Clay

Overview

Clay is a data enrichment and workflow automation platform that has become the backbone of modern GTM stacks. Unlike traditional data providers that give you one database to query, Clay aggregates 90+ data sources into a single interface, using "waterfall enrichment" to achieve 80%+ match rates on email addresses—nearly double what you'd get from any single provider.

What sets Clay apart isn't just the data coverage. It's the combination of enrichment, AI research (Claygent), and workflow automation in one platform. You can import a list of 1,000 LinkedIn URLs, enrich every contact with emails, phone numbers, and firmographics, have Claygent research their recent company news, generate personalized icebreakers, and push everything to your email sequences—all without leaving Clay.

For GTM teams running sophisticated outbound or account-based motions, Clay eliminates the fragmented workflow of juggling 5-10 different data tools. The tradeoff: it's complex, expensive at scale, and requires significant time investment to master.

At a glance:

• Category: Data Enrichment & Workflow Automation
• Best for: SMB and Mid-Market teams doing personalized outbound
• Pricing: Free tier available | $149-$800/month | Enterprise custom
• Free trial: Yes - 100 credits/month free tier, no credit card required

Ideal For

• Account-Based Teams with $100K+ ACV: Clay's cost per enriched lead ($0.35-$1.50) makes sense when deals are large. If you're closing $200K contracts, spending $500/month on hyper-personalized research pays for itself with one extra closed deal per quarter.
• Teams Outgrowing Apollo/ZoomInfo: When you've hit the ceiling of single-provider match rates (40-50%) and need the extra 30-40% coverage that waterfalling provides. Clay finds contacts that no single provider has.
• Agencies Running Multi-Client Workflows: Clay's table-based structure and workflow templates make it efficient to manage enrichment for 5-10 clients without rebuilding logic each time.

Not Ideal For

• Bootstrapped Startups (<500 prospects): If your total addressable prospect list is under 1,000 contacts, Apollo's $49/month plan gives you everything you need. Clay's learning curve and cost don't make sense at this scale.
• High-Volume, Low-Touch Outbound: If you're blasting 50,000 cold emails/month to $5K ACV deals, cost per lead matters more than personalization depth. Stick with Apollo or Instantly's built-in enrichment.

The Bottom Line

Clay is for teams who've graduated from basic prospecting tools and need enterprise-grade enrichment without enterprise-grade budgets. If data quality and personalization are competitive advantages for your sales motion, Clay is worth the investment. If you're optimizing for volume and cost, look elsewhere.

Clay transforms fragmented data workflows into a single, automated system. At its core, it does three things exceptionally well: waterfall enrichment across 90+ providers, AI-powered research via Claygent, and workflow automation that connects your entire GTM stack.

Core Capabilities

1. Waterfall Enrichment: Instead of querying one database, Clay searches multiple providers in sequence until finding the data you need. This achieves 80%+ match rates vs. 40-50% from single providers.
2. Claygent AI Research: An AI agent that visits websites, scrapes content, and generates custom data points. Use it to find recent blog posts, product launches, funding news, or any public information.
3. Workflow Automation: Build complex data workflows with conditional logic, formulas, and branching. Chain enrichment steps, filter results, and trigger downstream actions.
4. Native Integrations: Direct connections to HubSpot, Salesforce, Instantly, Lemlist, and 100+ tools. Push enriched data wherever it needs to go.
5. Credit Optimization: Use your own API keys for providers you already subscribe to, reducing Clay credit consumption by 50-70%.

How It Works

1. Import: Upload a CSV, connect to your CRM, or receive data via webhook (from Koala, Common Room, etc.)
2. Enrich: Configure waterfall enrichment columns—Clay searches providers in order until finding each data point
3. Research: Add Claygent columns to generate custom insights (company news, personalization hooks, etc.)
4. Filter: Apply conditions to segment your data (verified emails only, specific job titles, etc.)
5. Export: Push enriched data to your email sequencer, CRM, or any tool via native integration or webhook

Our Take: Clay is the most powerful enrichment platform available to SMB and mid-market teams. The learning curve is real—budget 10-20 hours to get proficient—but the payoff is data quality you can't get anywhere else. Claygent in particular is a game-changer for personalization at scale. Our main frustration: credit consumption is hard to predict until you've optimized your workflows, and bills can surprise you in the first few months.

