How to Launch Your First Outreach

Last updated: July 24, 2026

This article walks you through the full outreach creation process in Topo: from building a lead list, to setting up a sequence, to linking the two together so your outreach starts running. By the end, you will have a fully operational outreach reaching new prospects every day.

Step 1: Create a new list

  1. From the dashboard, go to the left sidebar and click Lists.

  2. In the top right corner, click New Lead Search.

  3. You will see a few pre-built targeting cards based on your company context. These give you a quick starting point with standardized targeting prompts. You can pick one, or select Browse More Ideas to explore the full range of options.

  4. To go fully custom, describe who you want to reach in the prompt field. For example: "Heads of Sales in the United States, working in SaaS companies with 10 to 500 employees."

  5. Click to create the lead search. The agent will analyze your prompt, detect the best search methods, and generate a sample of roughly 100 matching leads.

Reviewing your results

  • The People view shows each lead with their job title and company.

  • The Companies view lets you inspect the companies the agent found.

  • You can click on any individual contact to see their full details.

  • On the right side, you will find Filters. Use these to add or remove criteria and refine your audience based on the sample results.

Step 2: Import your leads

Once you are happy with the results, it is time to import them into your list.

  1. Click Import in the bottom right corner.

  2. Rename your list according to your nomenclature.

  3. Choose your import mode:

    1. One-time import: turn off "Monitor for new leads" and import up to 100 matching leads per manual import.

    2. Automatic import: toggle on monitoring to automatically find up to a certain number of new leads every day or every week. See 📄 Understanding auto-import vs. sequence daily target

  4. Confirm your selection. Enrichment will begin, and based on the data available for each prospect.

  5. Find your leads in the List view

Step 3: Create a new sequence

A sequence defines how and when your leads are contacted. You need an active sequence before you can link it to a list.

  1. In the left sidebar, scroll down and click Sequences.

  2. In the top right corner, click New Sequence.

  3. Give your sequence a name.

  4. Set how many new leads you want to contact per day. This controls the daily volume of first-time outreach.

  5. Select a lead approval mode:

    1. Copilot: you review and approve leads before they are contacted.

    2. Autopilot: leads are contacted automatically without manual review.

    3. Default at workspace level.

The default Lead Approval Mode is set under Settings → Engage → Lead approval. Change it to override it for this specific sequence.

Step 4: Configure your sequence

Before activating your sequence, you need to complete a few settings.

  1. Go to Settings > Messages and configure your messaging (the content of your outreach steps).

  2. Go to Identities and add a sending identity. This is the email or profile the outreach will be sent from.

Step 5: Activate your sequence

  1. At the top of your sequence page, next to the sequence title, you will see the status label (it will say something like "Setting up").

  2. Click the pencil icon next to the status.

  3. Change the status to Active.

Your sequence is now live and ready to receive leads.

Step 6: Link your list to your sequence

This is the step that connects your audience to your outreach.

  1. Go back to Lists in the left sidebar.

  2. On the main list page, find the row for your list.

  3. Click the + Link Sequence button on that row.

  4. Or select the sequence you just created and click Link to Sequence.

When you click Link to Sequence, a dialog will appear asking how to handle contacts with existing sequence history. Choose the option that fits your intent:

  • Enroll only if all previous sequences are completed — safest default; avoids re-contacting recent leads. You can configure the exact number of days (default: 90).

  • Skip enrollment — only contacts who have never been in a sequence will be enrolled.

  • Enroll even if another sequence is still active — enrolls all contacts regardless of their current sequence status.

  • Replace — stops any active sequence for the contact and starts this one immediately.

You can also choose whether to enrol leads already in the list at the time of linking, or only future additions.

Once confirmed, your sequence will pull the configured number of leads per day from the linked list and begin outreach automatically.

Step 7: Verify your outreach is running

After linking your list to your sequence, confirm that messages are being delivered:

  1. Open your sequence and check the Overview metrics for:

    • New leads added

    • Leads contacted

    • Messages sent

  2. Go to the Leads tab and spot-check a few individual leads.

  3. Open a lead's Activity log and look for entries like "Email Sent" or "LinkedIn Invitation Sent" to confirm delivery.

Good to know

  • Multiple lists, one sequence: you can link several lists to the same sequence. The sequence will draw from all linked lists when selecting leads for daily outreach.

  • Monitoring: if you enabled monitoring on your list, new matching leads will continue to be added over time, keeping your pipeline fresh without manual work.

  • Daily volume control: the "leads per day" setting on your sequence controls pacing. Adjust it as needed to scale up or slow down.