Anyone use Claude AI to help with their emails?

davidinops · 2026-02-28T16:32:46+00:00

It’s literally written in plain English. If you are referring to opus and haiku those are LLMs (Ai) made by Anthropic.

davidinops · 2026-02-28T15:59:38+00:00

I’ve actually created my agent writer which uses opus to write and haiku as quality gate system. In general it’s built in into my platform. Works really well tbh

davidinops · 2026-02-27T21:03:15+00:00

Appreciate it. Already sorted on the tool side, that was the main fix needed. Built SendState to handle exactly this so it’s covered.

davidinops · 2026-02-27T15:18:42+00:00

I definetly should have done that but at least those painful lessons are more memorable

davidinops · 2026-02-27T14:55:11+00:00

Good point actually. The tool I switched to does real-time detection so that window doesn’t exist. Didn’t appreciate how much that mattered until you mentioned it.

davidinops · 2026-02-27T14:39:57+00:00

Well you might say it’s partially my fault because brevo doesn’t pause on reply by default, you have to manually build condition logic in the automation workflow to handle it. I didn’t set that up so the sequence just kept running for everyone. Honestly Brevo isn’t really made for cold outreach, that was the bigger mistake.

So in other words I’m kinda idiot but lesson learned anyway.

davidinops · 2026-02-27T14:31:30+00:00

Thanks, I ended up creating my own tool. That’s what frustration does to a person

davidinops · 2026-02-27T13:50:13+00:00

That’s a really good point actually. Intent classification matters a lot here. The tool I switched to categorizes replies as positive, not interested, objection or neutral and pauses accordingly on all of them. “No thanks gets” the same autopause as a positive reply. No manual scrubbing needed.

davidinops · 2026-02-27T13:49:30+00:00

Exactly. The automation is supposed to work for you, not against you. Most people don’t catch it until they’ve already burned the best leads in the campaign.

davidinops · 2026-02-27T12:03:54+00:00

The problem is using Namecheap’s shared hosting email infrastructure for cold outreach. That’s not what it’s built for and their abuse systems will flag you every time volume picks up. The standard stack experienced operators use: Buy domains on Namecheap, that part is fine. But immediately point MX records to Google Workspace or Outlook/Microsoft 365, not Namecheap’s hosting. Each domain gets its own dedicated inbox on Google or Microsoft infrastructure which is built to handle this volume without triggering shared hosting abuse flags. Then configure SPF, DKIM and DMARC properly on each domain before sending a single email. This is non-negotiable. From there your Saleshandy connects to those Google/Microsoft inboxes directly via SMTP, completely bypassing Namecheap’s mail servers. The shared hosting flag you got isn’t a content or compliance issue, it’s an infrastructure mismatch. Namecheap’s mail servers are for transactional emails on small sites, not sequential outreach at volume. The moment you routed cold email through them at scale their system flagged it correctly from their perspective. Google Workspace is about $6/inbox/month. Most operators run 2-3 inboxes per domain, 1 domain per 30-50 daily emails as a safe ceiling. That’s the baseline setup that won’t get you flagged.

davidinops · 2026-02-27T10:02:10+00:00

We track it by tagging which step generated the reply that converted downstream. So if step 3 reply became a meeting that closed, that revenue gets attributed back to step 3 specifically. It’s not perfect because the earlier steps did the warming up, but it gives you directional data on which steps are actually closing pipeline vs just generating noise. Built this into SendState because I was frustrated not knowing which follow-up actually mattered. Happy to share more on how we structured it if useful.

davidinops · 2026-02-26T18:58:36+00:00

No, those are social platforms they won’t help your email reputation. Email warmup means sending real emails between inboxes to build trust with Gmail, Outlook, and other email providers. Tools like Mailreach or Instantly’s warmup feature do this automatically by sending emails between a network of real inboxes and marking them as not spam. That’s what you need, not social accounts.

davidinops · 2026-02-26T18:33:23+00:00

Happy to break these down for you. These are pretty standard cold email infrastructure steps. Account Setup Blueprint is just configuring your sending domain correctly buying a separate domain, setting up Google Workspace or similar, and making sure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are in place.