1. Waterfall Data Enrichment

Clay's signature capability. Instead of relying on one provider's 40-50% coverage, Clay searches multiple providers in sequence. For email enrichment, a typical waterfall might try Apollo first (cheapest), then Prospeo, then Dropcontact, then Hunter, then finally ZoomInfo (most expensive). You only pay for the provider that succeeds.

Why it matters: 80%+ match rates mean dramatically more usable data from the same prospect list. If you're importing 1,000 LinkedIn profiles, single-provider enrichment gives you ~450 emails. Clay gives you ~800.

Compared to alternatives: FullEnrich offers similar waterfall functionality but with only 15 providers vs. Clay's 90+. Apollo and ZoomInfo don't offer true waterfalling—you get their database or nothing.

2. Claygent AI Research

An AI agent that can visit any public website, scrape content, and generate custom data points. Claygent navigates pages like a human—clicking through blog archives, reading press releases, finding recent LinkedIn activity.

Why it matters: Traditional enrichment gives you static data (job title, company size). Claygent generates dynamic personalization: "Their CEO just posted about expanding to Europe last week" or "They launched a new product line in Q3." This level of personalization was previously only achievable with manual research.

Compared to alternatives: No other enrichment platform has anything comparable. Apollo has AI email writing but not research. ZoomInfo has intent data but not prospect-level research.

3. HTTP API & Webhook Infrastructure

Beyond native integrations, Clay supports custom HTTP APIs and webhooks for connecting to any system. Send enriched data to custom endpoints, trigger Clay workflows from external events, or build complex multi-tool automations.

Why it matters: Your GTM stack is unique. HTTP/webhook support means Clay fits into any architecture without waiting for native integration support.

Compared to alternatives: Most enrichment tools offer limited integration options. Clay's API-first approach enables use cases competitors can't support.

4. Formula & Conditional Logic

Build spreadsheet-style formulas and conditional branches within Clay workflows. If email not found AND phone found, route to calling sequence. If company size > 500, skip enrichment and route to enterprise team. If funding > $10M in last 6 months, prioritize.

Why it matters: Complex prospecting workflows require logic that simple tools can't handle. Clay enables account-based routing, lead scoring, and automated decision-making.

Compared to alternatives: FullEnrich has basic filtering but no formulas. Apollo has workflow automation but it's tied to their email sending. Clay's logic layer is the most flexible.

5. Native CRM Integrations (2-Way Sync)

Direct connections to HubSpot and Salesforce with two-way sync. Pull contacts from your CRM for re-enrichment, push newly enriched contacts back, update existing records with fresh data—all with custom field mapping.

Why it matters: CRM data decays at 30%/year. Clay keeps your database fresh without manual CSV exports/imports. The 2-way sync also means you can trigger Clay workflows based on CRM events.

Compared to alternatives: Most enrichment tools are one-directional (export only). Clay's 2-way sync with field mapping is best-in-class.

6. Credit Rollover & BYOK (Bring Your Own Keys)

Unused credits roll over to the next month (up to 2x monthly allocation). You can also add your own API keys for major providers to bypass Clay credits entirely—if you have an Apollo subscription, use your Apollo key in Clay for free enrichments.

Why it matters: Credit-based pricing is unpredictable. Rollover and BYOK provide cost control mechanisms that competitors don't offer. Many teams reduce Clay spend by 50-70% using free-tier API keys from 3-5 providers.

Compared to alternatives: Most credit-based tools forfeit unused credits. BYOK support is unique to Clay.

