<h2></h2>
Sales automation has the potential to disrupt your entire sales process.
<h2> </h2>
<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/sales-automation-the-key-to-boosting-revenue-and-reducing-costs">McKinsey reports</a> that adopters of sales automation consistently report increases in customer-facing time, higher customer satisfaction, improvements in efficiency of 10-15%, and a sales uplift potential of up to 10%!
<h2> </h2>
Those are numbers you just can&rsquo;t afford to ignore.
<h2> </h2>
But, if you&rsquo;re going to take the leap and invest in automation software, you need to make sure the software you choose is more than a one-trick pony.
<h2> </h2>
With Apollo, you&rsquo;ll never have to worry about looking elsewhere for automation functions. From prospecting automation to data and intelligence, Apollo.io offers all the automation you need and more.
<h2> </h2>
Keep reading to learn about the variety of automation tools that Apollo offers and how you can use them to save time and close bigger and better deals!
<h2></h2>
<h4>Sales Automation vs. CRM</h4>
 
First, let&rsquo;s address a common misconception...
 
Your company is probably utilizing a customer relationship management platform (CRM). You might be tempted to think that your CRM is already functioning as a sales automation tool, but the fact is - the two have very different roles.
 
CRMs are focused on customer satisfaction. They help you administer your interactions with your current customers with data analysis and forecasting, and are typically used to serve existing clients.
 
A sales automation tool, on the other hand, focuses on the sales process as a whole - making it as efficient and effective as possible. It finds automation opportunities across sales tasks during all stages of the funnel.
 
You could say that a CRM is post-sales software, while a sales automation tool is client acquisition software. The two often work in tandem, but it&rsquo;s important to note that your CRM shouldn&rsquo;t be used as a stand-alone automation tool.
 
Let&rsquo;s look at how Apollo amplifies your CRM and beyond.
 
<h4>CRM Automation</h4>
 
Inaccurate data and data regression create significant roadblocks for sales teams.&nbsp;
 
Studies have found that many marketing and sales professionals believe that <a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://econsultancy.com/the-cost-of-bad-data-stats/">over 30% of their records</a> are incorrect in some way, and 42% of these professionals say inaccurate data is the biggest barrier to multichannel marketing.
 
This first type of automation that Apollo.io offers you threatens to change all that with a simple CRM integration.
 
When you link your CRM to Apollo, the information in both apps will now auto-sync with each other. Not only are credentials, contacts, and sales data all auto-recorded from Apollo to your CRM, but you can create email tasks, phone tasks, activities, and meetings that sync every 15 minutes!
 
Sales reps are more than data robots. Apollo&rsquo;s CRM automation allows them to focus less on manual data entry and more on nurturing valuable relationships with their prospects.
 
For a step-by-step guide to jumpstarting CRM automation, check out our blog post <a href="https://apollo.io/blog/integrate-apollo-with-crm">here</a>.
 
<h4>Prospecting Automation</h4>
 
Finding quality leads can be even the best salesman&rsquo;s kryptonite. Apollo has automation to help with that.
 
*Enter* the <a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4409229262093-Prospect-in-LinkedIn">LinkedIn Extension</a>, the ultimate prospecting tool!&nbsp;
 
Before our LinkedIn Extension, salespeople were hopping back and forth from LinkedIn to other sales engagement platforms. Pulling someone from LinkedIn into Salesforce (for example) took three to five separate windows and dozens of clicks.
 
But with Apollo&rsquo;s LinkedIn Extension, you can prospect in Apollo&rsquo;s database without ever leaving LinkedIn. Find qualified leads, build curated prospect lists, and even add prospects to a series - in just a matter of seconds.
 
It really is that simple.
 
(<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/apolloio-email-finder-and/alhgpfoeiimagjlnfekdhkjlkiomcapa?hl=en-US">Install the Extension today for free with this link!</a>)
 
There lies even more prospecting automation in our own Searcher.&nbsp;
 
Apollo&rsquo;s searcher utilizes a database of over 210M contacts with verified email addresses, phone numbers, company information, funding/revenue data, job openings, and more!
 
The filters we offer allow you to conduct the most precise searches on the market. You can even set parameters to filter out existing leads and previously contacted accounts. There is no more risk of hitting one person twice or duplicating their information in your CRM, and sales reps no longer need to spend countless hours sorting through data to find what they&rsquo;re looking for.
 
In short - our prospecting automation can change the game.
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<h4>Outbound Automation</h4>
 
In a day and age where dozens of sellers are available to buyers at any given time, outbound campaigns have never been more important.
 
And Apollo has the automation tools to help you manage it.
 
For example, let&rsquo;s look at <a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4409237165837-Sequences-Overview">Apollo&rsquo;s Sequences</a> feature.&nbsp;
 
Sequences are your customizable outreach campaigns. It helps your team carry out best practices for engaging contacts and provides your sales reps with step-by-step guides to pushing prospects through the sales funnel.&nbsp;
 
By navigating to Campaigns &gt; Sequences &gt; Create New Sequence, you can choose to create a new sequence or use one of our prebuilt sequences.
 
<figure><img alt="create a sequence" src="https://apollo.io/wp-content/uploads/create-a-sequence-1.jpg"></figure>
 
From here you can create and organize steps and tasks to make personally tailored engagements for your target audience at scale! Create automatic emails, phone calls and scripts, action items, all to be carried out at the time of your choosing.
 
Want to send out a company update email to x group of prospects after they are added to a list? A product announcement on Mondays at 3pm?&nbsp;
 
Sequences will do that for you in seconds with no work required. It&rsquo;s the ultimate outbound automation machine.
 
Beyond Sequences, Apollo offers an instant-click-to-call Dialer, fully equipped with automatic direct calls, recording, transcriptions, and yes - even CRM logging.
 
The outbound automation opportunities are endless...
 
<h4>Task Management</h4>
 
If you&rsquo;re a sales manager, you understand the importance of a fluid system of task management.
 
Apollo offers you ways to equip individual reps with deep research on each account, and provide them with a series of tasks designated to them. You can share relevant case studies, relevant technologies, size departments, job posting, and news articles, giving your reps all the tools they need to build credibility and increase conversion rates!
 
Here&rsquo;s an example of what one of your tasks might look like:
 
<figure><img alt="create a new task" src="https://apollo.io/wp-content/uploads/create-a-new-task.jpg"></figure>
 
You can read more about task management automation at <a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4411331110925-Create-a-Task">this support page</a>.
 
<h4>Data and Intelligence</h4>
 
What good is an automation system if you don&rsquo;t have the tools that help you monitor and optimize your sales performance?
 
The final (but one of the most important) ways that Apollo supports your automation ambitions is with our powerful data and intelligence technology.
 
<a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4410826842381-Build-and-Access-Reports-In-Apollo">Apollo Analytics</a> offers you all the data and reports that you&rsquo;ll ever need. Our system automatically create dozens of pre-built reports that can show you:
 
<ul>
<li>Individual and team performance</li>

<li>Message effectiveness (by audience, timing, etc)</li>

<li>ROI</li>

<li>Activity tracking</li>

<li>Interest by Industry</li>

<li>Calls connected</li>

<li>Email open, click, and bounce rates</li>

<li>And so much more!</li>
</ul>
You can customize your own shared and private reports, as well as folders to store your favorite reports and dashboards.
 
<a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4410826842381-Build-and-Access-Reports-In-Apollo">Click here</a> to learn how to build your first report and how you can automate the data analytics process.
 
Whether you&rsquo;re a sales rep bogged down by monotonous work or a business leader looking to ramp up efficiency, Apollo can work for you. Unlike other sales engagement platforms on the market, our automation tools give you less work, not more.

From prospecting automation to data and intelligence, here are 5 types of automation in Apollo that help you get more work done in less time.

5 Types of Automation that Will Revolutionize your Sales Process

Data is the lifeblood of modern business.
 
The value of any business decision starts and ends with data quality.
 
This is why bad and/or incomplete databases can completely cripple a business, and why you need efficient data enrichment practices to stay ahead of the curve and set the standard within your market.
 
This article will cover the ins and outs of data enrichment and explain exactly how you can use it to append your existing data, learn more about your customers, and, ultimately, close more deals.
 
<h4>What is data enrichment?</h4>
 
Data enrichment is the process of enhancing, refining, and improving a data set with information from additional sources.&nbsp;
 
Data enrichment is all about contextualizing raw data to make it more useful.
 
But what does that really mean?
 
Consider for a moment a single Lego brick.
 
A Lego brick has unlimited potential. It could become the wall of a building, the wing of an airplane, a seat of a chair, or maybe a piece of a life-size replica of a Volkswagen Bug! Well, you get the picture&hellip;
 
But before it can become any of these things, it must be joined (or &ldquo;enriched&rdquo;) with other Lego pieces and parts. As each additional brick is combined with the first brick, its complexity increases, and so does its value.
 
Raw data is similar.&nbsp;
 
Before its potential can be unlocked and before it can become helpful in a larger sales or marketing situation, it needs to be joined with other data. As the data is slowly expanded and shaped into a specific context, it becomes something so much more valuable for the organization as a whole.
 
This is the entire purpose of data enrichment.&nbsp;
 
With enriched data, companies have better and deeper insights into exactly who their customers are and can use this information to personalize messaging and target ideal prospects.
 
<h4>What are the types of data enrichment?</h4>
 
There are three predominant types of data enrichment:
 
<h5>Demographic data enrichment</h5>
 
Demographic data enrichment is a process that involves gathering- you guessed it- demographic data and entering it into an existing customer dataset.&nbsp;
 
This could be anything from marital status, income level, education, number of children, median home value, or credit score. It&rsquo;s any data that helps you get a better understanding of who your customers are.
 
Data enriched with demographics is especially important for marketers. Personalized marketing is more important now than ever, and a database enriched with customer demographics can make all the difference in a targeted marketing campaign.
 