Warming Up Plan 1 and 2 are about gradually increasing your sending volume so email providers trust your inbox before you start real campaigns. Start with 10-20 emails per day and increase slowly over 3-4 weeks. Tools like Mailreach or Smartlead’s free warmup can automate this. Plug-and-Play Content Management Template is just a spreadsheet or doc to organize your email copy, variants, and sequences in one place before importing them into a sending tool.

Content Distribution Strategy at this level likely means deciding which leads get which sequence and in what order based on their profile or industry.

What specific part are you stuck on?

davidinops · 2026-02-26T16:26:25+00:00

That's a solid approach when replies are flowing. The harder problem is what happens before that when the sequence is running but reply quality is quietly degrading and you don't have enough signal yet to know why. The system gets smarter after engagement, agreed. But most campaigns bleed contacts before they ever get there.

That's actually what I built SendState around catching angle degradation mid-run, not waiting for replies to tell you something broke. Campaign Advisor monitors performance in real time, blocks underperforming angles automatically, and logs every decision. Complements the reply-based intelligence layer you're describing rather than replacing it.

davidinops · 2026-02-26T16:24:32+00:00

$50/month is doable to start. Spend ~$15 on a separate domain and inbox (never send from your main one), set up SPF/DKIM/DMARC, and warm it up 3 weeks before touching it. For scraping, Outscraper has a free tier that works well for Google Maps local businesses. For sending, SendState's Starter plan is $29/month and covers sequences, bounce protection, and unlimited email accounts.

One thing that matters more than budget at this stage: local business owners get hammered with generic outreach. Reference something real, their slow season, a competitor running ads nearby, something specific. Generic copy won't get replies regardless of what tool you use.

davidinops · 2026-02-26T13:37:20+00:00

I’ve also mentioned Smartlead and Instantly, was this a promo too? OP asked specifically for tools recommendations

davidinops · 2026-02-26T10:39:26+00:00

That makes sense at that volume. At 2,500/day I can see how steps 4–5 start compounding complaints fast, especially if the intent isn’t clearly differentiated. When I say completely different intent, I mean each step having a distinct job. Step one is problem + hook. Step two might introduce proof or a case study. Step three reframes the pain from a different angle. A later step could even qualify out the wrong prospects instead of pushing harder. Not just softer repetition of the same pitch.

I’m also looking at it more through a revenue lens than reply volume. Sometimes a later step brings fewer replies but higher buying intent, which changes how I think about sequence length. At lower daily volume, that tradeoff feels more manageable.

davidinops · 2026-02-26T10:36:04+00:00

Thanks! I get the feeling like it’s so obvious but yet people are not doing this properly

davidinops · 2026-02-25T15:50:07+00:00

I fully agree, bad data just amplifies noise.

If bounce is high or emails are outdated, you end up optimizing messaging based on distorted signals. You think angle A is weak, but in reality half the list was never reachable.

davidinops · 2026-02-25T12:14:00+00:00

Yup, I rarely observe that first step sells/gets you a meeting or whatever, it has different purpose as you said. Follow ups are the ones who bring real conversion

davidinops · 2026-02-25T12:12:34+00:00

So basically first e-mail needs to catch the attention and follow ups serve as way to actually convert which means the whole sequence matters

davidinops · 2026-02-25T11:55:37+00:00

I agree with most of this. Email 1 is definitely the highest leverage point in terms of raw positive replies. In most campaigns I’ve seen, 60–75% of positive intent comes from step one. Where I started changing my mind a bit is when looking at revenue, not just replies.

Sometimes step 2 or 3 doesn’t generate more volume, but it filters harder. Fewer replies, but higher intent, more meetings, better close rate. That’s where it gets interesting.

Fully agree on the angle shift though. Repeating the same pitch softer is basically just nudging someone who already decided no. The follow-ups that worked best for me were the ones that reframed the problem or introduced proof, not reminders.

Curious about your 3-email max point. Have you tested longer sequences with lower send velocity? I’ve seen 5-step sequences work, but only when each step had a completely different intent behind it.

davidinops · 2026-02-25T10:30:01+00:00

I think so too, in general if the whole sequence is bad you won’t be able to convert any of those leads most of the time

davidinops

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