Creating Campaigns

Why It Matters

A campaign groups your prospects, email sequences, and AI settings into a single workflow. It defines who you’re reaching out to, what the AI should write, and how follow-ups are handled. Everything in Outreach starts with a campaign.

Navigate to Outreach > Campaigns and click New Campaign to get started.

Creating a Campaign

You have two options:

• Pick a starter template: Choose from 13 built-in templates that pre-configure the tone, sequence steps, and AI directives for common scenarios
• Start blank: Name your campaign and configure everything manually

Give your campaign a descriptive name that helps you distinguish it later (e.g., “YC W26 Founders: Launch Week” or “Senior Rails Engineers: Q1”).

Starter Templates

Kit includes 13 system templates you can use as a starting point:

Template	Use Case
YC Launch Intro	Founder-to-founder intro referencing a YC launch, batch, or demo day post
Post-Funding Trigger	Reaching companies that just closed a funding round, hooking into post-raise pain
Specific Hypothesis Pitch	Cold outreach built around a specific, evidence-based hypothesis about the prospect’s problem
Warm Intro Ask	Asking a mutual connection to introduce you, with a pre-written forwardable blurb
Design Partner Recruit	Recruiting design partners for a pre-launch or early-launch product
Investor Outreach	Cold-emailing VCs and angels when raising, anchored to their thesis
Partnership Outreach	Pitching a B2B integration or co-marketing collaboration to another founder
Referral Request	Asking a happy customer to refer you to peers in their network
Meeting Follow-up	Post-call or post-demo nudge to close the next step
Re-engagement	Re-engaging cold prospects from a prior campaign when a trigger event justifies it
Churned Customer Win-Back	Re-engaging customers who paid and then canceled
Talent Sourcing	Reaching senior IC candidates about an open role
Silver Medalist	Re-engaging candidates who previously interviewed but didn’t get an offer

Each template includes pre-configured tone, sequence steps with sections, subject rules, and AI directives. You can customize everything after creating the campaign.

Campaign Settings

These settings control the pacing and exit conditions for your campaign:

Setting	Description	Default	Range
Target volume	Max prospects to research and draft per batch	25	1–50
Max follow-ups	Number of follow-up emails if the prospect doesn’t reply	2	0–4
Exit on	Conditions that stop the sequence for a prospect	reply, bounce, unsubscribe	reply, bounce, unsubscribe
Open tracking	Detect when recipients open emails via an invisible pixel	Off	On/Off
Click tracking	Detect when recipients click links via redirect URLs	Off	On/Off

Keep target volume low (5–15) when starting a new campaign. This lets you review draft quality and tune your AI directives before scaling up.

Both tracking types are off by default for deliverability. When enabled, emails are sent as HTML. See Engagement Tracking for accuracy caveats and custom domain setup.

AI Directives

AI directives are instructions given to the agent when drafting. Check that each draft meets them before approving:

Directive	Description	Default
Tone	Writing style for drafts	Founder-to-founder
Word limit	Maximum word count per email body	120 (range: 50–300)
AI instructions	Custom context for the AI: mention product features, value props, or talking points	None
Banned words	Words the AI is instructed to avoid (comma-separated)	synergy, leverage, disrupt, paradigm, revolutionary, game-changing
Knowledge keys	Keys of knowledge base entries the AI should reference	None
Signature	Email signature appended to every message	None
Auto-response	Whether the AI drafts replies to prospect responses	Off
Response instructions	Custom instructions for AI-drafted replies (when auto-response is on)	None

Available tones: Founder-to-founder (direct, peer-level), Professional (buttoned-up), Casual (relaxed), Technical (detail-oriented), Custom (skips built-in tone; use AI instructions to set your own).

Sequences and Steps

A sequence defines the emails Kit sends to each prospect. The first step is always the initial outreach; subsequent steps are follow-ups sent after a configurable delay.

In AI-guided mode, each step contains:

• Sections: Named content blocks the AI fills in (e.g., hook, bridge, CTA). Initial steps default to hook/bridge/cta; follow-ups default to hook/value_prop/cta.
• Subject rules: Max words for the subject line (default: 8, range: 3–15) and style guidance
• Delay days: Days to wait after the previous step before sending (range: 0–30)

Sections have an instructions field that tells the AI what to write and a max_sentences limit (1–5) that controls length. The AI writes each section independently, then assembles them into a complete email.

