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Outreach
AI PR Agent: Auto-Pitch Forbes Writers at Scale
An AI-powered PR outreach agent that scrapes Forbes writers, reads their recent articles, and crafts hyper-personalized cold email pitches based on their latest content combined with your unique insight. Designed for founders and marketers who want earned media without a PR agency. Automates the full loop from research to pitch to inbox management.
Tools
💡 Why this flow is clever
Instead of generic press releases, the AI reads what each journalist actually cares about right now and manufactures a pitch they're statistically more likely to open — turning PR into a scalable data-driven outbound motion.
triggerAPIFY
Scrape Forbes contributor profiles and their recent article URLs
Use an Apify actor (e.g. a Forbes scraper or generic web scraper) to pull a list of Forbes writers including their name, beat/topic, contributor page URL, and links to their 3-5 most recent published articles. Store results in a structured dataset or push to a Google Sheet or Airtable base.
actionCLAY
Fetch and extract article text from each writer's recent post URLs
In Clay, use the HTTP request or web scrape enrichment to pull the full text content from each writer's recent article URLs collected in the previous step. This gives the AI the raw material to understand the journalist's current focus, tone, and angle.
actionOPENAI
Use GPT-4 to write a personalized pitch referencing the writer's recent work
Pass each writer's recent article summaries plus your pre-defined 'unique insight' or story angle into a GPT-4 prompt via Clay's AI column or OpenAI API. The prompt instructs the model to write a concise, compelling media pitch that references a specific point from their recent work, explains why your story is a natural next piece for them, and includes a clear ask. Output one pitch per writer.
actionHUNTER.IO
Look up verified email addresses for each Forbes writer
Use Hunter.io's domain search or author finder (via API call in Clay or direct integration) to find and verify the professional email address for each writer using their name and the forbes.com domain. Flag any low-confidence or unverified emails to avoid bounces. Store verified emails back in your Clay table or spreadsheet.
actionINSTANTLY
Enroll writers in a personalized cold email sequence with the AI-generated pitch
Push verified contacts and their AI-generated pitch copy into Instantly via API or CSV upload. Set up a campaign where the first email uses the personalized pitch body. Configure a 2-3 step follow-up sequence for non-responders (e.g. a brief bump on day 3 and a final graceful close on day 7). Use Instantly's sending limits to protect domain reputation.
actionOPENAI
Auto-draft or send replies to writer responses using an AI agent
Set up a reply-monitoring agent (via Instantly webhooks + an OpenAI-powered backend or a tool like n8n/Make) that detects incoming replies, classifies them as interested, requesting more info, or negative, and either auto-responds with appropriate follow-up copy or flags hot leads for human review. Positive replies can trigger a Slack notification or CRM entry for immediate follow-up.