LinkedIn connections have been a hot topic among their users ever since they introduced the major LinkedIn connection limit back in 2021.

The fall from over 1000 LinkedIn invites per week to merely 100 has negatively impacted many users and businesses—especially those who rely on LinkedIn prospecting and LinkedIn lead generation.

The platform has stayed quiet about the exact reasons behind the change. However, many believe it was implemented to improve user experience and maintain the quality of connections.

While we appreciate LinkedIn’s effort to remain a strictly professional platform, we agree this limit is rather restrictive.

But the good news is there are ways to work around it! And in this blog, we'll walk you through 5 ways to bypass these restrictions while staying compliant with LinkedIn guidelines.

You’ll also learn:

• Why the limit was introduced,
• What happens if you hit it,
• And how to increase it.

Let’s go!

What is LinkedIn connection limit?

LinkedIn connection limit can imply 2 things:

• The maximum number of connections you can have in your network.
• The maximum number of connection requests you can send.

However, in most cases, when someone mentions a LinkedIn connection limit, they are referring to the latter. For that reason, today, our focus is on the connection invite limit.

What is the weekly connection limit on LinkedIn?

In 2021, LinkedIn put a limit on the number of invites you can send weekly, restricting it to approximately 100.

We say approximately because the actual limit depends on many factors, such as:

• LinkedIn profile age
• Network size
• Recent activity
• Acceptance rate
• Etc.

In other words, no one knows how many LinkedIn connections exactly you can send per week. Undoubtedly, it is far less than it used to be before the restriction.

What is the LinkedIn connection limit per day?

Much like the weekly limit, LinkedIn doesn’t explicitly define the daily limit either. 

But if we assume professionals use LinkedIn during business days, it’s natural to think you can send 15-20 connection requests per day, 5 days a week, with no repercussions.

However, this doesn’t mean you can send all 100 weekly invites in a day and call it a week. Sending too many too quickly can raise red flags and put you on LinkedIn’s radar. This increases your chances of hitting the limit and facing restrictions.

Why does LinkedIn have a connection limit?

While the exact reason is unknown—like limits (notice the pattern?)—the belief is LinkedIn introduced the connection limit to make sure their platform remains a high-quality, professional networking space.

We can see the logic behind it. After all, capping the number of connection invites users can send certainly means reduced spam behavior.

It’s true that many, including those who weren’t using LinkedIn for malicious purposes, were impacted by the limit. However, that doesn’t mean it didn’t do any good.

In fact, it helped (and continues to):

• Improve user experience, as users are more likely to receive relevant invites.
• Maintain platform reputation as a safe space for professionals by discouraging spammy tactics and mass, low-effort outreach that drive users away.
• Encourage meaningful networking since it motivates individuals to prioritize quality over quantity when sending invites.

Does this mean LinkedIn got it 100% right? Of course not. 

But the trade-off—annoying restrictions in exchange for a less chaotic, more trustworthy network—arguably benefits most users in the long run.

What happens if you hit the LinkedIn connection limit?

How do you know you’ve reached the weekly LinkedIn connection limit? They’ll notify you with a pop-up message.

If this happens once, it’s no big deal. The limit resets every week. 

However, if you consistently keep on hitting it or keep sending too many requests too fast, you can face harsher repercussions. These may include temporary account restrictions and shadowbanning. Worst-case scenario, you could get your LinkedIn account restricted permanently.

How to bypass the LinkedIn connection limit [+ 5 workarounds]

You’ve seen the risk. Yet, many people on LinkedIn are successfully scaling their cold outreach despite them.

How? They found workarounds!

That said, let’s break down the 5 proven tactics to bypass LinkedIn’s connection cap safely.

1. LinkedIn inMails

InMails are free or paid direct messages on LinkedIn that you can send to members not part of your network, contrary to a regular LinkedIn message. By sending them, you can actually avoid using your connection limit.

LinkedIn InMail is, for many, a mystery, therefore underused and often wasted. That’s quite a shame, taking into account that, according to the official LinkedIn Learning courses, InMails have an average response rate of between 18 and 25% compared to cold emails’ 3% average response rate. 

Every member on LinkedIn can receive an InMail, but only Premium members can send them. Similarly, they also receive a specific number of inMail credits each month (varies by subscription type), which can accumulate for 3 months.

LinkedIn’s way to encourage meaningful LinkedIn connections is by giving the paid InMails credits back to the sender each time they get a reply.

Additionally, every paid LinkedIn subscriber gets to send 800 free InMails a month to members whose profiles are set to ‘’Open’’. It’s precisely these open profiles that can jump to your rescue and help you reach out to a lot more leads!

When should I use LinkedIn InMail? 

InMails can be your last resource to get to the desired lead. Or they can be a wise hack to reach out to business decision-makers who get numerous connection requests every day.

Let’s say you tried to connect with a specific lead on LinkedIn. Then, you’ve sent several emails, but you never got an answer. In such cases, sending a LinkedIn InMail turned out to be a practice that brings results for us and many of our users. InMails can also be part of your automated outreach sequence.

An InMail, among other things, has all the characteristics of a regular email:

• LinkedIn inMail subject line (equivalent to email subject line)
• Body
• Higher character limit compared to regular messages

If well-written, it’s a secure way to stand out in your lead’s Inbox and stay remembered in the long run.

By sending a LinkedIn InMail to a complete stranger on LinkedIn and composing an engaging InMail copy by following these LinkedIn InMail examples with a 25% reply rate formula, you are also diminishing the possibility of your lead clicking I don’t know this person once you send a regular LinkedIn connection invite. 

Skylead, our LinkedIn automation and cold email software, allows you to include both free and paid InMails in your outreach campaign. 

By default, it will send free inMails to those with open profiles. However, by moving the below toggle to the right, you can give the platform permission to send paid inMails, as well.

2. LinkedIn groups

Here’s a loophole LinkedIn itself created—and it’s sitting right under your nose. 

LinkedIn groups let you message members without sending connection requests, thereby bypassing the invite limit entirely. 

To take advantage of this workaround with the help of Skylead, you’ll need a LinkedIn Sales Navigator subscription. That’s because Sales Navigator has a special ‘’Groups’’ filter. 

But before you go about using it, you’ll need to join the respective group. 

After joining it, go to Sales Navigator Lead filters and scroll down until you spot the Group filter. Then, type the name of the desired group (or groups) and select it. Once you do, the search results will refresh to show you all group members.

After refining the search results, copy the URL and take it to Skylead to create an outreach campaign to reach out to these group members.

The next step is to create your outreach sequence, but we’ll talk about that in just a bit in point 5.

If you aren’t subscribed to Sales Navigator, however, you can still use LinkedIn groups to reach more individuals, although you’ll have to do it manually.

To do so, navigate to the desired group of which you are a part. Then, visit the Members tab by clicking the “Show all” button in the top-right corner.

As a result, you'll get a list of all members' profiles, next to which there will be a ''Message'' button that you can use to contact these individuals without being connected to them.

Disclaimer: While LinkedIn groups can help you bypass the connection limit, we don’t recommend you abuse it. Otherwise, LinkedIn may flag your account regardless.

3. LinkedIn Message Ads

Another way to reach your prospects without worrying about connection limits is by using LinkedIn Message Ads (Sponsored InMail). 

Unlike regular messages or connection requests, these ads let you send direct messages to targeted LinkedIn users without needing to be connected. And since they are delivered straight to your recipient’s inbox, they can be highly effective—if done right. 

Unfortunately, your prospects can’t directly reply to them. Instead, you need to include a strong call-to-action (CTA) to guide them toward the next step, such as booking a demo, signing up for an event, or visiting your website.

Not to mention, these will cost you between $0.26 and $0.50 per message sent (on average). So, keep this in mind before you decide to run them.

4. Emails

Since we talked about LinkedIn’s version of emails, we cannot help but mention all the advantages of regular cold emailing, too! 

Yes, LinkedIn has over 1 billion members. But that doesn’t mean that the platform is the preferred means of communication for all of them. This is one of the reasons why email outreach comes in handy.

If you don’t have the email addresses of your leads already, Skylead can help. Namely, our tool comes with an email discovery and verification feature. You can use it to find and double-verify your leads’ emails without breaking your outreach flow and, thus, reduce bounces.

We’ve also partnered with the email warm-up tool InboxFlare to help you warm up infinite mailboxes. This feature prevents your domain from being blacklisted by making sure your emails land in the Primary inbox rather than spam.

Got email addresses all set? Here is how you can make the most out of the email channel.

Take the multichannel approach

We know the goal is to bypass the connection limit on LinkedIn. But you don’t want the connection requests you sent already to be in vain, don’t you?

To maximize the chances of getting to your lead, send the same message through email as you did on LinkedIn and see where you get the response faster. If you don’t get a reply whatsoever, check out some hacks on how to write a follow-up email after no response.

Use email to complement your connection message

Elaborate on the LinkedIn connection messages sent on LinkedIn, as email gives you more freedom in terms of character limits.

For example:

Subject line: Sara <> John

Hi Sara,

I recently tried connecting with you on LinkedIn.

I  saw that you’re VP of Sales at PowerData. 

That said, I was curious if you are using cold outreach to get new clients. 

If the answer is yes, I would love to show you a multichannel solution that can help you scale your sales with minimal effort.

Would you be interested in learning more about our solution?

Best, 

John

Ask for a connection request via email

Ask someone to send a LinkedIn connection to you by inserting a link to your profile in the email if you reached the LinkedIn connection limit for the week or want to get to more individuals without reaching it.

For example:

Subject line: Loved your post on cold outreach… 

Hey John,

Love the post you recently made on LinkedIn about Cold Outreach and totally agree with you on "how SDRs should be more creative".

I am a content creator, and I post mainly about prospecting, cold outreach, LinkedIn and email outreach hacks, and lead generation. 

I figured my content could benefit you and your team, so I wanted to connect with you on LinkedIn. 

Here’s a link to my profile - linkedin.com/in/tom.smith

Also, I saw that you’re Head of Sales at Leadgen.io and was curious if you are using any solutions to make your sales more efficient.

Best, 

Tom

5. Smart sequences

You can use email as a complementary channel to LinkedIn outreach and a way to get around the connection request limit.

But using it manually is certainly not ideal. And that’s why you need Smart sequences.

They are Skylead’s all-star feature that allows you to combine all platform solutions in one campaign. Why? To take advantage of all possible touchpoints with your leads.

Smart sequences are essentially algorithms that combine LinkedIn and email actions with if/else conditions. They operate in real-time, adjusting according to your leads’ behavior to reach them in the fastest possible way.

As you may see from the above example, Smart sequences are perfect for bypassing the LinkedIn connection limit. What this particular sequence implies is that if connection requests go unanswered, our tool proceeds to find and verify leads’ emails. If it manages to do so, it proceeds to send an email, whereas if not, an inMail. 

If you want, you can also skip the connection invite step altogether (if, say, you hit a limit) and go straight to view profile, find & verify, send email, and inMail steps.

Or create your Smart sequence any other way you like!

PS: We’ve personally tested these Smart sequence templates, so don’t forget to check them out for guaranteed results!

How to increase the LinkedIn connection request limit?

Remember how we said LinkedIn limits can vary from account to account, depending on different factors?

Does that mean you can increase the limit?

Yes, to an extent.

While you can’t dramatically increase your connection limit, you can push the boundaries and send slightly more invites than the supposed caps.

Let’s see how you can make that happen!

1. Warm up your LinkedIn account

If you’re new to LinkedIn or haven’t been very active, you can’t just start sending connection requests in bulk. LinkedIn monitors user behavior, and sudden spikes in activity can raise red flags and cause them to keep a closer eye on you.

That’s why you need to warm up your LinkedIn account. In other words, gradually increase your activity to signal to the platform that you’re a real user engaging naturally.

Begin by sending 5 connection requests per day, then increase the number slowly over a few weeks.

If you plan on using Skylead, you’ll see that you can set a range for invites sent daily and adjust this range accordingly as your account warms up.

After signing up, Skylead puts you in warm-up mode by default to protect your LinkedIn account. It then slowly increases your limits until your account is fully warmed up.

2. Maximize your connection acceptance rate 

The higher your acceptance rate—and the fewer people rejecting your invites or marking you as “I don’t know this person”—the more connection requests LinkedIn allows you to send.

Here are the steps to follow to improve your acceptance rate and keep your account in good standing.

Optimize your LinkedIn profile

When someone receives your connection request, they’ll likely check your profile before deciding to accept. Thus, it’s safe to assume that a half-completed or unprofessional-looking profile can deter them from doing so.

An optimized LinkedIn profile is one that’s:

• Complete – Includes a professional LinkedIn cover photo and profile photo, a compelling LinkedIn headline, and a LinkedIn summary that clearly states what you do.
• Credible – Highlights relevant work experience and skills and is endorsed by others.
• Engaging – Features impactful posts.

Also, don’t forget to change your LinkedIn URL so it includes your name and/or what you do.

Aim for relevancy, not quantity

The more the merrier is not always better, especially if we’re talking about your LinkedIn network.

Instead of sending invites to anyone and everyone, focus on those who actually match your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and Buyer Persona.

Personalize your connection messages

Many make the mistake of sending blank invites or those accompanied by generic messages when personalized outreach is the road to a higher acceptance rate.

To personalize the invite:

• Reference a shared interest, mutual connection, or a recent post they made.
• Keep it under 300 characters and get straight to the point.
• Let them know why connecting benefits them, not just you.

For example:

"Hi {{firstName], I saw your recent post on {{Topic}} and completely agree with your take. I’d love to connect and exchange thoughts!

3. Increase your SSI score

The Social Selling Index (SSI) score is LinkedIn’s way of measuring how effectively you are using LinkedIn for social selling purposes. 

A higher SSI score often correlates with better outreach success and may even influence how many connection requests you can send.

In other words, the more active and credible you are on LinkedIn, the more flexibility you get.

The platform evaluates SSI score based on 4 pillars:

1. Establish your professional brand
2. Find the right people
3. Engage with insights
4. Build stronger relationships

That said, here are a few actionable steps to increase it, broken down by each pillar.

Seeing as most of these tips match the best practices for increasing the LinkedIn connection limit, it’s clear that SSI and the limit are closely connected. Consequently, increasing one increases the other.

4. Delete pending invites

Did you know that having too many unaccepted connection requests can hurt your LinkedIn account? 

If your invites keep piling up with no response, LinkedIn may see this as a sign that your outreach is unwanted and could limit the number of connection requests you can send moving forward.

For that reason, you must review your pending invites regularly and cancel LinkedIn invites that have been ignored for too long.

To delete invites manually, first, go to My Network on LinkedIn and click ‘’Manage’’.

Then, navigate to the Sent tab, where you’ll be able to withdraw them

As a rule of thumb, it’s best to withdraw any request that goes unanswered for 3 weeks.

And while you can go about it manually (as seen), this can take a while, depending on how many invites there are.

However, if you're using Skylead for outreach, you can automate the process. As a matter of fact, our tool can automatically revoke unanswered connection requests to keep them under a specific limit—one that you decide on. Once that number is reached, Skylead will start deleting the oldest connection requests to make sure your account stays within a safe range.

And since withdrawn invites don’t count toward your weekly limit, you’ll free up space to send new ones.

5. Combine sending invites from the computer and phone 

There’s a small loophole that can help you send more connection requests than LinkedIn’s standard limit: sending invites from both your desktop and mobile device.

For some reason, LinkedIn seems to allow slightly more invites when they’re sent from a phone. However, the exact number of additional requests you can send isn’t clear. Some users report being able to send 10-15 extra invites per week without triggering any restrictions.

To use this trick effectively:

• Start by sending most of your invites from your computer as usual.
• Once you’ve reached your estimated weekly limit, switch to your LinkedIn mobile app and continue sending a few more connection requests.
• Monitor your account activity carefully to avoid hitting an unexpected cap.

This method isn’t officially documented by LinkedIn, so it’s best to use it cautiously. 

Therefore, test with a small number of extra invites first and gradually increase them to see what works for your account.

6. Subscribe to Sales Navigator

According to some users, Sales Navigator subscribers can send up to 200 invites per week. This is double the standard limit!

There’s no official LinkedIn statement on this, however. Furthermore, the actual limit may vary depending on your account activity and engagement levels.

Nevertheless, since the tool is designed for sales professionals who typically send more invites, it’s not surprising to think they’d offer more flexibility to this group.

Frequently asked questions

How many LinkedIn connections can I have?

The platform limits the number of 1st-degree connections to up to 30,000. After you reach this number, you won't be able to send or receive invites until you remove connections on LinkedIn. On the other hand, you can follow and be followed by an unlimited number of members. 

LinkedIn Follow vs Connect

When someone is your 1st-degree connection, you can see each other’s content and any update on your feeds. Also, you are allowed to exchange regular LinkedIn messages. You always follow your 1st-degree connections by default, but you can also unfollow them. If you turn on the Creator Mode, you can continue growing your network without necessarily adding new connections. 

Does LinkedIn limit connection requests?

Yes, LinkedIn imposes LinkedIn connection limits. Currently, most users can send around 100 invites per week, though this number varies based on factors like your profile age, activity level, etc. However, some users claim Sales Navigator subscribers can send up to 200 connection requests per week.

When does the LinkedIn connection limit reset?

Your LinkedIn connection limit resets at the beginning of each week - over the weekend or Monday, depending on the user. Basically, if you hit it on Friday, you won’t wait long to have your connection limit reset.

LinkedIn connection limit? No more!

As you can see, there’s no reason to panic over the LinkedIn connection limit.

By using workarounds—InMails, LinkedIn Groups, Message Ads, and email outreach—you can continue growing your network and scaling your outreach without hitting a wall. And if you’re looking to streamline the process even further, Skylead has your back!

With Skylead, you can:

• Bypass connection limits using Smart sequences that combine LinkedIn and email outreach actions.
• Automate time-consuming tasks so you can focus on closing 3x the deals instead of managing invites.
• Boost engagement rates with advanced personalization, including Image and GIF hyper-personalization and dynamic variables.

If you're not part of the Skylead team yet, now’s the time to give it a try!

Register today and test Skylead for FREE for 7 days. Our support team is ready to help from day one—so you can start scaling your outreach with confidence.

With quotas looming over their heads and little time to meet them, many SDRs succumb to the spray-and-pray cold outreach tactics. In other words, reaching out to as many people as possible using the same message. The thing is, generic messages don’t work. They haven’t for a long time, and prospects can recognize them from a mile away. So, what’s the better approach? Personalized outreach. It’s the present and the future. And if you’re not in on the game, your results are likely to suffer.

That’s because sales are all about providing a solution to someone’s specific problem and actually solving it. This is especially true if we’re talking about B2B sales.

We’ve built Skylead on the premise of helping individuals personalize their outreach. Thus, in this article, we’re drawing from our own experience to show you how to do it yourself effectively using dynamic placeholders (variables) and images and GIFs.

We’ll also provide message templates that you can immediately use in LinkedIn automation tools and cold email software to scale your personalized outreach efforts, all while saving +11 hours a week.

Let’s go!

What is personalized outreach?

Personalized outreach is a tactic used to connect with prospects that implies understanding who they are and using those insights to create messaging that feels personal and relevant. When done right, it grabs attention, builds trust, and shows you’re genuinely invested in solving their problems. Its focus is on quality, making it ideal for businesses that value meaningful, long-term relationships.

Why personalization matters in outreach?

Did you know that using personalization in B2B sales outreach can lead to a 1.4 times higher revenue growth? Not to mention, personalized emails have 29% higher open rates and can boost conversion by 600%.

There are a lot more statistics that go in favor of personalized outreach. But speaking about tangible benefits, we’d like to specifically highlight that it led our team to:

• Stronger connections. When prospects see you made an effort to get to know them, they'll be more likely to engage with you and form a bond.
• Improved response rates. Your outreach immediately becomes more relevant after referencing a specific pain point of your prospects’ recent achievements.. As a result, they become more inclined to reply.
• Better brand perception. Messages that resonate leave a lasting impression and position your brand as thoughtful. This gives you a competitive edge.
• Saving time in the long run. While personalized outreach might seem like more effort upfront, it saves time overall. Fewer ignored messages mean fewer follow-ups and better conversations lead to quicker results.
• Increased conversions and ROI. Prospects are far more likely to book a meeting, attend a demo, or subscribe to your product/service if they see you understand their pain points. This directly translates into higher ROI.

So, given the benefits, it’s clear that using personalization in cold outreach just makes sense.

The foundations of personalized outreach

But the thing is, you can’t just personalize away without any prep; you need a solid foundation.

That said, before you’ve resorted to this tactic, it’s important you commit to:

1. Knowing your audience

The first step in any personalized outreach strategy is to know who you’re targeting. In other words, defining your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and Buyer Persona(s).

Your ICP represents the type of company or individual most likely to benefit from your product or service. 

Meanwhile, a Buyer Persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer within that same company based on real data and educated guesses about their goals, challenges, and behavior.

Having one without the other won’t cut it. You need both to make sure you’re focusing your efforts on the right people. This way, you won’t waste time reaching out to prospects who aren’t a good fit for your business.

2. Researching prospects

Once you’ve identified your audience, it’s time for LinkedIn prospecting. Then, you should research each prospect individually to uncover details that can make your messaging stand out. 

This may include:

• Recent achievements or company milestones.
• Common pain points in their industry.
• Insights from their LinkedIn profile or company website.

