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Sales email system

Partly automated lead generation system for identifying and qualifying prospective clients from Google Maps, extracting contact details, and pushing qualified leads to Instantly email campaigns.

Overview

Attribute Details
Purpose Scrape prospective leads from Google Maps, find email addresses, qualify leads, and push to Instantly campaigns, then push interested leads to Airtable
Data flow Google Maps → Chrome Extension → Airtable → Python Script → Airtable → Instantly

Components

Component Purpose
Google Maps Lead Scraper (Chrome Extension v1.5.x) Scrapes business listings from Google Maps search results
Airtable Leads scraped from Google Maps table in Sales emails base
Python Email Scraper (v2.1.2) Visits websites and extracts published email addresses using Playwright
Airtable Automations Data quality, deduplication, and Instantly integration
Instantly.ai Email campaign delivery
Zapier Pushes new Instantly campaigns to Airtable and pushes interested leads to Airtable

Actors

Actor Role
Jordan/Glenn Defines target verticals and locations
Glenn Creates Instantly campaigns, reviews lead quality, qualifies leads
Sophie Scrapes leads from Google Maps

End-to-End Workflow

Step 1: Choose target (Jordan/Glenn)

Nominate target location and type (e.g. "childcare Rose Bay").

Step 2: Add campaign to Instantly (Glenn)

  1. Create campaign in Instantly (usually by duplicating an existing campaign)
  2. Write sequence (usually requires just a tweak of the duplicated campaign's sequence — the key is the list of clients)
  3. Enable ('Resume') the campaign
  4. Sync new campaign to Airtable by manually triggering the "Push new campaign to Airtable" zap (this zap runs automatically once per day at midday, but this may not be soon enough to push the campaign in time for Sophie to use it)

Step 3: Scraping Google Maps (Sophie)

  1. Search Google Maps — Search for prospective leads (e.g., "childcare chatswood")
  2. Open Chrome Extension — Click the Google Maps Lead Scraper extension icon
  3. Select campaign — Select the target Instantly campaign from the dropdown (campaigns are fetched from Airtable's 'Instantly campaigns' table)
  4. Click Scrape — Extension opens each result's details tile and scrapes: business name, address, street (parsed from address), suburb/city (parsed from address), post code, website, phone
  5. In-extension deduplication — Extension dedupes by business name within a single scrape (prevents duplicate sponsored listings)
  6. Review scraped data — Review the scraped results in the extension's grid view
  7. Save to Airtable — Click "Save to Airtable", which pushes records to the 'Leads scraped from Google Maps' table in the Sales emails base

Step 4: Finding Email Addresses (Sophie)

Manual review — Review the list in Airtable and manually fill any gaps (data the scraper failed to capture).

Run the email address scraper (on Windows):

  1. Open Command Prompt (press Win + R, type cmd, press Enter)
  2. Navigate to the script folder: 
    cd C:\MCC_scraper\Scrape_email
  3. Run the script: 
    python scrape_emails.py

Run on ChromeOS / Linux:

cd ~/Scrape_email
python3 scrape_emails.py

Script behaviour:

  • Finds records where: Website exists, Email is empty, Status = "New"
  • Uses Playwright (headless browser) to render JavaScript-heavy sites
  • Visits homepage + /contact, /contact-us, /about, /about-us pages
  • Extracts email addresses (prioritises info@, contact@, enquiries@, hello@)
  • Handles obfuscated emails (e.g., "info [at] domain [dot] com")
  • Updates each Airtable record with the found email

Step 5: Data Quality & Cleanup (Airtable Automation)

When an email address is added to a record, the 'Analyse, clean up and de-dupe list' automation runs. This executes three scripts in sequence:

Script 1: Client Match Checker — Checks if the lead matches an existing Organisation or Site in the Clients base:

  • Exact email match
  • Domain match (for franchise/chain detection, excludes generic domains like gmail.com)
  • Fuzzy business name match
  • If matched, sets {Problem} field to "Past or present client"

Script 2: Dedupe by Email Address — Searches for any existing record with the same email address. If a duplicate is found, deletes the newer record (the one just updated).