<h5>Geographic data enrichment</h5>
 
Geographic data enrichment, on the other hand, is enriching your consumer data with information on a contact&rsquo;s location, such as postal data, customer address, ZIP codes, county lines, mapping insights, etc.
 
Enriching using geographic data is beneficial in many contexts. Retailers could use location data to determine their next store location and marketers could use it to decide where they might place physical advertisements or send bulk mailing for direct mail.
 
<h5>Behavioral data enrichment</h5>
 
Behavioral data enrichment applies a customer&rsquo;s behavioral patterns to their customer profile. This may include past purchases, browsing behaviors, previous objections, etc.&nbsp;
 
This type of data enrichment often involves monitoring a user&rsquo;s purchasing path to identify where the key areas of interest lie for each customer. It can help companies identify which advertising campaigns work best and what they can expect from the return on investment (ROI) of each campaign.
 
<h4>What are the benefits of data enrichment?</h4>
 
Data enrichment has a number of benefits that make it an indispensable practice for data-driven companies.&nbsp;
 
Here are a few:
 
<h5>Data enrichment saves money</h5>
 
A <a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://www.veritas.com/news-releases/2016-03-15-veritas-global-databerg-report-finds-85-percent-of-stored-data">report by Global Databerg</a> found that an organization with one petabyte of data spends around $650,000 annually to manage the data, but only a fraction of their data is used for any true benefit.&nbsp;
 
When you use data enrichment practices, you don&rsquo;t store information that isn&rsquo;t useful to your business. Instead, you enhance the data that you already have, making your data more useful and saving you funds.
 
<h5>Data enrichment improves customer segmentation</h5>
 
<a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/customer-segmentation-strategies/">Customer segmentation</a> is the practice of separating prospective customers into different categories based on a set of shared characteristics. It leverages customer data to help sales and marketing teams create targeted and effective outbound campaigns.
 
When this customer data is enriched it deepens the understanding of these segments of customers, giving all your prospects a more personalized experience and boosting conversion rates.
 
<h5>Data enrichment fuels marketing campaigns</h5>
 
Your marketing campaign is only as good as the data that shapes it.
 
Data enrichment appends raw data and gives marketers actionable insights, data points that can be directly impactful in marketing campaigns, such as annual sales information, budget trends, behavioral patterns, user demographics, etc.
 
<h5>Data enrichment revamps your CRM</h5>
 
<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://biznology.com/2015/02/b2b-data-decay-list-rental-buyer-beware/">70.3%</a> of B2B data decays every year.&nbsp;
 
Without proper management, CRMs can become inaccurate and unreliable in the blink of an eye.
 
Data enrichment tools not only help you increase the volume of contacts in your CRM but can help you analyze your active database to find inaccuracies (e.g. duplicates, wrong emails, incorrect business titles, job changes) and fix them.
<a href="https://www.apollo.io/sign-up" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/Sgk6VKGvTACV0xNRoZE6"></a>
 
<h5>Data enrichment saves time</h5>
 
Data enrichment not only increases seller confidence in their organization&rsquo;s database but spares them from having to spend hours manually cleansing and updating existing data. Their time can now be spent engaging with customers, qualifying leads, booking meetings, and on other revenue-generating activities.
 
<h4>Data Enrichment Best Practices</h4>
 
<h5>Choose the right data enrichment tool</h5>
 
First and foremost, you need to choose the data enrichment tools that are right for your specific business needs.
 
The data enrichment tools that are worth their weight offer accuracy, reporting, alerts, integrations, and automation.
 
Every B2B business will have its own unique needs when it comes to data, but these are a few non-negotiable attributes that data-driven companies should look for in their data enrichment tools.
 
(Psst &ndash; Keep reading to learn how Apollo.io meets all of these standards and so much more!)
 
<h5>Use your ideal customer profiles to enrich data</h5>
 
Data enrichment providers offer hundreds and thousands of data points.&nbsp;
 
For some teams, this can be overwhelming.
 
The best teams use data from data enrichment providers <a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4416471135245-Identify-Your-Ideal-Customer-Profile-ICP-">based on their ideal customer profiles (ICPs)</a>. They use whatever data is needed to identify and engage potential best-fit customers.
 
This not only keeps databases more lean and structured but also helps with GDPR compliance since you&rsquo;re not holding on to personal data without purpose.

<h4>Outline your data mapping</h4>
 
Data enrichment is not solely about identifying and sourcing data. You need to understand how different sources of data interact with each other and where to go for each data type.
 
Here is a brief overview of enrichment data sources:
 
<ul>
<li>First party data is the information that you collect directly from your audience or customers. It includes data from behaviors and actions, data in your CRM, subscription data, social data, customer feedback, etc.</li>

<li>Second party data is someone else&rsquo;s first party data and it&rsquo;s purchased directly from the company that owns it. It&rsquo;s another company&rsquo;s purchase history, survey response, website data, etc. that can be used to predict future patterns for your own audience.</li>

<li>Third party data is data that you buy from outside sources (like those data enrichment providers/tools we&rsquo;ve been talking about!).</li>
</ul>
 
The best teams have a clear strategy about how these different sources interact and how to prioritize them within a data flow.
 
For more information on <a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/data-mapping">data mapping</a>, check out this article from Hubspot.
 
<h4>Enrich your data across all tools</h4>
 
When you focus on enriching only one tool (such as Salesforce, HubSpot, or other CRMs) it can create undesirable data silos.
 
In an ideal world, you want every tool to share a common view of each lead and customer. This promotes positive sales and marketing alignment as well as a cleaner, more manageable CRM.
 
As you&rsquo;re enriching data, consider how you will enrich contacts across your email, advertisements, web pages, sales calls, and analytics and reports.
 
<h4>Data enrichment with Apollo.io</h4>
 
The best data enrichment providers don&rsquo;t just hand over numbers and charts.
 
They offer robust data tools, real-time enrichment solutions, and make it easy to have your data flow between multiple tools.
 
And when you use Apollo.io for data enrichment, that&rsquo;s exactly what you get.
 
Streamlined, integrated, upleveled data across all of your tools.
 
Some specific data enrichment features Apollo offers include:
 
<ul>
<li>Robust and searchable databases fully equipped with verified <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/find-a-phone-number/">phone numbers</a>, <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/how-to-find-an-email-address/">email addresses</a>, company info, industry insights, location data, funding and revenue data, etc.</li>

<li>Trouble-free <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/integrate-apollo-with-crm/">integrations</a> so that data cleansing and enrichment can happen directly in your current technology stack</li>

<li>Advanced <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/sales-automation-101/">sales automation</a> capabilities that free up your sales reps from tedious data entry</li>

<li>Real-time enrichment solutions such as <a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4413921630989-CRM-Enrichment-Overview">CRM enrichment</a> and job change alerts</li>

<li>The ability to seamlessly operate in and through prospecting and scheduling platforms with the <a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4409229262093-Prospect-in-LinkedIn">LinkedIn Extension</a> and <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/apollo-google-calendar-2/">Google Calendar</a> integration</li>

<li>Comprehensive data <a href="https://apollo.io/product/security/">security and compliance measures</a> that your team can trust</li>
</ul>
If you want to be more productive, more data-driven, and an all-around more impactful market leader, data enrichment is a necessity.
 
The right data enrichment tool paired with data enrichment best practices shape unstoppable databases and, more importantly, shape unstoppable businesses.
 
Apollo helps you create better personalization, align team members on critical tasks and contacts, assist users down the funnel, have confidence in your CRM, and ensure that hard-earned data remains fresh, updated, and relevant.
 
See what users are raving about and <a href="https://www.apollo.io/sign-up" rel="follow">sign up for a free Apollo account</a> today!

Data enrichment solutions like Apollo append raw data and provide contact and company data at scale. Learn everything you need to know about data enrichment here.

