Newsletter Signal Scanner
Turn your newsletter subscriptions into a structured intelligence feed. Monitors an AgentMail inbox for incoming newsletters, extracts signal-relevant content by keyword campaign, and delivers a weekly digest of what matters — competitor mentions, ICP pain language, market shifts, and emerging topics.
When to Use
- "Monitor industry newsletters for competitor mentions"
- "Alert me when newsletters mention [topic] or [company]"
- "What are newsletters writing about this week in our space?"
- "Set up newsletter monitoring for [client]"
Phase 0: Intake
Newsletters to Monitor
- Which newsletters should be subscribed to and monitored? (List names or URLs)
- If unknown, ask: "What 3-5 newsletters does your ICP read?" — then use
sponsored-newsletter-finder to discover others.
- Which AgentMail inbox should receive them? (Or should we create a new one?)
Keyword Campaigns
- Competitor names to track (e.g., "Clay", "Apollo", "Outreach")
- ICP pain-language terms to track (e.g., "outbound struggling", "pipeline dried up", "SDR ramp")
- Market shift terms (e.g., "AI SDR", "agent-led growth", "GTM engineer")
- Your brand name (to catch mentions)
Output
- Digest delivery: Slack channel, email, or markdown file? (default: markdown file)
- Frequency: daily or weekly? (default: weekly)
Save campaign config to clients/<client-name>/configs/newsletter-signals.json.
{
"inbox_id": "<agentmail_inbox_id>",
"keyword_campaigns": {
"competitors": ["Clay", "Apollo", "Outreach", "Salesloft"],
"pain_language": ["pipeline is down", "outbound isn't working", "SDR ramp"],
"market_shifts": ["AI SDR", "GTM engineer", "agent-led"],
"brand_mentions": ["YourCompany", "yourcompany.com"]
},
"newsletters": [
{"name": "Exit Five", "from_domain": "exitfive.com"},
{"name": "The GTM Newsletter", "from_domain": "gtmnewsletter.com"}
],
"output": {
"format": "markdown",
"path": "clients/<client-name>/intelligence/newsletter-signals-[DATE].md"
}
}
Phase 1: Scan Inbox
Use the agentmail capability to fetch new emails from the monitored inbox:
Fetch emails from inbox <inbox_id> since <last_scan_date>
Filter to: known newsletter senders (match against newsletters config)
For each email:
- Extract subject, sender, date, full body text
- Strip HTML → plain text for analysis
Phase 2: Apply Keyword Campaigns
For each newsletter email, scan for keyword matches:
for email in emails:
matches = {}
for campaign, keywords in keyword_campaigns.items():
found = []
for keyword in keywords:
if keyword.lower() in email.body.lower():
# Extract context: 50 chars before + keyword + 50 chars after
context = extract_context(email.body, keyword)
found.append({"keyword": keyword, "context": context})
if found:
matches[campaign] = found
email.signal_matches = matches
Only include emails with at least one keyword match in the digest.
Phase 3: Extract Signal Snippets
For each matched email, extract clean signal snippets:
Competitor mention example:
Newsletter: The GTM Newsletter | Date: 2026-03-05
Campaign: competitors
Keyword: "Clay"
Context: "...teams that use Clay for enrichment are seeing 3x better personalization rates compared to..."
Pain language example:
Newsletter: Exit Five | Date: 2026-03-04
Campaign: pain_language
Keyword: "outbound isn't working"
Context: "...a lot of founders telling me outbound isn't working the way it used to. The reply rates I'm seeing..."
Phase 4: Output Format
# Newsletter Signal Digest — Week of [DATE]
## Summary
- Newsletters scanned: [N]
- Emails with signals: [N]
- Top trending topic: [topic]
---
## Competitor Mentions
### Clay
- **[Newsletter Name]** — [Date]
> "[Context snippet]"
Source: [email subject] | [URL if available]
### [Other Competitor]
...
---
## ICP Pain Language
Signals suggesting your ICP is feeling pain your product solves:
- **[Newsletter Name]** — [Date]
> "[Context snippet]"
— Relevance: [why this matters]
---
## Market Shift Signals
Emerging topics gaining newsletter coverage:
- **"[Topic]"** — mentioned in [N] newsletters this week
> "[Context snippet]"
---
## Your Brand Mentions
[Any mentions of your company or product]
---
## Recommended Actions
1. [Specific action based on signals — e.g., "Exit Five is covering AI SDR fatigue — good moment to publish our take"]
2. [Competitive response if needed]
Save to clients/<client-name>/intelligence/newsletter-signals-[YYYY-MM-DD].md.
Phase 5: Setup — Subscribe to Newsletters
For first-time setup, subscribe the AgentMail address to target newsletters:
- Get the AgentMail inbox address (via
agentmail capability)
- For each newsletter, visit subscription page and submit the AgentMail address
- Confirm subscriptions (check inbox for confirmation emails)
- Allow 1-2 weeks of accumulation before first full digest
Scheduling
Run weekly (Monday morning recommended):
# Every Monday at 7am — before the team's standup
0 7 * * 1 python3 run_skill.py newsletter-signal-scanner --client <client-name>
Cost
| Component | Cost |
|---|
| AgentMail inbox | Depends on AgentMail pricing |
| Email parsing + keyword matching | Free (local logic) |
| Total | Near-zero ongoing cost |
Tools Required
- AgentMail API — for inbox access
- Upstream skill:
agentmail capability
Trigger Phrases
- "Scan newsletters for this week's signals"
- "What are industry newsletters saying about [topic]?"
- "Run newsletter signal scanner for [client]"
- "Set up newsletter monitoring"
Claude
ChatGPT
OpenClaw