Script 3: Flag Dodgy Emails — Validates whether the email address appears legitimate for the business:

  • Checks if email contains the website domain
  • Checks for business name initialism (e.g., "Gum Tree Cottage Preschool" → "gtcp")
  • Checks for significant business name words
  • Sets {Email matches domain} field to "TRUE" or "FALSE"

Step 6: Manual check and handover (Sophie)

Check all leads in the 'Is it a lead?' view of the 'Leads scraped from Google Maps' table to ensure that all data looks good (especially names and email addresses, as these are critical to the email campaign).

Notify Glenn that the leads are ready for qualification.

Step 7: Lead Qualification (Glenn/Jordan)

Review leads in the 'Is it a lead?' view of the 'Leads scraped from Google Maps' table. This view shows records ready for qualification.

Qualify each lead:

  • If YES (is a lead): Click the {✓ YES} checkbox field
  • If NO (not a lead): Click the {✗ NO} checkbox field

Step 8: Push to Instantly (Airtable automation)

If qualified as a lead:

  • Record moves to the 'Add to Instantly' view
  • 'Add lead to Instantly' automation triggers
  • Script pushes lead to the Instantly campaign specified in the {Instantly campaign} field
  • Sends: email, company_name, phone, website, and custom variables (suburb, street)
  • Updates record: {Status} = "Added to Instantly", unchecks {Add to Instantly}

If not a lead:

  • Record moves to the 'Mark as not a lead' view
  • 'Mark record as not a lead' automation triggers
  • Updates record: {Status} = "Not a lead"

Step 9: Email Sequence (Instantly)

Once added to the campaign, the lead automatically receives the configured email sequence.

Step 10: Add leads to Airtable (Zapier)

Interested leads are pushed from Instantly to Airtable automatically by the 'Push interested lead from Instantly to Airtable' zap, whenever a lead is marked as "Interested".

Installation instructions for Chrome scraping extension

Prerequisites

  • Google Chrome browser
  • Airtable Personal Access Token with data.records:write scope
  • Access to the Sales emails base in Airtable

Step 1: Download the extension

  1. Create a new folder in your root (C:\) directory, named MCC_scraper
  2. Download the zip file containing the extension to the above directory
  3. Unzip it
  4. You should now have a folder named "Google Maps search results scraper Chrome extension" containing: manifest.json, popup.html, popup.js, options.html, options.js, icons/ folder

Step 2: Install in Chrome

  1. Open Chrome and navigate to chrome://extensions/
  2. Enable Developer mode (toggle in top-right corner)
  3. Click Load unpacked
  4. Navigate to C:\MCC_scraper\
  5. Click the "Google Maps search results scraper Chrome extension" folder (single click to highlight, don't double-click)
  6. Click Select Folder
  7. The extension icon should appear in your toolbar

Step 3: Configure Airtable settings

  1. Right-click the extension icon in your toolbar
  2. Select Options
  3. Enter the following:
Field Value
Airtable Personal Access Token patCgzwikWczEQ7KV.17e94a97d48232c0eb996e041d51b38a07886525d753484013040395492fecc4
Airtable Base ID appDaFRJSxle3TqBA
Airtable Table ID tblQ8VYyUg1LsFKL1
  1. Click Save Settings

Installation instructions for Python Email Scraper

Scrapes email addresses from websites listed in Airtable and updates the records. Uses Playwright (headless browser) to handle JavaScript-rendered pages.

Attribute Details
Version 2.2.0
Purpose Find email addresses from lead websites and update Airtable
Data flow Airtable → Python script → Website → Airtable

Windows Installation

Step 1: Install Python

  1. Go to python.org/downloads
  2. Download the latest Python 3.x installer for Windows
  3. Run the installer
  4. IMPORTANT: Tick the checkbox "Add Python to PATH" at the bottom of the first screen
  5. Click Install Now
  6. Wait for installation to complete, then click Close
  7. Verify Python installed correctly:
  8. Open Command Prompt (press Win + R, type cmd, press Enter)
  9. Type python --version and press Enter
  10. You should see something like Python 3.12.0
  11. If you see an error, Python wasn't added to PATH. Uninstall and reinstall, making sure to tick "Add Python to PATH".