The more specific you can get, the more relevant and impactful your outreach will be. To save time, feel free to use Chat GPT for sales-related prospect research.

3. Settings objectives

What are you trying to achieve with your outreach? 

Are you looking to:

• Book more meetings?
• Increase brand awareness?
• Close more deals?

Whatever it is, it’s important to make it clear from the start. That’s because, after setting objectives, you’ll have specific outcomes to drive your outreach towards. Moreover, you’ll have an easier time tracking results and making improvements to your targeted outreach strategy.

How to write personalized outreach messages or emails for your prospects [+ templates]

As we mentioned before, personalization is a big deal in cold outreach. It provides your prospect with a sense of caring and shows them that you really wish to remove their pain points. 

But how do you actually structure your LinkedIn messages and emails to show you’ve done your homework?

Generally speaking, there are 3 main parts of any message you want to include:

• Hook
• Body
• Call to Action (CTA)

While writing the hook for cold outreach, you must introduce yourself and clearly explain why you’re reaching out. But don’t stop there—include a specific detail about the prospect that prompted you to send the email/message in the first place.

Your hook should be designed to spark interest and provoke a response. For example, you might aim to connect your company with the prospect’s personal or professional needs. To do this effectively, tie your reason for reaching out to your company’s value proposition and explain how it addresses their challenges or goals.

Meanwhile, the body of your message should explain what your company offers in terms of value and features. Just keep in mind that this section is often skimmed over. Prospects typically focus on who you are and what you want before jumping to the closing. Only if those parts resonate will they circle back to read the body. Length-wise, it should not be longer than your hook.

The Call to Action (CTA) is a clear and direct one-liner that prompts the prospect to take action, like booking a call or signing up for an event. That said, it’s important to keep it short and actionable.

Of course, your message length may vary depending on the channel of communication and character limit. Nevertheless, these are the main guidelines you should follow.

How to use message variables in personalized outreach

If you are using sales outreach tools, you’ve probably come across variables that help you create personalized outreach messages for your prospects. 

But if not, dynamic placeholders, a.k.a. variables, are customizable fields that get populated with prospects’ details while the rest of your message remains the same.

Now, let’s say you are using Skylead, our LinkedIn automation and cold email software for LinkedIn lead generation and to personalize your cold outreach. 

Skylead lets you create outreach campaigns based on:

• LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, and Recruiter search results
• LinkedIn posts
• Sales Navigator Lead lists
• Recruiter Talent Pool
• Recruiter Pipeline URLs
• Your custom CSV file with the prospects’ information

In the case of the first 3, Skylead picks up the information from your prospects’ profiles automatically, which it uses to populate the variables. However, if you’re using a CSV file as a campaign source, you need to include their LinkedIn URLs or input the information manually for it to be able to do so.

That said, the basic variables you get to use with our tool are the following:

• First name
• Last name
• Current company
• Years in current company
• Total career positions count
• Total years in career
• College name
• Occupation

Now, apart from these standard variables, you can import your custom variables, as well. Custom variables are the placeholders that you can create, state their purpose yourself, and import to Skylead.

They can be:

• Demographics - Variables such as age, gender, location.
• Firmographics - Company name, size, performance, executive titles.
• Psychographics - Classification by prospects’ opinions, pain points, attitude, interests.

Custom variables can be used only if your campaign source is a CSV file. That said, here’s a quick guide on how to create a Skylead-friendly CSV file with custom variables.

Custom variable examples for your message

The main part of the personalized outreach process is finding as detailed information as possible on the prospect and putting it in the hook part of your message to catch their attention. 

That’s why we are going to concentrate primarily on the variables for the intro of your message.

#1 Personalized outreach hook: Prospects’ original content

When you first meet the person, do you instinctively like them more if they are interested in your thoughts, opinions, and what you created? Most of us will not admit it, but the answer to this question is a big YES.

That is why the first type of placeholder you need to consider is the content they created by themselves, and you can find it on their LinkedIn page or company website. 

It usually includes the following:

• Webinars hosted
• Articles written
• Posts published

Your goal here is to reference something specific they’ve created in the introduction, then position your message as adding value to their existing work.

Example email using prospects’ original content as variables:

Hey {{firstName}},

The reason I’m reaching out is that I’ve read your recent article {{ArticleName}} where you emphasized {{TheirPoint}}.

One sentence that really resonated with me was {{TheirSentenceWithPainPoint}}. 

What if I told you that {{PainPoint}} is easily overcome by {{ProvideLightValue}}.

So I was wondering, have you ever come across {{YourCompanyProduct}}?

Real life example:

#2 Personalized outreach hook: Content that prospects’ engaged with

This type of content implies any post, article, or video they liked or shared on LinkedIn but didn’t create themselves. Alternatively, you can use a webinar or LinkedIn events they attended.

Although not as strong as the previous hook, using content they engaged with still shows your genuine interest and will provide you with an opportunity to relate it to your company.

Example LinkedIn message with content that the prospect engaged with:

Hey {{firstName}},

I’ve noticed that you attended {{WebinarOrEventName}}.

What did you think about {{PainPoint}}?

I was wondering, how does {{currentCompany}} deal with such an issue?

Real-life example:

#3 Personalized outreach hook: Using prospects’ self-attributed traits

Prospects' self-attributed traits are sentences you’ll find on their LinkedIn profile, and they usually show what they are talking about themselves. 

The prospects view LinkedIn as a place where they can talk about their accomplishments, things they are skilled at, and what they like to do in the business world. 

That said, you can easily find this information under their:

• LinkedIn headline
• LinkedIn summary
• Work experience

Here, they will communicate to the world what is important to them, therefore you can hook what your product/service does to this information. 

Example LinkedIn message using self-attributed traits:

Hi {{firstName}}, 

I really liked your profile line about the {{HeadlineWithPainPoint}}. 

What I really liked was the sentence {{SentenceFromHeadline}}. 

What if you could make sure that {{PainPoint}} can be easily overcome?

Real-life example:

#4 Personalized outreach hook: Prospects’ background information

If you cannot find any information we mentioned in previous hook examples, you need to dig a little bit deeper, as a private investigator would. Find schools they attended, hobbies, and personal interests. Again, the rule is that you have to link it back to your company.

Example email using prospects’ background information:

Hi {{firstName}}, 

I noticed you enjoy occasional {{Hobby}}. You know what they say: {{QuoteAboutHobby}}. 

Hiking is pretty much like {{Department}}. What if I told you that {{Department}} process can be {{AtributesFromQuote}}? 

That said, have you ever come across {{YourCompanyProduct}}?

Real-life example:

#5 Personalized outreach hook: Company information

The reason why the previous 4 hooks are so strong lies in the fact that they all include psychographic details. 

Psychographic traits are something that someone believes in, has an attitude for, or something that hits them more to the core. That said, the above hooks trigger the largest response rate as they are closer to the heart.

Now, the following personalization variables are classified as firmographics.

For instance, Wikipedia states that:

‘’Firmographics (also known as firm demographics) are sets of characteristics to segment prospect organizations. What demographics are to people, firmographics are to organizations.’’

That said, it’s not surprising that firmographic details to use as variables would include:

• Merger and acquisition information, 
• Company growth information,
• Website language, 
• Job openings,
• etc.

These variables are the least effective on the list. Nonetheless, if you say only one thing about your prospect’s company specifically, they will feel more special as they know you are talking ONLY to them. 

When using this kind of information, be as detailed as you can but briefer in character length than you would in other cases.

Example email using company information:

Hi {{firstName}}, 

I noticed your company grew {{CompanyStatistics}} in the last year. Congrats!

I understand that as {{occupation}} you must have even more tasks when it comes to {{PainPointProcess}}.

What if I told you that your life as {{occupation}} can be easier so your {{CompanyStatisticsBoosted}}? 

I was wondering, have you ever heard of {{YourCompanyProduct}}?

Real-life example:

#6 Personalized outreach hook: Personalized introduction

If you find previous variables a little more in-depth than you are willing to go, you can help yourself with the previously mentioned concept ideas, but use one variable only. 

To put it simply, you can use a personalized intro that changes depending on the prospect, while the rest of your email or LinkedIn message stays the same for everyone.

Example email using personalized intro:

Hey {{firstName}},

{{PersonalizedIntro}}

That said, I was curious if you are using a solution for your cold outreach?

I would love to show you a solution that can combine Email and LinkedIn with a hyper-personalized approach that will help you book 30+ additional meetings per month and keep your pipeline full.

Real-life example:

Bonus: Short variables

Need additional placeholder ideas that you can use for personalized outreach? Take a look at the following examples:

• {{TeamMemberName}} - Using the leads’ colleague’s name will create a sense of familiarity.
• {{SalesPitchAccordingToTheIndustry}} - You can create a short pitch block in your message according to the prospects’ industry with the main pain points and values demonstrated. 
• {{BirthdayDate}} - If listed on their LinkedIn profile, you can extract this information and prepare a special pre-birthday gift as a Pain Point relief for their business needs.

How to use images and GIFs in personalized outreach

Variables can help you personalize the content of your messages at scale.

But if you truly want to up your personalized outreach game, your best bet is to use them in combination with custom-made images and GIFs.

Not many people realize the power of personalized visuals. But trust us, if you include them in your outreach, you’ll get response rates of up to 76%, as we have!

The good news is that Skylead comes with a native image and GIF hyper-personalization feature that lets you do just that!

It’s built right into the platform, too, meaning that all you have to do to create a custom image or a GIF is click the ‘’Image’’ icon under the message body field.

Then, all you have to do is choose the visual you wish to edit…

…and enrich it with any of the following:

• Your LinkedIn profile image
• Your lead’s profile image
• Custom logo
• Your lead’s company logo
• Text with variables

Once happy with the design, click ‘’Save image’’, and the final product will be inserted into your message.

Best practices for using personalization in outreach

Personalized outreach can make all the difference in standing out, but only if you do it the right way. 

To help you get the most out of your efforts, here are some best practices that we personally tried and tested.

1. Focus on value, not just details

While it’s tempting to show off how much you know about your prospect, personalization doesn’t imply only adding their name or referencing their LinkedIn activity. Rather, it implies solving their problems.

If unsure, ask yourself this while writing your message copy:

• How does this message provide value?
• What’s in it for the prospect?

For example, instead of saying,

 “I noticed your company is hiring a lot,’’

You could say, 

“I noticed your company is growing rapidly—congrats! Scaling a team is challenging, and we’d love to help simplify that process with {{YourProduct}}.”

2. Be relevant and contextual

Personalization without context can feel forced. Thus, it’s important you make sure your outreach aligns with the prospect’s current situation.

Say a company recently announced a product launch. In that case, your message could reference how your solution complements their new offerings or helps them achieve their next goals. This shows your outreach has a purpose.

3. Go multichannel

Don’t limit yourself to one channel only! Rather, opt for the multichannel outreach route by combining LinkedIn outreach with email outreach to maximize touchpoints with leads.

You could go about it manually, but why waste time when, with Skylead, you can do it all on auto-pilot?

As we mentioned, Skylead is a LinkedIn automation and cold email software that you can use to automate LinkedIn messages, LinkedIn inMails, and send tens of thousands of emails a month at no extra cost…while keeping them all personalized!

How is this possible? Well, it’s thanks to our Smart sequences. Namely, Smart sequences are algorithms that you can use to combine LinkedIn and email actions with if/else conditions to form coherent outreach flows that react to your prospects’ behavior.

With Smart sequences, possibilities are limitless. You can create them any way you want to cover an infinite number of personalized outreach scenarios. Or, use one of our proven Smart sequence templates!

4. Optimize timing and follow-up frequency

Timing is everything in outreach, personalized outreach included. Thus, pay attention to when your prospects are most likely to respond and schedule your messages accordingly.

Also, don’t be afraid to send a follow-up email after no response or a LinkedIn message. In fact, many prospects reply only after a 2nd or 3rd touchpoint. Just make sure your follow-ups provide additional value rather than simply repeating your initial message.

5. Test and iterate

Every audience is different, so what works for one might not work for another. That’s why A/B testing is your best friend here. 

If you’re using Skylead, know that you can A/B test up to 5 different versions of your:

• Email subject lines
• LinkedIn inMail subject lines
• Email body messages
• inMail body messages
• LinkedIn messages
• LinkedIn connection request messages

After the results are in, you can check them on our Reports page in Step view.

Then, you can use the data to refine your strategy and double down on what gets the best results.

Frequently asked questions

How do you approach personalized outreach to potential leads?

Start by identifying your ICP and Buyer Persona and researching each prospect to understand their goals and challenges. Use this information to craft tailored messages with a strong hook, value-driven body, and actionable CTA. Also, remember that personalization should focus on solving their specific pain points effectively.

How to scale outreach personalization?

You can use automation tools like Skylead to automate personalization with variables that populate prospect-specific details. However, we recommend you combine automation with genuine research to maintain authenticity while scaling outreach efforts.

How can you balance personalization and scalability?

Balancing both requires automation tools for efficiency and strategic personalization for impact. Use dynamic variables and templates to make messages feel unique. Meanwhile, focus on meaningful details, like pain points or goals, instead of overloading messages with superficial personalization that doesn’t add value.

What is the best tool for automating personalized outreach?

The best tool is the one that fits your needs and budget. However, if you’re looking to personalize LinkedIn messages, InMails, and emails using variables and even add personalized images and GIFs, Skylead is a good choice.

Take your outreach personalization to the next level!

Personalized outreach is no longer optional. Moreover, when done right, it boosts conversions, strengthens relationships, enhances retention, and positively impacts your sales KPIs.

But do you want to know the real secret behind personalized outreach? Treat your prospects as more than just that. Take the time to understand their pain points, goals, and challenges. After all, they’re humans first, and nothing resonates more than authentic, well-researched outreach that shows you genuinely care.

So, commit to doing the research, creating a strategy, and writing messages that truly add value.

And if ready to scale your hyper-personalized cold outreach efforts, check out Skylead. 

Start your 7-day free trial today, and see how meaningful connections lead to measurable results!

Are you searching for the best cold email software to generate leads, drive sales, and scale your business? However, with so many tools claiming to be the best, knowing which ones actually deliver is not exactly a walk in the park.

Recognizing how hard it is to find objective information, we’ve decided to give you some. Thus, we’ve tried a total of 21 of the best cold email software, evaluated them according to several criteria, and are bringing you our findings.

And if this is TL;DR for you, here’s a table for quick comparison.

However, if you’re curious to see which cold email software we ranked as the best and why, be sure to check out our hands-on experience with each one.

What is cold email software?

Cold email software is a type of tool designed to simplify and optimize the process of reaching out to prospects through email. It is commonly used by salespeople, marketers, recruiters, and agencies looking to connect with potential clients, partners, or candidates at scale.

What to look for in the best cold email software?

There are plenty of cold email software on the market, meaning the margin for error is high.

So, how do you choose the best cold email software out there?

It all boils down to the following:

1. Automation

Manual cold outreach is time-consuming, not to say exhausting. Thus, to save yourself more than 11 hours a week you’d spend on it, look for tools that do more than just send task alerts.

However, our advice is to go with a tool that has a Smart sequences feature, such as our Skylead. Smart sequences are outreach sequences that execute steps in a logical order according to the way your prospects' behave, thanks to if/else conditions. Using them, you can maximize touchpoints with leads to make sure your initial emails don't go to waste.

2. Deliverability

What good are your emails if they keep landing in spam?

That is to say, your software of choice should come equipped with features that ensure your emails make it to the Primary inbox. In other words, shop around for those with email warm-up, deliverability testing, blacklist monitoring, and similar functionalities.

3. Integration

For cold email software to be considered the best, it needs to work seamlessly with your existing tool stack (e.g., CRM, Slack, etc.). Otherwise, you are sure to experience workflow interruptions.

4. Personalization

Did you know that personalized email subject lines can see up to 20% higher open rates compared to those without personalized details?

For that reason, your best bet is to go with the software that lets you personalize your outreach. This may include the option to insert placeholders (a.k.a. variables) that auto-populate based on your leads’ information, such as first and last name and company name. The other handy feature is image and GIF personalization, which lets you personalize visuals with the text, logo, or name of your leads.

5. Analytics

You can’t know how good of a job the cold email software is doing without having insight into the data. Therefore, your go-to choice must have an Analytics dashboard that gives you the birds-eye-view of different metrics (e.g., open rate, click-through rate, reply rate).

6. Cost-effectiveness

The best cold email software for you is the one with the best price vs. feature ratio. In other words, a one-stop-shop tool that gives you the most value for your money. Simple as that.

Our testing methodology

So, you know what it is that makes a cold email software ‘’the best.’’ But you still need options. And options we’ll provide. Tried and tested ones, as a matter of fact.

But not before we’ve explained the criteria we used for the testing.

That said, we got hands-on with the most popular cold email tools to see what they’re really made out of, focusing on:

• Ease of setup - We signed up for each tool, went through the onboarding process, and tested how easy it was to get everything up and running.
• Key features - We poked around every feature to see if it actually worked as promised. Did the tools make life easier? Did they deliver on their big claims? We were bent on finding that out!
• Deliverability - We run actual email outreach campaigns to see whether emails would land in the Primary inbox or spam.
• User-friendliness - Some tools are so complicated they feel like they need a manual. Therefore, we made sure to assess how intuitive and easy-to-use each tool was.
• Price vs. features - Finally, we compared pricing to what each tool actually delivered. Our goal was to identify which tool was the best value.

The 21 best cold email software we tried

Now that you know what makes a great cold email tool and how we tested them, let’s get to the main event.

We’ve rounded up the 21 best cold email software on the market, carefully evaluating each one based on the criteria we laid out earlier.

With this in mind, for each tool, we’ll cover:

• User score
• Key features
• Pros
• Cons
• Pricing

And to keep it real, we’ll also share expert opinions—straight from the mouths (or keyboards) of actual users who’ve worked with these tools. 

So, let’s dive in!

1. Skylead - Best cold email software for salespeople looking for one tool that has it all

User score: ⭐ 4.7 / 5

Well, hello there! This is us! 🙂

Skylead is a LinkedIn automation and cold email software that’s consequently your one-stop-shop tool for all your outreach needs.

Key features

Why do we say Skylead is a one-stop-shop tool? 

Because it has everything you could possibly need for cold email outreach in one place and at one cost, including support for:

• Unlimited email outreach to send tens of thousands of emails at no extra cost;
• Email discovery and verification to reduce bounces and protect your domain;
• Image & GIF hyper-personalization to increase your response rate up to 76%;
• Email warm-up to keep your emails away from spam.

But what if we told you that, using our tool, you don’t have to settle for the email channel only?

Namely, Skylead is the 1st tool on the market to introduce Smart sequences. In other words, algorithms that combine if/else conditions with email and LinkedIn steps to form coherent outreach flows. Why? To find the fastest path to your leads.

It’s all thanks to Smart sequences that you can combine email automation with cloud-based LinkedIn automation.

Yours is just to choose a lead source from one of these…

…build your Smart sequence using these LinkedIn and email steps…

…and define your messages. While at it, you can even A/B test up to 5 versions of your subject lines, message copies, or CTAs and for email, LinkedIn messages, and inMails.

Thanks to an advanced Reports page, you can also easily evaluate the performance of all your campaigns in 3 modes (table, graph, step-by-step). 

Moreover, you can also review the performance of your A/B tests and see which version is performing best.

Here, you can also download reports in CSV and/or PDF. Or, you can push your leads’ data straight into your CRM of choice by integrating it with Skylead through Webhooks or API. The same goes for any other tool out there.

Finally, you don’t have to go back and forth between multiple mailboxes and LinkedIn accounts. You can keep track of all your messages in one place—our Smart inbox. This is also where you can write notes and label leads to, say, measure conversions and ROI.

Now, let’s get deeper into features that make Skylead one of the best, if not the best cold email software.

Unlimited email automation

With Skylead, you can connect as many mailboxes as you need, making it possible to send tens of thousands of emails a month at no extra cost.

There’s no cap on the number of active leads you can manage, either. That basically means you can reach out to as many leads as you want and expand your outreach without limits.

Curious how it’s possible to send so many emails? It’s all thanks to our inbox rotation feature, which alternates sending emails across multiple mailboxes that you connected (email accounts). This way, your email-sending volume is distributed evenly, which keeps your accounts within safe sending limits.

As a cherry on top, we have a handy guide that walks you through how to simply connect and set up your email account and get it ready for outreach.

Email discovery & verification 

Using email discovery and verification, you can find and double-verify your leads’ email addresses to reduce the chances of bounces that could harm your deliverability and sender reputation. But the best part? It won’t interrupt your campaign creation flow.

Simply add the Find & verify business email step to your Smart sequence, and the tool will automatically locate and double-verify your leads’ emails.

What sets this feature apart is its exceptional accuracy—one of the highest on the market. Plus, it’s unlimited and included in your subscription at no extra cost. That means you can use it as much as you need without worrying about additional fees.

Infinite Email warm-up

Cold email software can only bring desired results if the accounts used for outreach are ready for it. But to make sure that happens, they need to be properly warmed up. Otherwise, the risk of your emails landing in spam runs high.

And since we know how important email warm-up is to the outreach process, we decided to partner up with the email warm-up tool, InboxFlare, to bring you infinite email warm-up.

And yes, this is another feature you can use as a Skylead user at no extra cost.

