Most agencies get their clients from referrals. It works until it doesn’t, and when referrals slow down, so does the agency.
This week is the outbound system we run to find local service businesses that need to show up in AI search, and to book calls with them. You can rebuild it for your agency this week, then sell it to your clients as a retainer.
One rule before the steps: AI does the research and the first draft. A person signs off every first email. That’s what keeps it from reading like spam, and it’s the answer when a client asks “is this AI?”
How the system works
- 1
Write the rules You
Who fits, in plain lines you can prove wrong: roofing contractors in four Texas metros, 25+ reviews rated 4.2 or better, a site with two or fewer service pages, no franchises. Esy keeps each version of the rules, so you can see which one won clients.
Rules v3, from 3 won and 5 lost - 2
Build the list Clay
A Google Maps search by category and city fills a Clay table. Filter columns apply your rules, and anything that fails says why.
412of 1,240fit the rules. 301 had no website: a different offer. - 3
Find a reason to write now Clay
Clay’s research agent reads each site and the latest reviews: a storm in their area last week, a service they offer with no page, a review asking for something they don’t list.
214of 412had a reason this month. - 4
Find who decides, and check the address Clay
A waterfall of email finders, cheapest first, stops at the first hit. A verification check runs after it, and catch-all domains are held instead of guessed.
141of 214reachable with a checked address. - 5
Send it to Esy Clay → Esy
Each approved row goes to os.esy.com’s Outreach, into “To reach”. Every field keeps where it came from and what it cost.
120of 141approved by us. 14 skipped, 5 on do-not-contact. - 6
Write, sign off, send Esy
Scout writes the first two lines from those facts only, and notes the source of each. You sign off every first email. Esy sends from warmed mailboxes, in their morning, a few dozen a day.
84of 120emailed so far. The rest wait for a mailbox slot. - 7
Replies and calls Esy
Replies are sorted into interested, not now and out of office, and the sequence stops for anyone who writes back. A yes books on your calendar and lands in your CRM with the thread.
11of 84replied. 1 booked a call, and signed.
How Clay plugs into Esy
A column at the end of your Clay table sends each approved row to Outreach in os.esy.com. It arrives in “To reach” with its sources.
To reach Found and checked. Not emailed yet.
- Bluebonnet RoofingAustinHail on Oct 9; no storm-repair pageClay · Prospeo · $0.29Approve
- Kestrel Roof & GutterDallasOffers metal roofs; no page for themClay · Hunter · $0.07Approve
- Lone Oak RoofingSan Antonio3 reviews ask about financingClay · Apollo · $0.15Approve
Campaign spend $52.92 of $150 · Clay data $38.40
- Esy to Clay
- When you approve one business by hand in Esy, Esy asks your Clay table to enrich it and fills in the answer when it comes back.
- Costs
- The Clay credits each row used land on the campaign’s spend, beside address checks, drafting and mailboxes, under one budget cap.
This connection is hypothetical: Esy doesn’t talk to Clay yet. Today you’d export a CSV from Clay and import it. The screen is a mock with sample rows.
What it cost us
| Clay data | $38.40 |
| Address checks | $1.90 |
| Scout’s drafting | $0.62 |
| Mailboxes, share of the month | $12.00 |
| Total | $52.92 |
| Per reply | $4.81 |
| Per client | $52.92 |
The biggest drop wasn’t the email. It was the list: 301 roofers had no website at all. They need a site before they need AI search, so they’re a different offer, and a different campaign.
For your clients
Booked calls for local service businesses
- The rules, written with the client and kept as versions
- One campaign a month: the list, the research, the emails
- Every first email signed off by your team
- A weekly report: found, emailed, replied, booked
Example prices, for a shape to start from.
- Data and sending for one campaign: about $52.92 (our numbers above).
- Your team’s time: about 20 minutes a day of sign-off and replies.
- Price it on calls booked, not hours. The hours keep shrinking; the calls are what the client values.
The weekly skill
First lines from facts
Give it the facts Clay found: their reviews, the gap on their site, the reason to write now. It writes two opening lines that use only those facts, cites each one, and flags any line it can’t source.
This week in AI marketing
Worth your time
- Clay: The tool this issue builds on.
- Outreach in Esy: Where the sign-off queue, the pipeline and the costs live.
Want the setup instead of the steps? Copy the outreach system into your Esy workspace. Open Outreach in Esy
Zev
CourseHow to Use Claude Code for the AI SolopreneurShort video lessons, from setup to a finished result. Free.Start the course 