7. Real-Time Webhooks for Intent Activation

Receive webhooks from intent platforms (Koala, Common Room, 6sense) and trigger enrichment workflows in real-time. When a prospect visits your pricing page, Clay can have them enriched and in an email sequence within minutes.

Why it matters: Speed matters with intent signals. The faster you reach out after someone shows interest, the higher your conversion. Real-time webhooks enable same-day activation.

Compared to alternatives: Most enrichment tools require manual list uploads. Clay's webhook infrastructure enables event-driven workflows that fire automatically.

Clay connects with 90+ tools across the GTM stack. Here's how it fits into your workflow:

Sends Data To

Receives Data From

Works Alongside

• Attention/Fathom: Meeting intelligence feeds back to Clay for contact updates
• 6sense: Intent data triggers Clay enrichment workflows
• FullEnrich: Alternative waterfall for comparison/validation
• Calendly: Meeting scheduled triggers CRM updates via Clay

Primary strength: Clay excels at Enrichment and Personalization, where it's genuinely best-in-class. The combination of waterfall enrichment (for complete data) and Claygent (for unique insights) creates a personalization engine that competitors can't match.

Primary Use Cases

1. Waterfall Lead Enrichment for Outbound

Scenario: You have 2,000 LinkedIn URLs from Sales Navigator exports. Single-provider enrichment gives you 40-50% email coverage, leaving half your list unusable.

Workflow:

1. Import LinkedIn URLs to Clay table
2. Configure email waterfall: Apollo (cheapest) -> Prospeo -> Dropcontact -> Hunter -> RocketReach -> ZoomInfo (most expensive)
3. Add phone waterfall: Lusha -> Kaspr -> ContactOut
4. Add company enrichment: BuiltWith (tech stack) + Clearbit (firmographics)
5. Filter for verified emails and export to Instantly

Outcome: 80%+ email match rate (1,600 emails instead of 900), complete firmographic data, optimized credit spend by using cheapest providers first.

2. AI-Powered Prospect Research at Scale

Scenario: Generic outbound gets ignored. You need unique talking points for each prospect, but manual research doesn't scale past 20 contacts/day.

Workflow:

1. Start with enriched prospect list (emails, companies, job titles)
2. Claygent column 1: "Visit {company_website}/blog and summarize the 3 most recent posts in one sentence each"
3. Claygent column 2: "Search for '{company_name} funding announcement 2024 2025' and summarize any results"
4. Claygent column 3: "Based on {blog_summaries} and {funding_news}, write a 1-sentence personalized email opener"
5. Export to Instantly with personalization merge tags

Outcome: 100% personalized outreach at scale, 3-5x higher reply rates, unique data points competitors can't access.

3. Intent Signal Activation (<24 Hours)

Scenario: Koala identifies high-intent website visitors, but you need contact details and context before outreach.

Workflow:

1. Koala sends webhook to Clay when visitor matches ICP criteria
2. Clay auto-runs enrichment: find email, phone, LinkedIn
3. Claygent researches: recent company news, prospect's LinkedIn activity
4. Generate personalized icebreaker referencing their website visit + recent activity
5. Push to Instantly "High-Intent Visitors" sequence within 30 minutes

Outcome: Same-day outreach on warm intent, 2-3x higher conversion than cold lists, automated workflow requires no manual intervention.

Secondary Use Cases

• CRM Data Refresh: Pull 10,000 stale contacts from HubSpot quarterly, re-enrich job titles and emails, push updates back. Keeps database decay in check.

• Account-Based Prospecting: Import 100 target accounts, find 5-10 decision-makers at each, enrich all contacts, research company initiatives, assign to reps by territory.

DIY Setup (10-20 Hours)

GTMLabz Implementation (2-3 Weeks)

Why work with GTMLabz? Clay's power comes from sophisticated configuration. Most teams take 2-3 months to optimize their workflows through trial and error, wasting $500-$1,500 in credits on inefficient setups. We've configured 50+ Clay instances and bring proven waterfall orders, Claygent prompt libraries, and integration patterns that work on day one.