With InboxFlare, you can:

• Warm up infinite mailboxes in 30+ languages
• Choose your own warm-up topics
• Perform regular deliverability testing
• Monitor blacklists

Once you’ve activated your InboxFlare seat, you’ll be able to connect it to your mailbox(es), be they with Gmail, Outlook, or another ESP. InboxFlare also lets you add custom SMPT. Once connected, it will use AI to craft a unique warm-up strategy.

Skylead pros

• Unlimited email outreach to send tens of thousands of emails per month at no added cost.
• Built-in email discovery and verification to reduce bounces and protect your sender reputation.
• Infinite email warm-up in more than 30 languages.
• Smart sequences combining email and LinkedIn to maximize getting in touch with leads.
• Image and GIF hyper-personalization to increase the response rate.
• Advanced reporting with export options and integration capabilities via Webhooks or API.
• Smart inbox to manage all email and LinkedIn conversations in one place.

Skylead cons

• InboxFlare isn’t built directly into Skylead.
• No native integrations with HubSpot, Salesforce, and other popular CRMs (integration is possible, though, through Zapier or API).

Pricing

Skylead is one of the few software that has one pricing plan to rule them all. That said, for just $100 a month per seat, you get all of the above features, plus a 1-on-1 onboarding call to get you started and a targeting support call.

What more could you ask for?

Expert opinion

‘’I’ve been using emails, InMails, and LinkedIn connection requests and messages altogether. But emails and LinkedIn messages are giving me the best conversion rate.’’

—Dennis Goyal, Co-founder & COO

‘’If/else conditions in Smart Sequences are also great. It's low code, so it's great because I'm not good at coding yet. I also like the Find & verify business email step, which finds email addresses most of the time. So you get, like, two ways you can get in touch with the client.’’

—Toine Boelens, Founder

2. Smartlead - Best for in-app email warm-up

User score: ⭐ 4.3 / 5

Smartlead is a relatively new software that automates and streamlines cold email outreach.

Key features

Smartlead comes with support for unlimited mailboxes, inbox rotation, and a built-in email warm-up feature that helps build a strong senders’ reputation. We found it very reliable while testing the tool.

The software also has a Subsequences feature, a.k.a. email sequences that get triggered once specific conditions are met (e.g., if a lead bounces, if they reply, etc.).

Moreover, Smartlead has a Unibox, which lets you keep track of all emails and respond to them from one place. 

Finally, they have an Analytics dashboard where you can keep track of your email campaigns’ performance.

Pros

• Good deliverability rates, courtesy of the built-in email warm-up feature with ESP matching.
• Support for unlimited mailboxes, as well as mailbox rotation.
• User-friendly interface that doesn’t overwhelm.
• Unibox to keep conversations organized.
• Native integration with HubSpot and 3rd party integrations via Webhooks and API.

Cons

• You can’t use it for LinkedIn lead generation because it lacks real multichannel outreach capabilities. Namely, you can add multichannel tasks into your sequences but need to perform them manually.
• No options for personalization other than variables, thereby positioning Smartlead alternatives like Skylead as a better option.
• Lack of email verification and discovery.

Pricing

Expert opinion

‘’Smartlead's email follow-up automation is a time-saver for crafting and delivering outreach sequences. Pre-designed templates are cool and a helpful advantage, especially for those new to cold emailing. The interface isn't the most intuitive. If you're new to cold email platforms, there might be a learning curve involved.’’

— Stephen O., Director of Sales Marketing

3. Apollo - Best for its built-in lead database

User score: ⭐ 4.5 / 5

Apollo is a powerful multichannel sales engagement platform that allows users to combine email, LinkedIn outreach, and cold calls in their campaigns.

Key features

Using Apollo, you can set up simple campaigns with automatic or manual emails while leveraging LinkedIn automation features to send connection requests and messages and engage with your leads’ posts.

Additionally, the tool integrates natively with platforms like Pipedrive, HubSpot, and Slack to provide seamless data synchronization.

It also includes A/B testing capabilities to optimize your campaigns and an AI-powered feature for crafting personalized outreach messages.

Lastly, Apollo boasts a database of over 275M contacts, which you can use to pull leads directly into your campaigns, along with an email verification and inbox rotation features.

Pros

• Multichannel support for email, LinkedIn, and phone outreach.
• Access to a large database of 275M+ contacts.
• Native integrations with Pipedrive, HubSpot, and Slack.
• A/B testing capabilities to refine your outreach strategy.

Cons

• Limited number of connected mailboxes (up to 15 for users of the most expensive plan).
• Multichannel sequences lack conditional logic, a.k.a if/else conditions found in Smart sequences.
• The tool uses Chrome extension to scrape lead information on LinkedIn, which could get your LinkedIn account restricted.
• AI functionality for crafting personalized messages is fairly basic, as we found.
• They integrate with Hyperise for Image & GIF personalization, which adds costs to the subscription (+$69 a month per seat).
• Lack of email warm-up feature.
• The tool also doesn’t have an integrated inbox, which was pretty inconvenient for us.

Pricing

Expert opinion

‘’Apollo is an easy go-to tool for generating leads and understanding the size of your market. The user interface is a bit clunky and not super intuitive at times, though.’’

—Zack P, CPO

4. Instantly - Best cold email software for its ease of use

User score: ⭐ 4.6 / 5

Instantly is a cold email software and email management platform that has quickly gained popularity for its scalability and user-friendliness, which we couldn’t help but notice the moment we set it up.

Key features

Instantly allows you to connect and manage unlimited email accounts, like Skylead and Smartlead, making it possible to scale your outreach significantly. While all connected accounts can be used in the same campaign, inbox rotation alternates sending emails from different accounts, so you can send more emails daily.

The software includes a built-in unlimited email warm-up feature. They also offer a B2B Lead finder, a database of 160M contacts, with filters similar to LinkedIn Sales Navigator filters (e.g., job titles, locations, industries, etc).

Using Instantly.ai, users can also conduct A/Z testing with up to 26 email variations.

What’s more, the software’s Unibox consolidates all email conversations into a single inbox for easy management. Meanwhile, its built-in CRM allows users to track lead statuses, make calls, and send SMS directly from the platform.

Instantly users can also verify their leads’ emails to reduce bounces and protect domain reputation.

Pros

• Simple and fast set-up.
• User-friendly interface.
• Unlimited mailboxes with inbox rotation to enhance deliverability.
• Unlimited email warm-up feature included.
• Unibox for streamlined conversation management.
• A/Z testing to optimize email performance.

Cons

• Basic reporting features may not meet the needs of users seeking detailed analytics. Furthermore, we didn’t like how you cannot export CSV or PDF reports.
• B2B Lead database and CRM cost extra.
• Lacks email-finding capabilities.
• Instantly is a cold email software only, meaning it’s not suitable for those relying on LinkedIn prospecting and outreach across multiple channels.
• Some users complain using Instantly damages their domain reputation, though we cannot say we experienced this while testing it ourselves.

Pricing

Expert opinion

‘’I am really happy with Instantly this far. It is such a well-rounded platform. You do have to pay quite a bit if you want to get the full experience, though.’’

—Niryen Z., CEO

5. Lemlist - Best for advanced personalization in email outreach

User score: ⭐ 4.5 / 5

Lemlist is a cold email software with advanced personalization capabilities. However, higher-tiered plans turn it into a multichannel platform.

Key features

We tested Lemlist’s most expensive plan. Therefore, we could create multichannel sequences combining email, LinkedIn, and cold calls. Additionally, conditions can be added to sequences to cover multiple outreach scenarios.

But what the software is best known for is its personalization features. Specifically, using Lemlist, users can customize images, intro lines, and even create dynamic landing pages. 

Lemlist also offers Lemwarm, a built-in email warm-up tool that’s meant to keep emails out of spam folders.

To aid lead generation, Lemlist includes an email finder and verifier, as well as access to a B2B lead database with over 450M contacts.

Pros

• Supports multichannel outreach with LinkedIn actions and calls.
• Advanced personalization features, including custom images and dynamic landing pages.
• Lemwarm email warm-up tool to enhance deliverability.
• B2B lead database with as much as 450M contacts.

Cons

• Limited email discovery and verification, even with the highest-tier plan. Additional credits cost extra ($1 for every 100 emails found and verified).
• The quality of leads in the B2B database is inconsistent, as we found.
• For those who’d like to go beyond their lead database, the tool offers a Chrome extension for LinkedIn prospecting. This disappointed us, though, as using Chrome extensions on LinkedIn can lead to account restrictions.
• Cannot connect unlimited email accounts. Namely, the highest-paid plan lets you connect up to 15 mailboxes maximum.

Pricing

Expert opinion

‘’Lemlist is better than many other tools because it gives you the tools to actually be unique and send emails in a slick manner. I WISH WISH WISH they had unlimited email accounts. That's the only thing I don't like about it, it caps you at 5 email accounts (15 with the pro plan).’’

—Zach Y., Founder

6. Reply.io - Best for AI sales engagement

User score: ⭐ 4.5 / 5

Reply.io is a versatile sales engagement platform built for teams who prefer handling their entire outreach in one place.

Key features

Although primarily a cold email software, over the years, Reply.io has turned into a multichannel platform. That said, you can use it to create sequences with conditional logic that combine emails with automatic and/or manual LinkedIn actions.

Email-wise, we loved that, much like with Skylead, Smartlead, and Instantly, we could connect unlimited mailboxes to the tool, and it would later auto-rotate through these while sending emails. There’s also no cap on how many emails you can send monthly.

Moreover, each Reply.io user gets free access to Mailtoaster.ai for email warm-up.

In terms of integrations, the software natively integrates with some of the best CRM for sales, HubSpot and Pipedrive. Nonetheless, the support for 3rd party integrations via Zapier webhooks is there as well.

We found their Analytics dashboard intuitive and noticed that it contains a lot more details than some other sales outreach tools.

The newest addition to Reply.io is Jason, their AI SDR agent who finds leads, creates outreach sequences, personalizes interactions, automatically replies, and books meetings.

They also provide a sales AI chatbot to turn website visitors into traffic, although we haven’t tried this feature and can’t objectively rate it.

Pros

• Support for multichannel outreach combining email and LinkedIn tasks.
• Unlimited mailboxes and inbox rotation.
• Free Mailtoaster.ai seat for email warm-up.
• Native integrations with HubSpot and Pipedrive.
• AI SDR Jason for automated prospecting and engagement.
• Detailed analytics dashboard for performance tracking.

Cons

• AI SDR Jason requires an additional subscription. Moreover, the price heavily depends on the number of active contacts. Moreover, it’s not as advanced and certainly can’t replace human SDRs, as they claim.
• Full access to their +1M B2B lead database requires a separate subscription, and so does the AI chatbot.
• Chrome extension (Findy) to find leads directly on LinkedIn can cause account restrictions,.
• Message personalization is scarce (despite AI assistance), and the option for image and GIF personalization is lacking.

Pricing

Reply.io has 4 main pricing plans, whereas multiple sub-plans are available.

In the meantime, if you’d like to use their AI SDR agent, expect to pay $299 for 1,000 active contacts a month. However, if your needs exceed this, the price can easily skyrocket as it’s volume-based.

Expert opinion

‘’Reply is very easy to use, with a straightforward UX design and plenty of features for base-level users like me. I started using Reply for outreach campaigns in my role, and getting over the learning curve was a cinch. Unfortunately, as I'm writing this, Reply does not have a direct integration with Microsoft Outlook, which might inhibit some of my use cases.’’

—Ian L, Customer Success Manager

7. Expandi - Best for ESP integration

User score: ⭐ 4.3 / 5

Expandi is a cloud-based LinkedIn automation tool that also extends its capabilities to the email channel.

Key features

As opposed to Reply.io, Expandi was originally a LinkedIn automation tool that added the email channel into the mix. Thus, now, you can use it to create Smart sequences combining LinkedIn messages, inMails, and emails in a single workflow.

While testing Expandi, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that the tool lets you connect all email accounts, whether from major ESPs (Gmail, Outlook) or a custom SMTP.

Personalization-wise, this software comes with predefined variables, though you can also add your own. Additionally, provided you pay for Hyperise, you can even enrich your emails with personalized images and GIFs thanks to their direct integration.

Finally, if you wish to connect Expandi with other tools, the good news is that you can do so through Zapier webhooks or API.

Pros

• Smart sequences for multichannel outreach.
• Predefined and custom variables for message personalization.
• Integrates with major ESPs like Gmail and Outlook, as well as custom SMTP.
• Zapier webhooks for third-party integrations.

Cons

• Focused more on LinkedIn, with basic support for email automation.
• You can connect 1 mailbox at a time. We found this rather limiting.
• 100 emails a day sending limit.
• Expandi doesn’t have an email warm-up feature, nor does it offer it through a partner.
• The tool can’t discover and verify leads’ emails. It can only scrape publicly available emails on LinkedIn and only if you’re connected with someone.
• Image and GIF personalization, while there, is possible thanks to Expandi’s integration with Hyperise. Thus, it costs extra. Moreover, our impression is that it’s inconvenient to use.
• The UX is confusing, which is especially noticeable during the campaign creation.

Pricing

Expandi, like Skylead, has a single plan that will set you back $99 a month per seat. 

Nonetheless, if you want to combine it with Hyperise, count on paying an additional $69 a month. This brings the total cost to $168 per 1 seat. For this reason, certain Expandi alternatives are proving to be better cold email software.

Expert opinion

‘’Great automation for LinkedIn. Easy UX. Constant webinars to learn. Tons of new features are always being added. Email outreach is very limited, though. I cannot see if the lead booked a meeting on a calendar to trigger enrollment - if they had this, I would use it for email as well.’’

—Jacob M., SDR

8. Hunter.io - Best for email discovery and verification

User score: ⭐ 4.4 / 5

Hunter.io is a popular email discovery tool. Nonetheless, it has expanded its services to include cold email outreach capabilities through its Campaigns feature.

Key features

Hunter.io's strength lies in its ability to discover and verify email addresses associated with specific domains or individuals.

However, with the introduction of Hunter Campaigns, users can now create and manage simple cold email campaigns directly within the platform. This feature supports personalized email sequences with automated follow-ups. It also integrates seamlessly with Gmail, Outlook, and custom SMTP.

The number of mailboxes you can connect to Hunter.io depends on the plan. Nonetheless, all plans support mailbox rotation.

Moreover, we couldn’t help but notice how simple Hunter Campaigns are to use. Not to mention, you get access to the Reports page to track your campaign performance.

For integrations, Hunter supports Zapier webhooks and has a public API, making it easy to connect with other tools in your tech stack.

Pros

• Great email discovery and verification capabilities.
• Direct Gmail and Outlook integration for sending emails.
• User-friendly interface suitable for beginners.
• Free plan available for users with limited needs.

Cons

• Email outreach features are scarce compared to other cold email software.
• Email sequences are basic and lack if/else conditions.
• No built-in email warm-up feature.
• Limited email discovery and verification credits. It’s possible to purchase more, though the exact rate varies by plan. Moreover, the tool, while accurate, isn’t as successfully at finding and verifying emails as Skylead.
• Theoretically, you could connect unlimited mailboxes to the tool. However, this would cost you $10 for each additional mailbox, which is a con if you ask us.

Pricing

Hunter Campaigns is available under all 5 paid plans.

Expert opinion

‘’Email verifier and Email finder come in very handy whenever I upload bulk leads. Also, the option to follow up in the same thread just by keeping the subject line blank is something I like. There are a few downsides. First up, the UX could be far better, it takes a while to find simple options like cloning the campaign. Moreover, the follow-up frequency is confusing- it never shows you the date of sending. All the sent mails are also visible in my gmail sent-box.’’

—Vinayak H., Product Marketing Associate

9. Saleshandy - Best cold email software for email tracking

User score: ⭐ 4.4 / 5

Saleshandy is a go-to tool for anyone who values unlimited email capabilities and reliable campaign tracking capabilities.

Key features

Saleshandy is considered one of the best cold email software because it allows for unlimited email accounts, sequences, and email tracking. 

The tool also offers email warm-up through its partner, TrulyInbox. However, the daily warm-up limit varies by plan. We also didn’t find it to be very reliable during our testing since our emails landed in spam, regardless.

Additionally, Saleshandy includes email discovery and verification, as well as mailbox rotation.

Meanwhile, direct integrations with CRMs like HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce allow seamless workflow automation.

The platform also offers A/Z testing and detailed email performance analytics to help users optimize their campaigns.

Pros

• Unlimited email accounts, sequences, as well as email tracking.
• Email warm-up through TrulyInbox integration.
• Mailbox rotation to send more emails daily.
• Direct CRM integrations with HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce.

Cons

• The number of active prospects is limited by plan, and so is the number of emails sent monthly.
• We realized their ‘’unlimited mailboxes’’ claim isn’t exactly true because you can use a maximum of 50 mailboxes per campaign. And that’s with the highest subscription!
• Email discovery and verification credits aren’t unlimited, either, as is the case with Skylead. Instead, credits are capped by the plan.
• The subscription also determines the number of warm-up emails exchanged daily.

Pricing

Saleshandy offers 4 email outreach plans.

Expert opinion

‘’The price is very reasonable and has many features like unlimited email warm-up, email automation, analytics, and many more. I hope there will be some improvement in email warm-up features in the future.’’

—Shamim Ahmed A., SDR

10. Snov.io - Best for its real-time sentiment analysis

User score: ⭐ 4.7 / 5

Snov.io is a sales engagement platform rather than merely a cold email software. It’s meant to help you automatically find leads and reach out to them to close more deals in less time.

Key features

Snov.io’s email campaigns are enhanced by smart triggers that adapt based on recipient behavior. The platform also has an A/B testing feature, which lets you experiment with multiple variations of your subject lines and email bodies.

One feature we really liked is the AI sentiment analysis, which detects a lead’s interest level in real-time and suggests how to adjust messaging.

If you're interested in using multiple channels for your outreach, the good news is that Snov.io even offers an optional LinkedIn automation add-on. However, we were surprised to find it costs extra.

Additionally, Snov.io, much like Skylead, Smartlead, Instantly, and similar tools, allows you to connect unlimited mailboxes. Similarly, it supports unlimited mailbox rotation. 

The platform also includes email discovery and verification and directly integrates with HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Calendly.

Finally, it has built-in email warm-up, email tracking (for Gmail), and deliverability testing features.

Pros

• Unlimited mailboxes with rotation.
• Built-in email warm-up to improve sending reputation.
• AI-driven sentiment analysis for real-time adjustments.
• Native integrations with HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Calendly.
• Multichannel support with LinkedIn touches (via paid add-on).

Cons

• LinkedIn automation, while there, requires an additional fee.
• Slight learning curve due to the platform's broad range of features.
• Limited email discovery and verification credits.
• The Starter plan lets you warm up up to 3 mailboxes.
• Given that the Pro plan has volume-based pricing, the cost can easily skyrocket.

Pricing

The add-on for LinkedIn automation costs an extra $69 a month per account.

Expert opinion

‘’Reliable outreach and research tool. I like the efficiency and speed of searching and validating emails, ease of use, and customer support. However, lots of emails are not really in the database. There’s also a lack of detailed statistics and dark mode.’’

—Denis B.

11. Klenty - Best cold email software for video personalization

User score: ⭐ 4.7 / 5

Klenty is a cold email automation platform that helps sales teams hyper-personalize their outreach.

Key features

While testing Klenty, we were really impressed with their Liquid email templates. These templates use dynamic formulas to automatically adjust email content based on when prospects receive or open your emails. As a result, they make each touchpoint feel extra personalized.

And if plain text isn’t cutting it, Klenty lets you take it a step further with video personalization. Namely, you can embed videos into your emails with custom elements to further stand out.

We also appreciated Klenty’s flexibility when it comes to sequencing. You can reorder steps, adjust delays, and even clone successful sequences to save time and replicate winning campaigns.

Klenty also provides deliverability insights to help you understand how many emails land in the primary inbox, like a warm-up tool that you can use with Skylead.

Additionally, the tool includes email verification, supports unlimited mailboxes with inbox rotation, and has email tracking to keep you informed about engagement levels.

Lastly, the platform can be integrated with other software via API or Webhooks.

Pros

• Liquid email templates for advanced personalization.
• Video personalization to stand out in inboxes.
• Flexible email sequencing.
• Detailed deliverability insights to optimize campaigns.
• Email discovery and verification based on prospects’ name and company domain.
• Integrations via API and Webhooks.

Cons

• No monthly pricing plans; only quarterly or annual payments are available.
• LinkedIn automation, albeit there, relies on a Chrome extension, rendering it unsafe.
• If your bounce rate is high (which can happen if you’re using their tool to verify emails, as we experienced), the campaign won’t automatically stop.
• You can connect unlimited mailboxes to the tool, as we discovered, only if they share the same domain. You can add more domains if you’d like, but only if you pay an additional $30 per domain.
• There are no 1-on-1 onboarding calls. And seeing that the platform isn’t easy to navigate, this is definitely a disadvantage.

Pricing

Klenty only has quarterly and annual plans, with the latter being up to 20% cheaper.

That being said, there are a total of 3 pricing plans available.

Expert opinion

‘’I liked the ability to run campaigns through Klenty using salesforce data. However, I didn’t like that Klenty does not automatically stop a campaign if an email is bouncing.’’

—Matthew D., Distribution Manager

12. Woodpecker - Best for teams prioritizing email deliverability

User score: ⭐ 4.7 / 5

Woodpecker is a cold email software designed to maintain optimal email deliverability.