How to Do Data Enrichment the Right Way

Production and productivity are completely tuned to time.
This concept has a lot of implications, but especially so for sales leaders. From meetings booked to the number of customers converted how you manage your time in the sales world makes all the difference.
​​Yet, precious little is being done in the average workplace to make better use of everyone&rsquo;s most limited asset.
A <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/sales-automation-the-key-to-boosting-revenue-and-reducing-costs">McKinsey &amp; Company study</a> found that many business leaders are not taking advantage of marketing and sales automation tools and all of their time-saving potential.
In fact, automation implementation in sales is severely lacking. This survey found that out of the hundreds of business leaders surveyed, <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/sales-automation-the-key-to-boosting-revenue-and-reducing-costs">only 26%</a> are automating a sales or marketing process.
This is an unfortunate statistic because sales automation has the potential to disrupt the entire sales funnel. Early adopters of sales automation consistently report increases in customer-facing time, higher customer satisfaction, 10-15% improvements in efficiency, and a sales uplift potential of up to 10%!
The simple fact is: putting off implementing sales automation is costing you.
In this guide, we'll go over the benefits of sales automation, show you some examples of sales automation in action, and explain how you can use it to streamline your sales and improve your conversation rates.
<a href="https://www.apollo.io/product/engage/conversations" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/SWqobrTmm1LWiK7nl7Rw"></a>
<h4>What is Sales Automation?</h4>
Sales automation is the process of using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to carry out sales tasks that are normally done manually. It&rsquo;s any software-based solution that helps a salesperson perform their tasks faster, easier, and more efficiently.
Without sales automation tools, sales reps will spend the majority of their time doing tedious, non-revenue-generating tasks (i.g. finding contact information, entering data manually, and updating CRMs).
Sales automation frees up sales reps and allows them to spend their time on high-value activities that drive revenue and prioritize the customer experience.
You can use sales automation tools in endless ways. They can tackle a single, specific task or offer end-to-end solutions (like Apollo.io for example!).
Whatever your current sales process looks like, sales automation can better it.
<h4>The Benefits of Sales Automation</h4>
Let's look at some of the specific ways that sales and marketing automation can take your sales process to the next level...
<h5>Sales automation increases efficiency and productivity</h5>
One of the best things sales automation can do for your business is improve your sales and marketing team's efficiency and productivity.
According to McKinsey, <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/sales-automation-the-key-to-boosting-revenue-and-reducing-costs">one-third</a> of all sales tasks have the potential to be automated. Just imagine how productive sales reps could be if 33% of their tasks were handled for them&hellip;
It also helps prevent burnout among your sales reps. Nothing de-energizes and fatigues sales and marketing teams like hours of tedious busywork. When you implement an automation tool, it not only heeds efficient results but lightens the load of your sales reps and gives them valuable energy to put elsewhere.
<h5>Sales automation reduces human error</h5>
People make mistakes. No matter who you hire or how they are trained, there will be human error committed in manual tasks.
Even for something as universal as a spreadsheet, it is reported that <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/salesforce/2014/09/13/sorry-spreadsheet-errors/?sh=496604e956ab">almost 90%</a> of them contain errors.
Sales automation and AI technology can help you make huge steps towards reducing the negative impact that human error has on your sales. Sales automation software can also help you identify small issues before they become larger and more costly.
<h5>Sales automation improves customer conversion rates</h5>
<a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/17222/artificial-intelligence-marketing/">Over 41% of marketers</a> say that sales automation is enabling them to generate more revenue and achieve higher customer conversation rates through email marketing alone.
Sales automation technology can help a sales manager set up exactly how they want their customer journey to look. The actions they want to be taken in specific accounts can be automatically triggered and executed, and prospects can be sent down sales funnels that are tailored to their needs.
This relieves sales reps from having to manually nurture prospects and allows them to have highly personalized experiences in no time at all.
<h5>Sales automation reduces costs</h5>
Money talks&hellip;
According to McKinsey, <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/artificial-intelligence/global-ai-survey-ai-proves-its-worth-but-few-scale-impact">44%</a> of firms using sales automation and/or AI report a reduction in cost in the departments where it's implemented.
Even with all the other benefits aside, sales automation reduces your cost, and that alone makes it a worthwhile investment.
<h5>Sales automation provides data analysis</h5>
An important part of any sales motion is testing and optimizing.
Sales and marketing automation tools store vast amounts of data, and many of them precisely track your sales activity and provide helpful sales reports and data analysis.
Automation platforms gather and store hundreds of data points. From measuring sales performance data to tracking marketing results, these data points can help you improve and optimize across your entire sales funnel.
Implementing an automated workflow allows you to easily monitor and respond to changes in customer behaviors, refine customer data, create new data-based campaigns, jumpstart lead generation, and so much more.
<h4>An example of successful sales automation</h4>
There are some amazing examples of companies using sales automation to completely revitalize their sales process.
Let's look at one together.
<h5>Paper Style's automated email campaign</h5>
PaperStyle.com is an online business that sells custom invitations, flyers, cards, etc.
Their sales practice was to send the same message at the same time to their entire email database. But without any personalization or strategy, their open and click-through rates started to suffer.
Paper Style decided to invest in sales automation. They used data and analytics to create targeted campaigns for an ideal customer profile: brides and their friends.
They established a set of email triggers:
<ul>
<li>Clicking on a wedding link in any Paper Style email</li>
<li>Purchasing a wedding or bridal shower product</li>
<li>Visiting a wedding-related page on PaperStyle.com</li>
</ul>
Any prospect who completed one of these actions was put into a targeted, and personalized email campaign. Using their sales automation software, emails were sent out to their leads not only at the perfect time but with email messaging that met their interests.
<a href="https://www.apollo.io/wp-content/uploads/Paper-Style-case-study-2017.pdf">The results</a>?
A 244% increase in Open Rate, a 161% increase in Click Rate, and a 330% increase in Revenue per Mailing!
It's safe to say that Paper Style found a lot of success with sales automation tools...and you can too.
<h4>Sales Automation for start-ups</h4>
It&rsquo;s no secret that start-ups and SMBs have less cash and fewer resources.
If you are a small business leader, you might be thinking, "I'm not sure I can afford to invest in sales automation software..."
But, that's exactly the reason why you should!
Automated sales tools work around the clock for you, at no extra cost. It cuts out the extra tasks that you may not have the budget or the hands for (such as managing customer data, digital sales, social media, email marketing, etc).
In fact, small companies are the <a href="https://cmosurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2019/02/The_CMO_Survey-Highlights-and_Insights_Report-Feb-2019.pdf">leaders in AI spending</a>. They invest in a sales automation solution because it has a high ROI and helps them penetrate their new market.
Here are some additional pointers for start-ups looking to invest in sales automation software:
<ul>
<li>Find a sales automation platform that is easy to manage. There are some platforms that offer expensive and unnecessary features that start-ups don't need.</li>
<li>Prioritize integration capabilities. Invest in a sales automation tool that can seamlessly integrate with your existing technology stack (ex. Salesforce, HubSpot, other customer relationship management platforms, website CMS).</li>
<li>Look for intelligence. Sales software should make your business smarter and more adaptable. As a start-up, you have the ability to be flexible and modify your sales and marketing processes more quickly than enterprise companies. Use sales automation to find ways to improve and don't forget to test, test, test!</li>
<li>Focus on how you can use sales automation to improve conversation rates, not just lead generation. Your platform should help you nurture leads in all stages of the sales pipeline and convert those prospects into happy customers.</li>
<li>Look for sales platforms that offer you free trials or accounts, that way you can see if it makes a good fit before investing your dollar (Pst! Apollo.io offers free accounts equipped with granular filters, email tracking, sequence automation, and so much more.)</li>
</ul>
<h4>Apollo helps you automate your sales from end to end</h4>
It seems obvious, but you can't automate your sales process if you don't have the tools to do the automating.
Not only is Apollo a sales engagement platform that provides you with intelligent sales automation software, but it gives you all the tools you need to efficiently manage and optimize your entire outbound strategy.
Let's look at how Apollo can help you crush your sales goals with the most powerful automation features on the market&hellip;
<h5>Prospecting</h5>
Finding qualified leads can be one of the biggest challenges in sales.
It's reported that <a href="https://vengreso.com/blog/what-is-prospecting">almost 69%</a> of sales professionals believe it's the trickiest part of their jobs.
That's why Apollo.io is made to seamlessly <a href="/blog/integrate-apollo-with-crm">sync with your CRM</a>.
When Apollo and your CRM software are synced, the information in both apps communicate and continuously auto-sync with each other. When a sales rep makes a sale (or performs any other sales action) in Apollo, it'll be instantly logged into their CRM.
Say goodbye to hours wasted on manually updating CRMs&hellip;
Our other sales automation prospecting powerhouse is the <a href="/blog/prospect-linkedin-chrome-extension">Apollo Chrome Extension</a>.
The Apollo Chrome Extension helps you identify potential customers more precisely than any other platform on the market. It allows you to target qualified prospects, gather contact information, and automate engagement all within a single LinkedIn window.
Want to see how easy it is to put into action? <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk6zUqdAAP4">Check out this video</a> on how to add your contacts to a sequence directly from LinkedIn.
<h5>Messaging</h5>
Once you identify your ideal prospects, Apollo can help you automate your outbound messaging.
<a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4413804036109-Create-Automation-in-the-Rules-Engine">Rules Engine</a> is one of our features that opens up endless sales automation opportunities.
With Rules Engine, you create rules by allocating your triggers and your actions. In other words, you decide exactly what you want to automatically happen and when.
A few examples of some triggers and actions you can set up include:
<ul>
<li>Account updated &gt; set contact field</li>
<li>Contact created &gt; add contact to a list or sequence</li>
<li>Contact completed the first step of a sequence &gt; create contact task</li>
<li>Email sent &gt; wait</li>
<li>Email bounced &gt; remove account from list</li>
<li>Call logged &gt; finish contact sequence</li>
</ul>
If you're looking to take advantage of the benefits of sales automation, you can't afford to overlook this powerful Apollo feature. Whether you want to send out automated emails or simply better delegate tasks to your sales representatives, Rules Engine can support you.
To learn more about the sales and marketing automation opportunities you have with Rules Engine, check out our <a href="/blog/automate-outbound-messaging">Rules Engine blog post</a> here.

<h5>Pipeline Management</h5>
Pipeline management is the process of tracking and overseeing sales opportunities. A good pipeline manager is constantly monitoring leads, updating their pipeline, and keeping tabs on their team's sales cycles.
When it comes to managing and planning your sales cycle, there is no better tool than <a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4409237165837-Sequences-Overview">Sequences</a>.
Setting up a sequence allows sales professionals to manage their outbound system from end-to-end. They can set up timed steps (automated emails, phone calls, action items, etc), step triggers, tasks for SDRs, or specific sequence permissions.
With Sequences, your outbound strategy is yours.
Send your prospects down pre-designed and pre-strategized sales funnels and watch your conversion rates surge!
Apollo does even more to support pipeline management automation.
Apollo's <a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/5130064363661-Use-Job-Change-Alerts-to-Update-Contacts">Job Change alerts</a> let users know in real time when leads and prospects have changed their professional status. This is especially useful when managing your pipeline because contacting a lead in the first few weeks of their new role is one of the most profitable times for selling.
With Job Change alerts enabled, not only are you alerted to new automation opportunities but you can always trust that your CRM is accurate and up-to-date.
We&rsquo;ll close with this: sales automation is the future of sales.
<a href="https://martechtoday.com/first-forrester-forecast-for-marketing-automation-finds-it-is-still-early-innings-for-adoption-215493">Forrester predicts</a> that automation tech spending will increase from $11.4 billion to $25.1 billion by 2023. It&rsquo;s predicted to be one of the most important business solutions in the coming years&hellip;
Don't be the last to implement an intelligent sales automation system. Sign up<a href="https://www.apollo.io/signup/">&nbsp;for a free Apollo.io account</a> today.

Sales automation tools eliminate tedious tasks and allow sales reps to focus on generating revenue and building relationships. Learn how to automate the right way with Apollo.io.

