Mailshake Platform Help

Help the user with Mailshake platform questions — from campaign setup and Lead Catcher through recipient management, deliverability settings, API, and integrations.

Step 1 — Gather context

Ask the user:

What area of Mailshake do you need help with?
- A) Campaigns — creating, managing, or optimizing email campaigns (route to
```
/sales-cadence
```
  for strategy)
- B) Recipients — importing, managing, CSV formatting
- C) Lead Catcher — capturing and managing leads from replies
- D) Deliverability — sender settings, warmup, domain auth (route to
```
/sales-deliverability
```
  for cross-platform)
- E) Analytics — campaign performance, open/reply/click rates
- F) Webhooks & API — automation, push events, API access
- G) Senders & Team — connected accounts, team management
- H) Integrations — Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zapier, Slack
- I) Admin — billing, plan features, account settings
- J) Something else — describe it
What's your role?
- A) Sales rep / AE / BDR
- B) Sales manager / team lead
- C) RevOps / Sales Ops
- D) Admin / IT
- E) Founder / solo seller
- F) Other
What are you trying to accomplish? (describe your specific goal or question)

If the user's request already provides most of this context, skip directly to the relevant step. Lead with your best-effort answer using reasonable assumptions (stated explicitly), then ask only the most critical 1-2 clarifying questions at the end — don't gate your response behind gathering complete context.

Note: If the user needs a specialized skill, route them there with a brief explanation of why that skill is a better fit.

Step 2 — Route or answer directly

If the request maps to a specialized skill, route:

List building / prospecting →
```
/sales-prospect-list
```
Contact enrichment / data hygiene →
```
/sales-enrich
```
Cadence strategy / sequence design →
```
/sales-cadence
```
Cross-platform deliverability →
```
/sales-deliverability
```
Tool integration architecture →
```
/sales-integration
```

Otherwise, answer directly from platform knowledge using the reference below.

Step 3 — Mailshake platform reference

Provide module-by-module guidance based on the user's area:

Campaigns

What it is: A campaign in Mailshake is a multi-step email sequence — an initial message plus follow-ups sent automatically on a schedule
Key concepts: Campaign = sequence, messages = steps, follow-up types (time-based drip, reply-based, click-based on-click message)
Campaign statuses: draft, active, paused, ended
A/B testing: Available on higher plans — test subject lines and body content across variants
Best practices: Keep initial emails under 125 words, personalize with merge fields ({{first}}, {{company}}), test one variable at a time

Recipients

What it is: The contacts enrolled in a campaign — imported via CSV, API, or manual entry
Required fields: Only
```
emailAddress
```
is mandatory. Everything else is optional but recommended.
Recommended fields:
```
first
```
,
```
last
```
,
```
company
```
,
```
title
```
— these map to merge fields {{first}}, {{last}}, {{company}}, {{title}}
Custom merge fields: Any additional CSV column becomes a custom merge field automatically
Recipient statuses: active, paused, bounced, unsubscribed, completed
CSV import tips: UTF-8 encoding, first row = headers, one email per row, verify emails before import (Mailshake does not verify on upload)

Lead Catcher

What it is: Built-in lead management that automatically captures replies as leads for follow-up
Lead statuses: open (needs action), won/closed (converted), ignored (not a lead), lost (dead)
Key features: Auto-assign leads to team members, filter by status/campaign/assignee, view full conversation thread
Lead Catcher vs CRM: Lead Catcher manages the email conversation thread — your CRM manages the deal. Push qualified leads to CRM via integration or API.
Best practices: Check Lead Catcher daily, respond within 1 hour for best conversion, use status labels consistently

Deliverability Basics

Sender accounts: Connect Gmail, Outlook/O365, or SMTP. Each sender has a daily sending limit.
Sending limits: Varies by plan and email provider. Gmail caps at ~400-500/day, O365 at ~1,000/day. Mailshake enforces plan limits on top of provider limits.
Domain auth: Configure SPF/DKIM/DMARC for your sending domain. Use a custom tracking domain for link tracking.
Warmup: For new mailboxes, start with 20-30 emails/day and increase by 10-20 per week. See
```
/sales-deliverability
```
for a full warmup framework.
Sender rotation: Distribute sends across multiple sender accounts to protect reputation

Analytics

Built-in dashboards: Campaign-level and account-level performance metrics
Key metrics: Sent, opens, clicks, replies, bounces, unsubscribes, Lead Catcher leads
Team analytics: Compare performance across team members and campaigns
Best practices: Monitor bounce rate weekly (<3% target), track positive reply rate not just opens

Senders & Team

Senders: Connected email accounts used for sending. Each has its own daily limit and reputation.
Team: Members can be assigned campaigns and leads. Roles control access.
Sender management: Settings > Senders to connect, configure from-name, set daily limits

Mailshake data model

Core entities — understand these to navigate the UI and work with the API:

Entity	What it represents	Key relationships
Campaign	A multi-step email sequence	Has Messages (steps), has Recipients
Recipient	A contact enrolled in a campaign	Belongs to a Campaign, has Activity
Lead	A reply captured by Lead Catcher	Belongs to a Campaign, linked to a Recipient
Message	A step in a campaign (initial or follow-up)	Belongs to a Campaign
Sender	A connected email account	Used by Campaigns
Team Member	A user on the account	Can own Campaigns and Leads

API & Integrations

For detailed API documentation including all endpoints, authentication, rate limits, and webhook event payloads, consult

references/mailshake-api-reference.md

Quick reference: Base URL

https://api.mailshake.com/2017-04-01

, API key auth (

apiKey

parameter), rate limit 100 requests/minute. Key capabilities: campaign CRUD, recipient management, activity tracking, Lead Catcher management, webhooks.

