Recipes / Research a prospect, then add them to an Instantly campaign

Research a prospect, then add them to an Instantly campaign

Perplexity + Apollo + Instantly

Who it's for

SDRs and founders who send cold email and want one researched, personalized first line per lead before it goes into a sequence.

MCP servers

• Perplexity Up · auth
  https://api.perplexity.ai/mcp
  OAuth or Bearer API key
• Apollo Up · auth
  https://mcp.apollo.io/mcp
  OAuth 2.0 (master API key / X-Api-Key for headless)
• Instantly Up · auth
  https://mcp.instantly.ai/mcp
  API key (Authorization header or URL path)

Auth setup

• Perplexity: Sign in with OAuth, or pass an API key as a Bearer token for headless use.
• Apollo: Use OAuth sign-in for interactive use. For headless runs, use an API key in the X-Api-Key header.
• Instantly: Paste an API key from the vendor's settings into the config (header or URL). There's no browser login, so it works well headless.

mcp.json config for Claude Code and Cursor

Put this in .mcp.json (Claude Code, project root) or ~/.cursor/mcp.json (Cursor). Swap the example keys for your own, and don't commit real ones. Remove the // comment lines if your client requires strict JSON.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "perplexity": {
      "url": "https://api.perplexity.ai/mcp"
      // headless alternative: "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_PERPLEXITY_API_KEY" }
    },
    "apollo": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apollo.io/mcp"
      // headless alternative: "headers": { "X-Api-Key": "YOUR_APOLLO_API_KEY" }
    },
    "instantly": {
      "url": "https://mcp.instantly.ai/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "YOUR_INSTANTLY_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Step-by-step prompts

1. Find the VP of Sales at {company} in Apollo and enrich their work email.
2. Use Perplexity to research {company}: recent news, funding, hiring, and anything the VP has posted publicly in the last 90 days. Cite sources.
3. Write one personalized opening line based on the research. No flattery and no made-up facts.
4. List my Instantly campaigns. Add this lead to the campaign I pick, with the opening line in a custom variable. Show me the payload before adding.

Gotchas

• Apollo enrichment spends credits.
• Adding a lead to an active Instantly campaign can trigger sending. Add leads to a paused campaign, or review first.
• The Instantly API key goes in a header or the URL path. Treat any config that contains it as a secret, and don't commit it.
• Ask for citations from Perplexity and drop any claim you can't verify.

Vendor sites: Perplexity · Apollo · Instantly. If we join an affiliate program, these links will be labeled as affiliate links.