How to Use Sales Automation the Right Way

How do you know when a prospect is actively facing a challenge and when they are researching a solution? How can you tell exactly when they are ready to buy?
You&rsquo;re not a mind reader; that&rsquo;s why buyer intent data is such a valuable tool for uncovering the mystery that is buyer intent.
When intent data is leveraged effectively, it can help you focus your time, money, and effort on the prospects that matter and set up a strong <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/decoding-sales-pipeline">sales pipeline</a> across your organization.
However, nearly <a href="https://www.intentsify.io/report-b2b-state-intent-data">60%</a> of intent data users experience wasted resources as a result of facing the challenges of intent data. Although intent data has loads of potential, if gathered from the wrong resources, it can be unreliable, expensive, hard to interpret, or even non-compliant with data protections.
All of this begs the question: What does it look like to use intent data effectively? And is it really worth your valuable time?
We&rsquo;ll dive a little deeper into the specific challenges of using B2B intent data, as well as the unlimited potential it can give businesses that harness it the right way. But first, let&rsquo;s make sure we&rsquo;re aligned on what we mean by intent data.
<h4>What is intent data?</h4>
Intent data (often called buyer intent data or purchasing intent data) is a collection of behavioral signs &ndash; specifically web content consumption &ndash; that help sellers determine a prospect&rsquo;s purchase intent. It is a set of signals that reveals which leads or accounts are actively researching on first and/or third-party sites.
Whenever someone searches for something online, visits a web page, lingers on a blog post, or does virtually anything online, they are communicating interest. For example, it&rsquo;s safe to assume that you, the reader of this blog post, have an interest in the topic of intent data, or at the very least B2B sales and/or data solutions.
The value of intent data is based on this idea.
When buyers have a problem, they research to find a solution. The more data and knowledge you have surrounding their searches, activity, and online behaviors, the better you can deliver valuable and relevant messaging to prospects early on in their buyer journey.
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<h4>How is intent data collected?</h4>
Intent data is a fairly broad term, which means it can refer to slightly different things in the world of B2B data solutions.
Based on the solution, intent data can be collected in several different ways :
<ul>
<li>Data based on website traffic (i.e. users or accounts who have visited your website and therefore have shown intent)</li>
<li>Data based on online advertising engagement</li>
<li>Data based on content consumption</li>
<li>Data that reflects relevant online research across search engines, forums, social channels, etc.</li>
<li>Data from software review sites that help you identify exactly which in-market products are generating interest</li>
<li>Any of the above layered with valuable contextual information like new job hirings, press mentions, funding rounds, referral sources, etc.</li>
</ul>
These <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/uncover-top-customer-insights-with-b2b-intent-data/">types of intent data</a> often fall into one of two primary categories: first and third-party data.
First-party intent data
This type of intent data is what you most often imagine when you think about tracking buyer behavior: data that you own and collect yourself from your website and social platforms. It is an activity that you pick up from your own audience across your digital properties.
First-party intent data can be valuable for identifying purchase intent and it can help your salespeople reach out to proactively address concerns and pain points.
Anything from customer surveys to tracking website activity and taking notes on customer interactions is collecting first-party intent data. You likely already have a few tools in place to help you collect it (e.g. analytics tools, <a href="https://blog.apollo.io/blog/sales-engagement-platforms">sales engagement platforms</a>, your website&rsquo;s backend).
But it can be rather one-dimensional. Third-party intent data can help you get a broader picture of your prospective customers&hellip;
Third-party intent data
More often than not, the best way to access reliable intent data is through a third-party data provider. These data platforms collect relevant insights from all across the web, from competitors&rsquo; websites and media publishers to social media platforms and B2B sites.
Using third-party intent data opens up a whole world of buyer information. Top data providers crawl millions of public web documents for buying behaviors and bring you scalable and actionable information on best-fit prospects ready to buy.
Bonus: Third-party data is often already distilled into audience segments and relevant topics, eliminating your need to sort through swaths of data!
Intent data is collected in many different ways and can take on very different forms. So remember, the kinds of intent data that will be most valuable to you will depend on your organization, your product, and the specific sales and marketing strategies you have in place. Many organizations that have seen great sales results from intent data use several intent data providers or combine first-party with third-party intent data to create a holistic intent view of their target accounts.
<h4>Why is intent data important for B2B sales?</h4>
Interest in intent data is on the rise. <a href="https://www.demandgenreport.com/resources/research/intent-data-s-expanding-impact/">80%</a> of B2B brands are already leveraging intent data, with another 16% planning to do so within the next 12 months.
Here are a few of the reasons why:
<h5>#1: Get in front of the right buyers early and get ahead of competition</h5>
Today&rsquo;s buyers are self-guided.
More and more of the buying journey is being completed before prospects ever connect with a salesperson. This results in less opportunity to discover what prospective customers need and get them into your sales funnel from the get-go.
With intent data, you can leverage intent signals to identify interested buyers early and gain a leg up on your competition.
With <a href="https://www.intentdata.io/intent-data-blog/the-meaning-of-intent-data#:~:text=74%25%20of%20B2B%20buyers%20ultimately,in%20no%20decision%20than%20ever.">74% of B2B buyers</a> ultimately selecting the first vendor to provide them value, this is a huge advantage of using intent data in B2B sales!
<h5>#2: Find new actively interested leads and boost prospecting efforts</h5>
Intent data improves engagement with the prospects already on your radar, but it also helps sales reps identify new buyers and accelerate <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/sales-prospecting">sales prospecting</a> efforts.
The potential buyers you find using intent data are never completely cold &ndash; they have communicated a level of interest and are in the hunt for a solution that aligns with your product&rsquo;s value. This makes them a sales-qualified lead (or very, very close to one).
And what salesperson wouldn&rsquo;t want consistent SQLs flooding into their pipeline?!
<h5>#3: Prioritize leads by understanding which accounts are ready to spend</h5>
Buyer intent data can help you distinguish between the leads who are actively looking for solutions and are ready to spend and the leads who are simply looking into a particular topic.
This allows salespeople to optimize marketing and sales resources and invest their time into the right accounts.
<h5>#4: Create hyper-personalized content</h5>
As we&rsquo;ve learned, intent data is great at revealing a prospect&rsquo;s needs, interests, and pain points. The best salespeople put that information into action, by using those insights to create hyper-personalized, value-based messaging.
Leverage data like browsing history or purchase history to make specific product recommendations, create a personalized <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/how-to-create-an-email-campaign-that-closes-deals">email campaign</a>, frame outbound messaging, share relevant landing pages, E-books, blog posts, and so much more!

<h4>The challenges of using B2B intent data</h4>
Intent data has a lot of perks &ndash; but that doesn&rsquo;t mean it should be treated as a silver bullet for B2B sales.
Here are some of the challenges of using intent data that users should be aware of:
<ul>
<li>Intent data is still maturing. Buyer intent data has really only emerged over the last decade and is still a rather new product category. Now, this isn&rsquo;t necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that, currently, few industries have the strategies and support in place to effectively and efficiently use intent data to its fullest potential.</li>
<li>Intent data can come from poor sources. When it comes to data collection, there are a lot of questionable providers with questionable data practices. Whether they are non-compliant with privacy laws, sell outdated information, or are just plain inaccurate, many unestablished data platforms will try to sell you bad intent data. Finding the right data provider can be one of the biggest hurdles to using intent data (But, stick with us! We&rsquo;ll go over what to look for in a best-in-class data solution).</li>
<li>Intent data is often used improperly. Too many sales and marketing teams use intent data without a comprehensive strategy. If you&rsquo;re tracking too many topics or treating every signal of interest as purchasing intent, you&rsquo;ll end up chasing poor-fit accounts and wasting resources. Intent data requires thoughtful interpretation and a clear strategy.</li>
<li>Intent data, in isolation, is meaningless. Intent data requires context. For example, a &lsquo;surge&rsquo; in activity could mean an eager buyer or it could mean someone who is not in the position to purchase is researching competitors or industry trends. Most intent signals need supplementary data to provide you with the context you need to make smart selling decisions.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Questions to ask when evaluating intent data solutions</h4>
Choosing an intent data solution is important; it can be the difference between exceeding your sales quota or wasting time and energy on non-buyers and bad-fit leads.
When evaluating intent data providers, here are a few essential questions to ask to ensure you&rsquo;re making the best possible investment:
<ul>
<li>How is the intensity of intent signals measured and is it reflective of &lsquo;true&rsquo; intent?</li>
<li>How is the intent data gathered and is it from reliable sources?</li>
<li>Does the data provider offer contextual data? (e.g. company and contact information, job roles, technologies used, keywords)</li>
<li>Is the intent data being regularly updated and/or refreshed?</li>
<li>Is the platform compliant with GDPR and other data privacy regulations?</li>
<li>Is the intent data tool easy to use or is it unnecessarily complicated?</li>
<li>Does it offer an expansive database with granular filtering capabilities?</li>
<li>Can the data be integrated into your current technology stack for a more streamlined end-to-end workflow?</li>
<li>Can you leverage the data to build <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/how-to-use-sales-automation-the-right-way/">sales automation</a> processes within the tool?</li>
</ul>
The very best data solutions not only provide you with reliable and scalable intent data but equip you with all the features you need to put it into action and immediately boost conversions!
Before you go, don&rsquo;t forget to follow Apollo on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/apolloio/">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/MeetApollo/">Twitter</a> to never miss out on sales insights and Apollo product updates (we have some exciting things in the works!).

What is buying intent data and why is it so important for B2B sales? Learn everything you need to know about the power of predictive data here.