Key features

Woodpecker is best known for its focus on email deliverability. The platform includes a built-in email warm-up feature, auto-reply detection, and email verification (powered by Bouncer), which ensures your emails avoid the spam folder.

The tool also supports A/B testing, allowing you to experiment with up to 5 variations of subject lines and email content.

The good news for teams managing multiple email accounts is that Woodpecker also offers unlimited mailbox connections with auto-rotation to spread your sending load and protect your domain.

It also fits right into your tool stack through native integrations with HubSpot and Pipedrive, along with Google Sheets and Calendly.

Speaking of integrations, it can be expanded into a multichannel outreach platform through the integration with Dux-Soup, a LinkedIn automation tool.

Pros

• Built-in email warm-up for improved deliverability.
• Auto-reply detection to better manage follow-ups.
• Unlimited mailboxes with auto-rotation.
• Integrates directly with popular CRMs, plus Google Sheets and Calendly.

Cons

• The subscription limits the number of prospects you can contact, and costs can escalate quickly if you need to scale.
• The number of mailboxes you can warm up, and emails you can send monthly is capped. Unless you’re paying for the highest subscription.
• No built-in LinkedIn automation.

Pricing

Woodpecker offers 4 plans, albeit pricing depends on the number of contacted prospects, mailboxes warmed up, and emails sent. 

That said, prices start from:

Expert opinion

‘’Over the years, I have used all the major players, from the large SEPs to platforms with similar functionality and costs to Woodpecker. Woodpecker stands out for me due to the fundamental fact that it has deliverability at the forefront of everything it does. Nonetheless, the Hubspot integration is basic and does not allow activity tracking at the contact level. Moreover, the warm-up feature is new and works, but it needs more ability to monitor and control settings.’’

—Oliver K., Head of Sales Development

13. Mailshake - Best for its AI email writer SHAKEspear

User score:⭐ 4.7 / 5

Mailshake is a cold email software with support for multichannel outreach.

Key features

One of Mailshake’s unique selling points is SHAKEspeare AI Email Writer, which is included for free with every account. Its job is to help you write personalized emails at scale.

However, using Mailshake, you’re not limited to automating cold email outreach only. The tool supports outreach via multiple channels (LinkedIn and phone), although only under its Sales Engagement plan. This means you can seamlessly switch between email, LinkedIn, and direct calls within the same sequence. Still, these sequences are simple, as opposed to Skylead’s Smart sequences.

The platform also offers unlimited email warm-ups and mailbox rotation for better deliverability. Moreover, we found its A/B testing to be particularly helpful for testing different variations of messaging.

Finally, the tool integrates directly with Salesforce, Pipedrive, and HubSpot and supports over 1,000 additional integrations via Zapier webhooks. Therefore, it’s rather easy to fit into your workflow.

Pros

• SHAKEspeare AI Email Writer is included for free.
• Unlimited email warm-ups and mailbox rotation for improved deliverability.
• A/B testing to keep track of what’s working, as well as what’s not.
• Direct integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive.
• Supports more than 1,000 integrations via Zapier webhooks.

Cons

• SHAKEspear AI, though useful, can be easily replaced with Chat GPT for sales copywriting.
• The Starter plan doesn’t support multichannel outreach.
• There is no built-in email verification (you’ll need a 3rd-party tool).
• You can connect up to 5 mailboxes maximum. And that’s only if you’re subscribed to their most expensive Sales Engagement plan. Other than that, you’re left to work with only 2 email accounts.
• LinkedIn automation operates through a Chrome extension.
• Analytics can be hard to comprehend, in our opinion.
• Frequent bugs.
• Annual billings only and no free trial.

Pricing

Expert opinion

‘’Easy to get started and use, high deliverability, and great customer support team. Several cons are limited analytics, the fact that you can't create bespoke email sequences based on an action (e.g., a click,) and you can't upload lists for bulk deletion.’’

—Ayrton E.

14. Outreach.io - Best for enterprise-level sales engagement

User score: ⭐ 4.4 / 5

Outreach.io is a sales execution platform built for larger teams looking to scale their prospecting and closing efforts.

Key features

Outreach.io goes beyond your regular cold email software. In fact, it’s a full-fledged platform that you can use to engage prospects through email, phone, and Sales Navigator—all from one place. Moreover, its smart automation features make it easy to schedule, track, and analyze sequences for maximum efficiency.

While exploring the tool, we really liked its AI-powered insights, which provide recommendations for the best times to engage with prospects and suggest improvements to your messaging based on past performance. Additionally, Outreach.io’s predictive analytics help sales teams identify high-potential leads, forecast outcomes, and focus their efforts on deals most likely to close.

The platform also includes CRM integrations with Salesforce and HubSpot.

Not to mention, Outreach.io’s reporting and analytics capabilities provide a detailed overview of sequence performance to help teams optimize their outreach strategies.

Pros

• Multichannel engagement through email, phone, LinkedIn, and more.
• AI-powered insights for improving outreach strategy.
• Seamless integrations with Salesforce and HubSpot.
• Advanced reporting and analytics for performance tracking.
• Enterprise-grade scalability for large sales teams.

Cons

• Outreach.io lacks many features found in the best cold email software. This includes email warm-up, email discovery and verification, and inbox rotation.
• It’s impossible to connect more than 2 mailboxes to the tool.
• Pricing is on the higher end, making it less accessible for smaller teams.
• Steeper learning curve compared to simpler cold email tools.
• The integration with HubSpot doesn’t work very well.

Pricing

Outreach.io doesn’t publicly disclose its pricing. What we can tell you, though, is that connecting even 1 email account is expensive, way past $100 per email account. Moreover, there’s no monthly subscription, only annual, and they have no free trial.

Expert opinion

‘’It makes it very easy to manage a lot of prospects and keep track of who is being reached out to. I like that it enables you to be flexible and set up a lot of integrations. There are some functionalities that don't work as well as they should. For example, being able to edit steps of a sequence when emailing, having a small drafting window, and syncing activity.’’

—Benjamin S., Owner

15. QuickMail - Best for its customizable Analytics

User score: ⭐ 4.7 / 5

QuickMail is one of the best cold email software that stands out for its customizable Analytics dashboard.

Key features

Every QuickMail account includes free email warm-up via MailFlow to help keep emails out of spam folders. 

The platform also supports LinkedIn outreach (through a Chrome extension) via multiple LinkedIn accounts, as well as inbox rotation for email, which evenly distributes email loads across multiple inboxes to protect your domain.

Speaking of multiple inboxes, QuickMail allows you to connect up to 50 mailboxes on the highest subscription plan.

Moreover, it integrates with Hyperise to add custom images or GIFs to your emails. The option to customize the Analytics dashboard any way you look is another nice touch, in our opinion.

Finally, the software integrates directly with HubSpot and Pipedrive, supports Zapier for additional workflows, and allows you to import prospects from Google Drive or CSV files.

Pros

• Free email warm-up via MailFlow is included with every account.
• Inbox rotation to protect your domain.
• Customizable analytics dashboards.
• Native CRM integrations with HubSpot and Pipedrive, plus 3rd-party integrations via Zapier.

Cons

• Email verification is available through 3rd-party integrations and costs extra.
• LinkedIn outreach relies on a Chrome extension and requires higher subscriptions.
• Image and GIF personalization is outsourced through Hyperise, as is the case with Expandi. Thus, it costs extra.
• Limited to 50 mailboxes on the highest subscription.
• Capped monthly email sends and active prospects.
• The tool isn’t the simplest to set up.

Pricing

QuickMail has 2 plan types: Single & Agency.

Expert opinion

‘’All you have to do is write email copies and build prospect lists and Quickmail manages everything else such as inbox rotation and measurement of the campaign's results along with recommendations. Nonetheless, Quickmail is difficult to setup in the very beginning and would require some assistance if your team is not very technical.’’

—Nico Chiong M., Marketing Manager

16. Close - Best for its CRM with basic cold email functionalities

User score: ⭐ 4.7 / 5

Close is primarily a CRM but comes with built-in cold email functionalities.

Key features

Close simplifies email outreach by integrating it directly into its CRM. With it, you can create and use email templates and schedule emails with follow-up reminders to ensure timely communication with prospects.

On top of automating workflows, you can use Close to send bulk emails to multiple recipients at once. Additionally, the tool allows teams to create and share email snippets with each other.

Close supports A/B testing for subject lines and email bodies, much like many other cold email software on the list.

You can also track performance through the Sent Email Report page, which provides insights into open rates, click rates, and more.

Close integrates with HubSpot, Calendly, ChatGPT, and many others, making it a good choice for sales teams with extensive tool stacks.

Pros

• Combines CRM and cold email functionalities in one platform.
• Built-in A/B testing for subject lines and email content.
• Sent Email Report for performance tracking.
• Bulk email sending with team-wide email snippet sharing.
• Extensive integrations, including HubSpot, Calendly, and Chat GPT.

Cons

• Primarily a CRM, meaning the email functionalities are not be as advanced as in standalone cold email software.
• Bulk email sending lacks more sophisticated automation features like smart sequences.
• No email warm-up feature.
• No inbox rotation.
• Lacks advanced personalization features, like image and GIF personalization.

Pricing

Expert opinion

‘’I love how easy it is to use Close. I had never used it before in my current role, and it has been very simple to learn. I have found it's not as easy to create templated emails as I would like, and it's harder to include attachments in emails, though.’’

—Brianna G., Account Executive

17. Yesware - Best for automating cold email campaigns straight from your inbox

User score: ⭐ 4.4 / 5

Yesware is a cold email software with direct Gmail and Outlook integrations.

Key features

Yesware integrates directly into Gmail and Outlook through a Chrome extension. Once installed, you can send emails as usual while benefiting from Yesware’s tracking and engagement tools.

Moreover, Yesware enables users to create automated follow-up sequences to stay top-of-mind with prospects who don’t reply. The tool also supports multichannel campaigns that combine emails, calls, and social touches.

The platform offers email templates that can be personalized and saved for future use. You can also use placeholders (a.k.a. variables) to personalize emails at scale.

The email tracking feature notifies you when recipients read your emails, click on links, or view attachments, allowing you to focus on the most engaged prospects. Meanwhile, the Analytics dashboard gives you a weekly overview of your email performance.

Additionally, Yesware includes a B2B contact database with over 100M contacts for lead generation. However, this feature comes at an extra cost.

Pros

• Direct integration with Gmail and Outlook through a Chrome extension.
• Pre-defined email templates..
• Automated follow-ups for improved prospect engagement.
• Multichannel campaign support with emails, calls, and social touches.
• Detailed email tracking and engagement history for each contact.
• Weekly performance insights through Analytics dashboard.

Cons

• Does not track email deliverability rates.
• The B2B contact database is a paid add-on.
• Lacks email warm-up feature.
• Limited to Gmail and Outlook users.
• We noticed that Yesware is often buggy.
• The interface looks very outdated if you ask us.

Pricing

Yesware has a free plan that offers basic functionalities.

Meanwhile, there are a total of 4 paid plans:

Expert opinion

‘’Yesware makes it easier for me to track my emails and it also scans for viruses when I try to upload any files. The UI can be better. I mean, seriously, tools like Mailchimp have a much better UI.’’

—Johnson T., Senior Account Executive

18. HubSpot Sales Hub - Best for its connection to HubSpot

User score: ⭐ 4.5 / 5

HubSpot Sales Hub is a sales software that works seamlessly with its namesake CRM.

Key features

Using HubSpot Sales Hub’s automation features, you can connect up to 200 inboxes. You can use these to schedule emails and follow-ups at scale. Alternatively, the platform allows you to set reminders for manual actions, like:

• Sending LinkedIn invites
• Emails, 
• Or making calls.

Thanks to the A/B testing feature, you can fine-tune your messaging to maximize lead engagement. HubSpot also enables users to turn their best-performing emails into templates that can be optimized, personalized, and shared across the team.

Additionally, HubSpot’s email tracking notifies you when prospects open emails or click links to help you prioritize the most engaged leads. It also comes with email health reporting.

Meanwhile, the platform’s integrated dashboard lets you score deals, assign tasks, and monitor your pipeline in real time, so no opportunity is missed.

Pros

• Supports personalized, automated email sequences.
• Email tracking to monitor engagement.
• Run multiple A/B tests to refine email sequences.
• Create, optimize, and share team-wide email templates.
• Integrates with HubSpot CRM for end-to-end deal management.

Cons

• Not a full-fledged cold email software since features like mailbox rotation and email warm-up are missing.
• No email discovery or verification features are available.
• No image and GIF personalization.
• Pricing can be steep for small teams.
• We experienced lots of lagging while using the platform.

Pricing

Expert opinion

‘’It is very user-friendly, and dashboards and integrations are really easy to use even for people that have never used it before. I think the cost is a little bit high.’’

—Diego P., VP of Engineering

19. GMass - Best for beginners

User score: ⭐ 4.7 / 5

GMass is a cold email software that integrates directly with Gmail through a Chrome extension.

Key features

GMass allows users to send emails directly from their Gmail account. 

With its mail merge capabilities, you can customize emails using data from Google Sheets, making for more efficient and targeted outreach.

The platform supports automated follow-ups and email tracking to notify you when emails are opened or links are clicked. It also has a deliverability testing feature to check where your emails land in recipients’ inboxes.

GMass also includes tools like email verification to clean your list and reply detection to help manage responses.

Additionally, GMass integrates seamlessly with Google Workspace, meaning no external apps or complex setups are required. At the same time, you can connect GMass to other software via Zapier.

Pros

• Direct integration with Gmail for ease of use.
• Personalized bulk emails with mail merge from Google Sheets.
• Automated follow-ups to maintain prospect engagement.
• Email tracking to monitor opens and clicks.
• Integrations with 3rd-party software via Zapier.

Cons

• Limited to Gmail users. Therefore, it isn’t suitable for those using other email providers.
• You can use it on one email account at a time.
• No advanced cold email features like inbox rotation or email warm-up.
• Bulk email sending is capped by Gmail’s daily sending limits. Your account could get flagged if you try to ‘’bypass’’ the limit.
• Makes the Gmail interface seem kind of ‘’all over the place’’.

Pricing

GMass has Individual and Team plans.

Expert opinion

‘’It's better than mass email senders (i.e., Mailchimp/Hubspot) for sending organic emails directly from your Gmail. But it's not a substitute for mass email senders because it doesn't have all the features they do.’’

—Alejandro S., Executive Director

20. Mixmax - Best for teams after seamless email productivity tools

User score: ⭐ 4.5 / 5

Mixmax is an email productivity platform that integrates with Gmail, much like Yesware and GMass.

Key features

Mixmax offers features designed to make email outreach more efficient. Its email tracking provides real-time notifications when recipients open emails, click on links, or download attachments, giving users insights into engagement.

Mixmax allows you to use custom templates and insert dynamic fields to customize messages for recipients at scale. The platform also supports sequenced campaigns to automate follow-ups and nurture leads effectively. Moreover, you can add manual multichannel tasks into campaigns, including calls, LinkedIn connection requests, and inMails.

Another standout feature is Mixmax’s calendar scheduling, which lets users embed their availability directly into emails for easy appointment booking. This is complemented by the platform’s polling and survey tools, which gather feedback directly in email threads.

Mixmax integrates with Google Workspace and CRMs like Salesforce, thus allowing users to easily sync workflows and track leads. Finally, advanced users can leverage its rules and triggers feature to automate repetitive tasks and set conditions for outreach.

Pros

• Real-time email tracking for opens, clicks, and downloads.
• Calendar scheduling is embedded directly into emails.
• Automated sequenced campaigns for follow-ups.
• Dynamic fields for personalized email templates.
• Integrates with Salesforce and Google Workspace.

Cons

• The least expensive plan has no automation.
• The least expensive plan also lacks email personalization.
• Multichannel sequences are available to teams under their most expensive Scale plan. On top of that, multichannel tasks need to be executed manually.
• Its extension for Gmail and Outlook slowed our browser.
• There is no email verification, email warm-up, or inbox rotation available.

Pricing

Mixmax comes with Individual and Teams plans.

Expert opinion

‘’I've been using Mixmax almost every day for a while now, and it's been a game-changer for my workflow. This tool has significantly helped me automate my outreach campaigns, saving me a ton of time and effort. I'd like to be able to download reports for my different campaigns. It would be very helpful to have information on a target by target, especially to re-contact them if they haven't replied in a certain time, or if they never opened my emails.’’

—Ana A., Business Development Associate

21. Salesforge - Best cold email software for outreach in 20+ languages

User score: ⭐ 4.7 / 5

Salesforge is a cold outreach platform combining human effort with AI to manage email campaigns and personalize outreach at scale—in as much as 20+ languages.

Key features

Salesforge streamlines cold outreach with its Forge Ecosystem, which includes:

• Mailforge: A distributed email infrastructure with automated DNS setup.
• Infraforge: Customizable private email architecture with multiple IP addresses and domain masking for better deliverability.
• Warmforge: Automated, unlimited warm-up for Gmail and Outlook mailboxes.
• Agent Frank: An AI-powered SDR that handles everything from prospecting and outreach to booking meetings.

The platform allows users to connect unlimited mailboxes with smart rotation to guarantee even distribution of email loads. In the meantime, email verification protects your sender's reputation by verifying emails directly within the dashboard.

Salesforge also integrates with Slack, Clay, and other tools via Zapier webhooks, thus providing seamless workflow automation.

Pros

• AI-powered email personalization in more than 20 languages.
• Unlimited mailboxes with smart rotation.
• Automated email warm-up and email validation.
• Native integrations and those made possible through Zapier.
• All-in-one dashboard to manage mailboxes and sequences.

Cons

• Advanced features such as Infraforge may be too technical for beginners.
• Plans limit the number of active prospects.
• The maximum number of emails you can send monthly is 50,000 on the highest plan.
• Email verification credits are limited to 1,000 maximum, as well.
• Agent Frank, Mailforge, Infraforge, and Warmforge cost extra.

Pricing

Expert opinion

‘’Love how they utilize the power of AI to craft unique emails as well as increase delivery rate. It's a new product, so some features are missing.’’

—Simonas D.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

What is cold email software and how does it differ from regular email marketing tools?

Cold email software is specifically designed to help businesses reach out to leads who may not have prior knowledge of their company. Unlike regular email marketing tools, which typically send bulk campaigns to opt-in subscribers, cold email software focuses on personalized, 1-on-1 emails to build connections and drive conversions. 

Is it legal to send cold emails?

Yes, provided that you adhere to regulations. In the US, the CAN-SPAM Act requires you to include an unsubscribe button, avoid misleading subject lines, and identify your email as an advertisement if applicable. Meanwhile, in the EU, GDPR requires a legitimate interest or prior consent to contact individuals.

How does cold email software help with email deliverability?

Cold email software includes features specifically designed to improve deliverability and keep your emails out of spam folders. These typically include features such as email warm-up, deliverability testing, inbox rotation, and domain authentication, among others.

Can I integrate cold email software with my existing CRM?

Generally speaking, most cold email software support integration with popular CRMs. These integrations enable you to sync contact data seamlessly, track engagement directly in your CRM, as well as manage follow-ups and tasks in one place. If a native integration isn’t available, tools like Zapier or API access can bridge the gap.

How do I personalize emails using cold email software?

The best cold email software allows for both basic and advanced personalization. In other words, most let you use placeholders (variables) to insert first names, company names, etc., to personalize your emails dynamically. Also, some cold email software, like Skylead, lets you personalize images and GIFs for greater impact.

What is the best cold email software?

Still here? Great! That means you’re probably wondering, What’s the best cold email software out there?

If you asked us, we’d say Skylead—and no, it’s not just because we built it. It’s because it truly checks all the boxes.

But truth be told, there's no single answer to this question, simply because you yourself best know your needs.

So, how do you figure out which software is right for you? You make a top 5 out of 21 on this list and test them out—just like we did.

For example, start with Skylead—our ultimate LinkedIn automation and cold email software that has all the essential cold email features you need. In one place, at that!

So, sign up for our 7-day free trial now, explore everything Skylead offers, and who knows? You might not even need to look anywhere else.

LinkedIn automation tools are the future of sales, and let me tell you why.

LinkedIn is a professional social media platform with over 1 billion users in more than 200 countries. It is used for B2B lead generation because its conversion rate is 3x better than that of any other social media platform. Moreover, the audience on LinkedIn has 2x buying power.

So, no wonder many sales teams use LinkedIn prospecting as their basis for targeting. After all, without LinkedIn, many sales executives would have a hard time generating B2B leads. Even marketers around the world use LinkedIn for B2B marketing lead generation. Not to mention recruiters who began using it to find top talents for their companies.

But as LinkedIn lead generation became the standard, it also became clear that doing it manually was time-consuming and not sustainable in the long run. People needed a smarter, faster way to perform their operative tasks, such as LinkedIn outreach. Thus, LinkedIn automation tools were born.

We actually built Skylead - the ultimate LinkedIn automation and cold email software - to help these individuals save 11+ hours a week on manual work so they can focus on what matters. Nurturing leads and closing deals.

Of course, the market has grown since we launched, and now there are plenty more tools that promise to automate LinkedIn activities.

Interested in finding and using one yourself? Let us help you with that!

In this article, we cover the 18 most popular LinkedIn automation tools that we personally tested.

