Debating the Need for Apollo, Clay, and Instantly Tools

Kristian S. · 2025-10-28 22:40:39.19761+00

I'm debating if 3 tools are needed/optimal or redundant: • Apollo (leads) --> Clay (enriched) --> Instantly (sent) What workflow do you use are you considering?

Debating the Need for Apollo, Clay, and Instantly Tools | Clay

10 comments

· Sorted by Oldest

Kabeer A.
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That’s actually a solid stack Apollo → Clay → Instantly is a common GTM workflow. Apollo gives you the raw leads, Clay handles enrichment, validation, and personalization, and Instantly manages sending and deliverability. The key is making sure each tool handles only what it’s best at e.g. use Apollo mainly for contact discovery, Clay for enrichment/scoring/routing, and Instantly for sequencing. If you’re not doing deep enrichment or multi-source validation in Clay, you could skip Apollo and just find people directly in Clay.
Kristian S.
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Kabeer A. sincere thanks for your insights
Willy H.
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You could just get away with doing it with Clay & Apollo if you don’t want a lot of tools in your stack
Willy H.
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What’s your goal?
Kristian S.
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Willy H., thanks for asking. Here's an immiediate goal: Creator-Focused Brand Launch Surge Play Target brands in the beauty and wellness sectors with recent creator-collaboration product launches.
Description: Target brands launching new creator-collaboration products in beauty or wellness.
Starting Signal: Find Companies
Signals to Look For: Recent product launch blog posts mentioning influencer/creator partnerships in beauty or wellness sectors.
Potential Data Combination: Blog/release notes + homepage enrichment + social bios for creator/influencer mentions.
Personalization Angle: Reference recent creator-collab product launch and named influencer in outreach.
👀
Kristian S.
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Miguel we haven't started with Instantly, yet. But we're aiming to use it for email reach outs (after we've collected and cleaned our leads)
Asher
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Kristian S. Personally, I would start with choosing the right data source. In your case, it seems like the focus is on targeting D2C brands. Storeleads would be your best source of data as compared to Apollo.
Storeleads to download the list of D2C brands that fit your criteria
Using Claygent to scrape each websites’ blog for mentions of influencer partnership. Or get Claygent to do a ‘google search’ on whether the brand has done any influencer partnerships recently.
Once you have further filtered it done, you can 2 choices to find the key personas

1.
Use Clay’s Find People - But note that Clay might have outdated information sometimes
2.
Use AI Findign Method - Use Claygent to find the full name and title of key personas, and then use the waterfall method to find their emails and validate them.
Hope that helps!
Kristian S.
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Asher, thanks so much 🙂
1
Miguel
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Asher great comment, what do you suggest for lead gen to reach CPG and D2C brand owners for pitching agency services? Apollo is best?
Asher
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Miguel Are you referring to email sending tool? Or are you referring to lead sourcing?

Kabeer A.
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That’s actually a solid stack Apollo → Clay → Instantly is a common GTM workflow. Apollo gives you the raw leads, Clay handles enrichment, validation, and personalization, and Instantly manages sending and deliverability. The key is making sure each tool handles only what it’s best at e.g. use Apollo mainly for contact discovery, Clay for enrichment/scoring/routing, and Instantly for sequencing. If you’re not doing deep enrichment or multi-source validation in Clay, you could skip Apollo and just find people directly in Clay.
Kristian S.
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·
Kabeer A. sincere thanks for your insights
Willy H.
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·
You could just get away with doing it with Clay & Apollo if you don’t want a lot of tools in your stack
Willy H.
·
·
What’s your goal?
Kristian S.
·
·
Willy H., thanks for asking. Here's an immiediate goal: Creator-Focused Brand Launch Surge Play Target brands in the beauty and wellness sectors with recent creator-collaboration product launches.
Description: Target brands launching new creator-collaboration products in beauty or wellness.
Starting Signal: Find Companies
Signals to Look For: Recent product launch blog posts mentioning influencer/creator partnerships in beauty or wellness sectors.
Potential Data Combination: Blog/release notes + homepage enrichment + social bios for creator/influencer mentions.
Personalization Angle: Reference recent creator-collab product launch and named influencer in outreach.
👀
Kristian S.
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·
Miguel we haven't started with Instantly, yet. But we're aiming to use it for email reach outs (after we've collected and cleaned our leads)
Asher
·
·
Kristian S. Personally, I would start with choosing the right data source. In your case, it seems like the focus is on targeting D2C brands. Storeleads would be your best source of data as compared to Apollo.
Storeleads to download the list of D2C brands that fit your criteria
Using Claygent to scrape each websites’ blog for mentions of influencer partnership. Or get Claygent to do a ‘google search’ on whether the brand has done any influencer partnerships recently.
Once you have further filtered it done, you can 2 choices to find the key personas

1.
Use Clay’s Find People - But note that Clay might have outdated information sometimes
2.
Use AI Findign Method - Use Claygent to find the full name and title of key personas, and then use the waterfall method to find their emails and validate them.
Hope that helps!
Kristian S.
·
·
Asher, thanks so much 🙂
1
Miguel
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·
Asher great comment, what do you suggest for lead gen to reach CPG and D2C brand owners for pitching agency services? Apollo is best?
Asher
·
·
Miguel Are you referring to email sending tool? Or are you referring to lead sourcing?