Intent Data 101: How to Supercharge your Sales Using B2B Buyer Intent Data

Where does buying intent data come from? How do data companies find and collect it? Is B2B intent data a true indicator of purchase intent?
These are all common questions in the intent data space. After all, intent data is a relatively new and emerging product category and many companies are still trying to understand how it fits into their <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/lead-generation-best-practices-for-filling-your-sales-pipeline/">lead generation</a> strategy.
So, before even thinking about investing your dollar in a new data provider, you should feel comfortable in your understanding of intent data and feel assured that these intent indicators are being collected accurately and ethically.
In this blog, we&rsquo;ll give you the basics of buying intent data and uncover the mystery of exactly how data providers find buyer signals and convert them into tidy bits of information that propel your sales forward.
Here's what we'll cover:
<ul>
<li>What is buying intent data?</li>
<li>How is intent data collected?</li>
<li>Buying intent data collection FAQs</li>
</ul>
<h4>A recap: what is buying intent data?</h4>
Let&rsquo;s say, for example, that you sell gym memberships&hellip;
A big part of your job is hunting for prospects who are looking to get fit and join a new community. You could start by cold calling every prospect on your target list, but joining a gym (and nearly every other purchasing decision) is all about timing. What if you were able to identify the contacts who are eager to join a gym right now? You&rsquo;d save time, waste fewer resources, and close even more deals.
By leveraging intent data, you can.
<a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/intent-data-101-supercharge-sales-using-b2b-buyer-intent-data/">Intent data</a> (often called buyer intent data or purchasing intent data) is a collection of behavioral signs &ndash; specifically web content consumption &ndash; that help sellers determine a prospect&rsquo;s purchase intent. It is a set of signals that reveals which leads or accounts are actively researching on first and/or third-party sites.
When people have a problem, all they need is a device and some wifi to find answers and solutions. Looking for a dog walker? Need to find top-rated running shoes? Searching for new software? Google&rsquo;s got you.
That's why buying intent is so powerful. Sellers can target buyers that are already searching for solutions like theirs, getting them that much closer to a sale than if they were targeting blindly.
There are two main types of intent data that sellers can use to determine buying intent:
First-party intent data is insights from your own users and prospects. It includes the data collected from your website and platforms (think: form fills, website tracking, chatbots, etc).
Third-party intent data is insights and signals from digital spaces outside of your own gathered by external providers. A third-party intent signal might look like a contact commenting in a web forum on a topic that&rsquo;s related to your industry or engaging with a video in your product category. These signals help you identify new prospects before they reach your site (or your competitor&rsquo;s).

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<h4>How is intent data collected?</h4>
The logistics of collecting first-party data are pretty straightforward. But how do these third parties collect these magical intent numbers from all across the web?
Well, intent data is collected in several different ways:
<ul>
<li>Data gathered from website traffic (e.g. users or accounts who have visited relevant websites and therefore have shown intent)</li>
<li>Data based on online advertising engagement</li>
<li>Data based on content consumption</li>
<li>Data that reflects relevant online research across search engines, forums, blogs, social channels, etc. Data from software review sites (e.g. pages visited, reviews written)</li>
<li>Any of the above layered with valuable contextual information like new job hirings, press mentions, funding rounds, referral sources, etc.</li>
</ul>
Let&rsquo;s take a deeper dive into the B2B intent data collection process with these frequently asked questions from sales teams:
<h4>Buying intent data collection FAQs</h4>
<h5>What counts as an &lsquo;intent signal&rsquo;?</h5>
The answer will differ a bit depending on the provider, but an intent signal is always an overt action that communicates buying interest.
Intent data provider, <a href="https://leadsift.com/">LeadSift (a Foundry company)</a>, crawls the web every few hours to find signals like buyers liking or commenting on a social post, interacting within a forum, viewing articles, reading blogs, following new accounts, and more.
&ldquo;We look for any and all activities,&rdquo; says <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sreejatachatterjee/">Sreejata Chatterjee</a>, LeadSift Co-Founder and Chief of Product, &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll then take those intent signals and give you a score, which will show you how hot the accounts are.&rdquo;
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Various "signals" are weighted differently and aggregated up to an account. For example, a buyer who requested a demo from a competitor would have a much higher intent score than a buyer who liked a social post that&rsquo;s related to your product.
As the signals get hotter, it means that potential customers are reaching the end of their buying journey. This tells sellers they should target them with bottom-of-the-funnel messaging. Buyers showing only one or two intent signals are just starting their journey (if at all) and, in this case, it would be valuable to apply top funnel marketing strategies.
<h5>Is buyer activity in related topics still registered as intent?</h5>
If you sell revenue intelligence software, you&rsquo;d want to know if a potential buyer is researching &ldquo;operations automation&rdquo; (even if it&rsquo;s not your exact product topic).
Progressive providers like LeadSift have a whole taxonomy of topics that includes up to 50 related companies and keywords for each intent topic. They also allow users to create custom triggers, keywords, job titles, etc. that they would like to be notified on. This gives sellers expansive, personalized insights across dozens of topics that are heavily related to their product and industry.
And, again, the strength of these signals are typically scored differently. Direct engagement with a competitor or a new round of funding would be scored higher than a simple keyword engagement, for example.
<h5>What is the accuracy of intent data?</h5>
Intent data providers (or, rather, good intent data providers) use zero guesswork.
Every intent signal you receive is something that did happen. Someone posts something, they pick it up and alert you.
Now the effectiveness of that intent signal is ultimately determined by you &ndash; the data receiver. To get the results you want, it&rsquo;s important to have a solid strategy for using intent data that focuses on contextualizing it and putting it into action.
You can check out this blog for more information on <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/uncover-top-customer-insights-with-b2b-intent-data/">ways to use B2B intent data</a>.
<h5>After it&rsquo;s been collected, does it go stale?</h5>
Like all data, buying intent insights decay over time.
That&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s important to choose a data provider that frequently crawls the web for the most current info and regularly enriches existing data.
<h5>Is all of this GDPR compliant?</h5>
Speaking of choosing the right data provider, it&rsquo;s also important for data regulation purposes. Collecting intent data as a practice is absolutely within <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/how-apollo-protects-data">general data protection regulations (GDPR)</a>, but like with everything, there are companies with poor practices.
Make sure you ask the right questions when choosing an intent data provider to ensure that your company is teaming up with only the best.
<h4>In Closing</h4>
<a href="https://www.broadbandsearch.net/blog/internet-statistics">96% of Americans</a> shop online at least once each year, and of those 314 million people, <a href="https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/the-changing-face-b2b-marketing/">89%</a> of them do extensive research before making a purchase. Using intent data to put your product directly in front of prospects early in their buyer journey is not only important, it&rsquo;s necessary.
By teaming up with an intent data provider, you can receive all the buyer intelligence and key insights you need to sell confidently and convert at scale.

Where does buying intent data come from? How do data companies find and collect it? Is B2B intent data a true indicator of purchase intent? Read on to learn the ins and outs of intent data.

How is Intent Data Collected? Here's Everything You Need to Know

You have a lot to consider when it comes to building out a perfect sales sequence.
It may feel daunting, but establishing a clear and comprehensive sales process for your marketing and sales teams has never been more important.
Research says that B2B companies that have a well-defined sales process experience <a href="https://hbr.org/2015/01/companies-with-a-formal-sales-process-generate-more-revenue">18% more revenue growth</a> than companies that don&rsquo;t have one.
Above all, you need a sales sequence that gives you results. You want to close deals.
And Apollo helps you do just that&hellip;
Let&rsquo;s look at how you can use Apollo to create a successful sales sequence that accommodates the needs of your ideal buyers, guides your sales reps through important accounts, and takes your return on investment to new heights!
<h4>What is Sales Sequencing and Why is it Important?</h4>
We should cover the basics.
Sales sequences are all about smart automation and efficient engagement.
They are a scheduled series of sales touchpoints with prospects. Sales sequencing can include <a href="https://blog.apollo.io/blog/how-to-create-an-email-campaign-that-closes-deals">email campaigns</a>, phone calls, social messaging and/or posts, SMS messaging, and any other tasks for your salespeople to carry out during the sales cycle.
It&rsquo;s important to note that a good sales sequence isn&rsquo;t vague; it should eliminate all guesswork and include specific and pre-defined intervals between steps, helping salespeople know exactly what to do and when to do it - all without missing a beat.