Always reference
references/mailshake-api-reference.md
when answering API questions — point the user to it for the full endpoint catalog, request/response schemas, and rate limit details.

Native integrations

CRM: Salesforce (push leads, sync activity), HubSpot (push leads, sync activity), Pipedrive (push leads)
Automation: Zapier (triggers for opens, clicks, replies, new leads; actions for adding recipients)
Communication: Slack (notifications for replies, leads)
Enrichment: Voila Norbert, Hunter (email verification before import)

Step 4 — Actionable guidance

Based on the user's specific question:

Step-by-step instructions — numbered steps to accomplish their goal in Mailshake
Configuration recommendations — specific settings to change, with navigation paths
Common pitfalls — what can go wrong and how to avoid it
Verification — how to confirm the change worked
For API questions — always include a pointer: "For the full endpoint catalog, request/response schemas, and rate limits, see
```
references/mailshake-api-reference.md
```
."

Gotchas

Don't confuse Lead Catcher with a CRM. Lead Catcher captures and tracks email replies — it's a triage tool, not a deal pipeline. Qualified leads should be pushed to Salesforce/HubSpot for pipeline management. Claude often treats Lead Catcher as a full CRM replacement.
Don't use "sequence" when talking about Mailshake. Mailshake calls them "campaigns." Using "sequence" (Apollo/Salesloft terminology) confuses the user and the UI. Always say "campaign" for Mailshake.
Don't assume deliverability is configured. New Mailshake accounts often have no SPF/DKIM/DMARC, no custom tracking domain, and no warmup plan. Always check domain auth status before troubleshooting send issues.
Don't recommend features available only on higher plans without asking. A/B testing, team analytics, and some integrations are plan-gated. Ask about the user's plan before recommending these features.
Don't ignore Mailshake's API rate limits. 100 requests/minute is strict. Bulk operations (adding thousands of recipients) must be batched with rate limiting. Claude tends to generate tight loops without delays.

Step 5 — Related skills

```
/sales-cadence
```
— Design outbound cadence strategy (platform-agnostic, works with Mailshake campaigns)
```
/sales-deliverability
```
— Cross-platform email deliverability — SPF/DKIM/DMARC, warmup, inbox placement
```
/sales-prospect-list
```
— Build prospect lists to import into Mailshake
```
/sales-enrich
```
— Enrich contacts with emails/phones before importing
```
/sales-integration
```
— Connect Mailshake to other tools via webhooks, Zapier, or API
```
/sales-apollo
```
— Apollo.io platform help (if using Apollo instead of Mailshake)
```
/sales-salesloft
```
— Salesloft platform help (if using Salesloft instead of Mailshake)
```
/sales-do
```
— Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill.

Examples

Example 1: Lead Catcher setup

User says: "How do I set up Lead Catcher in Mailshake?" Skill does:

Explains Lead Catcher's purpose — automatic lead capture from campaign replies
Walks through enabling Lead Catcher and configuring auto-assignment rules
Explains lead statuses (open, won/closed, ignored, lost) and when to use each
Clarifies the distinction between Lead Catcher and CRM pipeline management Result: User has Lead Catcher enabled with assignment rules and understands how to triage leads

Example 2: API recipient import

User says: "I want to use the Mailshake API to add 500 recipients to a campaign" Skill does:

Points to
```
references/mailshake-api-reference.md
```
for full API docs
Explains the
```
/recipients/add
```
endpoint — emailAddress required, fields for merge vars
Warns about rate limits (100 req/min) and recommends batching
Shows how to check import status with
```
/recipients/addStatus
```
Result: User knows the endpoint, required fields, and how to batch large imports within rate limits

Troubleshooting

Low open rates

Symptom: Campaign open rates below 30% Cause: Missing domain authentication, poor sender reputation, or weak subject lines Solution: Verify SPF/DKIM/DMARC in your DNS. Set up a custom tracking domain. Check sender reputation. A/B test subject lines. See

/sales-deliverability

for a full diagnosis framework.

Emails bouncing

Symptom: Bounce rate above 3% Cause: Unverified email list or stale data Solution: Verify emails before import using a verification tool (NeverBounce, ZeroBounce). Remove hard bounces immediately. Mailshake does not verify on upload — this is your responsibility.

Lead Catcher not capturing replies

Symptom: Replies come in but don't appear in Lead Catcher Cause: Lead Catcher not enabled for the campaign, or reply detected as out-of-office/bounce Solution: Check campaign settings — Lead Catcher must be enabled per campaign. Auto-replies and OOO messages are filtered out by default. Check the Activity > Replies tab to confirm the reply was received.

sales-mailshake

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content