What We Recommend

• Startups (< $1M ARR): Start with Free tier to learn the platform, upgrade to Starter ($149/mo) once you've validated Clay works for your ICP. Don't overspend before you've optimized.
• SMB ($1-5M ARR): Explorer ($349/mo) is the sweet spot. 10,000 credits supports 1,000-1,500 fully enriched contacts/month with waterfall + Claygent. Add your own API keys to stretch further.
• Mid-Market ($5-15M ARR): Pro ($800/mo) if you're enriching 3,000+ contacts/month or need multiple team members. CRM integrations at this tier are worth the upgrade.

Hidden Costs to Watch

• Claygent Credit Burn: AI research costs 5-50 credits per row depending on prompt complexity. A poorly written prompt can burn 30 credits and return garbage. Budget 20-30% higher than expected for Claygent workflows.
• Email Sequencer Add-On: Clay enriches but doesn't send. Add $97-$297/month for Instantly, Lemlist, or Smartlead.
• Premium Provider Costs: Waterfalls ending in ZoomInfo or Cognism cost 10-20x more per enrichment than basic providers. Configure carefully.

Step 1: Explore Free Tier (30 Minutes)

Sign up at clay.com (no credit card required). Complete the onboarding tutorial—it's actually good. Import 20-50 test contacts from LinkedIn Sales Navigator or a CSV. Test basic enrichment: Find work email -> Find phone -> Enrich company. Validate that Clay works for your ICP before spending money.

Step 2: Add Your API Keys (15 Minutes)

Navigate to Settings -> Integrations -> Data Enrichment. Add free-tier API keys from Apollo (50 credits/month free), Hunter (50 searches/month free), and Prospeo (75 credits/month free). This reduces Clay credit consumption by 50%+ on common enrichments.

Step 3: Build Your First Waterfall (2 Hours)

Create a new table and import 100-500 test contacts. Add enrichment columns in waterfall order: cheapest providers first (Apollo, Prospeo), expensive last (ZoomInfo). Run on 100 rows, check results, reorder based on success rates.

Step 4: Add Claygent Research (1 Hour)

Create Claygent columns with specific prompts: "Visit {company_website}/blog and summarize the 3 most recent posts." Test on 20 rows. Refine prompts until output quality is consistent. Avoid vague prompts that waste credits.

Step 5: Connect Your Stack (1 Hour)

Integrate HubSpot/Salesforce for 2-way sync. Connect Instantly/Lemlist for sequence enrollment. Set up field mapping so data flows correctly. Test end-to-end with 10 contacts before running at scale.

Pro tip: Budget your first month for learning, not production. Run 500 credits worth of experiments before committing to high-volume workflows. The patterns you discover will save 10x that amount in optimized workflows.

Official Resources

• Clay Website
• Clay Documentation
• Clay University (free courses)
• Clay Community Forum
• Clay YouTube Channel
• Clay Pricing

GTMLabz Resources

• Intent Signal Activation Workflow - Clay + Koala + Instantly
• Account-Based Prospecting Guide - Multi-threaded outreach with Clay
• Clay vs Apollo Comparison

Often Used With Clay

• Instantly: Email sending platform. Clay enriches and personalizes, Instantly sends at scale with high deliverability.
• HubSpot: CRM integration. 2-way sync keeps HubSpot records enriched and fresh.
• Koala: Intent signals. Webhook triggers Clay enrichment when high-intent visitors appear.
• Lemlist: Multi-channel sequences. Clay enrichment feeds Lemlist's email + LinkedIn campaigns.

Recommended Stacks

• SMB Outbound Stack: Clay ($349) + Instantly ($97) + HubSpot Free ($0) = $446/month for 10,000+ personalized outreach/month
• Mid-Market ABM Stack: Clay ($800) + Instantly ($297) + Koala ($500) + HubSpot Pro ($890) = $2,487/month for comprehensive ABM
• Enterprise GTM Stack: Clay Enterprise + Salesforce + Outreach + 6sense for full-scale pipeline generation