The best sales sequences have the perfect combination of automation and personalization and utilize the strengths of both to its advantage.
At Apollo, we understand the importance of a well-structured sales process. That&rsquo;s why we provide you with an entire feature dedicated to helping you build out the perfect <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/build-sales-cadence">sales cadences</a>.
<h4>Connect with Every Contact Efficiently with Apollo Sequences</h4>
<blockquote>
&ldquo;Sequences are the thing that I like the most from Apollo! They're easy to use, easy to configure and they send out exactly as you program them to go out.&rdquo; &ndash; Nicol&aacute;s G, Lead Generation Agent, Mid-Market (<a href="https://www.g2.com/products/apollo-io/reviews/apollo-io-review-6558780">G2 review</a>)
</blockquote>
As we&rsquo;ve learned, Sequences are automated outreach campaigns, designed to personally communicate and engage with your target audiences at scale. Use Sequences to create customizable, multi-step touchpoints with automatic or manual emails, phone calls, LinkedIn messaging, action items and more.
And as you use Apollo to create and hone in on your ideal customer profiles, you can create Sequences that speak directly to the value propositions your prospects are looking for.
Apollo Sequences ensure that your team delivers the ideal communications and completes the right task at the right time!
One of the most powerful things about Sequences is that it provides you with clear analytics to see what steps are higher converting and immediately optimize and adjust your Sequence to perform better.
<h5>Sequence steps</h5>
Steps are the building blocks of your Apollo sequence.
They are the individual messages and activities that you design for your team to successfully engage the prospects you&rsquo;re targeting. The sequences themselves are made up of as many steps as you choose with as much spacing between them as you want!
Here are the eight types of steps you can choose from:
<ol>
<li>Automatic Email: Use any of your Apollo email templates and/or create new ones to craft personalized, targeted messaging to be delivered automatically based on the parameters you set.</li>
<li>Manual Email: Create a manual email when you want more control of your outbound messaging for each prospect. Once your prospect hits this step, a manual task is created with your email template you&rsquo;ve added, which you can tailor before you hit send.</li>
<li>Phone Call: Add notes, tips, scripts and any other helpful collateral within a clear reminder to call (use our <a href="https://support.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/115003770012-Phone-Calls-Guide">Dialer</a> to allow your team to call directly from their Apollo dashboard and automatically capture call recordings and additional insights).</li>
<li>Action Item: This is a customizable task where you can add personalized notes to highlight the specific actions you want to be taken. Create as many tasks as you like to perform all of the communications or processes you need to reach a successful sale.</li>
<li>LinkedIn: View Profile: Access a contact's LinkedIn profile from within Apollo and document key information that can help you build rapport when engaging with prospects.</li>
<li>LinkedIn: Interact With Post: Review a contact's activities, engage with their recent posts, and give yourself direction with reminders and relevant notes.</li>
<li>LinkedIn: Send a Connection Request: Create connection request templates to make a great first impression.</li>
<li>LinkedIn: Send Message: Send personalized InMail messages using templates and dynamic variables and personalize your approach at scale.</li>
</ol>
Note: You&rsquo;ll need to upgrade your Apollo account to a paid plan for access to all eight of these step types.
<h5>Step spacing</h5>
The next element of sequencing is deciding on the timing and spacing between your steps.
There are two factors to determine how much time elapses between sequence steps:
<ol>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ol>
<li>Schedule: The sequence schedule sets the time and the day in which Apollo sends messages to prospects.</li>
<li>"Wait For" time in each step: The "Wait For" time in each step tells Apollo how long to wait in between each step in a sequence.</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
Remember, the optimal timing for your target audience will depend on your sales strategy. Research your industry and space your steps to support your sales goals and engage your target audience.
<h5>Creating a Sequence in Apollo</h5>
Let&rsquo;s walk through how to use these steps to build a deal-closing sequence, from start to finish!
First, launch Apollo, and navigate to Engage &gt; Sequences &gt; + New Sequence. You&rsquo;ll have the option to start a new one from scratch, clone an existing Sequence, or use one of our many pre-built sequencing templates.
<img src="https://www.apollo.io/wp-content/uploads/create-a-new-sequence.png" width="600" height="297">
For the sake of this demo, let&rsquo;s start a new sequence together!
Name and schedule your new sequence on the next pop-up window.
<img src="https://www.apollo.io/wp-content/uploads/name-and-schedule-sequence.png" width="600" height="281">
Note: To learn more about creating and editing sequence sending schedules, <a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4409477927309-Create-and-Edit-Sequence-Sending-Schedules">read here</a>.
Once you click + Create, you&rsquo;ll find your sequence dashboard. Click + Add Step.
This is where you&rsquo;ll choose one of the eight step types, as well as the time and wait time you desire between each step, the priority level, and any notes you want to give your SDRs.
For our first step, let&rsquo;s choose an automatic email.
This is when you&rsquo;ll start infusing your messaging.
<img src="https://www.apollo.io/wp-content/uploads/automatic-email-template.png" width="600" height="381">
Create a new message manually, or apply templates to streamline email outreach. You can also use dynamic variables or videos to hyper-personalize your messaging.
When you&rsquo;re done click Save Changes, and you&rsquo;ll be taken back to your new and improved Sequence Dashboard.
<img src="https://www.apollo.io/wp-content/uploads/Sequence-dashboard.png" width="702" height="243">
It&rsquo;s as simple as that!
Repeat the process and add as many steps as you desire to create your most personalized and detailed sales sequence yet!
You can now add prospective buyers to your sequence using your saved contacts, the <a href="https://blog.apollo.io/blog/prospect-linkedin-chrome-extension">Apollo LinkedIn Extension</a>, your CRM, and more. Build out as many of these sequences as you need to craft personalized sales experiences for each one of your ideal buyer profiles!
<a href="https://www.apollo.io/sign-up" rel="follow"><img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/ExRBugJlRgLBLI2H7HTc" width="675" height="205"></a>
And, looking at the navigation bar at the top, you can see that salespeople can manage contacts, emails, phone calls, see the activity log, AND get reports, all within the same Sequencing dashboard.
Sales and marketing teams are now given a system that works for them and actually saves them time and energy while maximizing conversion rates.
<h4>An Example of a High-Performing Apollo Sequence</h4>
To help you get inspired, take a look at this effective sequence our team has created here at Apollo.
<img src="https://www.apollo.io/wp-content/uploads/Rashmi-sequence-3-1.png" width="693" height="963">
Spanning over 11 days, this intensive, multi-channel sequence is powerful!
It&rsquo;s targeted at the decision-maker (in this case, the original creator of the company&rsquo;s account). It lets them know that their teammates are still actively using the product and getting value out of it. It asks if they have time to meet with the AE to re-establish value and go over their needs.
This sequence has over a 77% open rate! Why?
Because it takes a multi-channel approach (email and LinkedIn), includes grabby <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/the-best-sales-email-subject-lines-that-convert-with-examples/">email subject</a> lines, and uses strategic <a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4409477927309-Create-and-Edit-Sequence-Sending-Schedules">timing and sending schedules</a>. Not to mention it is highly targeted and personalized.
To see some more examples of successful Apollo sequences, check out our <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/top-3-sales-sequences-in-apollo-examples-included/">top three sequences blog here</a>.
<h4>Sequencing Tips and Tricks</h4>
Before we send you off to champion the sales world, here are some additional tips to consider when creating sales sequences in Apollo:
<ul>
<li>Personalize your subject line. Personalized email subject lines are <a href="https://www.invespcro.com/blog/email-subject-lines-statistics-and-trends/">22.2% more likely</a> to be opened. Take advantage of personalization tools like <a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4409415084813-Use-Basic-Snippets">dynamic variables</a> to grab your prospects' attention from the get-go and boost your open rates.</li>
<li>Don&rsquo;t mention all of your value in the first email. In your first email, highlight the most important value you offer to the specific persona you&rsquo;re engaging with. But don&rsquo;t bombard them in the first email! Use the rest of your talking points to support your proposal to schedule more interaction.</li>
<li>Track and optimize your messaging. <a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4410749683597-Add-an-A-B-Test-to-an-Email-Step-in-a-Sequence">A/B test</a> email messaging and track key metrics like delivered, opened, replied, and bounced rates to find the perfect messaging, optimize your engagement strategy, and maximize results.</li>
<li>Do your research and prove your expertise. Communicate what you know about specific technologies, markets, titles, verticals, etc, (the <a href="https://apollo.io/why-apollo/our-data/">Apollo database</a> can help you out with this one!) and make clear what is unique about your product and service.</li>
<li>Leverage <a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4409238165389-Create-and-Edit-Email-Templates">email templates</a>. No one should spend precious time manually writing individual emails. Create and save email templates and make it easy for you to consolidate the content that is sent to your contacts and allow your team to collaborate and share resources.</li>
<li>Link your Gmail and Microsoft Exchange accounts for free! Did you know users on free plans can link their Google or Microsoft mailboxes to unlock the power of Sequences? Don&rsquo;t wait to grow your pipeline, maximize productivity, and move deals forward!</li>
</ul>
For more sequencing inspiration, check out some of our Apollo sales team&rsquo;s top performing Sequences.
If you&rsquo;ve made it this far and still don&rsquo;t have an Apollo account, what are you waiting for?! <a href="https://www.apollo.io/signup/">Try it out for free</a> and start building sales sequences capable of taking conversions to the moon!

Learn how to create your own automated outbound campaign that accommodates the needs of your ideal buyers, guides your sales reps through important accounts, and takes your return on investment to new heights.

How to Create Automated Sequences and Boost Engagement

If you work in sales, you know that generating good, quality leads is one of the most time-consuming and exhaustive tasks in the sales process.
A recent survey revealed that <a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/sales-statistics">40% of salespeople</a> consider sales prospecting more difficult than qualifying and even closing.
If you value your time (who doesn&rsquo;t?!) and you care about data accuracy and reliability (of course you do), then automated sales prospecting tools are a must.
Sales tools that offer prospecting automation make your <a href="https://blog.apollo.io/blog/build-sales-cadence">sales cadence</a> infinitely more streamlined and impactful.
Keep reading to learn what to look for in a prospecting tool and what modern sales tools are worth giving a try today!
<h4>What is a sales prospecting tool?</h4>
A sales prospecting tool is software that automates <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/lead-generation-strategies/">lead generation</a>, sourcing, and verifying contact information and outreach.
Sales prospecting tools drive <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/proven-ways-to-boost-sales-productivity/">sales productivity</a>.
They reduce the time required for sales activities and allow salespeople to perform more targeted, effective outreach based on accurate data.
You can use sales prospecting tools to:
<ul>
<li>Automate manual or repetitive tasks and eliminate busywork to give your sellers more customer-facing time</li>
<li>Engage prospects at scale over multiple channels</li>
<li>Identify and contact decision makers and first-point-of contact</li>
<li>Build <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/ways-to-build-better-b2b-lead-lists/">lead lists</a> with best-fit prospects that have the highest chance of converting</li>
<li>Get insights into prospects&rsquo; pain points so you are better informed when you reach out and are more equipped to <a href="https://blog.apollo.io/blog/overcome-objections-sales">overcome objections</a></li>
<li>Track and analyze industry movements, online behavior, and buyer <a href="https://blog.apollo.io/blog/b2b-intent-data">intent data</a> to predict sales opportunities</li>
</ul>
<h4>What to look for in an automated sales prospecting tool?</h4>
Your number one question when evaluating new tools should always be, &ldquo;Does it meet my company&rsquo;s needs?&rdquo;
There are a lot of sales tools out there with all the bells and whistles, but if they don&rsquo;t fit well with your product, your existing tools, your company goals, your budget, or your selling strategies, they will be more stressful than they are worth.
On top of these considerations, ask yourself does it:
<ul>
<li>Provide <a href="https://apollo.io/why-apollo/our-data/">accurate, verified data</a> (this one&rsquo;s a no-brainer!)</li>
<li>Offer seamless <a href="https://apollo.io/product/integrations/">integrations</a> with your current technology stack</li>
<li>Offer free trials or accounts (this way you can see if it makes a good fit before investing your dollar)</li>
<li>Have features that allow you to perform high-quality interactions at scale</li>
<li>Encourage team transparency and efficiency</li>
</ul>
To start you on your quest for the best prospecting software, we&rsquo;ve compiled a list of 5 easy-to-use prospecting tools that offer some of the best automation on the market.
<h4>1. LinkedIn Sales Navigator</h4>

