Lead → Paying Client
The Complete Journey

Everything starts with an admin entering a target industry (e.g., "HVAC contractor") and a city (e.g., "Houston TX") in the Lead Engine. The system then takes over completely.

• 1
  SERP Scraping via OxylabsThe Lead Engine builds a Google search query: "HVAC contractor Houston TX". Oxylabs residential proxies fetch the rendered results page, bypassing anti-bot detection. 10–25 businesses are extracted per query.
• 2
  Parse & NormalizeEach result is parsed for business name, website URL, address, phone. The domain is normalized into a domain_key (lowercased, www-stripped) for deduplication.
• 3
  Directory Expansion (Optional)A second pass scrapes Yelp, BBB, and Angi for the same category to catch businesses not on page 1 of Google.
• 4
  Store in LeadReservoirNew leads are inserted into the LeadReservoir table. Duplicates are skipped (upsert on domain_key). Status is set to new.

A raw lead only has a business name and website. For outreach to work, we need a decision-maker's direct email. Enrichment runs a 3-tier contact discovery pipeline.

• 1
  Homepage CrawlThe business website is fetched and scanned for phone numbers, email addresses, staff names, and meta description text. Regex and DOM selectors extract structured signals.
• 2
  Apollo.io People SearchApollo's API searches for people at the company domain — returns names, titles, emails, LinkedIn URLs. Filtered for decision-maker titles: Owner, CEO, President, Manager.
• 3
  Hunter.io FallbackIf Apollo finds no contacts, Hunter is queried for the most likely email pattern at the domain (e.g., firstname@hvachouston.com). Returns confidence score.
• 4
  Contact Form (Playwright Fallback)If no direct email is found, Playwright submits a stealth inquiry via the business's website contact form. This is the last resort — low volume.

Result: The LeadReservoir row is updated with contact_email, contact_name, enrichment_status: complete. The lead is now ready for auditing.

The SEO audit is the core value driver — it creates the "before" snapshot that makes the proposal feel personalized and data-driven rather than generic cold outreach.

Scores are normalized to a 0–100 composite score stored in target_score. A full audit JSON with all signal details is stored in site_audit_json. Proposals pull directly from this — no re-scraping on every view.

When an admin clicks Release in the Lead Reservoir, two things happen simultaneously: a proposal record is created in the database, and an email dispatch begins.

• 1
  Pathway DetectionDoes the lead have a website? Yes → Migrate pathway (shows their existing site, before/after). No → Rebrand pathway (new website from scratch). The pathway controls which cinematic sections appear.
• 2
  Subdomain AssignmentA unique vanity subdomain is generated from the company name (e.g., hvachouston.brandlift.ai). A Proposal record is created with subdomain + lead_id + custom_data (pathway, audit data, brand defaults).
• 3
  AI Copy GenerationGemini 2.5 Flash generates a personalized email subject line and body referencing the business's audit scores, industry, and city. Output is structured JSON to prevent prompt injection.
• 4
  Proposal Page is LiveThe vanity URL https://hvachouston.brandlift.ai is immediately accessible — it renders from the database on each visit. No static generation needed.

What the Proposal Contains

The email goes out through Instantly.ai — a specialized cold email platform that handles sending schedules, deliverability warming, and bounce management automatically.

The proposal has a built-in pricing selector. When the client is ready to buy, they click their preferred plan — no sales call required.

• 1
  Plan Selection on ProposalClient sees three tiers: Launch ($499/mo), Growth ($799/mo), Authority ($1,299/mo). Clicking "Select" triggers Stripe Checkout Session creation via /api/stripe/create-checkout.
• 2
  Stripe Hosted CheckoutClient is redirected to Stripe's secure hosted checkout page. Enters card details. BrandLift never touches raw card data — PCI scope is zero.
• 3
  Stripe Webhook: checkout.session.completedStripe fires a webhook to /api/stripe/webhook. BrandLift verifies the signature, then automatically provisions the client account.
• 4
  ClientAccount CreatedA ClientAccount row is inserted: email from Stripe, plan tier, portal password (PBKDF2 hashed), active_plan = selected tier. The Proposal record is linked to this account.

After payment, the client receives a welcome email with login credentials for their client portal. From here, they complete onboarding at their own pace.