We’ll also introduce you to the types of LinkedIn automation tools available and explain how to choose the one for you.

What is LinkedIn automation?

LinkedIn automation is a technology that tools use to perform different LinkedIn activities you would usually do manually. In other words, this technology automates the tasks, meaning it performs them on your behalf. These activities include LinkedIn profile views, sending connection requests, follow-up messages, or LinkedIn InMails.

LinkedIn automation serves for LinkedIn lead generation purposes. For example, you can build your LinkedIn network, make new connections, and outreach them on autopilot, or automate sharing gated posts.

In outreach terms, LinkedIn automation essentially recognizes your lead source, such as a LinkedIn search URL. It analyzes LinkedIn pages, performs actions according to your settings, and interacts with the selected LinkedIn users. Moreover, some LinkedIn automation tools can also search for publicly available information on your leads’ LinkedIn profiles. 

The best LinkedIn automation tools can even send personalized messages and images according to individual leads' information, which is available on LinkedIn. Also, they even use messaging sequences to send follow-up LinkedIn messages if the lead doesn’t respond.

Lastly, some tools can send bulk messages to all leads at once. However, this is something you need to be cautious of when it comes to safety. Don’t worry, though. We will talk about how the best LinkedIn automation tools do it below.

What are LinkedIn automation tools & why should you use them?

LinkedIn automation tools are software that use automation technology to automate LinkedIn activities. They take over time-consuming tasks like sending connection requests and messages, allowing you to focus on more important things.  In addition, they test and analyze your performance and show you what you need to improve. 

There are many more benefits other than the ones we just mentioned, though. 

So, let's go over the 6 most important ones.

1. LinkedIn automation tools save you time

By streamlining the most time-consuming LinkedIn activities, these tools really do save you time. That said, they can save you 11+ hours of work per week, depending on which one you choose.

2. They provide detailed reports

You can perform manual outreach by yourself. However, keep in mind that you would need to dig into reporting yourself, as well. The thing is, it can take you hours to gather and analyze the metrics. On the other hand, LinkedIn automation tools do all this on your behalf.

3. They give you the option to A/B test—everything

Depending on which LinkedIn automation tool you choose, you will have the option to A/B test your:

• Connection request messages;
• Message sequences;
• Follow-up messages;
• InMails; 
• Subject lines.

Then, you can see which versions work best and use them in your future outreach campaigns.

4. These tools help you personalize your outreach

LinkedIn automation tools can also help you send personalized messages at scale. In other words, these tools use custom variables that allow you to reach out to your leads in a more natural way.

Some also allow you to use personalized images and GIFs, which can help you increase the response rate by 76%.

5. They let you run multiple campaigns at the same time

If you have different Ideal Customer Profiles or Buyer Personas, you can run multiple outreach campaigns at the same time. This way, you can be more productive, as you don’t have to wait to finish with one target audience to reach out to another.

6. LinkedIn automation tools allow you to focus on building relationships

With the most time-consuming tasks delegated to these tools, your focus can be directed elsewhere. 

In other words, you now have time to focus on more crucial tasks such as:

• Social selling;
• Building relationships;
• Nurturing leads;
• And closing more deals.

Types of LinkedIn automation tools

Not every LinkedIn automation software is built the same way.

Based on their infrastructure, there are a total of 4 types of LinkedIn automation tools:

• Cloud-based tools (e.g., Skylead);
• Chrome extensions (e.g., Dux-Soup);
• Desktop apps (e.g., LinkedHelper 2)
• Web browsers.

A cloud-based LinkedIn automation tool operates using a dedicated IP address, also known as a proxy hosted on the internet, which helps shield your activity. Unlike tools that store data on local servers or your computer, cloud-based tools store everything online.

This also means such software can run even when your PC is off. In addition, you can select an IP address from your home country or any other country. What’s more, only cloud-based software can have multiple accounts and integrated inboxes. 

Lastly, cloud-based LinkedIn automation platforms mimic human behavior. In other words, they click and view pages on LinkedIn as humans would. This makes them virtually undetectable. It also means you can outreach new leads and send new connection requests carefree.

Extensions, desktop apps, and web browsers, on the other hand, lack a dedicated IP address and the ability to mimic human behavior. This often leads to bulk messaging, which can be risky. They also don’t support managing multiple LinkedIn accounts, and your computer needs to stay on for campaigns to keep running.

You won’t always find all the details about how LinkedIn automation tools work, though. If or when that happens, it’s best to reach out to their customer support.

Should I use a LinkedIn automation Chrome extension? 

No. While LinkedIn automation tools based on Chrome extensions might be cheaper, they come with significant risks. These extensions are not safe as they inject code directly into LinkedIn, making it much easier for the platform to detect automation. If caught, you could get your LinkedIn account restricted permanently.

Web browsers and desktop apps are slightly safer than Chrome extensions since they don’t inject code into LinkedIn. However, they still lack the advanced features and security that cloud-based tools offer. Thus, if you’re looking for safety and functionality, cloud-based options are the way to go.

Why you should use a cloud-based LinkedIn automation tool

If you want to avoid LinkedIn restrictions and get the most out of your automation software, go for a cloud-based solution. Unlike extensions, they don’t inject code into LinkedIn, and you don’t need to keep your PC on for them to work. They also mimic human behavior, so LinkedIn can't detect them. 

Besides being the safest option, cloud-based tools have added perks like integrated inboxes and support for managing multiple accounts.

What should you look for in a LinkedIn automation tool?

When selecting a LinkedIn automation tool, it’s important to know which features will best support your outreach efforts.

So, here is what you need to consider when choosing the best LinkedIn automation tool for yourself.

1. Cloud-based infrastructure

As mentioned, other types of LinkedIn automation tools either inject the code into LinkedIn or do not offer additional perks, such as an integrated inbox. 

So, to: 

• Get the best out of these tools,
• Avoid getting detected or bulk messaging, 
• And get your money’s worth, 

You should consider using only a cloud-based solution.

2. Drip campaign functionality

Why use LinkedIn automation just for scraping publicly available information when you can do much more with it? 

That’s right - some LinkedIn automation tools only have the data scraping option and do not allow you to set up your outreach campaigns. 

So, when choosing such a tool, think about what you want to do with it first. If you wish to use it as more than just a data scraper, opt for tools with a drip campaign feature. 

Or, even better, choose tools that offer Smart sequences - an algorithm that follows your leads’ behavior and acts accordingly.

3. Hyper-personalized messaging

Think LinkedIn automation means losing the ability to send personalized messages? Think again. The best LinkedIn automation tools have gone above and beyond to make personalization easy and effective—and they’ve nailed it.

For example, if you wish to personalize the text of your follow-up messages or InMails, you can use native variables such as:

• First name;
• Last name;
• Occupation;
• Company;
• Etc.

Moreover, some tools even let you create custom variables, giving you even greater control over your messaging. This way, your outreach stays personal, even when it’s automated.

4. Automatic stop feature when prospects reply

Worried about tools continuing to send messages even after a prospect responds? Don’t be. The best LinkedIn automation tools automatically stop follow-ups as soon as a lead replies. This lets you jump into the conversation or move them into another campaign without any awkward overlaps. So, keep this feature in mind when choosing the right tool for your needs.

5. Image & GIF Personalization

You can hyper-personalize your Images and GIFs with some tools, as well. And it’s worth it—this kind of personalization has been shown to boost response rates by up to 76%.

In the upcoming list of the best LinkedIn automation tools, we’ll highlight which ones offer this feature. So, stay tuned!

6. Advanced reporting capabilities

LinkedIn automation tools analyze your target audience’s behavior and give you detailed reports in real-time. That said, you can use them to track metrics like response rates, profile views, and accepted connection requests.

Some tools, like Skylead, even let you label leads, making it easy to calculate conversion rates.

Either way, the idea is to make data-driven decisions quickly. Just be sure to choose a tool with the analytics features that best align with your needs.

7. Integrated inbox to communicate with prospects

If you’re already using multiple tools, you probably know how difficult it is to navigate between the platforms to communicate with clients. Therefore, one feature you really need to consider is an integrated inbox. 

For example, Skylead’s Smart Inbox centralizes all your messages, leads, and communication channels in one place. This means no more hopping between software. Everything you need is right at your fingertips.

8. Integration with other tools

If your workflow depends on a CRM, don’t worry—you don’t have to give it up when choosing a LinkedIn automation tool. Just look for software that supports CRM integration.

CRM integration is invaluable for keeping your data flow seamless. It allows automatic data transfers between your CRM and the LinkedIn automation tool, so you can avoid the hassle of downloading and re-uploading CSV files.

Some tools achieve this through Zapier webhooks, APIs, or both. Whichever route you take, remember that integration is a necessity for productivity, not a luxury. Therefore, prioritize tools that can connect to your existing setup.

9. Support for multiple channels

LinkedIn automation tools are great for lead generation. But let’s be honest. Sales teams do their best work when they take the multichannel outreach route. Relying solely on LinkedIn outreach just isn’t enough anymore, especially with the LinkedIn connection limit pushing teams to explore alternative ways to reach prospects.

So, to maximize getting in touch with leads, search for a tool that combines LinkedIn automation with email outreach.

Speaking of email outreach, if you want to reach even more leads and bypass the email-sending limits, why not look for a tool that lets you connect multiple mailboxes? For example, Skylead allows you to add unlimited email accounts to one campaign and send thousands of emails a month at no extra cost. In other words, it enables you to contact your leads more effectively and achieve your goals.

18 Best LinkedIn automation tools [+free options]

Now that you’ve got all the info you need to choose the right SaaS product, let’s dive into the list of the best and most popular LinkedIn automation tools.

We’ve personally tested each one and evaluated them based on the following criteria:

• Audience score
• Pros
• Cons
• Pricing

Let’s get into it!

1. Skylead

Audience score: ⭐4.8 / 5.0

Yes, that’s us. Hi! 🙂 

Skylead is your one-stop-shop LinkedIn automation tool and cold email software. It offers sales teams, marketers, agency founders, and recruiters a chance to streamline their multichannel outreach efforts. 

With this tool, you save 11+ hours of work per week. This way, you have a lot of time to focus on lead nurturing and closing 3x more deals.

Moreover, Skylead is a cloud-based solution. You know what that means - you get extra features and don’t have to keep your PC turned on for it to work. In addition, you can integrate it with your favorite CRM via webhooks using Zapier, or you can transfer leads’ data between the two via API.

Furthermore, it is completely safe to use since it mimics human-like behavior. What’s more, it executes each action a different number of times every day to keep your account safe and healthy.

Lastly, Skylead’s reporting system and A/B testing will help you analyze your campaign metrics. Thus, you can clearly see what works best for your target audience and make data-driven decisions. 

That said, let’s get into the main features.

Smart sequences 

Skylead was the first tool on the market that started using Smart sequences—a groundbreaking algorithm that executes steps in the order you set, depending on your leads’ behavior. To clarify, a Smart sequence is a combination of different activities you can perform on LinkedIn and/or by email. 

What makes the Smart sequences smart is the if/else condition. To paint a better picture, let’s create a smart outreach sequence together. 

Say we wanted to invite a person to connect. There are 2 scenarios here: they can either accept the invite or not. That is where the If/else condition comes in handy.

If the person accepts the connection request, you can instruct Skylead to send a regular message, as shown in the example above. 

But if they don’t, you can send an InMail or even email if you’re open to taking the multichannel route.

In regular sequences, if the prospect doesn’t accept your connection request, the rest of the sequence stops. With Smart sequences, the flow continues, thanks to the conditions. 

Even if they don’t respond to these messages, you still have View and Follow steps to send them a subtle reminder. 

Lastly, you can have as many touchpoints in the Smart sequence as you’d like, and Skylead will do it all for you in real-time. Or, if you don’t wish to create a Smart sequence by yourself, you can use some of Skylead’s pre-tested Smart sequence templates.

With Smart sequences, you don’t have to spend countless hours reaching out to each lead manually. Skylead does it all for you, making your outreach 5x more effective than any other LinkedIn lead generation tool.

Unlimited email outreach

Having an email and LinkedIn outreach combo - a multichannel outreach tool in your LinkedIn sales strategy is a must in 2025. It creates a more engaging and well-rounded lead-generation experience for your prospects. More importantly, it shows them that you genuinely care about solving their pain points.

And when you factor in email outreach’s incredible ROI—$36 for every $1 spent—it becomes even clearer why this combination is so powerful.

What may surprise you is that Skylead is the only tool on this list that allows you to connect unlimited mailboxes. This means you can send thousands of emails a month without risking your domain’s reputation and without any extra costs.

But there’s more. Skylead’s integrated Smart Inbox ensures that whether your leads respond on LinkedIn, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Recruiter, or email, you can manage all your conversations in one place.

Additionally, with clear icons, labels, and a user-friendly interface, you’ll always know where your prospects responded and their current status.

Email discovery & verification

When we said Skylead is a one-stop solution, we really meant it. 

Along with LinkedIn and email outreach, Skylead includes a built-in email discovery and verification feature. You can seamlessly add this step to your Smart sequence, and the tool will discover and double-verify your leads’ emails without interrupting your outreach flow.

In fact, ours is the only LinkedIn automation and cold email software that offers unlimited email discovery and verification. Most tools can only do one or the other. Others might collect publicly available emails, but only if the lead is already in your LinkedIn network. 

Infinite email warm-up

Ok, combining email with your LinkedIn outreach is all fun and games. But you can’t go into it unprepared.

To make sure your emails land where they are supposed to, your mailboxes must be properly warmed up.

Luckily, Skylead has partnered up with an email warm-up tool, InboxFlare, to make this a reality.

This tool allows you to warm up infinite email accounts to keep emails away from SPAM and, thus, protect your senders’ reputation. Completely free of charge, as long as you are a Skylead user.

What’s more, with InboxFlare, you get top-tier features like:

• AI-powered warm-up strategy perfectly suited to your domain
• Warm-up in 30+ languages to reach audiences across the globe
• Hyper-realistic warm-up with custom topics
• Domain health monitoring
• Deliverability testing

InboxFlare is compatible with all major email service providers (Gmail, Outlook, Zoho, etc.). But just in case it isn’t compatible with yours, you can add a mailbox using a custom SMTP.

Image & GIF hyper-personalization

Once you finally get through to that lead, you want to make an impact, don’t you? 

That’s when Skylead’s Image and GIF hyper-personalization comes into play! 

You can use it to offer products and services in a less conventional way, wish your clients happy holidays, schedule a casual meeting, and so much more! What’s more, by using it, you can increase your response rate by up to 76%, as we managed to do with this GIF!

Skylead does the heavy lifting by automatically pulling details like your lead’s profile picture, company logo, and other profile information. This means no more wasting time creating endless variations of the same image.

What’s more, Skylead is the only tool on the market that has a native, built-in image and GIF personalization. Other tools may ask you to pay extra for it, but not us!

Pricing

All of Skylead’s native features + access to InboxFlare come with a monthly subscription of only $100 per seat.

This makes it the most cost-effective of all LinkedIn automation tools.

But the features aren’t all you get. You also get videos, tutorials, sales hacks, support calls on how to perfectly target your leads, and a 1-on-1 onboarding with our customer success team to get you started!

2. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Audience score: ⭐4.5 / 5.0

One tool that is familiar to all sales teams around the world is LinkedIn Sales Navigator. 

This LinkedIn Premium subscription plan is widely used for prospecting and social selling (as it has its own inbox).

Although primarily used by sales teams, including ours at Skylead, recruiters and marketers also use it to:

• Zero in on the leads,
• Gather information, 
• And perform outreach.

Pros

The main difference between Sales Navigator and LinkedIn Premium is in advanced LinkedIn Sales Navigator filters. 

You can choose among more than 50 Lead and Account filters, depending on whether you wish to find your ICP or Buyer Persona. 

Moreover, with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you: 

• Get 50 paid InMails;
• Can create different lead lists;
• Set alerts for the leads;
• Set your Sales Navigator account leads preferences;
• Use an in-built Persona advance filtering;
• Get Buyer Intent insights.

Cons

Even though Sales Navigator is perfect for prospecting, it is not ideal for outreach on autopilot. However, other LinkedIn automation tools, such as Skylead, can integrate with it. Thus, you can get the best of both worlds. 

Simply grab the search URL or a lead list URL and paste it into Skylead. And just like that, you will have imported your lead into a campaign!

Pricing

If you are wondering how much does LinkedIn Sales Navigator cost, know that it has 3 pricing plans:

3. PhantomBuster

Audience score: ⭐4.5 / 5.0

PhantomBuster is an extension-based solution for data extraction. 

It acts as a sales and marketing tool that automates the scraping of publicly available data from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, and other social media platforms. 

Pros 

PhantomBuster is not a LinkedIn automation tool with the full package. However, it does come in handy, as we found, and saves you a lot of time when you wish to scrape particular leads from LinkedIn or anywhere else.

It is a nice addition to outreach tools, as it saves your automated scraped data in CSV and JSON formats. Therefore, you can download them and upload them elsewhere to create outreach campaigns. 

Moreover, it also includes an email enrichment feature, allowing you to find email addresses. However, we were saddened to find out it doesn’t offer email verification, which means you risk higher bounce rates that could harm your domain’s reputation.

Cons

Although PhantomBuster offers automation for some LinkedIn actions (sending LinkedIn connection requests or messages), it doesn’t have Smart sequences. In other words, you cannot create your advanced workflows. Lastly, it doesn’t offer email outreach automation, and it is an extension, so it is not the safest tool to use. 

Pricing

PhantomBuster offers 3 different pricing options. 

The difference between them is in the time software runs during a 1-month period and the number of automated actions it performs:

4. TexAu

Audience score: ⭐ 4.2 / 5.0

TexAu is a data scraping tool with a Chrome extension and a desktop app. 

This is a direct alternative to PhantomBuster, which can send LinkedIn connection requests and messages and engage with posts on autopilot.

Pros

TexAu can scrape data from almost anywhere, including Facebook and LinkedIn groups, Google and LinkedIn search results, LinkedIn profiles, YouTube, Quora, and Twitter. We found this really useful, as it gave us more sources to find leads.

Moreover, this software offers email enrichment, which we also found helpful. In other words, it can analyze LinkedIn accounts and find and verify business emails. 

Cons

People on review websites reported having difficulty setting up proxies. What’s more, there are frequent bugs and a lack of tutorials for beginners, as pointed out in this review that says:

‘’There are some UI and UX improvements to be made, and there is also a bit of a learning curve.’’

Lastly, TexAu doesn’t have Smart sequences and an integrated inbox like Skylead does.

Pricing

Like PhantomBuster, TexAu has 3 plans, with pricing depending on the time software executes the activities, email verification credits, and more. 

5. Dux-Soup

Audience score: ⭐ 4.1 / 5.0

Next in line, we have Dux-Soup. Originally a Chrome extension, it has since expanded to offer an additional cloud-based solution.

Pros

Dux-Soup is an easy-to-use LinkedIn automation tool that's a good fit for beginners or small teams. 

It allows you to create simple drip campaigns using the following steps:

• View 
• Follow
• Invites to connect
• LinkedIn message

It also supports both free and paid inMails, which we didn’t find to be the case with many other tools on the list, except for Skylead.

Moreover, it also integrates directly with some of the best CRM software for sales, Pipedrive and HubSpot. 

Finally, the cloud-based solution provides added flexibility and security, making it more reliable than the Chrome extension alone.

Cons

Dux-Soup lacks some advanced features like Image and GIF hyper-personalization, Smart sequences, and email automation. Additionally, the cloud-based option is only available on the highest-tier plan. This means lower-tier users are forced to rely on the Chrome extension, which isn’t the safest.

Pricing

Dux-Soup has Individual, Team, & Agency pricing plans available with multiple sub-plans:

6. LinkedHelper 2

Audience score: ⭐ 4.8 / 5.0

Unlike Dux-Soup, Linked Helper is a LinkedIn automation tool based on a desktop app. Unfortunately, this still means that it has no dedicated IP address and the possibility of running multiple accounts. In addition, your PC needs to be on for it to work in the background.

Pros 

LinkedHelper 2 offers the creation of a LinkedIn Recruiter-based campaign to help all recruiters out there manage potential candidates.

All processed contacts are stored in its internal CRM. Here, you can view the history of contacts through all your campaigns, search by tags, and add notes. LinkedHelper 2 also has an integrated inbox, which came in handy to us when we wanted to interact with leads manually.

Cons

LinkedHelper doesn’t have some other more advanced features that many other LinkedIn automation tools already have. 

These features include:

• Image and GIF hyper-personalization
• Smart sequences 
• A/B testing

Additionally, it does not have email automation.

Pricing

For as low as $15 per month, you will get some basic lead generation options. 

However, bear in mind that you’re limited to sending 20 connection requests and 20 messages a day under this Standard plan.

Nonetheless, if your requirements exceed this, LinkedHelper 2 also offers a Pro plan at $45 that lets you send unlimited connection requests.

7. Zopto

Audience score: ⭐ 4.3 / 5.0

This LinkedIn automation software is a cloud-based solution for social selling. 

Zopto is compatible with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, LinkedIn Premium, and Recruiter accounts. 

Pros

Firstly, Zopto offers an email enrichment feature. In other words, it can find business emails, like Skylead, PhantomBuster, and TexAu, and verify them. 

Additionally, Zopto includes LinkedIn post scheduling and A/B testing, along with an integrated inbox and CRM integration via Zapier or API. 

