Autonomous Cold Email System Built with OpenClaw Agents

An autonomous cold email outbound system built with OpenClaw agents where Nexus (an SEO-link agent) researches each prospect's website, runs real analysis, and uses those findings as the actual email content. The system creates daily batches, tracks prospects through a full pipeline in Notion, sends via Instantly, and triages replies without manual intervention.

How the System Works

1. Maven Creates Daily SDR Tasks

Maven's heartbeat (Step 1.8.5) fires on weekdays and checks:

• Has an SDR task already been created for today? (rate-limit key: last_nexus_sdr_outreach)
• Does Nexus already have an SDR batch in progress?

If both are clear, Maven creates a task in Notion: "SDR batch" assigned to Nexus with full instructions. Rate-limit key location: workspace-seo-pm/memory/heartbeat-state.md under SDR Outreach (SOP-OUT-002/003):

2. Nexus Picks Up the Task

On Nexus's next heartbeat, it queries Notion for assigned work. The SDR batch task tells Nexus to:

• Research new prospects if fewer than 10 are in "Researched" status
• Load and send a batch of up to 20 verified prospects
• Triage any replies in the Instantly unibox
• Update the Outbound Prospects DB

3. Per-Prospect Analysis Pipeline

Before any email is composed, Nexus runs this on each domain (~2 min, ~$0.05):

• DataForSEO backlink summary → domain rank, referring domains, spam score
• Fetch sitemap.xml → total URL count, content categories
• Fetch 2–3 content pages → count internal links per page, detect CMS (Ghost/WP/Webflow/HubSpot/custom)
• web_search "site:{domain}" → indexed page count vs sitemap total
• Compile 3 findings for the Insight Summary field:
  • Internal linking density (e.g., "avg 2.3 links/page — benchmark is 8–12")
  • Indexing gap or domain authority observation
  • Platform-specific constraint or opportunity

4. Email Sequences

Three plain-text sequences, all under 80 words per step. Subject lines use real data from the analysis.

• Sequence A — "The Insight Drop" (all segments): Day 0: Two findings + link to free report, Day +5: One more insight they missed, Day +12: Direct ask with pricing
• Sequence B — "The Agency Play" (agencies only): Same structure, angled toward portfolio-wide impact and agency pricing
• Sequence C — "The Indexing Alert" (indexing gap sites): Leads with "Google sees X of your Y pages"

Instantly campaign naming: -sdr-{sequence}-{YYYY-MM}

5. Reply Triage

• Interested in free report → Send link, status → Interested
• Asks about pricing/plans → Handoff to Forge via SOP-OUT-004 template, status → Handed Off
• Enterprise/white-label inquiry → Handoff to Forge
• Not interested / unsubscribe → Instantly blocklist, status → Not Interested
• Bounce → Status → Bounced, remove from campaign

Infrastructure Created

Outbound Prospects Database (Notion)

ID: 32d139ea-e81f-813c-9606-e7108c1ab672

Pipeline: Researched → Sequenced → Opened → Replied → Interested → Trial Started → Converted

Key properties: Contact, Company, Domain, Email, Client (relation), Segment: Content-Rich Link-Poor / Platform-Locked / Indexing Gap / Agency Scale, Platform: Ghost / WordPress / Webflow / HubSpot / Custom, Fit Score: High / Medium / Low, Insight Summary, Sequence, Instantly Campaign, Program (relation to Projects DB), Reply Summary, Notes

Linkbot Insight Drop Project (Notion)

ID: 32d139ea-e81f-81d5-9204-e0c9a7906f47

Properties: Lane=SDR, Client=xxx, Status=Active, Owner=Maven, Approval Level=Autonomous

Instantly Sending Account: Email: [nexus@](mailto: [email protected])...