Building an AI Automation Agency: How to Scrape and Personalize 886 Leads in Hours

Starting an AI automation agency without technical experience might seem daunting, but with the right tools and approach, it's entirely possible. One entrepreneur recently shared their journey of building an AI automation agency from the foundation of their existing marketing experience, focusing specifically on workflow automations for construction companies.

The Lead Generation Process

A critical early step in building any agency is lead generation. The traditional approach of manually researching prospects is time-consuming and expensive when outsourced to virtual assistants. However, by leveraging AI tools, this entrepreneur was able to scrape and personalize 886 leads in just a few hours.

Here's the streamlined process they developed:

1. Used Apollo.io to identify potential construction industry leads
2. Leveraged Apify to scrape and export the lead information
3. Employed Lead Magic to gather detailed “about” information from company websites
4. Created a Make.com (formerly Integromat) automation to process the data
5. Used ChatGPT to generate personalized icebreakers based on each company's profile
6. Automatically populated a spreadsheet with all contact information and custom icebreakers

The Power of Personalization

The personalized icebreakers created through this process go far beyond generic outreach templates. Examples include:

• “Love roofing innovations. I'm also working in construction, wanted to run something by you.”
• “Love your work in government contracting. I'm also navigating an 8A certification process, wanted to run something by you.”
• “Love building backyard offices. I'm also working in construction, why don't I run something by you?”

These personalized openers demonstrate knowledge of the prospect's business and create an immediate connection, dramatically improving response rates compared to generic mass emails.

Why This Approach Works

This automation strategy offers several advantages over traditional outreach methods:

Time efficiency: What might take a virtual assistant days or weeks can be accomplished in hours.

Scalability: The process can be repeated to quickly build lists of thousands of qualified leads.

Personalization at scale: Each message feels custom-written to the recipient, despite being generated through automation.

Industry-specific targeting: By focusing on construction companies, the entrepreneur leverages their existing industry knowledge to create more relevant automations.

Next Steps in the Process

After generating these leads, the next phase involves:

1. Warming up multiple email accounts in a tool like Instantly AI
2. Setting up automated cold email sequences
3. Continuing to scrape additional leads (with a goal of at least 4,000)
4. Fine-tuning the automation process

Cold email remains a cost-effective client acquisition channel in 2023, especially compared to paid advertising or the slow build of organic content marketing.

Leveraging Industry Experience

One particularly valuable insight is how the entrepreneur focused on construction companies due to their background in construction administration. This industry knowledge gives them credibility when developing automation solutions because they understand:

• Back-office processes specific to construction
• Common workflow issues in the industry
• The importance of creating systems usable by all stakeholders

This approach of combining AI technology with deep industry expertise creates a powerful value proposition for potential clients.

The Investment Reality

It's worth noting that while this automation process is powerful, it isn't free. The entrepreneur mentioned investing in several paid tools to make the system work. However, they emphasized that this investment is substantially lower than traditional advertising costs and will quickly pay for itself through client acquisition.

For home gym enthusiasts looking to build their own fitness business, these same automation principles could be applied to identify and reach potential clients interested in home fitness solutions.