How to Turn Someone Else’s Content Into Hot Leads (Without Being Weird About It)

Eugene Suslov 08 Sep 2025

You don’t need to write viral posts or create a bunch of content from scratch to run a great outreach campaign. At Reply.io, we found a smarter way: we ride the wave of engagement that’s already happening.

Instead of chasing cold prospects, we go where the attention already is: LinkedIn posts our target audience is engaging with.

They’ve already raised their hand by liking, commenting, or sharing something related to our world.

That’s your signal.

Those are warm leads.

And with the right tools and messaging, you can start real conversations that turn into pipeline.

In this guide, you’ll learn how we do it step by step: from finding the right posts and scraping likers, to cleaning your list, segmenting prospects, and sending personalized messages that get replies.

We’ll cover:

How to spot high-engagement posts your prospects already love
How to pull a list of everyone who interacted (fast)
How to clean and segment that list so you’re only talking to the right people
How to write outreach that feels like a conversation, not a pitch
How we use Clay + AI to scale personalization without sounding like a robot
And finally, how we follow up naturally once someone replies

You’ll also get tools, templates, prompts, and real-life examples from our team at Reply.io.

Think of this as your playbook for:

Getting warm leads without cold-calling
Building lists without Sales Nav or manual prospecting
Starting conversations that lead somewhere

Let’s start with where the gold is—LinkedIn. It’s full of people showing interest in the exact stuff you talk about.

You just need to know how to spot them—and we’ll share with you how.

How we find ready-to-talk prospects on LinkedIn

First, we look for posts on LinkedIn that our target audience is already interacting with. It’s like joining a party that’s already buzzing instead of trying to host your own.

We search for keywords our audience cares about, things like “AI,” “sales engagement tools,” or “B2B lead generation.”
Then we filter for posts from the last week or month to make sure the conversations are still fresh.
Once we spot a few posts with good traction (100+ likes is a sweet spot), we zoom in on the engaged users: the ones liking, commenting, and sharing.

To make it faster, we use tools like Persana, Captain Data, or RapidAPI. With just a post link, these tools give us a list of everyone who interacted.

There are prospects at our fingertips.

So, once we find a great post, it’s time to pull the list of people who engaged with it, usually in just a few minutes. You can do it just as fast…

The easiest way to scrape LinkedIn likes and build prospect lists

Reaching out to people who liked a LinkedIn post is one of the easiest ways to start conversations = they’re already showing interest!

If you want to scrape post-likers, Captain Data works like this:

Go to Captain Data and search for the workflow “Find Likers with Email from LinkedIn Post.”
Create a new job.
- Paste the LinkedIn post URL you want to scrape.
- Choose your Captain Data account.
- Set the maximum number of results if you want to capture more people.
Name your workflow (add the date = super helpful later!) and launch it.
After a few minutes, you’ll get a clean list of post-likers, ready to filter by your ideal customer profile if needed.

You can export the list to a CSV, filter out irrelevant contacts, and…let’s start with cleaning the list for now.

Don’t worry. It’s easy!

How to clean your prospect list without losing your mind

Cleaning your list doesn’t have to be overwhelming. In fact, once you know what to look for (and what to do with it), it becomes a quick habit that saves you tons of time later.

Follow these steps to get it done:

Know what a “good” prospect looks like

Before you start deleting people, get clear on who should be on your list.

Think about your best customers.

What job titles do they have?
What industries are they in?
Company size?
Where are they located?

If someone doesn’t fit that picture, they probably don’t belong on your list.

As a pro tip → keep a short checklist of your ideal buyer. Refer to it every time you review your list.

Spot the red flags

Next, scan through your list and pick out the obvious mismatches.

Look for contacts who:

Use generic or role-based emails (like info@ or admin@)
Don’t match your target industry or region
Are in roles far from your buying persona
Haven’t interacted with your emails at all

If you know they’ll never convert, it’s time to do something about it.

Verify emails before you act

A step many skip, but it can save you a lot of pain later: verify email addresses.

Why? Because even if someone seems like a good fit, a bad email makes them unreachable, and can hurt your sender reputation.

