$ man clay-wiki/web-reveal-flow

When someone visits your website and a web reveal tool (Vector, Midbound, or similar) identifies their company, the web reveal qualification flow takes over. It qualifies the company against ICP, finds the right contacts at that company, qualifies their personas, checks MX records, and routes them to the right outreach platform. The entire flow runs in Clay — from "anonymous website visitor" to "qualified lead in an outreach sequence" — without a human touching it.

PATTERN

This is the most important architectural decision in the web reveal flow. You split qualification into two separate prompts: Prompt 1: Company Qualification — does this company fit ICP? Check firmographics, tech stack, industry, revenue, employee count. Output: QUALIFIED / NEEDS_RESEARCH / NOT_QUALIFIED with score and reasoning. Prompt 2: Persona Qualification — does this contact match a valid buyer persona? Check job title against tier definitions. Output: MATCHED / NOT_MATCHED with tier, priority, and reasoning. Prompt 3: Routing Decision — combine both results. QUALIFIED company + MATCHED persona = route to outreach. QUALIFIED company + NOT_MATCHED persona = skip contact, flag company for different contact sourcing. NEEDS_RESEARCH + MATCHED persona = manual review. NOT_QUALIFIED = skip entirely. The split matters because a company can be perfect but the contact wrong (wrong department, wrong seniority). And a contact can be perfect but the company wrong (too small, wrong industry). Both dimensions have to pass.

PATTERN

After qualification, you need to decide: Instantly or HeyReach? The answer isn't a preference — it's determined by MX records. Use Clay's HTTP column to check MX records on every qualified contact's email domain: • Google Workspace (google.com in MX) → Route to Instantly. I purchased Google-only sending infrastructure. Google-to-Google delivery is reliable. • Microsoft 365 / Exchange (outlook in MX, protection.outlook) → Route to HeyReach for LinkedIn. Can't reliably deliver to non-Google inboxes from Instantly. • No email found → Route to HeyReach for LinkedIn. Fallback to connection request. Microsoft MX means enterprise. Adjust your approach accordingly — these contacts are harder to reach by email, but LinkedIn outreach with a strong persona match converts well.

PATTERN

1. Web reveal fires — company identified from website visit 2. CRM lookup — is this company already in pipeline? If yes, alert the account owner instead of cold outreach 3. Company qualification prompt — score against ICP criteria, identify primary gate 4. If NOT_QUALIFIED → stop 5. If QUALIFIED or NEEDS_RESEARCH → source contacts at the company 6. Persona qualification prompt — match title to tier 7. If NOT_MATCHED → skip contact, try next 8. Single-provider email lookup (Prospeo or LeadMagic) — only on MATCHED personas 9. MX record check on email domain 10. Routing decision prompt — combine company score + persona tier + MX provider 11. Route to Instantly (Google) or HeyReach (non-Google) 12. Personalization research prompt — generate icebreaker referencing the website visit Steps 2-12 run automatically. The only human touchpoint is manual review for NEEDS_RESEARCH companies with MATCHED personas. Note: persona qualification runs before the email lookup — don't waste credits finding emails for people you'll never contact.

PRO TIP

Web reveal leads have a unique personalization advantage: you know they visited your site. The icebreaker can reference the visit without being creepy — "noticed [company] has been looking at [product/service] solutions" is enough to signal relevance without revealing surveillance. The research prompt for web reveal should generate: • {icebreaker} — references the company's likely pain point (not the website visit directly) • {pain_point} — specific to the company's industry and current challenges • {service_fit} — maps the partner's offering to the company's likely need Don't say "I saw you visited our website." That's creepy. Say "companies in [industry] are increasingly looking at [solution] — here's why it matters for [company]." Reference the intent without exposing the tracking.

ANTI-PATTERN

Running the full flow without CRM lookup first. If the company already has an active deal, your cold outreach undercuts the AE working the account. CRM lookup is step 2 for a reason. Another mistake: running a single qualification prompt instead of splitting company and contact. A single prompt conflates two independent evaluations. The company might be perfect but the contact is an intern. The split catches that. Always split. Skipping the MX check is also common. If you send every qualified contact to email, you'll tank deliverability when half your list runs Microsoft. MX classification is the routing layer that keeps your domain healthy.

PRO TIP

MX-based routing only works if your sending infrastructure is set up correctly. Secondary domains, DNS records (SPF/DKIM/DMARC), inbox provider splits, warmup timelines, and per-inbox sending limits — all of that determines whether the emails you route actually land. See the Email Infrastructure Guide at /knowledge/email for the full breakdown of the infrastructure layer that sits underneath this play.