It works like New smart list on Contacts: Gene reads your words into rules, you see the rules and how many contacts match, and you can adjust them. Use this audience saves it as a smart list shared with your workspace, so it shows as a tab on Contacts and you can reuse or edit it there.

A smart list audience counts and sends to the contacts the list matches, by the same rules its tab uses. The usual protections still apply on top: deleted contacts are left out, nobody gets more than two outreach messages, and anyone who has opted out or is on Do not contact is skipped when the message goes out, even if the switch went on after the campaign started. A deal lost with the reason Asked not to be contacted turns Do not contact on, so those leads are always left out. So the count on Start can be lower than the count on the list's tab. If the list is deleted before you start, Start refuses with "The smart list this campaign targets no longer exists".

Outreach for a contact import#

A contact import can get its own outreach too. When you import a CSV and choose Write an outreach for this import, the import does not fire the source's welcome flow.

• Instead, Outbound opens on an outreach for exactly the contacts in that file.
• Gene's draft is written as a touch-base to people who reached out before, not a welcome.
• Nothing is sent until you start it, and Start stays locked until the import has finished.
• Gene records the import on each contact in the file rather than adding a tag, so your tags stay yours.
• To find those people again later, use the Import filter on Contacts.

Every screen of it is described under Outreach for one import.

What you can do#

• New outreach: Starts the three steps.
• Select an audience: Click Everyone on Who. Gene starts drafting right away and you land on Message.
• A Smart List: Opens "Pick a smart list", your Contacts smart lists with how many contacts each matches now. Click one to use it as the audience. With no lists yet it says so and links to Contacts.
• Ask Gene: Describe who you want to reach. Gene makes it a new smart list, and Use this audience takes you to Message with it.
• Message type: Free text (the default), HTML template (email only) or Listing Newsletter. Shown when your workspace can send email.
• Gene's draft: Edit it directly in the box.
• Regenerate: Rewrites the draft from scratch for the selected audience.
• Rewrite instruction: A text box to steer a rewrite ("mention the new Miami tower"). Press Enter or the Rewrite button to apply.
• Channel: a dropdown of WhatsApp or Email, whichever your workspace can send on. An HTML template is always an email, so it has no channel dropdown.
  • Email adds a subject (required), a preview line and an optional HTML template, with a preview of the email as it lands.
  • A plain email (no HTML template) goes out with a greeting ("Hi" and the first name) and a sign-off from your assistant's name and company, added only when your message has none. An HTML template is sent as you laid it out.
  • An HTML template can put {{contact_id}} (also written {{contact.id}}) in its links. Each email fills it with that contact's Gene id, so your own click tracker can tell who clicked.
  • Every email ends with an Unsubscribe link, shown in the preview. Anyone who clicks it gets no more campaign, newsletter, nurturing, reactivation or follow-up emails from your workspace. Replies to their own messages and booking emails still go out.
  • WhatsApp adds an optional header, footer and buttons, with a preview of the message.
• Personalize: First name, Last name, Email and Phone chips insert a variable. Anything else typed as {{...}} is flagged and blocks Continue, because it would send as typed.
  • Wording choices written as {Hi|Hey|Hello} send as one option per lead, never with the braces.
  • By email, Add spintax under the message (and under each email follow-up) writes those choices for you, keeping merge tags and links as written, with Preview and Undo. See Write the sequence.
• Add follow-up: A later message, sent only to leads who have not replied, after the number of days you set (1 to 90). Each follow-up has its own message and channel.
• Start, N leads: Sends to the eligible leads on the next run. Reads "No one to reach" when nobody is eligible.
• Listing Newsletter: Gene writes an email from your listings, you review it in the newsletter editor, then send it to the audience you picked. See Listing Newsletter.
• Launched outreach: Each row shows the name, channels, who it goes to (Everyone or the smart list's name) and status, and opens a detail page with sent and replied stats, plus Pause, Resume and Cancel while it is running, or Send campaign while it is still a draft.