Moreover, the recently added Smart sequences let users create dynamic outreach flows triggered by lead behavior that mix LinkedIn and email actions. Zopto also provides basic automation on X in the form of automatic post likes.

Cons

While Zopto includes email enrichment, it limits how many leads you can enrich based on your pricing plan. Moreover, despite its Smart sequences, Zopto lacks advanced features like image and GIF hyper-personalization. Not to mention, its X automation is limited to post liking.

Pricing

Zopto comes with a total of 4 pricing plans:

8. MeetAlfred

Audience score: ⭐ 3.2 / 5.0

MeetAlfred is a cloud-based software with automated social media features. 

It focuses on social selling via your LinkedIn profile. In addition, it can schedule posts on Instagram, X, and LinkedIn.

Pros

This LinkedIn automation tool lets you create drip campaigns combining:

• Profile views
• Invites to connect
• Messages
• Free inMails
• Emails

Additionally, all processed contacts are stored in MeetAlfred’s internal CRM. This means you can easily access and manage all your 1st-degree connections information and filter the contacts by company, industry, type of LinkedIn account, X, and much more. 

MeetAlfred also offers integrated inbox and email automation.

Cons

MeetAlfred lacks Smart sequences, email discovery, and verification features. It also doesn’t include native GIF and image personalization. You can personalize visuals while using it, but only if you subscribe to a third-party tool, Hyperise, which they integrate with. Naturally, this will cost you extra.

Pricing

MeetAlfred offers 3 pricing plans: 

And if you decide to take a Hyperise subscription alongside MeetAlfred, plan for an additional $69 a month.

9. Dripify

Audience score: ⭐ 4.6 / 5.0

This cloud-based LinkedIn automation tool works with Premium, Sales Navigator, Recruiter Lite, and basic LinkedIn accounts. 

Pros

Dripify allows the creation of sales funnels on LinkedIn by automating some actions as a part of their sequence with conditions. These actions include viewing profiles, sending regular messages and connection requests, and skill endorsement. 

In addition, you can integrate other software, such as HubSpot, through Zapier. Lastly, it supports A/B testing and has a Recent activity feature on its reports page.

Cons

Dripify indeed offers Smart sequences. However, only Pro & Advanced users can use them. In addition, you don’t have the option to automate the paid InMail step.

Secondly, Dripify has no email automation feature. Thus, you can’t get to leads who aren’t active on LinkedIn.

Additionally, you cannot send more than 75 connection requests a day. And while there is activity control, you need to be an Advanced user to access it. 

Dripify also doesn’t offer Image & GIF hyper-personalization, nor can you create custom variables using it

Lastly, Dripify doesn’t have an email discovery and verification feature. So, if email is part of your outreach, you’d be better off with a Dripify alternative.

Pricing

Dripify has 3 different pricing plans:

10. Expandi

Audience score: ⭐ 4.3 / 5.0

Expandi is a cloud-based LinkedIn automation tool with support for both LinkedIn and email outreach. 

Pros

Expandi published its Smart sequence feature a year after Skylead did, making it the second tool on the market to do so. They offer additional actions such as skill endorsement and following companies, which we found useful (though, not essential).

Like Skylead, Zopto, and LinkedHelper 2, Expandi has the option of creating LinkedIn Recruiter-based campaigns. 

Lastly, Expandi can integrate with any other tool via Zapier webhooks. 

Cons

Expandi offers Image and GIF hyper-personalization, but like MeetAlfred, it outsources this feature to Hyperise. Thus, it will cost you extra. What's more, it’s worth noting that this Hyperise package is limited to 5 templates and 5,000 impressions, with each image view counting toward that limit.

In addition to the extra cost, Expandi lacks email discovery and verification. These features are essential for domain safety and verified multi-touch approach. Expandi can scrape publicly available email addresses from the leads’ LinkedIn profiles once connected to them. Unfortunately, these emails are almost always personal ones.

Lastly, many users on review websites report that this tool has become too buggy to use lately, with one user going as far as to say it’s:

‘’A whole lot of mess.’’

Thus, how about you opt for an Expandi alternative instead?

Pricing

Expandi has one pricing plan of $99 per month.

However, the Hyperise integration adds an additional $69 per month, bringing the total to $148 per month.

11. We-Connect.io

Audience score: ⭐ 4.6 / 5.0

We-Connect.io is a cloud-based LinkedIn automation tool, like Skylead, Dripify, Zopto, and Expandi. 

Pros

We-Connect.io has A/B testing, a convenient feature for those who are still researching their perfect outreach strategy or wish to test different outreach messaging.

In addition, the tool has a Smart sequences feature, which lets you combine different LinkedIn and email actions triggered by conditions.

Whether your prospects come from LinkedIn Premium or Sales Navigator, you’ll be able to see them, as We-Connect.io has an integrated inbox, too. 

Moreover, it has auto endorse and post-engagement features that we liked, as well as API and Zapier integration. 

Cons

Sadly, We-Connect.io doesn’t offer advanced features like Image & GIF personalization or email discovery and verification. Email automation, while there, isn’t available for users of their Starter plan. Finally, unlike Skylead, they don’t offer 1-on-1 onboarding sessions to every new user.

Pricing 

We-Connect.io has a total of 3 pricing plans available:

12. Octopus CRM

Audience score: ⭐ 4.5 / 5.0

This is another extension-based LinkedIn automation tool. 

As it is designed for LinkedIn automation only, Octopus CRM users can solely perform LinkedIn outreach once they connect their LinkedIn profiles.

Pros

One of the main features of Octopus CRM is that it allows you to send bulk messages to 1st-degree contacts. Moreover, the tool is capable of viewing your leads’ profiles, sending them invites to connect, and endorsing their skills.

In addition, its reporting page has very detailed analytics for the features it offers. The report page includes various activities, such as the number of connection requests sent or the current Social Selling Index. 

Lastly, Octopus CRM supports Zapier and HubSpot integration.

Cons

Firstly, as it is a browser extension, this LinkedIn automation bot is not the safest to use. Secondly, it doesn’t have Smart sequences, nor does it have an InMail message step.

Lastly, Octopus CRM supports all LinkedIn subscriptions. However, you need to pay the highest subscription plan if you use a Recruiter account. 

Pricing

Depending on the features available, Octopus CRM offers 4 pricing options:

13. Salesflow

Audience score: ⭐ 4.2 / 5.0

SalesFlow is a cloud-based solution with an integrated inbox and its own CRM. 

It is adequate for anyone who wants to leave the campaign running to professionals, even though the features available are modest.

Pros

In SalesFlow, you can send up to 2,000 LinkedIn messages and follow-ups. The tool also supports email automation, meaning you get to take advantage of full multichannel channel outreach.

In terms of campaign sources, you can set up automated campaigns in SalesFlor using either:

• Sales Navigator search
• Or LinkedIn search.

You can also personalize your messaging with variables, both pre-set and custom ones.

Cons

Unfortunately, SalesFlow doesn’t offer email discovery, verification, or Smart sequences features. Furthermore, it doesn’t have any image personalization capabilities, so you cannot go all personalized for your prospects. 

Lastly, it doesn’t support Recruiter campaigns, nor can it send paid inMails, like most LinkedIn automation tools we tested.

Pricing

SalesFlow has 3 pricing plans: 

14. LinkedFusion

Audience score: ⭐ 4.3 / 5.0

Another LinkedIn automation tool worth mentioning is LinkedFusion. 

It is a cloud-based solution with an integrated inbox that perfectly works with any LinkedIn account. 

Pros

With LinkedInFusion, you can personalize messages with a few variables like name, company, and location. It also supports campaign creation from the CSV file.

You can also connect it with any other app through Zapier. 

What’s more, it natively integrates with Google Sheets, plus it offers native integrations with most CRM software (e.g., HubSpot). 

Lastly, LinkedFusion team provides many LinkedIn tutorials that explain advanced growth hacks. 

Cons

LinkedFusion doesn’t have Smart sequences, and some users reported on Capterra that the existing sequences are not easy to set up.

Furthermore, even though it offers image personalization, it does so through Hyperise, so you need to pay extra per month. 

Lastly, its pricing plan limits how many connection requests you can send per day.  

Pricing

LinkedInFusion has 3 pricing plans in store. They depend on other features and the number of connection requests and messages you can send per day:

To personalize your images and GIFs using Hyperise, count on paying an additional $69 a month.

15. Lead Connect

Audience score: ⭐ 4.2 / 5.0

Lead Connect is an extension-based tool that supports LinkedIn Basic or Sales Navigator search campaigns. It also lets you create campaigns from CSV files.

Pros

Lead Connect has a pretty simple drip campaign with only a few steps available. On the other hand, it offers various sequence and message templates, which we liked. However, the number of templates depends on the pricing plan. 

Integration-wise, you can link Lead Connect with HubSpot. In addition, you can even get the email discovery feature thanks to the integration with other tools such as Hunter.io. However, you will need to pay extra for it.

Cons

Lead Connect doesn’t offer Smart sequence like Skylead or Expandi does. In addition, it doesn’t support Recruiter integration and needs Zapier to integrate with other CRM software. Lastly, you can’t use it to personalize images or GIFs of any kind.

Pricing

LeadConnect offers 4 subscription plans based on the number of templates, connection requests, and messages you can send per day:

16. Waalaxy

Audience score: ⭐ 4.5 / 5.0

LinkedIn automation tool, Waalaxy, is a cloud-based software. 

However, its free version uses a Chrome extension to perform automated tasks. This means it’s not the safest to use since it injects code into LinkedIn and acts like a bot. 

Pros

With support for LinkedIn and email, Waalaxy lets you reach prospects through their preferred communication channels.

That said, you can use it to create automated campaigns from:

• LinkedIn search URLs,
• Sales Navigator lead lists,
• And CSV files.

Furthermore, you can experiment with A/B testing using this software and use its AI assistant to craft messages.

Cons

As its free version is extension-based, Waalaxy is not the safest tool to use. In fact, many users on review websites have reported having their LinkedIn account banned once they started using this tool.

In addition, it doesn’t have image & GIF personalization, and it only has 3 text variables: company, first and last name. We found them limiting, to say the least.

They do offer Smart sequences, but the problem is you can’t build your own. Instead, you are limited to their sequence templates. Lastly, they don’t have native email discovery & verification features, and their integrated inbox costs extra.

Pricing

Waalaxy has 4 different pricing plans:

You also need to pay an additional $22 a month for the LinkedIn inbox.

17. Salesloop

Audience score: ⭐ 3.5 / 5.0

As a fairly new cloud-based solution on the market, Salesloop works with all LinkedIn Premium account types.  

Pros

Salesloop lets you create a simple 2-step drip campaign with no conditions from LinkedIn search results or Sales Navigator lead lists. In addition, you can create a campaign using a CSV file, where you can define custom variables.

Salesloop also allows you to download a CSV report, which we liked.

And if you are not automation savvy, they also offer a done-for-you deal. Just bear in mind that you need to pay a steep price for it.

Cons 

Salesloop doesn’t have Smart sequences. Furthermore, the drip campaign doesn’t support many LinkedIn activities. In fact, it supports invite-to-connect and follow-up message steps only. What’s more, the tool has no email automation and doesn’t integrate with any CRM. Lastly, the option to personalize images and GIFs isn’t there, either.

Pricing

Salesloop has 3 pricing plans with the monthly cost of:

18. IFTTT

Audience score: ⭐ 4.6 / 5.0

This tool is not your standard LinkedIn automation tool, as it’s not for lead generation. 

However, it is extension-based, and you can use it to automate your LinkedIn activities, such as publishing content, sharing a link, or an update. 

It was created mainly to automate activities on countless platforms, including WordPress, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Evernote, and others.

That said, it doesn’t automate LinkedIn messages. 

Pricing

The pricing of IFTTT is fairly simple. In fact, there are a total of 3 plans available:

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Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

We’ve noticed some questions regarding LinkedIn automation tools burning online with no answers. At least not the precise ones. So, let’s change that.

Is LinkedIn a lead generation tool?

LinkedIn is a social media platform used by professionals. Marketers, salespeople, and recruiters also use it to find and generate new leads via LinkedIn campaigns. It is not a lead generation tool, per se, but, rather, a place where you can generate leads using different LinkedIn automation and generation tools.

Can you automate lead generation on LinkedIn?

Yes. For example, you can find the leads’ data through LinkedIn prospecting. Then, use automation tools to scrape the contacts and create a sequence to reach out to them on autopilot. In other words, with LinkedIn automation tools, you can automate parts of LinkedIn lead generation activities.

How do you automate in LinkedIn?

By using LinkedIn automation tools, you can automate LinkedIn lead generation tasks. The activities you can automate range from data scraping to sending connection requests, follow-up messages, InMails, follows, and profile views. Simply log into your LinkedIn automation tool and select the activities you wish the algorithm to perform. 

What is an automation tool in LinkedIn?

The automation tool for LinkedIn is software used to perform different activities on LinkedIn that you usually do manually. In other words, these tools automate LinkedIn activities such as profile views, following other LinkedIn users, sending connection requests, regular LinkedIn messages, or InMails.

Is Linkedin automation illegal? 

No. LinkedIn automation isn’t illegal. However, since LinkedIn doesn’t like its users to use automation, it carefully analyzes accounts’ activities. If it registers unusual activity, LinkedIn can restrict your account. So, be careful about which LinkedIn automation tool you choose and inform yourself of what is considered a cause for restriction.   

Does LinkedIn allow automation tools?

No. LinkedIn doesn’t like its users to use automation. That is why they imposed limitations, such as the number of connection requests sent per week. They even analyze users’ behavior and can restrict your account if they notice anything suspicious. Thus, if you want to use LinkedIn automation, it’s better to choose a tool like Skylead that operates safely.

Is there a LinkedIn bot?

LinkedIn automation tools (also known as LinkedIn bots) are software that use bots to automate your activities on LinkedIn. Sales teams and recruiters around the world use LinkedIn automation tools to automate tasks such as sending connection requests, messages, and inMails to get in touch with the leads.

Ready to automate your LinkedIn outreach?

Now that you are familiar with the most popular LinkedIn automation tools, which one would you choose?

…Skylead, of course! 😉

Jokes aside, our advice is to go with the tool that gives you the most options you need for your business. And the more comfortable you get with automating your LinkedIn outreach, the more creative you’ll become in generating leads and setting yourself apart from the competition.

Not sure which features to prioritize in LinkedIn automation tools? Here’s a list of 7 must-have features for a reference:

Now, go and automate your LinkedIn outreach and reach those ambitious goals!

Let’s chat! Drop by and say hi to our customer support team, and let them help you sign up for Skylead’s 7-day free trial. We can’t wait to meet you!

If you've ever wondered if there is a way to speed up lead-generation activities and overcome the time-consuming, repetitive nature of manual processes, we have a proposition. Why not automate lead generation?

Yes, that's right. Automation has been around for a while, especially for lead generation and management. And no wonder it's so effective since this way, you can find the most qualified leads and scale up your business. But, more importantly, you can generate your leads daily. 

Having automated our own lead generation process, we’ve witnessed its power firsthand. And now, it’s time you did the same. 

Not sure how to do so? Fear not! We’ll guide you on how to automate every sales and marketing lead generation task by showing you how we did it—step by step!

You’ll also learn the difference between automating inbound and outbound lead generation and get a rundown of the best tools to help you do it.  

What is automated lead generation?

Automated lead generation is a process of using technology to perform time-consuming sales and marketing lead generation tasks on your behalf. To do this, you have different kinds of automation tools at your disposal. For example, you can use software to automate sending emails or LinkedIn connection requests.

Automated lead generation offers benefits such as:

• Reducing human error and thus improving your workflow;
• Saving time by performing manual tasks and decreasing workload;
• Providing insights into the performance of lead generation activities so you can optimize the process and improve it;
• Consistency in the workflow so you can generate leads daily;
• Leaving room to focus on building relationships and lead nurturing.

That said, there are plenty of automation tools on the market to choose from. 

However, let’s first distinguish the types of automated sales and marketing lead generation activities to discover what tool you should use accordingly. 

Types of lead generation automation

There are 2 types of automated lead generation, but they best work when used in synergy.

1. Inbound lead generation automation

Inbound lead generation is a marketing strategy for attracting leads to your company. For example, a marketing team can create content that is valuable to the best leads for your business. The purpose of the content is to compel a lead to take specific actions first that will eventually lead to sales.

Since today’s leads often prefer to research independently, inbound lead gen aims to assist rather than sell. It guides potential leads to valuable resources, just like this blog, ebooks, and guides, allowing them to explore your brand and offerings at their own pace.

That said, the purpose of inbound lead generation automation is to streamline the said process using automation tools.

For example, you can use the following types of tools to automate your inbound tasks: 

• Chatbot - to provide answers to questions and nurture leads;
• Pop-ups & forms - to offer personalized content, lead magnets, or surveys on the website.

2. Outbound lead generation automation

Outbound lead generation is about finding and reaching out to your ideal leads directly. Rather than waiting for leads to find your website and reach out like in inbound lead gen, you are the one who makes the first move. 

That said, to automate your outbound lead generation tasks, you can use the following types of tools:

• Email marketing and outreach tools - for outbound marketing and sales to automate sending emails, newsletters, or themed email sequences;
• Prospecting tools - for marketing and sales to find outbound leads and contact information;
• Social media automation tools - for sales to automate outreach on social media;
• Advertising tools - for marketers to automate buying digital advertising space.

B2B lead generation automation vs B2C lead generation automation

Business-to-Business (B2B) lead generation automation is a process of using software to generate potential leads who work in a company to offer them your services.

On the other hand, Business-to-Consumer (B2C) lead generation automation uses software to streamline and generate leads who are individual customers. 

Even though they have different potential customers, both B2B and B2C companies use the same lead generation automation for a similar purpose. 

With that in mind, here is how different companies use automation tools for their purpose.

How to automate lead generation

It’s not enough to know the difference between inbound and outbound lead generation automation. You need to know HOW to execute the process successfully.

To help you do just that, we’ve prepared a step-by-step lead generation automation guide. It’s informed by experiences and tactics that proved effective to us and is designed to get you immediate results.

How to automate outbound lead generation

1. Define your ICP and buyer persona

Your outbound lead generation needs a good basis to get quality leads that convert. That’s why sales teams start their lead generation process by creating their Ideal Customer Profile and Buyer Persona, as we have. This way, you can generate the best leads and guide them through the sales funnel. Not to mention, these documents can help with the lead scoring.

What worked best for us when it comes to the creation of both of these documents was to analyze current customer data and gather users who:

• Have the shortest buying cycle;
• Have a high retention rate; 
• Would advocate for our product.

2. Find contact data

Once you establish your ICP and Buyer Persona, it’s time for prospecting.  

Almost all sales teams use LinkedIn prospecting to find the best leads for their sales funnel. Moreover, there are a lot of proven LinkedIn lead generation strategies out there to find quality leads. 

However, when it comes to gathering the leads’ contact information, we’ve learned it’s best to automate the process using: 

• LinkedIn Premium or Sales Navigator to scrape publicly available info and profile URLs;
• Tools to identify your website visitors, such as Lead Forensics;
• Scraping tools for Facebook group members;

This way, you can build your lead lists, send them to your CRM, and prepare for email or LinkedIn outreach. 

3. Craft a compelling message

Whether you wish to use LinkedIn outreach or any other medium, consider your messaging carefully. Cold outreach is hard when you know nothing about the person. That said, it’s important to include research into the lead generation process and figure out what your leads are all about.

In other words, comb through their LinkedIn profile and find the About section, posts they published, or what they shared. This way, you can personalize your communication and appear genuine when explaining how you can solve their problems.

For successful messaging, we found mentioning your unique selling point tailored to your leads’ exact pain point, particularly useful.  That said, if you need help crafting such a message, you can always use Chat GPT for sales messages.

4. Send cold emails

It’s easy to let the cold email mistakes slither into your outreach. However, you reduce the chances of some of these mistakes by using automated lead generation tools to send cold emails. 

Just keep in mind that 70% of salespeople stop at one cold email. Meanwhile, incorporating follow-up messages into your sequence increases your chances of hearing back by 25%. That’s why we make sure to send follow up emails as well, as you should.

5. Automate LinkedIn lead generation

LinkedIn and email outreach have been part of the sales funnels for years. And with hundreds of leads we reach every week via LinkedIn, it’s time-consuming and nearly impossible to get the desired results. Unless you use different automated lead generation tools, that is.

That’s why various LinkedIn automation tools are there to help you streamline different outreach actions on LinkedIn. For example, our very own Skylead can automate sending connection requests, messages, free and paid inMails, and even emails. In addition, you can combine these actions and create scenarios based on your leads’ behavior. But we’ll talk more about that later on.

6. Gather lead information

Once you start conversing with your leads, you need to keep track of them. 

This is where CRM, like Hubspot or Pipedrive, comes into play. To clarify, Customer Relationship Management is a software that helps you automate gathering all the information about your sales leads in one place, such as:

• Notes about the sales leads,
• Lead scoring,
• Information about the company,
• Deal value,
• Position in the sales funnel,
• The next task to perform,
• Conversation link, and so on.

This way, you can check where your leads are in the funnel and what level of nurturing they need.

7. Nurture leads

Speaking of nurturing leads, you can do so by integrating your CRM with your outreach tool and exchanging the information between the two. Then, you can label leads or send them to outreach campaigns. 

