Signal Automation: Industry News Alerts

What it does

The automation reads niche industry news, like startup and scale-up news, insurance trade press or retail trade press. When a company that fits the ICP shows up, it:

• Checks the company's recent news and what it means
• Finds the key decision makers, with title, email and phone
• Writes a short intel report and call talking points
• Drafts a personal email (subject and body)
• Sends it all to sales in Slack with Approve or Decline

If sales approve, the contact and the email go into HubSpot, ready for the sales sequence.

Problem

Trade news is full of buying signals: funding rounds, new leaders, expansions, launches. Sales teams rarely have time to read it, so the moment passes.

Even when someone spots a story, finding the right person and writing a good message takes time. By then a competitor has called.

My role

I designed and built it with a sales lead:

• Picked the news sources and the ICP rules that decide what counts as a lead
• Built the news, enrichment and research steps in Clay
• Wrote the AI prompts for the intel report, call points and email
• Designed the Slack approve or decline step, so sales stay in control
• Connected approved leads to HubSpot

Workflow

1. 01
   Watch

   Bring in new articles from chosen industry publications.

2. 02
   Match

   Check the company against the ICP.

3. 03
   Research

   Read the company's recent news and name the likely reason to talk.

4. 04
   Find people

   Find and enrich key decision makers with title, email and phone.

5. 05
   Prepare

   Write an intel report, call points and a draft email.

6. 06
   Approve

   Post it to Slack for sales to approve or decline.

7. 07
   Load

   Send approved contacts and emails into HubSpot and a sales sequence.

Tools and integrations

• News feeds and workflow: Clay
• Contact enrichment: Clay waterfall enrichment
• AI research and writing: Claude
• Approval: Slack
• CRM and sequences: HubSpot

Example output

Illustrative only. Made-up companies and people.

A Slack alert like this:

New signal: Harbour Mutual (insurance, 300 staff)
Source: industry news - "Harbour Mutual appoints first Chief Digital Officer"
Why it matters: new digital leader, likely reviewing systems and partners in the next 6 months
Decision makers: Chief Digital Officer, COO, Head of Distribution (email and phone found)
Call points:
- Congrats on the appointment, ask about first priorities
- Link to a similar insurer we've helped
- Offer a short review, not a pitch
Draft email: subject + body attached
[Approve] [Decline]

Results & status

• Built and running for the sales team
• Works with any industry publication that fits the ICP
• Not yet measured publicly: approval rate, meetings booked, pipeline

Limitations

• Only as good as the news sources chosen
• Phone and email finds aren't always available or accurate
• Too many weak alerts and sales start ignoring them, so the ICP filter needs tuning
• Outreach has to follow local spam and privacy rules

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