Popups and drawers#

Outbound has these dialogs. "Pick a smart list" opens from the A Smart List tile, and "Ask Gene" from the Ask Gene tile (see The audiences). "Who should get it?" opens from Change on a draft and offers the same three choices. "Set up email sending first", shown when an email step is started before the workspace has an email sending identity. Open email settings takes you there.

On a draft's detail page, Send campaign opens "Send this campaign?" ("It goes to N contacts, starting on the next run. Unsubscribed contacts are skipped.") with Send campaign and Not yet.

On an outreach's detail page, Cancel opens "Cancel this campaign?" ("Cancelling is final: remaining sends stop and the campaign cannot be resumed.") with Cancel campaign and Keep running.

Tips#

• The count on Start already respects the spam guardrail, so a start never sends to more than the number shown.
• Follow-ups stop for anyone who replies, so a short sequence of two or three messages is safe to set up front.
• Whoever replies to an email campaign and is not on a pipeline yet is placed on your sales pipeline's Qualification stage, even when Gene is off for them. See Automatic stage moves.
• Gene sends outreach without dashes between clauses, even ones you typed into the message: a " - " or "—" between two thoughts goes out as a comma or a full stop. Hyphens inside words, numbers and links are kept. See No dashes in what Gene sends.
• For re-engaging Lost or Abandoned leads specifically, see Reactivation.

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Details#

Every screen of Outbound, with its exact wording, for when you need to look something up. Outbound has no sub-tabs.

Outbound#

Flows > Outbound is headed "Your database", with no subtitle. It opens on the list of launched outreach and Listing Newsletter drafts, or straight into the three-step wizard when there is none of either yet.

Launched outreach#

• New outreach (top right): opens the wizard.
• One row per launched outreach: its name ("Outreach: Everyone", "Outreach: <smart list name>", or "Outreach: <file>" for an import), its channels and who it goes to ("Email · Everyone", "WhatsApp · <smart list name>"), and a status badge (Draft, Scheduled, Active, Paused, Completed, Cancelled). Outreach made before the three choices shows its old audience, such as "Everyone Lost".
• Listing Newsletter drafts are listed above them ("Email · Listing Newsletter", Draft) and open in the newsletter editor. A sent Listing Newsletter is a row of its own, named "Listing Newsletter: <subject>".
• A push of one property from the Properties page or the AI sidebar (Push this project) is listed here too, named after the project, for example "Push: Sobha Hartland".
• Clicking a row opens its detail page with the sent, delivered, replied and failed stats.
• A campaign still in Draft (for example one moved across from Gene 2.0) shows "Goes to <audience>" (the smart list's name is marked Smart List) with a Change button, then "Audience · N contacts when sent", counted with the same rules sending uses (opted-out, Do not contact and spam contacts left out), and a Send campaign button. Change opens "Who should get it?" with Everyone, A Smart List and Ask Gene, and the count follows. Only a draft can change who it goes to. After you confirm, it sends on the next run and shows its enrolled audience instead. A list of any size is enrolled in full.
• Each email step sent as an HTML template shows the email itself, as it lands, with the merge tags filled in for a sample lead, the same preview the Template library gives. A plain email step shows its text.
• A campaign whose emails a person wrote, like a Listing Newsletter or a Gene 2.0 email campaign, also goes to contacts whose Gene AI is switched off, since that switch stops Gene talking on its own. Unsubscribes and Do not contact still apply.
• Analytics, Outreach (/analytics?tab=outreach), lists every outreach by channel with recipients, sent, delivered, opened (email) or read (WhatsApp), replied and reply rate, plus bounced and unsubscribed for email. Click one there to see it step by step.
• For email, Analytics, Emails by flow, also shows how many were delivered, opened and bounced, next to your other flows. Each email in a lead's conversation shows Sent, then Delivered (or Failed when it bounces) once the receiving mail server reports back. Email sent from your own mailboxes gets no such report, so it stays at Sent.
• Pause (on an active outreach) stops its sending, follow-up messages included, within a few minutes (anything already going out finishes). Resume carries on where it stopped, with every lead still in it.
• Cancel (on an active or paused outreach) asks you to confirm, then stops the rest of its messages for good. A cancelled outreach cannot be resumed.
• The same three buttons work on a project push.