Literal text and AI commands

Current limit: switching a step to literal text and AI commands (body_blocks) makes it preview-only, even if it contains no AI command. An initial step in this mode disables normal research and drafting; a follow-up in this mode is not drafted. Keep AI-guided steps for the normal Outreach draft queue. See Guided Talent Sourcing for the separate preview workflow.

In a sourcing session, open a campaign under Sequence to edit it in a full-screen window. Use the step list to move between emails. You can add, reorder or remove steps and set each follow-up’s delay.

Write directly in the email body, with the subject and campaign signature in separate fields. For a guided step, choose Write the email myself to start your own text. Existing guided instructions do not become email text.

To add an AI command:

1. Place the cursor where the generated text should appear, then select AI command.
2. Enter the instructions, then set the word and sentence limits in the two fields below. Defaults are one sentence and at most 24 words.
3. Select Apply to insert it. You can place several commands among your own text. Select a command to edit or remove it. Select Cancel to return to the email without applying the settings.

For example: “Write one sentence about a documented backend project. Do not repeat the person’s title or employer.” Preview generation uses the person’s saved profile evidence; the instructions themselves are not email text.

The body is plain text. Spaces and line breaks are preserved; pasted formatting is removed. Placeholders such as {{FirstName}} stay as typed and must be replaced before sending.

Choose Save to save the template for people with campaign access. Changes are not saved automatically. Applying a command or saving a sequence does not generate or send email. Use the separate sequence preview to try it against a sourced profile.

Advanced configuration exposes YAML. Editing it disables the visual controls until you save and reload; this editor saves only the sequence and signature.

Formatted signatures

In Email signature, paste a signature copied from Gmail or another email editor. Formatting, tables, links and HTTPS-hosted images are supported. No Gmail connection is needed. The layout can vary between email apps, so check the preview before approving a draft.

Choose Image to insert a public HTTPS image URL and alt text. Images stay on their original host, which must keep them available to recipients without signing in.

Kit adds the signature once to each email. Editing the campaign signature does not change the signature in drafts you have already approved. Leave the field empty if you do not want a signature.

How follow-ups are sent

The following daily drafting flow applies to AI-guided steps using a team mailbox. Literal-text/AI-command steps are preview-only; automatic follow-up drafting is also unavailable for private mailboxes.

Once a prospect’s initial email has been sent, Kit checks each day whether the next follow-up step is due. A step becomes due when its delay days have elapsed since the last email you sent to that prospect. When a step is due, Kit drafts the follow-up, reusing the research from the first email, and adds it to your review queue.

In this AI-guided drafting flow, each follow-up needs its own approval: you approve, edit, or reject it before it goes out. See Reviewing and Sending Messages.

The personal sequences pilot is a separate workflow: you review 1–3 exact emails and approve their schedule together. Those approved emails become eligible automatically under that schedule. Saving a campaign template does not approve a personal sequence.

A prospect’s sequence stops as soon as any exit condition is met (they reply, their email bounces, they unsubscribe, or you opt them out), or once they’ve received the configured max follow-ups. Whichever comes first ends the sequence for that prospect.

Custom Templates

You can create your own templates to reuse across campaigns:

1. Navigate to Outreach > Templates
2. Click New Template or clone an existing starter
3. Use the visual editor to configure steps, literal text and AI commands, or open Advanced YAML for the full configuration
4. Publish the template to make it available in the campaign creation picker

Published templates are visible to everyone on your team. Unpublished templates remain drafts.

Linking a Job Posting

If you’re running a recruiting campaign, link a job posting from Hiring > Job Postings to give the AI context about the role. The AI agent uses the job title, description, and requirements to personalize emails for passive candidates.

Select a job posting from the dropdown on the campaign edit page.

Quick Checklist

• Create a campaign (from a template or blank)
• Configure AI directives: set tone, word limit, and custom instructions
• Review sequence steps: adjust sections and delays for your workflow
• Add your email signature
• Set target volume to a conservative number for initial testing
• Optionally enable engagement tracking (click tracking recommended, open tracking optional)

Next Steps

• Adding and Managing Prospects: import prospects into your campaign
• AI Research and Knowledge Base: improve draft quality with product context