We commonly use Skylead for our customer-nurturing program. Why? Because you can use it to send automated outreach campaigns for: 

• Churn customers, if you have any special upgrade or to offer a discount;
• Current customers, to send them personalized content, upsell, or offer help as their dedicated account manager.

Moreover, our Smart Inbox also helps with nurturing by consolidating all conversations across email and LinkedIn in one place. You can use it to respond to leads directly and label them to monitor conversions and ROI.

How to automate inbound lead generation

1. Set up your lead generation website

The first step towards automated lead generation is creating a website to connect all your lead generation automation tools. We can write an entire blog on creating a website, but we’ll mention 3 most important things.

Firstly, good practice here is to create a website that will provide the best user experience with UX/UI design that converts. 

Secondly, your content marketing team must prepare visuals and copy for the website. The copy needs to provide information about your product or service. However, it should be presented in a way that describes how it solves the problem and removes pain points your high-quality leads have. 

Lastly, it would be best to create an SEO plan to rank your website better.

2. Create a lead magnet

The next step is for your content marketing team to create a lead magnet. 

A lead magnet could be a guide, eBook, or mini-course that you publish on your website, available for leads to download in exchange for their contact information, like their name and email.

This lead generation strategy helps you gather emails, allowing you to send newsletters to leads or pass the contacts to your sales team to reach them out. Just remember, though—you shouldn’t ask for an email unless you’re offering something genuinely valuable.

Once your lead magnet is ready, you can automate the process by connecting your forms to a CRM like HubSpot or Monday. This way, new leads are automatically added to your pipeline. And if your CRM is integrated with sales outreach tools, you can even send leads straight into campaigns.

Lastly, to promote your lead magnet, you can publish ads to generate a large pool of leads. Alternatively, use pop-ups to promote the content throughout the website depending on users’ behavior.

3. Set up your landing page

To attract high-quality leads, whether organically or through ads, you’ll need a landing page that offers a seamless user experience. In other words, it must contain concise information tailored to your high-quality leads. 

A good approach is to have dedicated feature pages that highlight the main features and explain the problems they solve.

Say you’re offering a project management tool. In that case, one feature page could focus on “Efficient task management.” This page could detail how your tool enables teams to assign tasks, track progress, and meet deadlines. Include a step-by-step walkthrough of the feature, screenshots of the interface, and testimonials from teams that have successfully used it to build credibility.

Moreover, your landing page should have a converting design and messaging that motivates visitors to take action. Make sure it’s properly optimized for SEO to increase visibility as well.

Finally, don’t forget a clear call to action and a contact form or lead magnet to capture those valuable leads.

4. Capture leads with a chatbot

Another way to generate leads via your website is to use a chatbot. It allows you to turn your website visitors into leads and qualify them for future sales or marketing activities. 

You can set up a chatbot to offer lead magnets or some free service depending on users’ website behavior. Or, if a person wants to contact your customer support, develop a list of questions a chatbot will pose before connecting. This is a perfect automation system for lead scoring and qualifying. 

Many chatbots can also automatically gather information like email addresses, company size, and other relevant details. Once collected, you can set it up to create a new deal in your CRM and seamlessly add those leads to your outreach campaign, just like with lead magnets.

5. Get traffic to your page

Once you’ve set everything up, the next step is getting leads to visit your website. 

There are 2 main ways to bring in traffic:

• Paid - you can launch paid campaigns via Google ads, Bing ads, or social media such as Facebook or LinkedIn. You can either target new leads or retarget your previous visitors.
• Organic - Create blogs or videos that follow SEO standards so they can rank better organically and get you as many visitors as possible.

6. Nurture the leads automatically

When you start getting leads to your website, you need to nurture them to some sort of conversion. Therefore, look no further than using pop-up forms or chatbot conversations personalized to their web-behavior.  

You can personalize automated messages and offer relevant content based on things like:

• The pages they are visiting, 
• If they are returning customers, or 
• Their exit intent.

7. Use marketing automation for lead generation

Once you gather your leads’ emails, it’s time to use marketing automation to reach out to them. You can create email campaigns to offer personalized content on a mass scale according to your leads’ behavior. 

For example, you can send certain messages depending on whether they opened an email. In other words, you can create outreach sequences with different scenarios to offer tailored content that will lead to conversion.

The good practice here is to start with valuable educational content. Then, offer a solution to the particular problem, and then present your product or service. But by all means, never start the first message with a pitch!

Best tools to automate lead generation

You know how to automate your lead generation, and now’s the time for action.

But to actually do it, you need the right tool for the job.

Lucky for you, we’ve tested several lead generation software on the market. Based on our findings, we’ll name a few of the best and their average ratings, as per Capterra, G2, and Software Advice.

Nonetheless, you are free to research other tools and check review websites should you feel the need to do so.

1. Skylead

Yup. As we previously mentioned, that's us. 🙂 

Skylead is a LinkedIn automation and cold email software that streamlines the most time-consuming marketing, recruiting, and sales outreach tasks. 

These tasks include sending:

• LinkedIn connection requests 
• Messages,
• InMails,
• And emails 

…to all the leads you imported into Skylead via LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Recruiter, or CSV file.

But there’s so much more you can do with this tool!

In fact, Skylead is a one-stop-shop cold outreach solution that also allows you to:

• Warm up an infinite number of emails,
• Find and verify email addresses of your leads,
• Take advantage of unlimited email outreach to send tens of thousands of emails a month.
• Use image and GIF personalization in your communication.

Moreover, you can connect Skylead to any tool, such as your CRM, using webhooks or API and push or send data. 

Now, let’s take a closer look at groundbreaking Skylead features.

Features

LinkedIn & email automation

Skylead seamlessly combines LinkedIn and unlimited email automation, allowing you to reach your leads through the channel that suits them best.

This wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for our Smart sequences. 

In fact, Skylead was the 1st tool on the market to introduce this feature, which has changed how everyone performs outreach.

But what are Smart sequences? 

Simply put, they are coherent outreach flows you create using different LinkedIn and email actions and if/else conditions. These if/else conditions allow Smart sequences to operate in real-time, adjusting as they go according to your leads' behavior to find the fastest path to them.

That said, here is an example of one Smart sequence.

What’s really great is that the number of outreach scenarios you can create with Smart sequences is truly limitless.

You can play around with different actions and conditions as you see fit. Or you can use our pre-tested Smart sequences, which have been proven to work. The choice is yours.

Email discovery & verification

Setting up a Smart sequence with email steps is easy when you have your leads' addresses. But what if you don’t? 

You rely on our email discovery and verification!

With this feature, you can find and double-verify your leads’ business emails to:

• Reduce bounce rates
• Protect your domain reputation

This functionality is built into the platform, meaning we don’t rely on third-party services to perform it. Thus, you can add an email discovery and verification step into your Smart sequence to find and verify emails without breaking the outreach flow.

Moreover, Skylead offers unlimited email discovery and verification credits at no extra cost. This allows you to expand your outreach without worrying about added expenses.

Infinite email warm-up

Speaking of features that come at no additional cost, Skylead has partnered with InboxFlare, one of the best email warm-up tools, to bring you another one: Infinite email warm-up. 

Compatible with all major email providers and custom SMTP, InboxFlare lets you warm up an unlimited number of email accounts to make sure your emails always reach your leads.

That said, here’s what Skylead users can take advantage of thanks to our partnership with InboxFlare:

• AI-powered warm-up strategy: InboxFlare’s AI crafts a warm-up plan specific to your domain to guarantee your emails stay out of spam.
• Custom warm-up topic: The tool lets you select email topics, then generates and sends personalized warm-up emails to mimic real engagement and improve deliverability.
• Warm-up in 30+ languages: With warm-up emails available in over 30 languages, reaching a global audience has never been easier.
• Continuous domain and health checks: InboxFlare continuously monitors your domain settings, blacklists, and inbox configurations to keep your email health optimal. You can also run deliverability tests to see exactly where your emails land and then fine-tune your approach.

As you can, with this powerful tool and Skylead, your outreach remains secure, effective, and truly limitless.  

Native image & GIF personalization

If you want your messages to stand out and be memorable, visuals are a powerful tool.

Luckily, our native image & GIF personalization makes it easy to create eye-catching visuals that are bound to get noticed.

You can use our built-in editor to customize images and GIFs with your and your prospect’s name, profile picture, company logo, or any other detail that speaks directly to them. However, you don’t have to customize one by one. Skylead automates this process by pulling information directly from LinkedIn profiles.

This hyper-personalized approach doesn’t only look good; it actually gets results! In fact, our users have seen response rates soar by as much as 76% simply by adding personalized images and GIFs to their outreach. 

So, if you want to make a lasting impression and boost engagement, this feature is your go-to.

Skylead use cases

Skylead users include:

• Sales professionals
• Marketing experts
• Agencies
• Recruiters

Now, let’s see how these teams are using Skylead:

Pricing

Skylead has an all-in-one pricing plan of $100 per seat/month.

Average rating: ⭐ 4,8 / 5

2. OptinMonster

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This is another tool you can use to automate lead generation. Marketing teams typically use it for e-commerce lead capture. However, B2B marketers frequently use it for their lead-generation efforts as well. 

OptinMonster is a software that offers automated lead generation forms presented as pop-ups, slide-in windows, and gamified spin-to-win wheels. Moreover, you can place these pop-ups or forms on any landing page. 

That said, these automated forms help you gather contact information to: 

• Build an email list for your email campaigns, 
• Display personalized content, 
• Nurture your visitors through their customer journey.

Features

OptinMonster’s main advantage is that it turns your website visitors into paying customers, webinar attendees, or newsletter subscribers. 

That said, many B2B marketing teams use these forms to increase any conversion rate, thanks to:

• Page-level targeting - You can display pop-ups, forms, and notifications based on the user’s interaction with different landing pages.
• Exit-intent technology - OptinMonster monitors visitors’ movements and detects when they plan to exit the page without leaving their contact information or making a purchase. This feature can boost conversion rates and, as part of your content strategy, increase newsletter subscribers and webinar sign-ups for future campaigns.
• Lightbox pop-up - This type of pop-up appears based on triggers, prompting visitors to make a choice with minimal distractions as the background content fades. Thus, it keeps their attention focused on the decision.
• Onsite retargeting - You can show returning visitors something new every time they return to your website. Simply create pop-ups to show new promotions or offers based on their previous interactions on your website. 
• List segmentation - Reduce website abandonment and churn by personalizing content for leads on your email list and website. What’s more, you can integrate OptinMonster with any CRM app, such as Hubspot or email automation software, to further adjust your messaging. 

💡 Pro tip: Create a synergy between your marketing and sales teams. Once you generate leads through OptinMonster, you can push them automatically to your Skylead sales or marketing campaign through API.

Pricing

OptinMonster has 4 pricing plans:

In addition, they offer around 40% off per month if you opt-in for an annual subscription.

Average rating: ⭐ 4,3 / 5 

3. Moosend.com

In general, Moosend is an email automation tool that helps you create and send personalized newsletters to your leads. It’s most suitable for small businesses specializing in e-commerce. However, this automation tool can be used for B2B email campaigns as well.

Features

One of the best things about Moosend is that you can create newsletters or pop-up banners with a simple drag-and-drop. 

In addition, they leverage AI to analyze the data from your website, such as your subscriber behavior. This way, you can send more personalized messages or email notifications and maximize customer experience and retention.

That said, similar to Skylead, you can use this marketing automation tool to create a sequence with if/else conditions such as “if the purchase was made” and so on. This way, you can check for your subscriber’s actions and send suitable follow-up messages.  

Moosend offers a vast library of templates for creating newsletters or landing pages for email marketing campaigns. Whichever you choose, you’d be glad to hear that every template comes with device optimization functionalities. 

Next, you can group leads from your email list and send separate messages. You can divide the leads based on keywords, if they clicked on the link in the previous email, etc. 

Like OptinMonster, Moosend can help you gather new leads and increase your lead generation efforts. In other words, it offers customizable forms like pop-ups to promote your lead magnets, like webinars, and create email lists. 

Lastly, you can integrate Moosend with your CRM, such as Hubspot, or other apps to streamline your related tasks.

Pricing

Moosend has 3 pricing systems:

• Pro - This plan is suitable for small businesses because it goes from as low as $9 per month for up to 500 subscribers. On the other hand, this plan goes as high as $5840 a month for up to 1M subscribers. 
• Moosend+ - Contains everything in Pro, plus add-ons of your choice. However, you need to reach out to Moosend directly to get a custom quote for this one.
• Enterprise - This plan is for agencies. Pricing is also custom-made, so contact their team for details.

Average rating: ⭐ 4,6 / 5

4. Mailchimp

Another email automation software on our list is Mailchimp. 

This marketing automation tool started as software that helps marketers create newsletters in the e-commerce environment. However, it has developed into a more well-rounded automated lead generation tool. 

Features

Email marketing

Firstly, Mailchimp offers an email automation tool for sending newsletters or other messaging material to your subscribers. You can create your own message design or use the template. 

Regarding targeting, you can segment your leads based on their behavior, such as: 

• Campaign activity, 
• Location, 
• If the last email opened, 
• App activity, etc.

Lead generation

Mailchimp offers a couple of features that are perfect for B2B lead generation. 

Firstly, they have their own website builder to create beautifully designed landing pages for your new leads. In addition, you can make it from scratch or from the numerous templates they offer.

Secondly, they offer sign-up and pop-up forms for your website to generate potential customers. Moreover, you can also integrate their free appointment scheduling tool so potential leads can book calls with your sales team. 

Lastly, Mailchimp offers a campaign manager that combines social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads, into one dashboard. This way, you can target potential leads with interests similar to those of your current contacts. You can also retarget visitors as they browse the web or social media. 

Automated customer journeys

Last but not least, Mailchimp has a function to enhance user experience with Customer Journey Builder. In other words, you can automate activities, such as emails and follow-ups, according to your leads’ behavior and nurture them to conversion. 

Moreover, you can integrate Mailchimp with any app, including your CRM of choice or LinkedIn outreach solution for omnichannel presence.

Pricing

Mailchimp offers 4 plans with the following highlighted features:

• A free plan is for up to 1K emails sent. It includes forms, landing pages, and pre-built email templates.
• The Essentials plan starts at $13 a month. This plan includes up to 5K emails sent, 3 audiences, and simple automated customer journeys.
• The Standard plan starts at $20 a month. It includes up to 6K emails sent, 5 audiences, enhanced customer journeys, newsletter templates, a predictive analytics tool, and a campaign manager.
• The Premium plan costs $350 per month. It includes everything from other plans plus 150K emails sent, as well as advanced segmentation and targeting.

Average rating: ⭐ 4,4 / 5 

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5. Tidio

As mentioned before, one of the best ways to capture leads is via live chat or chatbot. And Tidio is one of many on the market. 

This tool can automatically collect and qualify leads based on their website behavior. For example, let’s say a visitor lands on your pricing page. A chatbot can then ask if they are interested in a custom quote, and if they are, invite them to leave their contact information. 

Moreover, you can set Tidio to answer FAQs, offer news, or upsell your users. This way, you’re leaving time for your support team to focus on burning problems while improving your customer experience. 

Pricing

Tidio offers a couple of plans, respectively:

Average rating: ⭐ 4,7 / 5

Automated lead generation examples

So, you know how to automate your lead generation and the tools to use when doing so.

Now, let’s walk you through real-life examples of automated inbound and outbound lead generation. And what better way to do so than to use our very own?

a. Outbound lead generation automation example

In October 2023, we launched Skylead 3.0 on Product Hunt and received an incredible 2nd place.

But that wouldn't have been possible if we didn't automate our outbound lead generation.

Namely, what we did several months before the launch was find leads using Product Hunt LinkedIn groups. 

Why these groups, though? Because they’re filled with individuals already interested in Product Hunt. And since the purpose was to generate leads who’d vote for us once we launched, these individuals were highly valuable.

The first step was to identify such groups. Then, we took advantage of LinkedIn Sales Navigator filters, specifically the ''Group'' filter, to isolate their members so we could add them to our campaigns. 

The next step was to create a targeted outreach campaign using Skylead.

To do so, we copied the search URL from Sales Navigator. 

Then, we visited a Campaigns page in Skylead and clicked the ‘’Create’’ button.

We gave the campaign a name, selected the Sales Navigator search result as the campaign type, and pasted the URL. We also decided to go with 2nd and 3rd-degree connections and clicked Next.

Moving on, we defined email, LinkedIn, and global settings and proceeded to create a Smart sequence.

Here's an example of a Smart sequence one of us created for this purpose.

Moreover, since Skylead supports A/B testing of up to 5 different subject lines and messages, we decided to add a few variants to see what drives the best results.

To maximize the number of leads we got to and get more votes, each member of our team kicked off their own campaign. But first, we turned off the option to include leads from other team campaigns to avoid contacting the same individuals.

b. Inbound lead generation automation example

To naturally attract leads, we decided to create a lead magnet our audience would find genuinely useful. That’s how our sales eBook came to life—built on the same principles and strategies we used to scale Skylead.

The eBook was a collaboration between our marketing and sales teams. Alongside creating the content, we also designed a brand-new landing page with a form to collect lead information. Once someone would fill out the form, they'd be instantly redirected to a page where they could download the eBook for free.

However, the eBook didn’t benefit only those who downloaded it. Thanks to the lead generation form, we were able to capture the email addresses of inbound leads that we later used in outreach.

We compiled them all into a CSV file and used it to create a CSV-based campaign in Skylead. As a result, we managed to convert a high percentage of warm leads into paying customers.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Can you automate lead generation?

Yes, you can automate lead generation using a variety of tools designed to perform repetitive tasks like prospecting and outreach. By setting up automated workflows, you can streamline these processes and generate leads consistently, thus saving time and boosting efficiency.

What is the fastest way to generate leads?

The fastest way to generate leads often involves combining inbound and outbound automation. Using targeted ads, automated outreach emails, and LinkedIn automation tools allows you to quickly identify, engage, and convert leads with minimal manual effort.

What are the ethical considerations when automating lead generation on LinkedIn?

When automating lead generation on LinkedIn, it's vital to maintain transparency and respect user privacy. Avoid spamming and ensure all automated interactions provide value to potential leads. Ethical automation respects LinkedIn's terms of service, focusing on building genuine connections rather than exploiting the platform.

How can businesses ensure the quality of leads when using automation tools?

To ensure the quality of leads when using automation tools, you should define clear target parameters and continuously refine your ideal customer profile. Utilizing advanced filtering options and personalized outreach messages can significantly increase the relevance and quality of automated lead generation efforts.

Can automation tools integrate with other CRM platforms, and how does this affect lead management?

Many automation tools like Skylead are designed to integrate seamlessly with CRM platforms, enhancing lead management processes. This integration allows for the automatic update of lead information and activities, providing a unified view of the sales funnel and enabling more efficient tracking, nurturing, and conversion of leads.

Automate lead generation to skyrocket your leads

80% of marketing automation users experience an increase in the number of leads, and even 77% an increase in conversion. That is no small number to ignore. 

That said, we hope this article helped you understand how you can automate your lead generation activities.

However, before you do, create a good-quality basis for the automation, starting from your website, content strategy, and LinkedIn profile. Only then will you be able to pave the way for successful lead generation automation. 

Once you go automation, you will also start looking at your other tasks and ask yourself:

‘’Can I automate that?’’

So, don’t wait a second longer! Sign up for Skylead’s 7-day free trial and automate your lead generation away!

For those who have just started researching LinkedIn automation tools, SaaS startup Expandi appeared on the market in 2019. They initially created software that focused solely on LinkedIn automation. 

After years of development, many small business sales teams and recruiters started using it for email outreach and LinkedIn lead generation. 

However, since the market has changed and other tools have progressed, one question posed itself. Is Expandi the best email and LinkedIn outreach tool? Or is there a better alternative on the market?

Let’s check that together. We will go over what Expandi offers, its disadvantages, the comparison with other solutions, and the pricing itself. 

Expandi or alternatives?

Expandi is a LinkedIn automation and email outreach tool. This means that it performs the outreach activities on both platforms on autopilot, so you don’t have to.  

It is a cloud-based solution with a dedicated IP address that shields your activity. In addition, your data is stored on the internet, not servers, like in some LinkedIn automation tools.

Unlike Chrome extensions (e.g., Dux-Soup) or desktop apps (e.g., LinkedHelper), a cloud-based solution like Expandi doesn’t require you to keep your PC turned on. Moreover, it doesn’t inject code into LinkedIn and mimics human behavior. These two parameters make this software a safer solution than extension-based tools. This way, you can send connection requests and perform LinkedIn outreach without worrying about getting your LinkedIn account restricted.

Many small businesses and startup teams use Expandi for LinkedIn prospecting and lead generation. These professionals include salespeople, recruiters, and even outbound marketing managers.

You can use Expandi with any LinkedIn account. To clarify, you can create campaigns based on Sales Navigator, Recruiter, or Premium and Basic LinkedIn search URLs. Moreover, you can create an outreach campaign with a CSV file.

Lastly, Expandi can integrate with any other tool via Zapier webhooks or API. 

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get into the specific features.

Expandi features

Smart Sequences

Smart Sequence is an algorithm that streamlines LinkedIn activities you create in a workflow. That said, it performs each action you set for each lead from the target audience source on autopilot. 

Expandi introduced a Smart Sequence feature almost a year after Skylead did (another LinkedIn automation & cold email software). 

