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How to Use OpenAI to Write Cold Emails from Scratch with Clay

Author

Author

Eric Nowoslawski

Date

Apr 25, 2026

Effective cold emails are critical for any business, but they've been extremely time-consuming to write. Until now. Instead of spending hours reading people bios and company websites, you can use OpenAI with Clay to quickly mass personalize your email outreach with the click of a few buttons. In this post, we'll show you how to use OpenAI to write personalized outreach emails from scratch based on someone's bio, company description, and more.

‍

TL;DR

How to set up the OpenAI integration on Clay

To get set up, go to your Clay table and navigate to the "Enrich Data" tab. Search for "OpenAI" and select the "complete prompt" option. Input your OpenAI API key, and you'll be set to create and run your prompt.

‍

How to write a specific and effective prompt

If you want to use AI to help with your email workflows, writing a good prompt is the most important skill to learn. The better your prompts are, the more the AI will be able to help you. As a general rule,your prompts should beas specific as possible. Imagine that you're explaining what you want to a fifth grader and spell every detail out.

In general, every good prompt does three things:

(a) Describe what you want and what input(s) to draw upon. E.g. Tell me what this company does, based on the "company description" input.

(b) Specify the input(s) in Clay. E.g. Here is the "company description" input: [insert input].

(c) Describe your desired output format (including word count, sentence phrasing, or even an example template). E.g. Write a one sentence summary in under 10 words.

‍

Personalize emails based on somebody's bio

With AI, you can easily mass personalize your cold emails with a sentence about each prospect's job responsibilities, using just their bios!

‍ Here's an example prompt, broken into the three components above:

Tell me what this person's job focus is based on this input.

Here is the input: [ insert summary input].

Write a one sentence summary of their job in under 10 to 15 words. Start each sentence with, "I notice on your profile, it seems like you are responsible for..."

‍

Here's a real result from our prompt: "I noticed on your profile, it seems you're responsible for investing, coaching, and advising technology startups and early-stage companies." Not bad!

Using AI to help personalize your email has deliverability benefits. Email service providers are starting to crack down on people who send mass templated emails. If they notice you're just using first name + company name with a phrase, you may be penalized. With AI, you can use the same input and get unique variants for your emails every time.

‍

Generate a *completely* AI-generated email

So far, we've covered how to personalize parts of your emails with AI. If you want to go a step further, you can use AI to write full emails too.

Here's an example prompt, following our logic from above:

Write a casual email with 50 to 70 words that includes the contact name, the company name input, the company description input, and follows this template.

The contact's name input is this: [ insert contact name]. The company name input is this: [ insert company name]. The company description input is this [ insert company description]*.

The template is this: "Hello, [First name]. I noticed that your company is focused on solving world hunger. I'm curious how you are managing your bookkeeping to get to that goal. Would it be helpful if someone were to manage bookkeeping for you?"

Using OpenAI with tools like Clay can hugely streamline your process of writing resonant cold emails for your business. In just a few clicks, you can set up the integration and start personalizing sections of emails, or even entire messages, just based on information about your prospects that is available online. Your own creativity will be your only limiting factor. Reach out to us with any thoughts or questions at friends@clay.run!

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the benefits and limitations of using OpenAI to write cold emails?

The main benefit is speed and scale: you can generate unique, personalized email copy for hundreds of prospects without manually researching each one. The main limitation is that output quality depends entirely on your prompt quality. Vague prompts produce generic copy, so the more specific your instructions, the better the result.

Can I use this approach to write follow-up emails, not just first-touch outreach?

Yes. The same prompt structure applies to follow-up emails. You can pass in the same contact and company inputs and adjust the template section of your prompt to reflect a follow-up scenario, such as referencing a previous message or a specific pain point.

Does AI-generated personalization actually improve email deliverability?

It can. Email service providers flag mass-templated emails that repeat the same first name and company name pattern. Because AI generates unique variants from the same inputs, your emails look less like bulk sends, which reduces the risk of being penalized by spam filters.

Index

How to set up the OpenAI integration on Clay

How to write a specific and effective prompt

Personalize emails based on somebody's bio

Generate a *completely* AI-generated email

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the benefits and limitations of using OpenAI to write cold emails?

Can I use this approach to write follow-up emails, not just first-touch outreach?

Does AI-generated personalization actually improve email deliverability?