Outreach Sequences

Three-step follow-up cadences on top of your AI-drafted outreach

A sequence is a fixed three-step follow-up cadence on a single contact. Once you click Start sequence on a sent draft, ClearView automatically generates step 2 three days later and step 3 four days after that. Sequences auto-stop the moment a reply, bounce, or unsubscribe is detected.

Why a fixed three-step cadence

Industry data shows first-touch reply rates around 5%. A two-to-three step cadence lifts that to roughly 12–15%. ClearView ships an opinionated three-step pattern (day 0, +3, +7) instead of a per-team cadence builder so your team can start a follow-up in one click and let the system carry it.

Step 1Day 0

Initial outreach

The AI-generated draft you sent. Source of truth for the contact and the subject line that follow-ups thread on.

Step 2Day +3

Soft bump

A short, conversational follow-up that references the original subject. Generated automatically by the daily cron.

Step 3Day +7

Final touch

A break-up message offering one last call to action. After step 3 the sequence is marked completed.

Why three steps and not five

More than three follow-ups consistently shows diminishing reply rates and rising spam complaints in benchmarks. ClearView caps at three to keep deliverability and reputation high.

Starting a sequence

1

Send step 1

Open an outreach draft from the Outreach tab. Edit, copy/send, then mark it as Sent. Sequences can only start from a sent draft.

2

Click Start sequence

On the sent draft, click Start sequence. ClearView records the cadence and schedules step 2 for three days later.

3

Review step 2 when it appears

Three days after step 1's sent timestamp, ClearView generates the step-2 draft and surfaces it in your Outreach queue. Edit, send, mark sent. Step 3 will be generated four days after that.

4

Stop, complete, or let it run

If a reply arrives, the sequence auto-stops. If you change your mind, click Stop on the sequence card. After step 3 is sent, the sequence is marked completed.

Auto-stop rules

A sequence stops as soon as ClearView detects any of these signals. Stops are idempotent — replying to step 2 prevents step 3 from ever being generated.

Reply detected

When you click Mark replied on any draft in the sequence, the cadence is stopped with stoppedReason: "reply". If a reply is classified as a bounce or unsubscribe, the email is auto-added to the suppression list.

Manual stop

Hit Stop on the sequence card in the Outreach tab. The next step will not be generated. Stops cannot be undone — start a fresh sequence on a new draft if you change your mind.

Suppression list match

Before generating each step, ClearView checks the contact's email against your team's suppression list. A match prevents the next step from being generated.

Suppression list

The suppression list tells ClearView which emails or domains it should never draft outreach for — ever. Open it from Outreach > Suppressions.

Email-level suppression

Add a single email address. ClearView matches case-insensitively against the contact's primary email.

Domain-level suppression

Add a domain (e.g. acme.com) to suppress every contact at that company. Useful for customers, partners, and competitors you do not want to be drafted into outreach.

Suppression sources tracked on each row: manual, bounce, unsubscribe, spam_complaint, imported.

Bulk-generate respects suppression

When you bulk-generate drafts for an audience, ClearView consults the suppression list before creating any Contact rows. Suppressed emails and domains are silently skipped — you will see fewer drafts than expected, which is by design.

Reply tracking

Today, replies are tracked manually: hit Mark replied on the draft when a reply lands in your inbox. ClearView records a row in the OutreachReply table tied to that draft and stops the parent sequence (if any).

When you mark a reply, you can classify it as one of:

  • positive — engaged, ready for a real conversation
  • neutral — reply but not a buying signal
  • bounce — auto-added to suppression with reason bounce
  • unsubscribe — auto-added to suppression with reason unsubscribe
  • spam_complaint — auto-added to suppression and tagged for ops review

Inbound automation coming

BCC-dropbox and Postmark inbound webhook detection will populate replies automatically in a future release. Suppression behavior will not change — auto-detected bounces and unsubscribes will still flow into the same suppression list.

Cadence and timing

A daily cron job advances every active sequence:

Schedule: once per day, ~13:00 UTC

On each run the cron looks for sequences whose prior step's sentAt is older than the configured gap (3 days for step 2, 7 days total for step 3) and generates the next draft. It also stops any sequence whose prior step now shows a reply.

Steps appear in your Outreach queue once the cron has materialized them — ClearView never auto-sends. You always review and click Send.

Plan availability

Outreach sequences are available on plans that include AI-generated outreach drafts:

  • Growth — 250 AI regenerations / month
  • Pro — 1,000 AI regenerations / month
  • Partner — 3,000 AI regenerations / month

Free and Starter plans can use sequences' suppression list and manual reply tracking, but cannot generate drafts. Add-on regeneration packs are available on every paid plan.

Common questions

Can I send sequences automatically?

No — ClearView never auto-sends. Each step appears in your Outreach queue and you click Send (or copy/paste into your email tool). This protects deliverability and ensures every touch passes a human review.

Can I customize the 3/+3/+7 cadence?

Not in the current release. The cadence is fixed by design. Per-team cadence configuration is on the roadmap.

What happens if I miss sending step 2 on time?

The step-2 draft sits in your Outreach queue until you send it. Step 3 is scheduled relative to step 2's actual sentAt, so the cadence shifts forward with you. The sequence will not expire on its own.

Why am I seeing fewer drafts than I expected?

Most often this is the suppression list silently filtering bulk generation. Open Outreach > Suppressions and review the list. You can also temporarily disable a suppression by deleting it.

Can I run multiple sequences on the same contact?

No — only one active sequence per contact at a time. If the contact replies and you stop the sequence, you can start a fresh one later from a new draft.