Switch from Instantly to Sellinger: a migration guide

To move from Instantly to Sellinger, download your leads as CSV with their status, leave out anyone who replied negatively, unsubscribed or bounced, import the file, and reconnect the same Gmail, Outlook or IMAP mailboxes in Sellinger. Sequences and analytics stay behind. The main work is the mailboxes: pause Instantly sending on a mailbox before Sellinger sends from it.

Instantly is a cold email platform built around many mailboxes sending sequences. Sellinger is an AI SDR: it finds buyers, writes to each one on LinkedIn, email or WhatsApp, answers replies and books meetings. If you are moving, you probably want the replies handled and a second channel. This guide covers the mechanics: what to export, what to clean, how the mailboxes move, and how to avoid sending to the same person from two places. For the buying decision, see the Sellinger and Instantly comparison and the Instantly alternatives. The Instantly details are from its help center, read on 25 October 2026.

What moves, and what does not?

How do you download from Instantly?

Instantly's help article lists four routes. From a campaign: open it, go to the Leads tab, filter if you like, select leads and click Download. From the CRM: choose a campaign or list, select leads, open Row actions and click Download selected. From All Leads, and from Lists or Campaigns, the same: select, then Row actions, then Download selected. Leads must be selected first or the option does not appear. Filters include data fields, lead status, lead owner, email provider and conditions based on campaign activity.

The article does not list the exported columns, so do a small export first and check it holds what you need: email, name, company, any variables, and the status fields. A separate download of sending activity exists in a campaign's analytics, according to a search result we read, but conversation text is better finished or copied from your inbox, since Sellinger starts each lead's history fresh.

Use status to decide who comes across

An Instantly export that includes lead status lets you sort people into groups before you import:

1. Positive or interested. A person should finish these threads. Leave them out of the import, or import them to a segment where the agent stays off until you assign it.
2. Replied, not interested. Leave them out. A no is a no.
3. Unsubscribed or bounced. Leave them out and add them to the suppression list through support.
4. Contacted, no reply. These are the leads to carry across.
5. Not yet contacted. These carry across too.

That split matters more than any other step, because it decides who gets a message next week.

Reconnect the mailboxes

Your sending accounts and domains are yours, not Instantly's. Sellinger connects Gmail, Outlook or any IMAP mailbox from the Channels page, then you set the signature, the daily limit and whether the agent handles inbound email. Two rules:

• One sender per mailbox at a time. Pause the mailbox in Instantly the day you connect it in Sellinger. Two tools sending from one mailbox doubles the volume and breaks any pacing you set.
• Start low. Sellinger defaults to 50 sends a day per mailbox, with an optional warm up that starts at 5 a day and doubles every 3 days up to the limit. A mailbox with a good sending history does not need to start from scratch, but a new tool and a new message style deserve a careful first week.

For the deliverability side, our posts on cold email infrastructure and why warm up is not enough set out what you control. Sellinger can carry an unsubscribe line and the standard one click unsubscribe headers, as a per mailbox setting, so check it on each mailbox you connect.

Import and set up

Open Add Leads, then the CSV tab, upload, map the columns (at least one of email, LinkedIn URL or phone per row), review, choose the segment and click Import. Duplicates are skipped and counted. Then attach the leads to a campaign. Put your offer, tone and rules into the persona and knowledge base, and run in approval mode for the first week. The CSV import guide has the screens.

What changes in practice: In Instantly you build a sequence step by step. Sellinger writes each message from the lead's data, answers replies, and can move a lead to LinkedIn or WhatsApp when email gets no answer, using default follow up rules you can change per campaign.

What do you give up, and what do you gain?

Be honest about the trade before you move.

You may give up fine control of every email in a sequence, because the agent writes each message. Approval mode gives it back while you build trust, and you can set the rules the agent follows, but it is a different way of working. You also start with no history in Sellinger, so your first weeks have no baseline there.

You may gain replies handled, not only sent. The agent answers, asks follow up questions, qualifies and books on your calendar, and a person can take over any conversation with one click. You gain LinkedIn and WhatsApp as channels next to email, with one thread per person. Our post on what an AI SDR does after the first reply shows the part that email platforms usually leave to you.

We have not measured how a given team's deliverability or reply rate changes after a switch, and we make no claim about it. The test in the plan above is how you find out for your own list.

What mistakes should you avoid?

• Sending from a mailbox in both tools. The most common and the most damaging.
• Importing people who said no. A negative reply in Instantly should never become a new first message in Sellinger.
• Importing live threads. A person should finish them.
• Changing the offer and the tool at the same time. You will not know which one moved the numbers.
• Skipping the unsubscribe setting. Check it on each connected mailbox.

A two week cutover plan

• Day 1. Download, split by status, clean, import 50 leads to a test segment.
• Days 2 to 4. Connect one mailbox. Pause that mailbox in Instantly. Read every message in approval mode.
• Days 5 to 9. Move more mailboxes one at a time, and import the rest in batches.
• Days 10 to 14. Compare replies and meetings per 100 people messaged with your Instantly numbers, counted the same way. See how we define reply rate.

You can test on the 30 day free trial, no card. This is general information, and you remain responsible for who you contact and why.