Campaigns

Outbound email campaigns with prospect tracking, email sequences, and performance analytics. A lightweight CRM for AI-powered outreach.

Overview

Campaigns let you run outbound email sequences with prospect tracking. Each campaign is a folder containing configuration, prospect list, email templates, and activity logs.

Quick Start: AI-Guided Setup

The fastest way to create a campaign is with the AI-guided setup. It walks you through a discovery session to capture your goals, target audience, and messaging strategy.

$ pontius campaign setup my-outreach

Your AI will ask about:

Goals — What success looks like (demos booked, replies, signups)
Target audience — Who you're reaching, their pain points, what they care about
Value proposition — Why they should care, what makes you different
Tone & approach — How emails should sound, length, phrases to use or avoid
Personalization hooks — Research sources, what angles work best
Call-to-action — What you're asking for

The AI saves everything to a strategy.json file in your campaign folder. This gives it the context needed to write genuinely personalized emails for each prospect — not just mail-merge with {name} placeholders.

Recommended

Start with pontius campaign setup even if you plan to customize manually. The strategy file becomes your AI's cheat sheet for the entire campaign.

Manual Setup

If you prefer to set things up manually:

Create a campaign folder — Copy _example-campaign/ and rename it
Add your prospects — Import or manually add to prospects.csv
Customize sequences — Edit templates.json with your email copy
Configure settings — Set limits, timing, persona in config.json
Run with AI — "Send next batch for [campaign]" or "Check campaign status"

Folder Structure

~/.config/pontius/knowledge/campaigns/
├── README.md                    # Documentation
├── _example-campaign/           # Copy this to start
│   ├── config.json              # Campaign settings
│   ├── prospects.csv            # Target list
│   ├── templates.json           # Email sequences
│   └── log.json                 # Activity log
└── your-campaign-name/          # Your actual campaigns
    ├── config.json
    ├── prospects.csv
    ├── templates.json
    └── log.json

Campaign Configuration

{
  "id": "q1-outreach",
  "name": "Q1 Sales Outreach",
  "description": "Enterprise prospects from SaaStr",
  "status": "active",
  "account_id": "work-uuid",
  "persona": {
    "name": "Stuart",
    "role": "Founder",
    "company": "Pontius",
    "tone": "casual-professional",
    "signature": "Best,\nStuart"
  },
  "settings": {
    "daily_limit": 25,
    "min_delay_hours": 24,
    "send_window": { "start": "09:00", "end": "17:00", "timezone": "America/New_York" },
    "followup_sequence": ["initial", "followup-1", "followup-2", "breakup"],
    "stop_on_reply": true,
    "pause_on_bounce": true
  }
}

Status values: draft, active, paused, completed

Prospects CSV

email,name,company,role,status,last_contacted,last_response,sequence_position,notes,source
[email protected],Alex Chen,TechCorp,CTO,pending,,,0,Met at SaaStr,linkedin
[email protected],Jordan Lee,Startup.io,Founder,contacted,2026-01-05,,1,Interested in API,referral
[email protected],Sam Rivera,Acme Corp,VP Sales,replied,2026-01-06,2026-01-07,1,Asked for pricing,cold

Prospect Status Values

Status	Meaning
`pending`	Not yet contacted
`contacted`	Email sent, awaiting reply
`replied`	Got a response (handle manually)
`interested`	Positive response, in conversation
`converted`	Goal achieved (meeting booked, sale made)
`not_interested`	Declined, do not contact further
`unsubscribed`	Opted out explicitly
`bounced`	Email failed to deliver

