Outreach

How to Create and Run Sequences

Sequences are multi-step outreach campaigns you build yourself — you write the messages, set the delays, and control exactly when each step fires. Unlike Smart Outreach, sequences give you full control over the copy and timing. Sequences are currently in Beta. They work, but the UI and features are still being refined. Creating a sequence 1. Go to Outreach → Sequences in the sidebar 2. Click New sequence 3. Give it a name (e.g. "Q2 cold outreach") and click Create 4. You land on the sequence detail page — this is where you build it out Adding steps Each step is one message sent at a specific time after enrollment (or after the previous step). Click Add step and configure: | Field | What it does | |---|---| | Channel | Email or LinkedIn | | LinkedIn action | (LinkedIn only) Connection request or direct message | | Delay | How many days after enrollment (or previous step) to send | | Timing anchor | Count from enrollment date, or from when the previous step was delivered | | Send time | What time of day to send (e.g. 9:00 AM in your timezone) | | Subject / Body | The message content — supports {{variables}} | Example 3-step sequence | Step | Channel | Timing | Content | |---|---|---|---| | 1 | LinkedIn invite | Day 0 | Connection request with a short note | | 2 | Email | Day 2 after step 1 | Follow-up email once connected | | 3 | LinkedIn message | Day 5 after step 2 | Brief DM to close the loop | Using variables in messages You can personalise messages with {{variable}} placeholders: | Variable | Inserts | |---|---| | {{first_name}} | Contact's first name | | {{name}} | Full name | | {{company}} | Company name | | {{title}} | Job title | | {{email}} | Email address | | {{sender_name}} | Your name | Important for LinkedIn steps: If a variable can't be resolved (e.g. the contact has no company on file), the LinkedIn step is skipped entirely rather than sending a message with {{company}} in it literally. Make sure your LinkedIn templates only use variables that your contacts have data for, or keep LinkedIn messages variable-free. Email steps have a fallback — if a variable can't resolve, AI rewrites the sentence to remove the placeholder naturally. Choosing an execution mode Sequences can run in Scout natively or delegate to an external CRM: | Mode | How it sends | When to use | |---|---|---| | Scout (default) | Sends via your connected Gmail + LinkedIn | You want everything in one place | | HubSpot | Enrolls contacts in a HubSpot sequence | You're already running HubSpot sequences | | Apollo | Enrolls in an Apollo emailer campaign | Your team uses Apollo for email | | Instantly | Adds to an Instantly campaign | You use Instantly for email volume | | Constant Contact | Adds to a Constant Contact list | You run newsletters via CC | To change the mode, open the sequence → Settings tab → select execution mode → Save settings. Stop on reply Under sequence settings, toggle Stop on reply on. When enabled, as soon as Scout detects a reply to any email in the sequence, all remaining steps for that contact are automatically cancelled. This is on by default and strongly recommended — you don't want to keep following up after someone has already responded. Enrolling contacts 1. Open your sequence 2. Click Enroll contacts 3. Pick the list you want to enroll from 4. Select contacts (or select all) 5. Click Enroll Contacts start on Step 1 immediately. Step 2 and beyond are scheduled according to the delays you set. Monitoring progress The sequence detail page has two tabs: - Contacts — one row per enrolled contact, showing their current status (active, completed, replied, cancelled) - Touchpoints — one row per individual message sent, with sent/opened/replied/failed status Pausing or cancelling an enrollment To stop a specific contact's sequence mid-run: 1. Go to the Contacts tab on the sequence 2. Find the contact → click the menu → Cancel enrollment Their pending steps are cancelled immediately. Any steps already sent remain. Frequently asked questions Can I edit steps after enrolling contacts? Yes, but changes only apply to future enrollments. Contacts already enrolled follow the steps as they were when they enrolled. What happens if Gmail isn't connected? Email steps are skipped. Connect Gmail under Account → Integrations to enable email sending. What if LinkedIn isn't connected? LinkedIn steps are skipped. Connect LinkedIn under Account → Integrations to enable LinkedIn actions. Can I reuse a sequence for multiple lists? Yes — enroll as many lists as you want. Each enrollment is tracked separately.

