Outreach Engine
Scrape any prospect page → AI-drafted personalized pitch email in seconds.
What it is
Paste a prospect's URL — we scrape their page (title, headings, sample content) and Claude drafts a fully personalized cold-pitch email referencing their actual content. You can generate a single email (2 credits), a 3-step follow-up sequence (2 credits), or find the prospect's real email addresses via Hunter.io (7 credits). You edit, copy, and send from your own email client. Status tracking keeps your whole outreach pipeline organized.
Why it matters
Generic cold pitches have a <2% reply rate. Personalized ones hit 8–15%. The personalization is what works; the problem is it takes 15 minutes per prospect to read their site and write something custom. Outreach Engine collapses that to 30 seconds per prospect.
How to use it (step-by-step)
Follow these in order. Each step is 30 seconds to 2 minutes.
Step 1
Get prospects from the Backlinks module
Use the AI link-prospect finder in the Backlinks module, then copy a prospect URL. Or paste any blog / podcast / journalist page directly.
Step 2
Pick a pitch angle chip
5 canonical angles — guest post / link insert / tool collab / podcast / resource page. Click the chip; the AI prompt is steered for that angle. Free text still works for custom angles.
Step 3
Click 'Draft single email' (2 credits)
Claude reads their page and writes a peer-tone subject + body. If the draft fails our quality check (length, AI-authorship leaks), you are NOT charged — the credit refunds automatically.
Step 4
Or 'Draft 3-step sequence' (2 credits)
Initial + 2 follow-ups, each shorter with a fresh angle. Refund-on-fail applies per step.
Step 5
Find their email with 'Find emails' (7 credits)
Hunter.io domain-search with confidence + role. We only charge when Hunter returns at least one email — empty results refund. When Hunter's monthly quota is exhausted, an amber banner says so explicitly (instead of silent 'no emails').
Step 6
Copy → send from your own inbox → track status
We don't send for you on purpose (better deliverability + you keep sender reputation control). Mark Sent → Replied → Declined; auto-stamped timestamps power the funnel chart.
Find the right email — no scraping required.
Outerank looks up the domain's published contact addresses (no shady scraping), validates each one, and returns a tier-1 / tier-2 / tier-3 confidence label. 7 credits per find, results saved.
- Published contact only — no scrape-then-pray
- Validation: MX + role + deliverability heuristics
- Tier-1 / 2 / 3 confidence label
- 7 credits per find, saved forever
Find emails · result
Personalized first lines from real signals.
Outerank reads the prospect's recent activity (blog posts, LinkedIn-style updates, GitHub releases if relevant), then writes an opener that ACTUALLY references their work. Not "I noticed your website" templates.
- First-line generation per prospect
- References their real recent content
- A/B subject lines auto-generated (free, Haiku)
- Tone calibrated to the angle (link / partner / job)
Personalized opener · sample
Subject · Re: your post on "why most SEO audits miss CWV"
First line · Your CWV section in Tuesday's post — totally agree on the LCP-first ordering. We've measured similar.
Sequenced follow-ups, auto-paced.
Draft → Send → Follow-up 1 → Follow-up 2 → Replied / Declined. Outerank manages the stage transitions automatically. Reply detection stops the sequence. No more chasing dead leads.
- Auto-stage transitions on send
- Reply detection stops the sequence
- Follow-up timing: 3 days, then 5 days
- Manual override on any stage
Funnel by stage
Reply rate, by angle, by template.
Reply rate per template, per angle, per stage. Outerank shows you which subject line / opener / follow-up cadence converts best — so you stop guessing and double down on what works.
- Reply rate per template
- Best-performing subject lines surfaced
- Industry benchmarks inline (5-15% is healthy)
- Brain flags templates underperforming the benchmark
Performance · last 30 days
Why Outerank
What "sales engagement" platforms charge $200/seat for.
The cold-outreach workflow built for SEO link-building — without a separate $200/seat platform.
Published-contact lookup
No shady scraping. Outerank reads published contact pages + WHOIS — only addresses the domain itself surfaced.
First lines from real signals
References the prospect's actual recent content. Not "I noticed your website" form-letter slop.
Sequenced auto-pacing
Stage transitions, reply detection, follow-up timing — managed automatically. You write, the sequence runs.
Reply rate by template
Which subject line wins? Which opener angle wins? Outerank tells you — by template, by angle, by stage.
A/B subject auto-gen
Subject line A/B variants generated free (Haiku). Test 2 subjects per send without paying for the variant.
Benchmark-aware
Industry benchmarks inline (5-15% is healthy). Brain flags templates underperforming so you don't keep sending duds.
What costs credits
No surprises. Browsing and viewing saved results is always free.
Pro tips
- →Sender-domain reputation auto-runs on your project URL. If you see an amber banner saying you scored C/D, fix SPF/DMARC first or your pitches will land in spam.
- →The 'Reply rate by pitch angle' panel reveals which angle YOUR niche actually responds to — double down on the top one and abandon the bottom one.
- →Edit every draft. Personality and specifics matter more than perfect grammar.
- →When the scrape banner says 'JS-only site', don't burn 2cr drafting against empty context — pitch from their /about page directly instead.
- →Follow-up 1 brings ~30% of replies. After Follow-up 2, mark declined and move on — preserving sender reputation beats one more ping.
Plain-English glossary
Every bit of jargon on this page, explained.
- Prospect
- A website or person you want a backlink or mention from.
- Pitch angle
- The hook of your email — what you're offering (guest post, collaboration, a resource they should link to).
- Cold email
- An email to someone who doesn't know you yet. Personalization is what makes it work instead of getting deleted.
- Follow-up sequence
- A series of emails (here: 1 initial + 2 follow-ups). Most replies come from the follow-ups, not the first send.
- Email confidence (Hunter.io)
- A 0–100% score for how likely an email address is correct/deliverable. Aim for 80%+.
Questions, answered
Site Audit FAQs
Does Outerank send the emails for me?
What happens if the AI draft fails?
Does Find Emails charge me when Hunter returns nothing?
Why does 'Find emails' cost 7 credits?
Single email or 3-step sequence — which should I use?
How does the reply-rate-by-angle panel work?
What's the sender-domain reputation banner?
Why did the JS-only warning appear?
How we compare
Honest comparison — where we win, where the big tools win.
vs. Pitchbox ($395/mo)
Pitchbox automates sending. We don't (on purpose — deliverability moat) but our drafts are higher quality because Claude personalizes each from the prospect's actual page + we guard against AI-authorship leaks before charging.
vs. Hunter.io standalone
Hunter just finds emails; we find the email AND write the personalized pitch AND track the pipeline AND break down reply-rate per angle — all in one place.
Ready to try Outreach Engine?
Open it on one of your projects.
Come back here whenever you need a refresher.