Email Sequences

{
  "sequences": [
    {
      "id": "initial",
      "name": "Initial Outreach",
      "subject": "quick question about {company}",
      "body": "Hi {name},\n\n{personalized_opener}\n\n{value_prop}\n\n{cta}\n\n{signature}",
      "delay_days": 0
    },
    {
      "id": "followup-1",
      "name": "First Follow Up",
      "subject": "Re: {original_subject}",
      "body": "Hi {name},\n\nJust wanted to bump this...\n\n{signature}",
      "delay_days": 3
    },
    {
      "id": "breakup",
      "name": "Breakup Email",
      "subject": "closing the loop",
      "body": "Hi {name},\n\nI haven't heard back, so I'll assume now isn't the right time...\n\n{signature}",
      "delay_days": 14
    }
  ]
}

Activity Log

{
  "entries": [
    {
      "timestamp": "2026-01-05T10:30:00Z",
      "prospect_email": "[email protected]",
      "action": "sent",
      "sequence_id": "initial",
      "subject": "Quick question about TechCorp"
    }
  ],
  "stats": {
    "total_sent": 45,
    "total_replied": 12,
    "total_converted": 3,
    "reply_rate": 0.267,
    "conversion_rate": 0.067
  }
}

Writing Effective Outreach

Subject Lines

What works:

Short (3-7 words)
Personalized with company name or reference
Curiosity or relevance, not clickbait
Lowercase often outperforms Title Case

Examples:

quick question about {company}
{name} - saw your post on {topic}
idea for {company}'s {specific_thing}

Email Body Structure

Hook (1 line) — Why you're reaching out, personalized
Value (2-3 lines) — What's in it for them
Credibility (1 line) — Why they should trust you
CTA (1 line) — Single, clear ask

Keep it short: 50-125 words max. Mobile-friendly.

Follow-up Strategy

Sequence	Timing	Purpose
Initial	Day 0	Introduce, provide value
Follow-up 1	Day 3-4	Gentle bump, add new value
Follow-up 2	Day 7-8	Different angle or social proof
Breakup	Day 14	Final attempt, permission to close loop

Breakup Emails

The breakup email often gets the highest response rate. It signals you won't keep following up, which prompts action.

Benchmarks

Metric	Poor	Average	Good	Excellent
Reply rate	<2%	2-5%	5-10%	>10%
Positive reply rate	<1%	1-3%	3-5%	>5%
Conversion rate	<0.5%	0.5-2%	2-5%	>5%

Sending Limits

Deliverability

Space out your sends or risk email deliverability issues. Sudden spikes trigger spam filters.

Account Age	Daily Limit	Spacing
New (<30 days)	10-15/day	5-10 min between
Established (1-3 months)	20-30/day	3-5 min between
Mature (3+ months)	40-50/day	1-3 min between

CLI Commands

Manage campaigns directly from the command line:

# AI-guided campaign strategy discovery (start here!)
$ pontius campaign setup my-outreach
# List all campaigns
$ pontius campaign list
 NAME           STATUS    SENT   REPLIED   PENDING
 q1-outreach    active    45     12        155
 partner-reach  paused    20     5         80
# Check campaign status and stats
$ pontius campaign status q1-outreach
Campaign: Q1 Sales Outreach
Status: active
Sent: 45 | Replied: 12 | Pending: 155
Reply rate: 26.7%
Next send window: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM EST
# Send next batch (rate-limited, max 50)
$ pontius campaign send q1-outreach
Sending 25 emails (rate-limited: 15-20 sec gaps)...
Sent 25/25. Next batch ready in 24 hours.
# Send smaller batch
$ pontius campaign send q1-outreach --limit 10
# Pause/resume campaigns
$ pontius campaign pause q1-outreach
$ pontius campaign resume q1-outreach

Rate Limiting

Campaign sends are automatically rate-limited with 15-20 second gaps between emails to protect your email deliverability. Maximum 50 emails per batch.

AI Workflow

During blitz sessions, tell the AI:

"Send next batch for q1-outreach"
"Check campaign status"
"Show prospects who replied"
"Pause the campaign"

The AI will check daily limits, send windows, personalize emails, and update logs.

File Location

~/.config/pontius/knowledge/campaigns/