How to Use Clay: The Complete Beginner Tutorial for B2B Sales Teams

1,227 leads enriched in under 6 minutes using just two data sources. That's what Clay can do once you understand how it works.

I've been using Clay for almost two years to run my agency, oneaway. We're a go-to-market agency specializing in cold email for B2B SaaS companies. We've used Clay to help our clients generate over $100 million in pipeline. Any B2B company I start, I would use Clay to power the outbound. It's that powerful.

This guide covers everything you need to know: the features, the pricing, how to build your first table, and by the end, you'll have a solid foundation to start building your own lead lists and outbound campaigns.

What is Clay?

Clay is a data enrichment and go-to-market automation platform that lets you build your entire outbound motion in one place.

The core value proposition: Clay gives you access to 105+ data sources, AI-powered research, and lets you automate the entire prospecting process.

Here's what makes it different from other tools:

Key insight: If you're paying for Apollo, ZoomInfo, Lusha, and a bunch of other data tools separately, Clay can consolidate most of that into one platform and actually save you money.

Clay Pricing Breakdown

Clay has pricing tiers that scale based on how many credits you use per month. Here's the complete breakdown:

Free Plan - $0/month

• 100 credits per month
• Access to Claygent (Clay's most powerful feature)
• Credits roll over month to month
• Access to all integrations

Starter Plan - $149/month

• 2,000 credits per month
• Up to 5,000 searches when building tables
• Scheduling feature for automated workflows
• Phone number enrichment
• Add your own API keys
• Signals (website visitors, Twitter mentions, etc.)

Explorer Plan - $349/month

This is the plan I recommend for most people.

• 10,000 credits per month
• Up to 10,000 searches per month
• HTTP API integration for custom workflows
• Webhooks (easily my favorite feature)
• Email sequencing integration
• Exclude people/company filters

Pro Plan - $800/month

• 50,000 credits per month
• Up to 25,000 searches
• CRM integrations (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive)

The jump from Explorer to Pro is significant, but the CRM integration alone makes it worth it for companies with cluttered CRMs. Sales teams constantly updating records, checking who to reach out to, verifying if contacts are still at the job—Clay automates all of that.

Enterprise Plan - Custom Pricing

• Unlimited rows
• 40 action columns per table
• AI prompting support
• Data engineering for Snowflake
• Dedicated Slack support
• Credit reporting analytics
• SSO

Understanding Clay Credits

Think of credits as tokens. Most enrichment actions cost credits:

The hidden value of Clay's credit system: Before Clay existed, I would have to sign up for 10 different tools to test which one had the best coverage for my ICP. I'd spend way more than $349 just figuring that out.

With the $349 Explorer plan, I get 10,000 credits to test and figure out which email provider, which data source, which enrichment works best for my specific targeting. Once I know the right fit, I can purchase directly from that provider and add my own API key to Clay.

Pro tip: Clay only charges you for the provider that successfully returns data. If Prospeo finds the email, you only pay for Prospeo. If Lead Magic finds it, you only pay for Lead Magic.

Creating Your First Clay Table

Here's the number one thing that helped me master Clay: You need to get your hands dirty.

Don't just read this guide. Follow along. Click around. Build things yourself.

I watched tons of Clay tutorials and thought I understood it. I was still confused. Then I spent an entire week locked in my friend James' basement doing nothing but building Clay tables. No distractions. Just me, Clay, and a mission to figure this thing out. By the end of the week, everything clicked.

Getting Started

When you log into Clay, you have several options:

1. New - Create a blank table
2. Import CSV - Upload existing data
3. Import from CRM - Pull from HubSpot/Salesforce (paid plans)
4. Find Companies - Start with company search
5. Find People - Start with people search

For beginners, I recommend clicking either Find Companies or Find People.

Understanding the Interface

A Clay table is essentially a very smart spreadsheet. You can have multiple tables in a workbook.