Wizard: Who, Message, Start#

A step rail runs across the top. The X goes back to the list.

Who#

"Who should hear from you?" Three tiles (see The audiences): Everyone, A Smart List and Ask Gene ("Describe who you want to reach"), with no counts. Everyone moves straight to Message, with Gene writing the draft. Ask Gene opens the "Ask Gene" popup and moves on once Use this audience has saved the list. A Smart List first opens "Pick a smart list": "The number is how many contacts the list matches now. Anyone messaged twice already is left out when you start, and anyone who opted out is skipped." Each row is a list's name and its count; clicking one moves to Message.

Message#

"What does Gene say?"

• Message type: Free text, HTML template, Listing Newsletter, as pills at the top. HTML template and Listing Newsletter only show when the workspace can send email, and Listing Newsletter only where it is on for the workspace and not on an import's outreach. Picking HTML template switches the channel to Email; picking a template from the library makes it an HTML template.
• Channel (no label): a dropdown of the channels the workspace can send on (WhatsApp, Email). Switching to Email redrafts while the box still holds Gene's untouched draft. Not shown for an HTML template.
• Regenerate: Redraws the draft for the selected audience.
• Email only: subject (required), inbox preview line and an optional HTML template, plus a preview of the email as it lands.
• The message box ("Gene is writing..." while drafting).
• Personalize chips: First name, Last name, Email, Phone. Any other {{...}} is flagged as not a real variable and blocks Continue.
• Email only: Add spintax under the message box, and under each follow-up sent by email, adds wording choices like {Hi|Hello} so each lead gets slightly different words.
• WhatsApp only: header (text or a file), footer and buttons, plus a preview of the message as it lands. Meta's limits are checked as you type.
• Rewrite instruction ("Tell Gene how to change it (e.g. mention the new Miami tower)") plus a Rewrite button (Enter also applies).
• Add follow-up: each follow-up has "if no reply after N days" (1 to 90, 3 by default), its own message and its own channel. Follow-ups only go to leads who have not replied.
• Back and Continue.

With Listing Newsletter picked, the box is replaced by one card: "Listing Newsletter. Gene writes it from your listings. You review it, then send it to <audience>." Write it starts a new Listing Newsletter for that audience and opens it in the editor. Under it, "Or carry on with a draft" lists your drafts with when they were last edited; opening one points it at the audience picked here. Back returns to Who.

Start#

"Ready to start". It shows:

• "One message" or "One message and N follow-ups"
• the channel
• the audience with its live count: "N leads can be reached right now, spam limits already applied", or "Nobody is eligible right now. Leads become eligible 14 days after going quiet, and nobody is messaged more than twice."
• the note that Gene spaces sends and never messages someone who opted out or already replied

Buttons: Back, and Start, N leads (reads "No one to reach" when nobody is eligible).

After starting, a toast says "Outreach launched" (or "Sequence launched" with follow-ups), "Gene will message eligible leads on the next run."

An email step with no sending identity set up opens "Set up email sending first" (see Popups and drawers).

Outreach for one import#

Opened by the CSV import's Write an outreach for this import choice (see CSV import flow), or from the import's progress card.

The heading reads "Outreach for this import", with the line "Only the contacts from <file>." under it. Gene drafts it as a touch-base to people who reached out before, not a welcome, and nothing is sent until you start it.

• It opens on Message with the audience fixed to that file's contacts ("Everyone from <file>"), so there is no Back to Who.
• The import records itself on every contact it created or matched, and the outreach targets that import by its id, not by a tag.
• While the import is still running, Start stays locked: "The import is still running. Start unlocks once every contact is in."