Use an email verification tool like:

NeverBounce
ZeroBounce
Bouncer

Upload your list, run the check, and see what comes back. Most tools will tell you if an address is:

Valid
Invalid
Risky (like catch-alls or full inboxes)

What to do next:

Keep the valid emails
Double-check risky ones manually or tag them for later
Remove the invalid ones—no point keeping dead ends

This step keeps your list healthy and your emails out of spam.

Segment before you cut

Now that you’ve filtered out the bad emails, don’t jump straight into deleting contacts. First, organize them.

Create 3 simple groups:

Group	Checklist	Description
High-fit	Their email is verified. They’ve engaged with you before (opened emails, clicked, replied). They match your ideal customer—job title, company, or location checks out.	Filter for verified emails. Look for people who opened your last few campaigns or clicked links. If you’re using a CRM, tag them as “Engaged” or “High-fit.” In a spreadsheet, add a column and label them.
Unclear	They haven’t engaged much. Their email seems real, but there’s no activity. They don’t scream ideal customer, but they’re not obviously wrong either.	Don’t delete them. Instead, tag them as “Needs Review” or “Warming Up.” You can run a re-engagement campaign later or try to learn more about them with LinkedIn research or job title filtering.
Low-fit	Emails bounced or look suspicious. No engagement after multiple touches. Totally wrong audience (wrong industry, role, or geography).	It’s okay—thank them and let them go. Tag them as “Low-fit” or “Do Not Email.” Then move them to an archive or suppression list, or delete if you’re confident they’ll never convert.

You can do this in a spreadsheet, your CRM, or email platform. Use tags or columns—whatever keeps it easy to manage.

Clean with confidence

With segments and email verification done, you can start cleaning with clarity.

Your next move:

Keep and focus on the high-fit group
Hold off on the unclear group—consider a quick re-engagement email
Archive or delete the low-fit contacts

You’re not burning bridges—you’re focusing your energy where it counts.

Keep it clean going forward

Now that your list is fresh, don’t let it slide back into chaos.

Make cleanup easy with this approach:

Run email verification regularly (monthly or before big campaigns)
Set up lead filters to stop junk before it enters
Block disposable or role-based emails during form submissions
Review and clean new entries every week or two

Clean data = better results. Every time.

After your list is ready → plug it straight into Reply.io.

And…we don’t stop there.

We also clean and enrich the data: filling in missing fields like job titles, company names, and emails. No one wants to send outreach to a random intern when you’re targeting decision-makers.

This step is key to keeping our campaigns tight and relevant.

Now that you’ve got a clean list, it’s time to reach out. But forget the hard pitch…

How we start real conversations (without sounding salesy)

…once we’ve got our list, we focus on starting a conversation, not selling.

We send them a lead magnet: a valuable, free resource that’s genuinely helpful. This could be anything from a webinar and a guide to a checklist or even a custom video we made just for them.

Subject line: {{post_author}}’s post on LinkedIn

I know it was a few weeks ago, {{FirstName}}… but I saw {{post_topic}} Not sure if this is still something that interests you, but we recently ran a webinar on the top AI workflows that will shape outbound sales in 2025. {{Random | ‘Would you like me to send you the recording?’ | ‘Do you want me to send you the recording?’ | ‘Want me to send you the recording?’ | ‘Can I send you the recording?’}}

{{SendingEmail.SenderFirstName}}, Reply.io

All-In-One Outreach Platform

Used by over 3k businesses

Psss…custom videos work like magic for standing out. And, one more thing—don’t make your subject line “loud.”

ALL CAPS, clickbait, or overly clever lines might get attention, but the wrong kind. They look like spam and feel salesy before anyone even opens the email.

Instead, keep it calm and conversational. Use sentence case or lowercase, just like you’d write to a colleague. Think:

“saw your comment on LinkedIn”
“quick question about your post”

Simple. Personal. No shouting.

That’s what gets opened.

Also, the goal here isn’t to immediately pitch Reply.io. It’s to get a reply and start building trust.

P.S. We also use Spintax (spinning different versions of our sentences) to keep our messages fresh and boost deliverability. This helps avoid email filters that catch repetitive content.

Almost forgot to mention that this outreach can happen over LinkedIn messages, emails, or both (multi-channel outreach). We stay flexible, depending on where the person’s most active.