Column types available:

• Enrichment - Actions that pull data (find email, find domain, etc.)
• Use AI - Natural language AI research
• Message - Draft cold emails (newer feature)
• Waterfall - Chain multiple providers together
• Formula - Manipulate data with plain English (free, no credits)
• Merge columns - Combine data from multiple columns
• Text/Number/Currency/Date - Basic data types
• Checkbox - For workflow tracking
• Select - Dropdown options
• Assign - Assign to team members

Critical setting: Before running anything, go to Edit Table Settings and turn off Auto Update. This prevents Clay from running the entire table by accident and burning through your credits.

Finding Companies in Clay

Let's build a lead list together. Click on Find Companies and you'll see filters for:

Basic Filters:

• Industry
• Company size
• Funding raised
• Location

AI Filters (newer, huge time saver):

• B2B vs B2C
• Revenue streams (subscription, one-time, etc.)

Example: Building a Software Company List

Here's a real example of filters I might use:

This narrowed my search to about 950 companies—a solid list to work with.

Additional options:

• Exclude companies - Upload a DNC list to avoid contacting certain companies
• Lookalike lists - Find companies similar to a specific company (e.g., "companies similar to oneaway.io")
• Product description filter - Describe what the company sells

The product description filter is clever because it saves credits. Previously, you'd have to scrape each website and ask AI if they offer X, Y, or Z. Now Clay handles that in the filtering stage.

What You Get for Free

When you run a company search, Clay loads this data at no credit cost:

• Company name
• Company size
• Type
• Domain
• Country
• Industry
• Location
• Description
• LinkedIn URL
• Annual revenue

I have not spent a single credit yet. This is all free.

Finding People at Those Companies

The next step after building a company table is finding the people who work there.

The Credit-Saving Strategy Most People Miss

This is the simplest way to save credits and money on Clay, and most people miss it:

Do your company-level research BEFORE finding people.

If you're building an outbound campaign tailored to the company, you're using data points specific to the company—not the person. If you do the scraping at the person level instead of the company level, you spend 2-3x the credits.

Example: Let's say I generate a one-liner like "Saw that Quartic helps manufacturers with AI for manufacturing decision intelligence."

If I have 2 leads from Quartic, I can use that one-liner for both. I spent credits once instead of twice.

Adding People to Your Table

1. Click Actions → Sources → Find People at These Companies
2. Set your filters:
   • Job title (owner, C-suite, etc.)
   • Language
   • Location
3. Click Continue → Import to New Table

You'll now have a people table with:

• Full name
• Domain
• Location
• LinkedIn profile

Again, this is still free. No credits spent yet.

Pulling Company Data into Your People Table

Use the Pull from Table feature to bring company-level research into your people table. Click on a cell, select the company table as the source, and the data maps automatically.

Now both people from Quartic have the same company one-liner, and I only generated it once.

Email Enrichment with Waterfalls

This is probably the feature Clay is most known for.

What is a Waterfall?

A waterfall chains multiple email providers together. If Provider A doesn't find the email, Provider B tries. Then C, then D.

Setting Up Email Enrichment

1. Click Add Enrichment → Work Email
2. Use Quick Setup (recommended for beginners)
3. Clay automatically maps: Full name, Company domain, LinkedIn profile, Company name

How the Waterfall Works

The default waterfall might look like:

1. Lead Magic - First attempt
2. Validate - Check if email is valid
3. Prospeo - Second attempt if Lead Magic fails
4. Validate - Check again
5. Apollo - Third attempt
6. Continue until email found...

The smart part: Clay only charges you for the provider that successfully returns the email.

Running the Waterfall

1. Turn off Auto Update (if you haven't)
2. Click the run button for specific rows or "Run First 10 Rows" to test
3. Watch the waterfall execute step by step

Real example from my test:

• Lead Magic found almost all emails on first pass
• Validation ran
• Invalid emails triggered the next provider
• Second provider found valid emails
• Final output: clean, validated work emails

Optimizing Your Waterfall

After running on a larger table, analyze which providers have the best coverage for your ICP.

If Prospeo finds the majority of emails for your target audience, consider:

1. Moving Prospeo to the top of the waterfall
2. Contacting Prospeo directly for an enterprise deal
3. Adding your own API key to save credits

To add your own API key: Click on the provider → Account → Add Account → Paste your API key

Clay encourages this. They're not trying to lock you into their credit system—they want you to find the right provider and save money.