How Smart Outreach Works

Smart Outreach is AskScout's AI-powered outreach engine. Instead of manually writing messages and scheduling them yourself, Scout decides which channel to use, writes a personalized message for each contact, and sends it at the right time — automatically. What Smart Outreach does For each contact in a list, Scout: 1. Checks whether you have an existing LinkedIn connection with them 2. Picks the best channel (LinkedIn or email) based on that relationship 3. Writes a personalized message using the contact's name, company, title, and your campaign goal 4. Sends it — respecting daily rate limits so your accounts stay healthy All activity is tracked in the Outreach dashboard so you can see what was sent, opened, or replied to. How to launch Smart Outreach 1. Open a contact list (Contacts → Lists → [your list]) 2. Click the Smart Outreach button (sparkles/play icon in the header) 3. Fill in the campaign brief: - Goal — what you want the recipient to do (e.g. "book a 15-minute call") - Tone — how you want to sound (e.g. "warm and direct") - Lead with — let Scout choose automatically, or force LinkedIn or email first 1. Click Launch Scout begins working through the list in the background. You'll see progress update in the list view. Channel selection logic | You're already connected on LinkedIn | Sends a LinkedIn direct message | | Not connected, LinkedIn is available | Sends a LinkedIn connection request with a note | | LinkedIn isn't connected | Falls back to email | | Gmail isn't connected either | Skips the contact | To enable both channels: connect Gmail under Account → Integrations → Connect Google and LinkedIn under Account → Integrations → Connect LinkedIn. What Smart Outreach is NOT - It does not use templates with merge tags — every message is written fresh by AI from the contact's profile data - It is not a manual sequence — you don't define steps or delays. If you want multi-step campaigns you control, use Sequences instead - It does not send to contacts who have already replied Stopping Smart Outreach mid-run Go to Outreach in the sidebar. Any message with status Scheduled or Queued can be cancelled individually using the cancel (×) button. This stops that specific message from sending but doesn't affect messages already sent. To cancel everything for a list, go to the list → Smart Outreach status panel → Cancel all. Frequently asked questions Can I edit the messages before they send? Not in real time — Scout generates and queues them in the background. If you want to review and approve each message manually, use Sequences instead where you write the templates yourself. Will it send to the same contact twice? No. Smart Outreach checks the contact's outreach history before sending. If they've already been touched via Scout, they're skipped. What if a contact replies? Scout detects replies via Gmail. Once a reply is detected, no more messages are sent to that contact.

Understanding the Outreach Dashboard

The Outreach page is your unified view of every message AskScout has sent, scheduled, or queued on your behalf — across email, LinkedIn, and any other channel. Everything goes through here regardless of whether it came from Smart Outreach, a Sequence, or a one-off send from a chat. Getting there Click Outreach in the left sidebar. What you see The dashboard is a table with one row per outbound message. Each row shows: | To | Recipient name and email or LinkedIn URL | | Channel | Email, LinkedIn invite, LinkedIn message, etc. | | Status | Current state of the message (see below) | | Source | Where it came from (Sequence, Smart Outreach, Chat, etc.) | | Subject / Preview | First line of the message | | Scheduled for | When it's set to send (if not yet sent) | | Sent at | When it actually went out | | Opened | Whether the email was opened (email only) | | Replied | Whether a reply was detected | Message statuses | Queued | Waiting to be picked up for sending | | Scheduled | Will send at a specific future time | | Sending | Currently in the process of sending | | Sent | Successfully delivered | | Opened | Email was opened (tracked via pixel) | | Replied | A reply was detected via Gmail | | Failed | Sending failed — may be retried automatically | | Skipped | Permanently skipped (e.g. unresolved merge tags, contact has no email) | | Cancelled | Manually cancelled or stopped by the system | | Rate limited | Hit the daily sending cap — rescheduled for tomorrow | Filtering the dashboard Use the filter bar at the top to narrow down: - Channel — show only emails, only LinkedIn invites, only LinkedIn messages, etc. - Status — show only scheduled, failed, replied, etc. - Search — filter by recipient name or email Actions you can take on messages Cancel a scheduled message Click the × button on any row with status Scheduled or Queued. The message is cancelled and will not be sent. Edit a draft before it sends Click the pencil icon on a scheduled message to edit the subject or body before it goes out. Retry a failed message Click the retry (↺) icon on a Failed message to re-queue it. The system will attempt to send it again. View the contact Click the contact name or the link icon to open that contact's list detail page. Sources explained | Source label | Where it came from | |---|---| | Smart Outreach | Generated by Smart Outreach on a list | | Sequence | A step in an email sequence | | Chat | Sent directly from inside a Scout research chat | | Custom | A one-off message you composed manually | Reading open and reply tracking Opens are tracked via a tiny invisible image (tracking pixel) embedded in emails. When the recipient's email client loads the image, AskScout marks it as opened. Note: Many email clients (especially Apple Mail on iOS 15+) block tracking pixels or pre-load them. An "opened" signal is a positive signal but not 100% reliable. A lack of open signal doesn't necessarily mean the email wasn't read. Replies are detected via Gmail push notifications. When a reply lands in your inbox that matches an outgoing message (by thread ID or message headers), AskScout marks the original as replied and, if configured, stops the sequence for that contact. Frequently asked questions I don't see a message I expected — where is it? Check the status filter — it might be in "Failed" or "Skipped". Also check that you're not filtering by a channel that excludes it. A message shows as "Sent" but the recipient says they never got it The message left AskScout successfully. Check Gmail's Sent folder to confirm it shows there too. If it does, the issue is on the recipient's side (spam filtering, inbox rules). I have hundreds of "Rate limited" messages — what do I do? Your daily email or LinkedIn cap is lower than your campaign volume. Either reduce the number of active campaigns or wait for daily limits to reset. Rate-limited messages are automatically rescheduled and will eventually send. Can I bulk cancel all scheduled messages? Not from the dashboard directly. To cancel everything from a specific campaign: open the Sequence or contact list that launched it → cancel the enrollment/run from there. This cancels all pending steps in one action.