<img src="https://www.apollo.io/wp-content/uploads/linkedin-sn-screenshot.png" width="600" height="304">
When it comes to prospecting platforms, there is hardly one more popular than LinkedIn.
The <a href="https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/sales-navigator">LinkedIn Sales Navigator</a> allows you to take advantage of the social network&rsquo;s user base of over 600 million professionals.
Find new leads with advanced search options, then let the tool suggest new leads for you. Sales Navigator also gives you crucial updates about target accounts, such as job changes or press releases. You can choose to get email alerts every day, week, or month. This way, you can receive a prequalified list of prospects on a recurring schedule &ndash; without lifting a finger.
LinkedIn is also extremely integration-friendly &ndash; using a data insights tool alongside the LinkedIn Sales Navigator will make prospecting automation even more effective.
With the <a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4409226637453-Apollo-Chrome-Extension-Overview">Apollo Chrome Extension</a>, you can amplify LinkedIn&rsquo;s automated prospecting capabilities while cutting down time spent. When used on LinkedIn, the Apollo Chrome Extension gives you verified contact information, click-to-call capabilities, automatic research and stage sync, one-click list building, and more.
Do prospecting tools get more dynamic?! We think not&hellip;
<a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/apolloio-email-finder-and/alhgpfoeiimagjlnfekdhkjlkiomcapa">Download our Chrome Extension here</a>!
<h4>2. Vidyard</h4>

<img src="https://www.apollo.io/wp-content/uploads/vidyard-homepage-screenshot.png" width="600" height="304">
Meet&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vidyard.com/">Vidyard</a>! &ndash; a cutting-edge tool for digitally-focused, automation-seeking sales teams.
With Vidyard, you can record and send videos in just a few clicks &ndash; perfect for busy sales reps trying to use automation to break into inboxes and create lasting impressions with prospects.
This tool also offers:
<ul>
<li>Easy link attachments to book meetings straight from videos</li>
<li>Customizable video-sharing pages for brand consistency at every touchpoint</li>
<li>Integration with Zoom for video storage</li>
<li>Advanced video analytics and notifications</li>
</ul>
And the best part?
There is a <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/vidyard-apollo-io-integration/">Vidyard-Apollo.io integration</a>!
With an Apollo.io account, Vidyard makes your outbound prospecting capabilities even more advanced by allowing you to record or embed a custom-made video without leaving the Apollo platform, adding video personalizing to your Apollo sales <a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4409237165837-Sequences-Overview">sequences</a>, simultaneously importing videos, and more.

If you&rsquo;re an Apollo.io customer, you can start integrating videos into your prospecting sales process today. Here&rsquo;s a document on how to <a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4422999587469-Import-Vidyard-Videos-into-Apollo-Emails">import Vidyard videos into Apollo</a> to get you started.
And If you don&rsquo;t have an Apollo account, worry not! It&rsquo;s completely free to sign up.
But more about that later&hellip;
<h4>3. Calendly</h4>

<img src="https://www.apollo.io/wp-content/uploads/calendly-homepage-screenshot.png" width="602" height="305">
Smart, modern scheduling is an important part of any prospecting process.
<a href="https://calendly.com/">Calendly</a> is a great automated sales prospecting tool because it eliminates the hassle of back-and-forth emails and helps you schedule meetings with prospects professionally and efficiently.
Key automation features of Calendly include:
<ul>
<li>Single-click scheduling that reduces cancellations and double bookings</li>
<li>Automated reminders and follow-ups</li>
<li>Advanced availability preferences</li>
<li>Lead qualification through routing forms</li>
<li>CRM integrations that limit manual data entry</li>
</ul>
<h4>4. G2</h4>

<img src="https://www.apollo.io/wp-content/uploads/G2-homepage-screenshot.png" width="600" height="301">
Used by buyers, salespeople, and investors alike,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.g2.com/">G2</a> is the go-to platform for B2B SaaS reviews.
It&rsquo;s a goldmine of information about prospects&rsquo; needs, challenges, and how they&rsquo;re using your competition&rsquo;s solutions.
On G2, you can use <a href="https://sell.g2.com/g2-review-automation">Review Automation</a> to collect more reviews in less time. Integrate your email tools, your CRM, and/or survey software into G2 to automatically collect and store actionable feedback and respond to customers with ease.
G2 can also help you cut down on hours of competitive research by offering you the business intel you need in one place. From pre-generated reports (e.g. product replacement, pricing, momentum reports) to real-time <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/uncover-top-customer-insights-with-b2b-intent-data/">intent data</a>, sales reps can use G2&rsquo;s data insights to identify high-intent buyers who are researching you and the competition.
<h4>5. Apollo.io</h4>
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/VcOHKIYBSI2U5ZLZULu9" width="601" height="290">
<a href="https://www.apollo.io/">Apollo</a> is the sales automation tool that offers an end-to-end experience. We equip the world with everything B2B sellers need to make go-to-market clear, quick, and simple with the best database, powerful automation tools, and workflows.
Apollo&rsquo;s database isn&rsquo;t inactive and lifeless &ndash; it works for you.
With Apollo, you can:
<ul>
<li>Leverage the market&rsquo;s largest, most accurate, and most in-depth B2B database, with 220M+ contacts across 30M and over 200 data attributes per record, perfect for accurate prospecting</li>
<li>Use <a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4409500253837-Create-a-Persona">Personas</a> to create and target your ideal buyers with laser precision to always have the right contacts at your fingertips</li>
<li>Sync your CRM for frequent <a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/4413921630989-CRM-Enrichment-Overview">data enrichment</a> of all your existing records</li>
<li>Access endless automation features and data insights on LinkedIn and beyond with the <a href="https://www.apollo.io/blog/prospect-linkedin-chrome-extension">Apollo Chrome Extension</a>! With a single click you can bulk save contacts, add prospects to a list, push them to a sequence or add them to your CRM</li>
<li>Arrive at your first touchpoint with prospects with all the actionable insights (e.g. technologies used, funding rounds, hiring). We&rsquo;ve done the research for you!</li>
<li>Stay up-to-date on contacts&rsquo; employment status with <a href="https://knowledge.apollo.io/hc/en-us/articles/5130064363661-Use-Job-Change-Alerts-to-Update-Contacts">Job Change alerts</a> to reach out at just the right time</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://www.apollo.io/sign-up" rel="follow"><img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/m4VUWs8KRImUGSbry2s9" width="675" height="241"></a>
Sales prospecting doesn&rsquo;t have to be complicated. When you work with tools that offer state-of-the-art automation capabilities, not only will you save time and effort, you&rsquo;ll create a modern <a href="https://blog.apollo.io/blog/go-to-market-strategy-guide">go-to-market strategy</a> that connects you with the right buyers and drives revenue.

The right sales software can help you do more with less and skyrocket ROI. Here are the sales tools that are worth trying today.

The Best Tools for Automated Sales Prospecting

As a product marketer at a sales tech company, I think about sellers a lot.
 
Specifically, sales development reps (SDRs), the unsung heroes of the sales world. SDRs play a crucial role in a company&rsquo;s success &mdash; often working between 200 and 500 contacts at a time to surface new opportunities.&nbsp;
A host of AI-powered tools have been released recently, all promising to make an SDR&rsquo;s life easier. If true, this could be transformative to businesses and SDRs everywhere. Given the potential of these products, I wanted to cut through the hype to understand how good these tools actually are.
 
Sure, they can write an email for you, but is it a GOOD email? How personalized can it truly be if it&rsquo;s not connected to the data? And how well do these tools scale?
 
This article documents my experiment with 4 AI tools, and includes my honest opinion on each.
 
In the end, I&rsquo;ll try and arrive at an answer to the question that every SDR has likely been wondering about.
Is AI here to take my job?
 
<h4>Setting up the Experiment</h4>
To arrive at an answer, I tried four tools:&nbsp;<a href="https://chat.openai.com/chat">ChatGPT</a>, <a href="https://openai.com/research/gpt-4">GPT-4</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.copy.ai/">Copy.ai</a>, and Apollo&rsquo;s own AI writing tool.
 
There are three things I graded on a scale of 1 to 10.
 
<ol>
<li>Quality</li>

<li>Personalization</li>

<li>Scalability</li>
</ol>
 
To run this experiment, I picked my coworker Josh Garrison as my pretend prospect. He&rsquo;s the Head of Content Marketing at Apollo.&nbsp;
 
Let&rsquo;s pretend that I work at a content management software company called BestCMS. I want to get in touch with Josh and book a meeting with him. To do this, I&rsquo;ll ask each AI tool to create a sequence of personalized emails that will address Josh&rsquo;s specific challenges.
Using Apollo, I&rsquo;m able to find all the relevant information about Josh I need pretty quickly.

<div>I find his name, contact data, current title and company, work history, and interesting insights about his company. I see that before Apollo, he spent 2022 as the Head of Revenue at Teamflow and 2021 as a Sr. Growth Marketing Manager at Autodesk.&nbsp;</div>
 
My emails should address these insights about Josh. I also know that Josh doesn&rsquo;t have time to read long, dry emails. So I need the emails to be concise, punchy, and straight to the point.&nbsp;
 
Now that we&rsquo;ve got all that out of the way, let&rsquo;s dive into the four tools I&rsquo;m testing for this experiment: ChatGPT, GPT-4, Lavender, and Copy.ai.
 