People get a ton of messages. To stand out, you need a hook—something that makes them say, “Okay, I’ll read more.”

Crafting hooks that prospects can’t ignore

Now, let’s talk about how we make our first message stand out.

We use Clay to generate personalized hooks for each prospect.

We feed it with:

The URL of the post they engaged with
The post’s author
The content of the post
A custom field we’ll use inside Reply.io with the personalization (based on ChatGPT prompt)

So, let’s make sure our first message feels personal, not robotic. We combine ChatGPT and Clay to create messages that feel personal, even at scale.

How we use ChatGPT + Clay to personalize outreach at scale

If you want to personalize your outreach at scale, using AI inside Clay can seriously speed things up. It’s like having a creative assistant sitting right next to you. You just have to tell it what you need.

A super simple way to set it up—even if you’re just getting started:

Step 1. Setting up Clay to work its magic

When you first jump into Clay, you can start fresh or, if you want a shortcut, you can use a ready-made template.

Click Browse Templates at the top of the integration window. You’ll see a bunch of setups for different tasks. Pick one that matches your goal so you don’t have to build everything from scratch.

Once you’re in, you’ll need to pick a use case.

You’ve got two main options:

Content creation, manipulation, and categorization: Perfect if you’re generating content based on the data you already have. No internet needed.
Web research (Claygent): Choose this if you want the AI to actually browse the web and pull in new data for you.

Most personalization tasks, like crafting custom first lines for LinkedIn outreach, fit into the first option: content creation.

Step 2: Crafting prompts that actually sound human

Now comes the fun part: telling the AI what to do.

You’ll see a Prompt field where you can write your instructions. Be clear and specific here. Imagine you’re talking to a smart intern who knows nothing about your campaign: what would you tell them?

You can use dynamic fields (type / to see them) to make your prompts personalized for each row of data. For example, you can pull in someone’s name, the post they liked, or even their company.

Here is our prompt for this campaign:

You are the best cold outreach expert in the world inspired by gurus such as Josh Braun and Will Allred. Based on the post content below, write a short, casual sentence that connects the post’s topic to the cold email structure below.

Follow these rules:

Start the sentence with: → “you engaged with [Author’s First Name]’s post” (always use ‘s possessive, and lowercase letters).

Keep the full sentence under 20 words.

Adapt the middle of the sentence based on the post type:

* If the post discusses an AI, AI sales agents or AI agents use case, continue with: → “on how to [action] using [AI/tool/AI sales agent/AI agent]”

* If the post shares a list of tools, continue with: → “sharing a list of AI-powered tools” (Always say “AI-powered tools” instead of just “tools.”)

* If the post shares a playbook or guide about using AI, continue with: → “sharing a playbook on how to [action] using [AI/tool]”

* If the post is about any other topic, continue with: → “about [topic]”

Special Naming Rules:

* If the post mentions Clay, use “Clay” instead of “AI”. (Clay is an AI-based tool for building targeted prospect lists and personalizing outreach at scale.)

* If the post mentions an AI model (e.g., ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, etc.), use the model’s name instead of the generic word “AI.”

* Otherwise, refer to “AI” generally.

Match the style and wording of the post content:

* Use similar language, tone, and keywords as the original post.

* Mirror the casualness, technicality, or directness of the post.

* Avoid rewording too much — keep it familiar so the Author

immediately recognizes the topic.

Additional rules:

* Focus only on the AI use case, list, or topic (no product names unless it’s Clay or an AI model; no company stages, no numbers, no outcomes).

* Be specific, use casual, human, natural language — not robotic, buzzwordy, or overly formal.

The sentence will be inserted into this cold email:

“I know it was a few weeks ago, [FirstName]… but I saw [post_summary]. Not sure if this is something on your radar, but we’ve combined our platform with AI agent that builds prospect lists, collects intent data, personalizes messages and even handles replies.”

Author’s name: {{Author}}

Post content: {{Post Content}}

If you’re stuck, click the Help me button next to the prompt field. It’ll suggest a starting point you can tweak.

There’s also an optional System Prompt. Think of it like setting the AI’s mood or style. You can tell it to act like a professional marketer, a friendly salesperson, or a witty writer, depending on the vibe you want.

