Creating Campaigns
Create campaigns from templates or scratch, configure sequences and AI directives, and manage the campaign lifecycle.
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 5 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 5 system templates you can use as a starting point:
| Template | Use Case |
|---|---|
| YC Launch Outreach | Reaching recently launched YC startups about your product |
| Product Hunt Launch | Connecting with makers who just shipped on Product Hunt |
| Hiring Pain Point | Targeting companies with open roles to pitch your hiring solution |
| Re-engagement | Re-engaging prospects who went quiet in a previous campaign |
| Talent Sourcing | Recruiting passive candidates for open positions |
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 |
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.
AI Directives
AI directives tell Kit’s AI agent how to write emails for this campaign:
| 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 must never use (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.
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 — Constraints for the subject line: max words (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.
Custom Templates
You can create your own templates to reuse across campaigns:
- Navigate to Outreach > Templates
- Click New Template or clone an existing starter
- Edit the YAML configuration — define sequence steps, sections, subject rules, and AI directives
- 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
Next Steps
- Adding and Managing Prospects — import prospects into your campaign
- AI Research and Knowledge Base — improve draft quality with product context