Autopilot for cold email: when to approve each one, and when to let them send

Approve each cold email yourself for the first week or two. You are learning what the AI writes for your trade, and your mailbox is warming up, so reading every email costs little and teaches you a lot. Once the emails read the way you would have written them, switch on Autopilot and let them go each morning without you.

In Leadistry, Autopilot is one switch on the Feed. Off, which is the default, nothing sends until you approve it. On, every email your agents bring goes out on its own each morning, whether or not you log in, and you can switch it off again in one click.

The two ways to run your Feed

Every morning your agents put new companies on the Feed at half past six. Each card is the email itself, written to that company from its dated reason. What happens next depends on one choice.

You approve each one. You read the card and press approve or skip (the keys A and S), with five seconds to undo. You can change any line by clicking it, or ask the assistant to make it shorter or plainer, for this email or every email. Approved emails go from your own mailbox inside your sending hours.

Autopilot. The same emails go without you. They still go from your own mailbox, inside the same warm-up allowance, days and hours. The only difference is that nobody reads them first.

When to approve each one

Approving by hand is the right choice when:

• You are in your first week or two. Reading twenty emails teaches you what the AI does with your brief, and you will want to change something.
• You have just changed what you sell or who you sell to. New words deserve a read before they go to strangers.
• Your trade is sensitive to tone. If one wrong sentence could cost you a client, read them.
• You ran a search yourself. Emails from a search you ran by hand always wait for you, even with Autopilot on.

When Autopilot makes sense

Switch it on when:

• You have approved a good run without changing anything. If you are pressing approve without edits, the reading has stopped adding anything.
• You cannot look every morning. On site, on holiday or simply busy, the emails still go at a steady pace instead of piling up.
• Your mailbox is warm and your domain is set up. Email from a mailbox with a steady history is more likely to be delivered, and the Mailbox page shows your warm-up day and your domain check.

What Autopilot does, exactly

• It sends every card from your agents each morning, as written, from your own mailbox.
• It follows the warm-up. A new mailbox sends 5 a day, then 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30, moving up only after a day it actually sent. Autopilot cannot skip that ramp.
• It keeps to your sending days and hours, Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00 UK time unless you change them.
• It sends the follow-ups, on day 4 and day 9 by default, unless you tick "Ask me before each one" on the Mailbox page. Then they wait for you on the Feed.
• It picks up your changes. Change your template or your business details and the emails still waiting are rewritten before they go. Anything you typed yourself stays as it is.

What Autopilot never does

• It never answers a reply. Replies land in your own inbox and on the Desk, where opening one drafts an answer that only goes when you press send.
• It never changes who your agents look for, or starts a new agent.
• It never sends an email that is missing your words. If your email still has parts to fill in, Autopilot will not switch on until you write them.
• It never follows up after a reply. A reply, a bounce or an unsubscribe stops everything to that company.

Switching it off, and pausing everything

Switching Autopilot off takes one click, and anything it had taken that has not gone yet comes back to you on the Feed to approve or skip.

If you want everything to stop, not just the sending, use the Live or Paused switch beside the date on the Desk. Paused means nothing is found, spent or sent until you switch back. It is the switch for a holiday, a full order book or a week when you cannot take on work.

Autopilot from Claude

If you run Leadistry from your own Claude, the connector can switch Autopilot too, but only with a confirmation and a reason typed in your own words. It is the one setting that changes what happens while you are not looking, so it asks for more than a yes. Connecting Leadistry to Claude covers the rest of the rules.

A sensible way to start

1. Connect your mailbox on day one, so the warm-up starts while you set up everything else.
2. Set up your email on the Template and send yourself a test.
3. Approve by hand for the first week or two, changing lines as you go.
4. When a morning's emails need no changes, switch on Autopilot.
5. Look at the Desk once a week: replies, wins and what is working.

Start free with 25 leads and no card. Your first 25 emails go from your own mailbox, whichever way you choose.