Also, here’s the trick: we never trust AI 100%. We review each suggestion manually and tweak it to make sure it feels natural.

P.S. And if you’re not sure where to start, don’t worry.

Right after this guide, you’ll find 5 bonus prompts we’ve tested and used in real campaigns. You can adapt them to fit your own cold outreach, whether you’re targeting marketers, founders, or sales leaders.

Copy, tweak, and go.

Step 3: Organizing AI outputs without the headaches

Once the AI does its magic, you’ll need to tell Clay where to put the results.

Set up Column Outputs so that each AI response lands neatly in the right spot. By default, it’ll save as plain text, but you can choose other types like numbers, URLs, or even emails if needed.

P.S. We use “plain text.”

This keeps your workspace clean and ready for action—no messy copying and pasting later.

Optional tweaks to make it even better

If you really want to fine-tune your results, here are 2 extra steps you can take:

Provide examples: You can show the AI a few samples of the kind of outputs you want. It’s like giving it a mini cheat sheet to follow.
Configure run settings: You can tell Clay when the AI should run, like automatically enriching new rows or only running if specific fields are filled in. It saves a lot of manual work down the line.

Once we’ve got personalized hooks ready, the next step is setting up our outreach, and connecting Clay to Reply.io makes it super smooth.

How to sync your leads from Clay to Reply.io

Setting up Reply.io inside Clay (and vice versa) is super easy; you’ll be up and running in minutes.

Try this:

1. First, head over to your Reply.io account, go to Settings → API Key, and grab your API key. You’ll need it when you start adding actions during the setup.

2. Quickly add a contact to a campaign, as long as they aren’t already active in another one.

3. Create or open a table in Clay.

4. Add a new column → choose “Enrichment” → search for Reply.io and pick “Create Contact.”

5. Connect your Reply.io account by entering your API key (you’ll find it under Settings > API Key in Reply.io).

6. Map the fields: Email and First Name are required. You can also add extras like Last Name, LinkedIn URL, City, etc.

7. Run the column to create the contact inside Reply.io.

Now, to push them into a sequence:

Add another enrichment column → search for Reply.io again → select “Push Contact to Campaign.”
Pick the campaign (your Reply.io sequence) you want them to join.
Run the column to send your contact straight into the sequence.

And you’re done!

Now, let’s talk about what happens after they reply; because that’s where the real magic starts.

What we send after a prospect replies (no hard sell!)

Once they reply—awesome! Now it’s time to gently introduce more value.

We’ll send them a small sample related to our product. This could be a snippet of a demo, a free template, or a quick-win resource they can use right away.

At this point, we soft-pitch Reply.io. No hard sell. Just showing them how we can help even more.

Subject line: Same thread

{{FirstName}},

As you’re {{company_mission}} – I’d guess you’re using outreach tactics like the following:

– {{outreach_idea1}}

– {{outreach_idea2}}

– {{outreach_idea3}}

Have you automated list building or are you still using tools like sales nav to do manual search?

If so, would you like to see how our AI Agent can build lists of your ideal customers, find intent signals, and hyper personalize your messages?

{{SendingEmail.SenderFirstName}}, Reply.io

All-In-One Outreach Platform

Used by over 3k businesses

P.S. Here’s that webinar recording I mentioned in my last email: https://youtu.be/Q03UocgUwmk?si=fiL1Vf-TQ0snvGkz

If they don’t reply after a while? We follow up again.

The third message is a friendly check-in, asking if it’s still something they’re looking for, and seeing if there’s someone else on their team we should talk to. Always polite, always respectful of their time.

Subject line: same thread

Hey {{FirstName}}, would {{colleague_name}} – your {{colleague_title}} – be a {{Random | ‘more suitable person’ | ‘better person’ | ‘more appropriate person’}} {{Random | ‘to chat about this?’ | ‘to chat on this?’ | ‘to talk about this?’ | ‘to talk on this?’ | ‘to discuss this?’}}

{{SendingEmail.SenderFirstName}}, Reply.io

All-In-One Outreach Platform

Used by over 3k businesses

This combo (automation plus human touch) gives us the best results. And, the extra—short emails get the most replies.

Why? Because no one wants to read a cold novel from a stranger. Long emails feel like work. Short ones feel like a conversation.

