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Will Allred
Will Allred
Feb 19, 2026
6
min
Product Help

Build a Lead List in Clay for Ora

Before you start

Make sure you have:

  • Access to Ora and your own Clay account
  • A list of existing customers or clear ICP criteria
  • A target region and industry focus

🎥 Watch: Creating a Targeted Lead List with Clay (4 min)
​This video walks you through the process of creating a lead list in Clay

Step 1: Create a lookalike company list

Start with your best-fit customers, and build a lookalike account list in Clay.

  • Extract domains from a customer list using ChatGPT or a spreadsheet
  • In Clay, use the Find Companies source and input your domain list
  • Apply filters for:
    • Company size (ex: 2–10 employees)
    • Location (ex: United States)
    • Industry (match your customer segments)

Step 2: Exclude customers and current opportunities

Avoid reaching out to people already in your world.

  • Use Lookup Record to match domains against Salesforce or HubSpot
  • Match on fields like domain, account name, or website
  • Use OR logic to catch data inconsistencies
  • (If you’re building this for a client, upload their customer list as an exclusion table)

Step 3: Enrich company-level data

Make sure each company is a fit, before finding contacts.

  • Use Clay AI to verify:
    • Is the company B2B?
    • Does it match your target industry?
    • Is it a competitor to Ora?
  • Use Web Research prompts for validation
  • Tip: stick to Clay's “collegiate” model to avoid unnecessary credit usage

Step 4: Qualify accounts before pulling contacts

Filter to find companies worth contacting.

  • Use a formula like:
  • If B2B = true AND Industry match = true AND Competitor = false → ✅

Step 5: Find founders or decision-makers

Use Clay’s contact enrichment tools:

  • Start with Find Contacts at Company
  • Filter by title = “Founder”
  • If no match, use Clay AI:
  • “Visit this website and return the founder’s full name and LinkedIn.”
  • Optionally run a secondary enrichment step to confirm title and email

Step 6: Enrich and validate emails

Make sure emails are safe to send.

  • Move your contact list into a new table
  • Enrich emails with ZeroBounce, LeadMagic, or another trusted provider
  • Only include contacts marked “safe to send”
  • Turn on Require Validation Success in Clay to skip invalids automatically

Step 7: Upload to Ora

Ensure your email column is named email to ensure a successful upload to Ora.

About the Author

Build a Lead List in Clay for Ora
Will Allred