I Built the Cheapest AI Personalization System for 50K+ Cold Emails (Costs Revealed)

Summary

This video introduces a cost-effective AI personalization system designed to enhance cold email campaigns at scale. It explains how the system works by using AI (LLM, GPT-4.1 nano) to create personalized messages based on data from websites and LinkedIn. The script compares the costs of integrated tools like Clay.com with a separated solution using tools such as Crawl for AI, which significantly reduces expenses. The video walks through the technical workflow, from lead list checking to email generation, showcasing how businesses can achieve high-quality, personalized cold emails at a fraction of the cost of traditional solutions.

Takeaways

• 😀 The video introduces a cost-effective AI personalization system for cold emails, designed to improve response rates at scale.
• 😀 The system uses personalization data from sources like websites, LinkedIn, and other available data to craft tailored messages.
• 😀 There are two main approaches to AI personalization: integrated (single API) and separated (using different tools for each step).
• 😀 An integrated approach combines data collection and AI personalization within a single system, but comes with a higher cost.
• 😀 The separated approach uses tools like Tavi for web scraping and Crawl for AI for data extraction, offering a more affordable solution.
• 😀 Crawl for AI is an open-source web scraper designed for LLMs, allowing users to host the tool themselves and avoid recurring API costs.
• 😀 By using Crawl for AI and GPT-4.1 Nano, personalization can be done much more cheaply compared to premium tools like clay.com.
• 😀 For $22, the system can personalize 50,000 email leads, whereas a similar service with clay.com would cost $800.
• 😀 For 100,000 leads, the cost with this system is $354, in contrast to $1,500 with clay.com, making it a significantly cheaper solution.
• 😀 The workflow involves checking lead lists for personalization opportunities, extracting domain data, configuring the Crawl for AI, and passing the results to OpenAI to generate personalized emails.
• 😀 Crawl for AI includes advanced features like URL pattern finding and keyword scoring to prioritize relevant content, optimizing the personalization process.

Q & A

What is the main purpose of the video?

The video introduces the cheapest AI personalization system available to personalize cold emails, improving reply rates at scale, and outlines how businesses can use it effectively for a fraction of the price compared to other tools.

What are the two key components of an AI personalization system?

The two key components are personalization data (e.g., information from websites, LinkedIn) and a Large Language Model (LLM) that generates personalized messages based on that data.

What is the difference between the integrated and separated approach for AI personalization?

The integrated approach combines both web scraping and AI content generation in a single API, while the separated approach splits these tasks into distinct processes, using separate tools for data extraction and personalization.

Why is the integrated approach more efficient, and what is the challenge with it?

The integrated approach is faster because it combines data collection and personalization in one step. However, the challenge is the high cost of running integrated solutions, especially when using tools like ChatGPT with web search capabilities.

How does the separated approach with web scrapers reduce costs?

Using tools like Tavi and Crawl for AI, which extract data in an LLM-friendly format, allows for reduced operational costs. Hosting the web scraper on a server instead of using an API reduces the cost significantly.

How does Crawl for AI help reduce costs compared to other personalization tools like Clay.com?

Crawl for AI is open-source, so it can be hosted on a server, significantly lowering costs. For example, with Crawl for AI, $22 can be spent on personalizing 50,000 leads, compared to Clay.com’s $800 for the same amount of credits.

What is the cost comparison between Crawl for AI and Clay.com for email personalization?

Crawl for AI costs about $50 per month for the server and $22 for personalizing 50,000 leads, while Clay.com charges $800 per month for 50,000 credits, making Crawl for AI a much cheaper option.

What does the workflow for using Crawl for AI involve?

The workflow includes checking the lead list for personalization opportunities, extracting domains, configuring the Crawl for AI, calling the API to scrape data, passing the data to OpenAI for email generation, and updating the Google Sheet with the results.

How does Crawl for AI prioritize specific pages on a website?

Crawl for AI uses a URL pattern finder to prioritize URLs that match certain patterns (e.g., case studies, testimonials), ensuring that the most relevant pages are scraped for personalized data.

What are the key advantages of using GPT-4.1 nano in the system?

GPT-4.1 nano is both cost-effective and high-quality, offering the best balance between performance and pricing, making it an ideal choice for generating personalized email copy at scale.