How to Automate Email Outreach

Import contacts, generate personalized content with AI, send from your own domain, and track engagement.

Overview

Formt lets you build a complete outreach pipeline: import contacts, generate personalized content with AI, send from your domain, track engagement, and handle unsubscribes. Everything is built in. No external email service needed.

Each step in the pipeline is a workflow step you can configure and connect. This guide walks through the full setup from contact import to engagement tracking.

Set Up Your Sending Domain

Before sending outreach, verify your own domain so emails come from your address (e.g. sales@yourdomain.com) instead of a shared Formt address. This is required for sending to contact lists.

Add three DNS records at your domain registrar, verify them in Settings, and follow the warmup schedule to build your sending reputation gradually.

Set Up a Custom Sending Domain →

Import Your Contact List

Use Google Sheets (Read All Rows) or CSV Import to bring contacts into the workflow. Each row in your spreadsheet becomes a record you can process individually: name, email, company, and any other columns become fields you can reference downstream.

Step Guide: Google Sheets →Step Guide: CSV →

Generate Personalized Content

Use AI Generate or AI Email Generate to write personalized emails for each contact. The Email action lets you set a purpose (cold outreach, follow-up, newsletter, etc.) and generates a subject line and HTML body tailored to that purpose.

Reference upstream data with field mappings to include contact-specific details like their name, company, or role in the generated content.

Step Guide: AI Generate →

Send Emails in a Loop

Use For Each to iterate over your contacts, and Send Email (Custom Domain) to send to each one. Each iteration sends a personalized email from your domain to a single contact.

Step Guide: For Each →Step Guide: Send Email →

Track Engagement

Add an Email Tracking step after Send Email to monitor opens, clicks, bounces, and spam complaints. Use a Condition step to branch on engagement. For example, send a follow-up to openers, or skip non-responders.

Step Guide: Email Tracking →

Handle Unsubscribes and Bounces

Email Tracking automatically suppresses hard bounces and spam complaints. The Suppression List step lets you unsubscribe contacts programmatically. Future sends automatically skip suppressed addresses, protecting your domain reputation.

Step Guide: Suppression List →Managing Your Suppression List →

Templates

Start from a pre-built template to get a working outreach pipeline in minutes. Each template includes the full workflow with steps pre-configured.

Email Campaign Pipeline →Lead Enrichment Pipeline →Bulk Property Mailer →

Tips

Start with a small list (under 50) when warming up a new domain.
Use the Email action on AI Generate for purpose-aware content that follows best practices for your email type.
Add an Email Tracking step with a 2-5 day delay to capture engagement data before following up.
Always use Custom Domain for outreach to contact lists. The Formt domain is for individual notifications only.