Keep it tight.

One clear point.

One simple ask.

And that’s it = simple, valuable, and human. By leading with real help instead of hard selling, we build trust first, and the results speak for themselves. The best outreach feels more like starting a conversation, not closing a deal.

Sounds easy? Hell yeah! Still, here are a few mistakes you’d better avoid…

Common mistakes to avoid (trust us, we’ve made them)

This strategy works—but only if you do it right. There are a few easy traps you can fall into that can kill your results or make you sound like another spammer.

Here’s what to watch out for (and how to avoid it)

Scraping everything, emailing everyone

Because someone liked a post doesn’t mean they’re a fit.

Soooo…always clean your list. Filter by job title, company type, or region. Use your ICP (ideal customer profile) as a checklist.

Quality > quantity.

Skipping email verification

Sending to unverified emails = bounced messages, hurt sender score, and fewer inboxes reached.

You need to always run your list through a tool like NeverBounce or Bouncer. Only email verified addresses.

Tag risky ones + delete the bad ones.

Sounding too generic

If your message feels like a copy-paste job, it probably is. And people can tell.

Start by personalizing your opener based on the post they engaged with. Mention the author. Reference the topic.

Tools like Clay + ChatGPT make this super easy to do at scale.

Pushing too hard, too fast

Nobody wants a pitch 2 seconds after liking a post. That’s awkward.

Instead, lead with value. Share a helpful resource, ask a thoughtful question, or invite them into a conversation.

Sell later—connect first.

Ignoring follow-ups

Most replies don’t come from the first message. If you’re not following up, you’re leaving leads on the table.

Set up a 2–3 message sequence. Keep it light and human.

Think of it like checking in, not chasing.

Avoid these, and you’ll instantly stand out from 90% of the cold outreach crowd. This strategy is powerful—but like anything, it’s all about the execution.

Stay sharp. Be helpful. Reach out like a human.

And watch the replies roll in.

Wrapping it all up

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel to run great outbound.

Sometimes the best leads are already out there—interacting with the right content, showing real interest, and ready to talk.

All you have to do is:

Find those conversations on LinkedIn
Pull the list of engaged people
Clean and segment that list smartly
Send thoughtful, helpful messages
Personalize with tools like Clay and ChatGPT
And follow up like a real human

This isn’t about blasting cold emails. It’s about joining the right conversations, adding value, and building trust = one message at a time.

At Reply.io, this strategy consistently gets us replies, calls booked, and warm leads flowing into our pipeline.

And the best part? It scales.

If you’re tired of chasing unqualified leads or guessing what people care about, try this.

It works because you’re starting with real signals of interest.

Now it’s your turn. Go find a post your audience cares about, and start a conversation they’ll actually want to have.

Let us know how it goes. We’re rooting for you.

Want to put this strategy on autopilot?

Reply.io gives you everything you need to run multichannel outreach that feels personal, at scale.

From pulling in leads and verifying emails to sending smart, automated sequences that actually get replies, it’s all in one place.

Build and clean prospect lists
Personalize every message (with help from AI)
Run email, LinkedIn, SMS, and call steps in one flow
Track what’s working and optimize fast

You’ve got the playbook—now use the platform that brings it to life.

How to Turn Someone Else’s Content Into Hot Leads (Without Being Weird About It)

How we find ready-to-talk prospects on LinkedIn

The easiest way to scrape LinkedIn likes and build prospect lists

How to clean your prospect list without losing your mind

Know what a “good” prospect looks like

Spot the red flags

Verify emails before you act

Segment before you cut

Clean with confidence

Keep it clean going forward

How we start real conversations (without sounding salesy)

Crafting hooks that prospects can’t ignore

How we use ChatGPT + Clay to personalize outreach at scale

Step 1. Setting up Clay to work its magic

Step 2: Crafting prompts that actually sound human

Step 3: Organizing AI outputs without the headaches

Optional tweaks to make it even better

Related Stories

How to sync your leads from Clay to Reply.io

What we send after a prospect replies (no hard sell!)

Common mistakes to avoid (trust us, we’ve made them)

Scraping everything, emailing everyone

Skipping email verification

Sounding too generic

Pushing too hard, too fast

Ignoring follow-ups

Wrapping it all up