Step 2: Download the script files

  1. If you haven't already, create a new folder in your root (C:\) directory, named MCC_scraper
  2. Download the Scrape_email zip file to that folder
  3. Unzip it
  4. The unzipped folder should contain: scrape_emails.py (the main script), config.txt (configuration file), README.md (documentation)

Step 3: Install Playwright

  1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator:
  2. Press Win + S, type cmd
  3. Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator
  4. Click Yes if prompted
  5. Run the following commands one at a time: 
    pip install playwright
  6. Wait for it to finish, then run: 
    playwright install chromium
  7. This downloads the Chromium browser (~150MB). Wait for it to complete.

Airtable Table Structure (for scraped businesses)

Base: Sales emails | Table: Leads scraped from Google Maps

Field Type Purpose
Business name Single line text Company name from Google Maps
Address Single line text Full address
Street Single line text Parsed street address
Suburb / city Single line text Parsed suburb
Post code Single line text Parsed postcode
Website URL Business website
Phone Phone Contact number
Email Email Scraped or manually entered email
Status Single select New / Added to Instantly / Not a lead
Instantly campaign Linked record Links to Instantly campaigns table
Problem Single select Issues flagged (e.g., "Past or present client")
Email matches domain Single line text TRUE/FALSE validation result
✓ YES Checkbox Mark as qualified lead
✗ NO Checkbox Mark as not a lead
Add to Instantly Checkbox Triggers push to Instantly

Airtable Table Structure (for interested leads)

Base: Matthews Cleaning Company

Tables: Organisations, Sites, Contacts, Opportunities

Airtable Automations

Automation Trigger Action
Analyse, clean up and de-dupe list When {Email} field is populated Runs 3 scripts: Client match checker, Dedupe by email, Flag dodgy emails
Add lead to Instantly When record enters 'Add to Instantly' view Pushes lead to Instantly via API
Mark record as not a lead When record enters 'Mark as not a lead' view Sets {Status} = "Not a lead"

Key Files & Scripts

Asset Version Location/Notes
Google Maps Lead Scraper (Chrome Extension) v1.5.x Installed locally on Chromebox
Python Email Scraper v2.1.2 ~/Scrape_email/scrape_emails.py on Chromebox
Client Match Checker script v1.2.2 Airtable automation script
Dedupe by Email script v1.0.2 Airtable automation script
Flag Dodgy Emails script v1.1 Airtable automation script
Add Lead to Instantly script v2.9 Airtable automation script

Technical Notes

Chrome Extension:

  • Dedupes by business name within a single scrape
  • Campaign dropdown fetches from Airtable 'Instantly campaigns' table
  • Saves selected campaign as a linked record

Python Email Scraper:

  • Uses Playwright for JavaScript-rendered content
  • Requires Chromium browser installed
  • Run with --debug flag for troubleshooting
  • Config stored in config.txt (API token, Base ID)

Instantly Integration:

  • Uses API v2 (https://api.instantly.ai/api/v2/leads)
  • Campaign ID passed from lookup field
  • Custom variables: {{suburb}}, {{street}} available in email templates
  • Strips invisible Unicode characters from emails before sending

Zapier Zaps

Push new campaign to Airtable

Syncs Instantly campaigns to Airtable so the Chrome extension can display them in the campaign dropdown.

Step Action Configuration
Schedule by Zapier Every Hour Time offset: 00, Weekends: No
Webhooks by Zapier Custom Request GET https://api.instantly.ai/api/v2/campaigns?limit=100
Looping by Zapier Create Loop From Line Items Loops through each campaign (id, name), max 500 iterations
Airtable Create or Update Record Base: Sales emails, Table: Instantly campaigns, Lookup: field_ID

What it does:

  • Fetches all campaigns from Instantly API hourly
  • For each campaign, creates or updates a record in the 'Instantly campaigns' table
  • Uses the Instantly campaign ID as the primary lookup field (prevents duplicates)
  • Stores the campaign name for display in the Chrome extension dropdown

Note: Does not run on weekends.

Push interested lead from Instantly to Airtable

Syncs Instantly leads (individuals) back to Airtable as soon as they reply with interest (and Instantly automatically changes their status to "Interested").

Epic BMS-270