<h4>ChatGPT: The AI used &lsquo;round the world&nbsp;</h4>
My ratings:
 
<ul>
<li>Quality: 7</li>

<li>Personalization: 5</li>

<li>Scalability: 3</li>
</ul>
 
Let&rsquo;s look at ChatGPT.
 
ChatGPT is a great tool, and I love the fact that it&rsquo;s free. It does everything from giving you synonyms of a word to passing the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/26/tech/chatgpt-passes-exams/index.html">US Bar Exam</a>. But for the sake of this blog, I just want it to write me a few personalized emails I can use in a sequence to get Josh to book a meeting with me.
 
Let&rsquo;s start with a basic prompt and see what it does.
 
Prompt to ChatGPT:
 
Write a three-step email sequence that will convince Josh Garrison to book a meeting with me. Here&rsquo;s all the information you need. Make the emails concise. Include a catchy subject line for the first email.
 
<ul>
<li>Josh is currently the Head of Content Marketing at Apollo, a sales intelligence and sales engagement platform</li>

<li>He spent 2022 as the Head of Revenue at Teamflow and 2021 as a Sr. Growth Marketing Manager at Autodesk</li>

<li>Apollo raised $110M Series C in 2022</li>

<li>His first ever job was Inside Sales Rep</li>

<li>My name is Xier Dang</li>

<li>My company is BestCMS</li>

<li>BestCMS streamlines processes for content teams. Our solution simplifies content creation, management, and delivery, enabling teams to deliver better content faster.</li>
</ul>
 
The first emails ChatGPT gives me are a good start, but they&rsquo;re too long. So I ask for them to be shortened.
 
Then it gives shorter emails, but the personalization isn&rsquo;t as strong.&nbsp;
 
I do some back-and-forths with ChatGPT, asking it to make things &ldquo;more concise but still personalized&rdquo; so that they are mobile-friendly. Finally, I get something I like. 

 
<div>
<div>
<figure><img alt="" src="https://www.apollo.io/wp-content/uploads/ChatGPT-email-1-4.png" width="542" height="395"></figure>
</div>
 
<div></div>
</div>
 
<div>
<div>
<figure><img alt="" src="https://www.apollo.io/wp-content/uploads/ChatGPT-email-2-3.png" width="539" height="305"></figure>
</div>
 </div>
These are good, but are they the best emails I&rsquo;ve ever seen? Not quite. I&rsquo;d still take another 5 minutes to edit these before sending them out.
 
Although I am satisfied with the quality and personalization, and I love that it was able to give cohesive emails, it took me a few tries to get here. I had to research Josh and provide ChatGPT with all of the necessary information. In total this took about 10 minutes for just one lead. This would never work at scale. Safe to say, ChatGPT is not taking your job.
 
<h4>GPT-4: The latest and greatest in AI</h4>
 
My ratings:
 
<ul>
<li>Quality: 8</li>

<li>Personalization: 7</li>

<li>Scalability: 3</li>
</ul>
 
While I was in the middle of writing this blog, GPT-4 was announced. Naturally, I had to try it.
 
I&rsquo;ve already been a big fan of ChatGPT so I couldn&rsquo;t wait to see the improvements the team at OpenAI made with GPT-4. I give it the same prompt as ChatGPT and click enter.
 
The quality of GPT-4 is (unsurprisingly) as good as one can expect from an AI writing tool, and it includes all of the relevant information I provided. The tone is friendly and conversational, which I hadn&rsquo;t prompted it to do. It also follows up on every email in a logical way.&nbsp;
 
The downside is, like ChatGPT, the emails are too long. Nobody likes reading chunks of text and they&rsquo;re not friendly on mobile devices. I need concise and better-formatted emails to capture Josh&rsquo;s attention.
 
So I ask GPT-4 to remove large chunks of text and make the emails concise. After a few back-and-forths with GPT-4, I get emails that I like.
 
<div>
<div>
<figure><img alt="" src="https://www.apollo.io/wp-content/uploads/GPT-4-email-1-4.png" width="507" height="299"></figure>
</div>
 
<div></div>
</div>
 
<div>
<div>
<figure><img alt="" src="https://www.apollo.io/wp-content/uploads/GPT-4-email-2-4.png" width="506" height="236"></figure>
</div>
 </div>
Honestly, I can use these out of the box. GPT-4 not only writes personalized copy, it recognizes Josh is a manager and includes value propositions for his team as well. I could do without the line introducing me in the first email, and I may tweak a few small things, but man - this is good.
 
But, like with everything, it has its drawbacks. For starters, it needs to be fed any and all data to create content that&rsquo;s personalized.
 
<div>
<div>
<figure><img alt="" src="https://www.apollo.io/wp-content/uploads/GPT-4-Josh-3.png" width="507" height="400"></figure>
</div>
 
<div></div>
</div>
 
It also took me about 7 minutes to get to the final result. If I&rsquo;m an SDR working 200 to 500 leads, that&rsquo;s anywhere from 1,400 to 3,500 minutes of time spent in GPT-4.&nbsp;
 
My takeaway: with the right request, GPT-4 can provide high-quality, personalized copy that gives SDRs a launching-off point to create killer messaging. But in terms of replacing SDRs themselves? I wouldn&rsquo;t quite count on it.

<h4>Copy.ai: AI for sales and marketing teams</h4>
My ratings:
 
<ul>
<li>Quality: 4</li>

<li>Personalization: 4</li>

<li>Scalability: 2</li>
</ul>
 
Lastly, let&rsquo;s look at Copy.ai.
 
I notice right out of the gate that Copy.ai has a wide range of email templates to work with in their free version. As an SDR sending more than just cold emails, this is beneficial.
 
For this experiment, I try their Cold Outreach Email tool. It gives me a blank slate to fill out, so I plug in all the relevant information.
 
After clicking &ldquo;Create Content&rdquo; it spits out a few different options. 
 
<div>
<div>
<figure><img alt="" src="https://www.apollo.io/wp-content/uploads/copy-ai-1.png" width="346" height="353"></figure>
</div>
 
<div>
<figure><img alt="" src="https://www.apollo.io/wp-content/uploads/Copy-ai-2.png" width="348" height="355"></figure>
</div>
</div>
 
 To be frank, I wouldn&rsquo;t send any of these. Some are too long, most have big chunks of text that won&rsquo;t look good on mobile, and they all start by introducing me.
 
I doubt Josh would be interested in BestCMS if I used these emails.
 
Where&rsquo;s the data? Where are the specific suggestions? The final product is not personalized and, ultimately, full of copy that would take a significant amount of time to revise. Copy.ai could be a good starting point, but of the four, I&rsquo;d say it&rsquo;s the weakest option.
 
I can confidently say Copy.ai isn&rsquo;t taking your job.
 
<h4>Apollo AI: Auto-generated, data-backed emails </h4>
Now it&rsquo;s time to put our own AI writing assistant to the test!&nbsp;
 
Rating our own feature feels a bit subjective, so I&rsquo;ll skip that part.
 
The Apollo AI writing tool helps SDRs save time by:
 
<ul>
<li>Auto-generating email subjects lines &amp; body copy with no typing needed</li>

<li>Auto-personalizing the first email sentence for every prospect based on Apollo&rsquo;s accurate contact data.</li>
</ul>

Josh Gosnell

Lead Consultant at MediaDev

How does it produce value-based emails with no typing required?&nbsp;
 
The first time you use the tool, Apollo AI looks up your corporate domain and matches it with all the rich company data Apollo has on file. Then, Apollo AI automatically generates your company&rsquo;s unique offering and the value propositions directly within the email. You&rsquo;ll have the option to update the messaging and it will be saved for the next time you use the AI writing assistant. Simple, right?
 
Let&rsquo;s continue with the experiment. I&rsquo;ll go ahead and add BestCMS' pain point, value prop, and CTA (as it&rsquo;s a fictitious company that Apollo wouldn&rsquo;t have data on).

I hit generate and I get two subject lines and body copies to choose from. If I want more options, I can hit the &ldquo;refresh&rdquo; button, but I choose the first subject line and body copy &ndash; short and directly to the point.

Now for personalization.&nbsp;
 
Apollo AI auto-personalizes the first sentence of my email based on the specific prospect and the data Apollo has on for them. It comes up with five unique personalized openers for Josh.

Within the AI writing tool itself, I can preview AI-generated personalized openers for anyone in just a few seconds. Unlike GPT-4 and company, it requires no manual research to find something attention-grabbing, personalized, and built for scale.
 
A note &mdash; The openers are written for Apollo's value prop (not BestCMS) because I'm using the tool with my Apollo.io email. Don&rsquo;t fret! With your company email, you will have personalized copy that aligns with the values of your product.
 
<h4>Final Thoughts</h4>
 
So, will any of these tools, including Apollo&rsquo;s AI writing assistant, be taking your job? No, they won't, and they probably never will.
 
But, with the right tool, AI can be a powerful way for you to save time AND get better results.&nbsp;
 
While the Apollo AI writing tool hasn&rsquo;t been in the market as long as the others mentioned above, what it offers is unparalleled:
 
<ol>
<li>The AI writing assistant seamlessly integrates with the email sequence tool &mdash; which means that you pay less for fewer tools AND are more efficient, with your AI writing assistant built into your existing workflow.&nbsp;</li>
</ol>
 
<ol start="2">
<li>It&rsquo;s backed by the largest and most accurate database in the market, allowing you to craft a personalized, verified AI-generated email copy that only gets better with time.</li>
</ol>
 
And we&rsquo;re not stopping here! Expect to see more exciting AI-powered features being launched on Apollo in the coming months. We have some pretty grand plans.&nbsp;

Louis Fischer

SDR @ Superb.ai

Learn more about Apollo AI and what we&rsquo;re building this year <a href="https://www.apollo.io/apollo-ai.html">here</a>.
 
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How good are ChatGPT, GPT-4, and other AI writing tools? Here are the results of our sales email writing experiment.

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