AI Research with Claygent

Claygent is Clay's AI feature, and in my opinion, it's their most powerful capability.

Basic AI Research

Click Add Column → Use AI and describe what you want:

"Visit the domain and generate an output that looks like: Saw that [company name] helps [target ICP] with [solution]."

Clay generates the prompt for you. You can also write prompts manually.

Using AI Templates

Clay has hundreds of pre-built templates from Clay and the community:

• LinkedIn profile highlights
• Use location to write email first line
• Use education to write email first line
• Company pain point extraction
• Job posting analysis

Example template: LinkedIn Profile Highlights

Input a LinkedIn profile URL to extract three unique noteworthy aspects about the individual based on their background, achievements, skills, or interests. Each point is limited to 15 words max.

Output example:

• "Proven track record in driving strategic partnerships and business growth"
• "Expertise in leveraging technology for innovative solutions and efficiency"
• "Strong commitment to community involvement and volunteer initiatives"

Advanced AI Settings

• Context - Add background information for better prompts
• Credit budget - Set limits for complex, multi-step research
• Output format - Text or JSON schema
• Knowledge base - Upload PDFs (like your best email copy) for the AI to reference
• Examples - Add input/output examples for better quality

Pro tip on examples: Most people skip this. The best AI outputs come from prompts backed by a big list of examples. If you spend time here, your quality improves dramatically. This kind of personalization is what separates messages that get replies from those that get ignored—understanding why prospects ignore cold outreach will help you craft better AI prompts.

Choosing AI Models

Clay offers multiple models with different costs and capabilities:

Clay Navigator is the most expensive but can do things like navigate to a LinkedIn profile, click through to the About section, and extract specific information.

Exporting and Sending to Your Outreach Tool

Once your table is enriched, you're ready to launch your outbound campaign. If you want to maximize the impact of this data, check out our guide on LinkedIn outbound strategy—the two channels work beautifully together.

Here are your options for exporting:

Option 1: Export to CSV

Download the table and upload to your email tool manually.

Option 2: Native Integrations

Clay integrates directly with:

• Instantly
• Lemlist
• Smartlead
• HubSpot
• Salesforce
• Pipedrive

Sending to Instantly (Example)

1. Click Add Enrichment → Search "Instantly"
2. Select Add Lead to Campaign
3. Choose your campaign from the dropdown
4. Map your fields:
   • Work email (auto-mapped)
   • First name (auto-mapped)
   • Last name (auto-mapped)
   • Company name
   • Custom variables (your personalization)

Adding custom variables:

1. Click Add Custom Variable
2. Name it (e.g., "school_intro_line")
3. Use / to reference any column from your table
4. Save and run

The lead gets added to Instantly with all your personalization variables ready to use in your email sequence.

The Beautiful Part

Once you build this table, you can duplicate it and use it as a template for every future campaign. Just swap out the ICP filters and hit run.

That's how agencies like mine scale outbound for dozens of clients.

What Else Can Clay Do?

We've only scratched the surface. Clay can also:

• Scrape Google Maps for local businesses
• Monitor LinkedIn for job changes
• Enrich your CRM with fresh data
• Build lookalike audiences
• Automate multi-step workflows
• Track website visitors (with Signals)
• Monitor Twitter mentions
• Analyze job postings to identify hiring companies

Resources for Learning More

1. Clay University - Free course taught by Clay experts
2. Clay Templates - Hundreds of pre-built workflows
3. Clay Slack Community - Learn from other users, ask questions
4. Clay's YouTube channel - Official tutorials and updates

Frequently Asked Questions

Key Takeaways

• Clay consolidates 105+ data sources into one platform, potentially replacing multiple tool subscriptions
• The $349 Explorer plan is the sweet spot for most B2B teams—enough credits to test providers and scale campaigns
• Waterfalls are Clay's killer feature—chain multiple providers together and only pay for what works
• Do company-level research first before finding people to avoid spending 2-3x the credits
• Turn off Auto Update immediately to prevent accidental credit burns
• Claygent and AI templates can generate personalized research at scale
• The key to mastering Clay is building—don't just watch tutorials, create tables and experiment
• Once you find your best data provider, add your own API key to save money