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Write outreach with Ask Blake

Ask Blake to research a prospect and stage a first email in your Outlook drafts.

Ask Blake gives you context about a prospect and can stage a first-touch email in your Outlook drafts folder. This article walks the combined flow.

Before you start

  • You have connected your mailbox under Settings > Integrations. See Connect your email.
  • Blake stages drafts in Outlook only in v1. Gmail drafting is not supported yet.

Step 1: Research the prospect

  1. Open a contact or company detail page.
  2. Open Blake with Cmd + B (Mac) or Ctrl + B (Windows and Linux). Opening the panel from a detail page can give the conversation additional context to work from.
  3. Point Blake at the contact or company by naming or @-mentioning it in the composer, then ask a question to surface relevant angles. For example: "What recent signals does this company have?" or "What is their likely pain point?"
  4. Review the response. Note any facts you want to use in the email.

Step 2: Ask Blake to draft the email

  1. In the same Blake panel, ask for a draft. For example: "Draft a first-contact email to this person referencing their recent expansion."
  2. Blake returns the draft as an EmailCard inside the chat: To, Subject, and Body are all visible and editable inline.
  3. Review the subject, body, and recipient. Edit anything by clicking on it.
PLACEHOLDER: replace with write-outreach-emailcard.light.png. Shows an EmailCard inside the Ask Blake chat: To / Cc / Bcc fields at the top, an editable Subject line, editable Body block, and a split action button in the footer with 'Stage in Outlook drafts' visible.

Step 3: Stage the draft in Outlook

  1. Click Stage in Outlook drafts on the EmailCard. Blake creates the draft server-side in your Outlook mailbox and confirms in the chat.
  2. Open Outlook (web or desktop) and find the draft in your Drafts folder.
  3. Review and send from Outlook when you are ready.

Blake never sends outreach on your behalf. Every draft lands in your Outlook Drafts folder and waits for you to send it there. Autonomous send is disabled in v1 even if you set the send-skill to Auto.

Undo a staged draft

If you staged a draft by mistake, click Undo on the confirmation message. Blake deletes the draft from your Outlook mailbox for you. The undo is available for about 24 hours after the draft was staged.

About effort choices

The Ask Blake composer offers three effort choices: Auto, Flash, and Ultra. Higher effort takes longer and costs more credits. Ultra spends more thinking time on the draft but does not promise any specific model tier or reasoning depth. See Effort and Private mode for the trade-offs.

If this does not work

  • The Stage button is missing or greyed out: your Microsoft 365 mailbox is not connected, or the connection needs reauthorisation. Go to Settings > Integrations and reconnect.
  • The draft does not appear in Outlook: refresh your Outlook Drafts folder. Sync can take a moment on the first draft after connecting.
  • You use Gmail: Blake does not stage Gmail drafts in v1. Copy the draft text from the EmailCard and send it manually from Gmail.
  • You are on Free: the Draft email skill is available from Free, but Send email as a skill is Scout and up. Free users can still stage drafts in Outlook and send them there manually.

FAQ

On this page

Before you startStep 1: Research the prospectStep 2: Ask Blake to draft the emailStep 3: Stage the draft in OutlookUndo a staged draftAbout effort choicesIf this does not workFAQ