With Expandi, you can automate various activities: 

• Viewing another LinkedIn profile, 
• Sending LinkedIn connection requests, 
• Follow-up messages once connected, 
• Or LinkedIn InMails. 

Expandi also provides non-essential steps for lead generation, such as LinkedIn post liking, skill endorsement, and following companies.  

Email outreach

Expandi added email outreach to their features list so you can add multichannel steps as part of the Smart Sequence workflow. In other words, this feature allows you to expand your LinkedIn lead generation to another channel. By using email as your secondary channel, you can connect with less active leads on LinkedIn. 

What’s more, Expandi offers attractive metrics analysis and A/B testing, so you can test what messaging works best for you and optimize your campaign. You can also choose to use one of their message templates. 

Expandi disadvantages

Expandi lacks some outreach features. 

For example, while it does offer Image & GIF personalization, it actually relies on a third-party tool—Hyperise—to make it happen. 

But what does this mean for you?

Firstly, you need to pay extra each month if you want to use it. Plus, Hyperise has its own limitations based on usage. Namely, the basic $69 plan limits you to 5 templates and 5,000 impressions (counted each time someone sees the image). So, if you plan to personalize at scale, these limits could add up fast.

Secondly, Expandi doesn’t have an email discovery and verification feature. In other words, it can’t find or verify your leads’ business emails.

Sure, Expandi can scrape personal emails from LinkedIn profiles, but only if the person accepts your connection request first. So, if someone doesn’t respond on LinkedIn or ignores your request, you’re out of luck—no way to reach them by email either.

This setup can make it hard to run a true multichannel outreach strategy. Additionally, if you can’t verify emails, you risk high bounce rates that could hurt your domain reputation. To get around this, you’d need to invest in a separate email discovery tool, which would increase your subscription cost.

Another thing that Expandi can’t help you with is email warm-up. Surely, warm-up settings for LinkedIn outreach exist. But when it comes to improving email deliverability and SPAM prevention, Expandi isn’t your ideal solution.

Lastly, if you use Expandi yourself or read reviews, you will notice that most users reported that this tool has become buggy lately. In fact, too buggy to use. Not to mention, their customer support team is not the most responsive, nor are the issues solved promptly.

Pricing

Expandi offers one pricing plan of $99 for one seat a month and a white label LinkedIn lead generation solution. 

However, if you decide to use the Hyperise Image & GIF personalization feature at $69, you end up with a monthly receipt of $168 per 1 seat. 

And if you wish to include email discovery & verification, count at least an additional $50+ per month. 

Therefore, the total monthly pricing for 1 Expandi account with all the features is $218 minimum. 

That said, some Expandi alternatives possess the same, better, or similar features at different prices. 

So, let’s check them out.

6 best Explandi alternatives

Whether you’ve found out about Expandi recently or are unsatisfied with this tool and are looking for a change, here is the list of Expandi alternatives. 

Expandi alternative #1: Skylead

The first Expandi alternative is Skylead. 

Yes, that is us! 🙂 Hello! 

Skylead is your one-stop-shop tool that helps agencies, sales teams, recruiters, marketers, and others streamline their outreach efforts.

It is the best LinkedIn automation tool & cold email software with all the outreach features you could ever need. Hence, it is a perfectly rounded tool that helps you save 11+ hours a week on manual outreach tasks.

As opposed to Chrome extensions like Dux-Soup or desktop apps like LinkedHelper, Skylead is a cloud-based solution. In other words, each user gets a dedicated IP address that shields their activity. In addition, it mimics human behavior and performs a different number of actions in real time each day. These features make Skylead the safest software out there.

However, being a cloud-based software comes with additional perks. 

For example, Skylead offers a Smart inbox that gathers all messages in one place and an option to operate with multiple LinkedIn accounts and email accounts.

Like Expandi, you can use it with any LinkedIn account type, including all Sales Navigator and Recruiter subscription plans.

Thanks to these integrations, you can create campaigns that target audiences from:

• LinkedIn search results; 
• Sales Navigator search results;
• Recruiter search results;
• Event attendees;
• Recruiter Talent Pool or Pipeline URL;
• CSV file with native or custom variables to increase response rate;
• People who reacted to the specific LinkedIn post;
• Sales Navigator Lead Lists;

Moreover, Skylead supports integration with your CRM or any other tool via Zapier webhooks or API.

Lastly, with Skylead, you can scrape publicly available data on LinkedIn, such as email and phone numbers. Or, you can create an outreach campaign to reach your leads through LinkedIn, email, or both.

Now that we've covered the basics let's jump to more features that Skylead offers.

Skylead features

Smart Sequences

Skylead was the first tool on the market to launch Smart Sequences. And thus, it changed how the entire market performs its outreach. 

As previously mentioned, this groundbreaking algorithm executes steps in the order you set and according to your leads’ behavior. 

The if/else conditions make the Smart Sequences special. Thanks to them, Skylead executes steps, checks conditions, and monitors lead behavior according to them. Based on what a lead does (or doesn’t do), Skylead moves them through the workflow to the next relevant action.

You can create a sequence from any outreach action you imagine. These include sending emails, free and paid LinkedIn InMails, as well as connection requests. You can create custom conditions as well. 

Fear not, though. If you do not wish to create the sequence from scratch, you can always use one of our pre-tested Smart Sequence templates and its message templates. 

So, as you can see, Smart sequences help you make the most out of every touchpoint, resulting in outreach that feels timely and relevant.

Email outreach 

Multichannel outreach gives your LinkedIn prospects a well-rounded lead-generation experience. But, more importantly, it shows that you wish to help them resolve their problems.

That’s why, apart from LinkedIn, Skylead has an integrated email outreach feature that you can combine with LinkedIn outreach in one outreach sequence. 

In addition, Skylead offers various personalization variables to help you write your most converting messages and follow-up emails after no response. 

Now, as opposed to Expandi or any other tool from this list, Skylead allows you to connect unlimited email accounts at no additional cost. The tool auto-rotates between them while sending emails. As a result, it enables you to send tens of thousands of emails a month without damaging your domain.

Lastly, unlike Expandi, with Skylead, you can use email outreach to its full potential. 

And here’s how!

Email discovery & verification

Skylead recognized how mandatory email discovery & verification steps are in multichannel outreach. Thus, we decided to add both to our tool. 

Using our email discovery & verification feature, you can find and double-verify your leads’ business emails. As a result, you can:

• Maximize touchpoints with leads,
• Lower your bounce rate,
• Save your domain authority.

And guess what? Unlike Expandi, which can only scrape leads' public emails after you’ve connected, Skylead doesn’t require you to connect with leads to find and verify their emails.

What’s more, email discovery & verification functionality is native to our tool, meaning it’s integrated into the platform. You can add it as a step in a Smart Sequence, and Skylead will find and verify emails without breaking your outreach flow.

Lastly, Skylead is the only solution on the market that lets you use this feature with no limitations. You get unlimited email discovery & verification credits at no extra cost, making your outreach truly unstoppable.

Infinite email warm-up

Speaking of unlimited email outreach, we’ve got another surprise in store: Infinite email warm-up powered by InboxFlare.

InboxFlare is one of the best email warm-up tools exclusively available to their partners. And thanks to Skylead’s partnership with them, you gain infinite email warm-up capability at no extra cost.

This means you can warm up unlimited email accounts to keep your emails out of the SPAM folder—forever!

Don’t believe us? 

Just look at the value InboxFlare adds to Skylead!

• Custom warm-up strategy: InboxFlare’s AI creates a warm-up strategy specific to your domain’s needs, improving your sender reputation with minimal oversight. It’s compatible with all major email providers (Gmail, Outlook, Zoho, etc.) and custom SMTP, enabling you to warm up any account with ease.
• Hyper-authentic messaging: The tool lets you choose your own email topics. It then creates relevant and personalized warm-up emails to mimic real engagement and improve deliverability.
• Warm-up in 30+ languages: Reach global audiences easily with warm-up emails available in over 30 languages.
• Ongoing domain and health monitoring: InboxFlare checks blacklists, domain settings, and inbox configurations to keep your email health optimal. You can also run deliverability tests to see where your emails land and adjust as needed for peak performance.

So, with Skylead and InboxFlare working together, you’re set for safe, effective, and totally limitless outreach.

⚠️ Disclaimer: The infinite email warm-up feature operates under a Fair Use Policy, with a 100-email slot limit per team. For additional slots, please contact InboxFlare support.

Native image & GIF hyper-personalization

To maximize your response rate, Skylead introduced a native image & GIF hyper-personalization feature. Thanks to it, you can send LinkedIn InMails, messages, emails, or follow-ups in a more personalized and unique way to catch your prospects’ attention.

Skylead personalizes your chosen images and GIFs on autopilot by pulling the information from your and your leads’ LinkedIn profiles. These include:

• Profile pictures
• Company logos

Moreover, you can insert any text you like, complete with variables, to enrich the visuals further.

As you can see, you don’t have to worry about personalizing countless versions of the same image. Instead, Skylead will do it for you at scale!

To top it off, we’ve had incredible success using image & GIF personalization in our own outreach. We even managed to get a whopping 76% response rate! And so can you!

Report and analytics

Skylead offers 3 levels of detailed insights on the dedicated Report page:

• Graph metrics - perfect for visual representations of the ratio between the actions;
• Table view - best for spotting trends that happen during specific days;
• Sequence steps - if you wish to examine steps in detail, this interactive report is for you.

Therefore, you can analyze the metrics of every aspect of your campaigns. 

Additionally, with Skylead, you can A/B test your messaging, subject lines, or connection requests to see what works best and optimize your efforts. 

Pricing

Skylead is a complete one-stop-shop tool for your outreach, and it costs only $100 per 1 seat per month.

Unlike other LinkedIn automation and lead generation tools, such as Expandi or Zopto, Skylead doesn’t limit the features by the number of uses. All of our features are truly unlimited! 

Not to mention, Skylead has a very dedicated customer support team that is ready to help you any time. They even offer a 1-on-1 onboarding call to introduce you to the software and all it can do for you!

And if you’d like to make Skylead your own, you can, in a way. We offer a white-labeling solution, like Expandi, so you can offer additional services with the amazing tool and brand name, logo, and colors.

Expandi vs. Skylead

To recap, we’ve created a comparison table between Expandi and Skylead. Features are listed in order of importance to make it easier to decide between the two. 

Expandi alternative #2: Zopto

LinkedIn automation tool, Zopto, is another cloud-based multichannel solution and Expandi.io alternative. 

It is compatible with Sales Navigator, LinkedIn Premium, and Recruiter accounts. 

What distinguishes Zopto from Expandi is that, in addition to email automation, Zopto offers an email enrichment feature. This means it can find and verify business emails like Skylead. However, the downside is that Zopto limits how many leads you can enrich with the email, depending on the pricing plan. 

As opposed to other mutual features, like A/B testing, Zopto offers a LinkedIn post-scheduling feature. So, yes, you can create and schedule posts on LinkedIn using this software. 

Moreover, Zopto has recently added Smart Sequences to its list of features. This feature lets you set up dynamic outreach flows with a mix of LinkedIn and email actions, all triggered by different conditions. Besides the usual LinkedIn actions like:

• Profile views,
• Follows,
• And invites to connect

…you can also add steps like likes, endorsements, and even birthday or anniversary greetings to your sequences.

Zopto has also expanded its automation capabilities to another platform: X (formerly Twitter). Currently, though, it only automates post likes there.

Then there’s Zhoo, Zopto’s AI assistant. Zhoo sounds impressive, but it's really a ChatGPT-4 integration designed to help generate email and LinkedIn messages. So, if you’re already using ChatGPT for sales outreach, it may be a bit redundant.

Lastly, being a cloud-based solution, Zopto has a combined Inbox, as well as CRM and Hubspot integration through Zapier webhooks and API.

Pricing

Zopto’s pricing includes 4 plans. Each plan comes with an assigned customer success manager.

Expandi vs. Zopto

Having in mind all the other features mentioned above, here is a total comparison between Skylead, Expandi, and Zopto.

Expandi alternative #3: MeetAlfred

This is another SaaS startup that developed an outreach solution for small businesses, salespeople, and agencies. 

MeetAlfred primarily automates social media activities, including scheduling Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn posts. 

But the catch is that multichannel support is only available to their Pro & Team subscribers. That said, Basic users can only automate emails and LinkedIn actions, like:

• Profile views
• Connection requests
• Messages
• Free inMails

MeetAlfred comes with an internal CRM, which allows you to access and manage your leads easily. Moreover, like Expandi and Skylead, it has an integrated inbox, albeit limited, since it only shows LinkedIn messages. 

Much like other tools on the list, MeetAlfred supports integrations via Zapier.

One major downside, though, is the lack of Smart Sequences, so you’re stuck with a simple drip campaign setup. Still, you can add more steps than you can in Zopto.

Furthermore, MeetAlfred doesn’t have an email discovery & verification nor an image & GIF personalization feature. However, they have a Hyperise integration, like Expand.io, that increases your monthly cost.

Pricing

MeetAlfred has 3 pricing plans: 

And if you want to add Hyperise’s image & GIF personalization feature, count on paying an extra $69 a month.

Expandi vs. MeetAlfred 

MeetAlfred tries hard to follow the number of features Expandi, Skylead, and Zopto introduced. However, they balance this lack in pricing.

Expandi alternative #4: LinkedFusion

Another great LinkedIn automation and email outreach software like Expandi is LinkedFusion. It is a cloud-based solution that offers an integrated inbox. 

With LinkedFusion, you can reach out to your target audience using any LinkedIn account or CSV file. While at it, you can use their pre-made message templates, which they claim to be tested and conversion-driven.

LinkedFusion connects with other apps via Zapier webhooks. Moreover, it natively integrates with HubSpot and Google Sheets, which is a nice bonus that Expandi doesn’t offer. 

Should you need any help, LinkedFusion also has a technical customer support team at your disposal 24/7.

Its major disadvantage is that it doesn’t have Smart Sequences functionality, so you cannot fully control your outreach. 

Lastly, this tool offers image personalization. However, you can only use it through Hyperise integration. 

Pricing

LinkedInFusion has 3 subscription plans. They all depend on the number of connection requests and messages you can send per day.

Expandi vs. LinkedFusion

One of the best things about Expandi and Skylead is the Smart Sequence function. 

However, if this is not something you’re interested in, look at other features found in LinkedFusion.

Expandi alternative #5: LinkedHelper 2

LinkedHelper 2 is another LinkedIn automation tool. 

However, unlike Expandi, it is a desktop app, meaning it doesn't have a dedicated IP address and the functionality to run multiple accounts. What’s more, your PC needs to be kept on for LinkedHelper to run. 

On the brighter side, LinkedHelper offers Recruiter-based campaigns, unlike LinkedFusion and MeetAlfred. Furthermore, you have your internal CRM to monitor the contacts' history and integrated inbox to keep track of messages.

Sadly, LinkedHelper doesn't have Image & GIF personalization in any form, so you cannot hyper-personalize your messaging. Neither does it have a multichannel outreach infrastructure.

Finally, the tool doesn't support post-engagement campaign type, Smart Sequences, or A/B testing.

Pricing

What it lacks in functionality, LinkedHelper 2 makes up for in pricing. 

However, they limit pricing plans based on the number of messages and connection requests you can send per day.

Expandi vs. LinkedHelper 2

Apart from the difference in basic functionality type (cloud-based and desktop app), here is the list of other differences between Skylead, Expandi, and LinkedHelper. 

Expandi alternative #6: Phantombuster

Last but not least, we have Phantombuster - an extension-based tool like Dux-Soup. 

Although it isn’t an automation tool like Expandi, it contributes to lead generation since its algorithm focuses on data extraction. In other words, Phantombuster automates data scraping from any social media platform, including LinkedIn. 

This tool is an excellent addition to your outreach, saving time scraping the data for your CSV-based campaigns. Moreover, Phantombuster has an email discovery feature but cannot verify them. 

Phantombuster offers some automated actions on LinkedIn. For example, it can send connection requests and messages on autopilot, as well as like your leads’ posts. 

However, it doesn’t have Smart Sequence functionality, nor is it safe to use as it injects the code into LinkedIn. Therefore, it works best as a social media scraper that you can combine with other LinkedIn automation tools like Expandi or Skylead. 

Lastly, Phantombuster offers Hubspot & Pipedrive CRM enrichment via integration through API key.

Pricing

PhantomBuster has 3 pricing plans depending on the number of automated actions and the time it runs during 1 month:

Expandi vs. Phantombuster

Feature-wise, Phantombuster may be different from other LinkedIn automation tools. 

However, you can consider it if you plan to create a CSV-based campaign using another tool.

How to cancel Expandi?

If you are unsatisfied with Expandi and want to try out other tools from our list, here is how to cancel your Expandi subscription.

First, log into your account and click the LinkedIn Settings button in the sidebar menu. Then, navigate to the Subscription plan section.

Next, click the Remove button. 

Expandi will ask you to state the reason why you wish to cancel. You cannot proceed unless you do. 

Once you cancel your subscription, you’ll immediately lose access to Expandi features. So, we advise you to do it at or near the end of your billing cycle.

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Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

What does expandi.io do?

Expandi.io is a LinkedIn automation and email outreach tool designed to help individuals connect with leads on autopilot. It lets users automate LinkedIn actions, like sending connection requests and follow-ups, as well as email outreach, all through a cloud-based platform. This way, Expandi handles the outreach while you focus on managing the leads it generates.

Is expandi.io safe?

Yes, Expandi.io is considered safer than some LinkedIn automation tools. Because it’s cloud-based, you don’t have to keep your computer on, and it doesn’t inject code into LinkedIn—2 factors that lower the risk of account restrictions. Expandi also uses dedicated IP addresses, which helps shield your activity and make it appear more natural to LinkedIn.

Is Expandi io free?

No, Expandi.io isn’t free. However, it does offer a 7-day free trial that lets you test out its functionalities.

How much does Expandi cost?

Expandi’s base cost is $99 per month for one user (or “seat”). If you want to add image and GIF personalization with Hyperise, it costs an extra $69 per month. Email discovery and verification can add at least $50 per month, possibly more. So, if you want all the features, you’re looking at a monthly minimum of around $218 per seat.

How do these alternative tools compare in terms of overall cost-efficiency, particularly for small businesses or individual entrepreneurs?

The overall cost-efficiency of alternative tools varies, with some offering more advanced features at a higher price point. For small businesses or solo entrepreneurs, choosing a tool that balances functionality with affordability is key to maximizing ROI.

What specific advantages do these alternatives offer over Expandi in terms of features like A/B testing, integration capabilities, and customer support responsiveness?

Compared to Expandi, these alternatives, such as Skylead, may offer unique features such as more robust A/B testing capabilities, seamless integrations with other tools, and superior customer support, providing a tailored approach to LinkedIn automation and cold emailing strategies.

How user-friendly are these alternatives for someone with minimal experience in LinkedIn automation or cold emailing strategies?

The user-friendliness of these alternatives ranges widely, with some prioritizing a straightforward interface and guided setup processes to accommodate users new to LinkedIn automation, while others may offer advanced customization options suited for experienced marketers.

Ready to try Expandi alternatives?

Now that you are aware of Expandi alternatives and their main features, it’s time to choose the best LinkedIn automation tool for you.

But before you do, analyze what you personally need for your outreach and the budget you have.

To recap, let's review all features of Expandi alternatives side-by-side.

As you can see, one in particular stands out from the crowd—Skylead!

Would you like to give it a try? 🙂

Then sign up for our 7-day free trial. Or, if you have any questions, drop by and say ‘’hi’’ via chat on our website. We will be happy to meet you!

Have you spent hours crafting those perfect emails for them to finally land…but in SPAM? We know how frustrating that can be! Email service providers nowadays are stricter than ever about what they let through, and if your email accounts aren't warmed up properly, chances are, your emails will never see the light of day. Worse yet, when your deliverability is affected, so is your sender reputation and, ultimately, your entire success in cold outreach. But that's what you've got email warm-up tools for!

Think of them as personal trainers, but for your email. They exist to gradually build up your sender reputation, helping you avoid those dreaded spam filters so your emails land directly where they belong—in your recipients' primary inboxes.

Many companies have decided to develop their own email warm-up tools, resulting in your having quite a pick. The question is, how do you choose from the bunch?

There are several criteria that you should consider when deciding on the perfect email warm-up solution. We’ll go through each one in detail, but first, let’s explain:

• What email warm-up is,
• Why you should warm up your emails,
• The ins and outs of email warm-up tools.

As a cherry on top, we’ll walk you through 12 email warm-up tools we personally tested to help you find the perfect fit and boost your deliverability today!

What is email warm-up?

Email warm-up is the process of gradually increasing the number of emails sent from a new or low-activity account. This helps you build a positive reputation with email service providers (ESPs).

During the warm-up phase, you start by sending a small number of emails, either manually or automatically, through an email warm-up tool. These tools usually have a database of email addresses, often from other tool users. What they do is automatically exchange emails between these addresses and reply to them to simulate real conversations. Moreover, they typically organize warm-up emails into dedicated folders in your inbox to keep them from cluttering it. 

This process helps make your email activity look natural to ESPs, showing them that your emails are valuable and wanted. As your engagement grows, you can safely scale your email outreach without risking your sender's reputation.

Benefits of email warm-up

In 2023, approximately 45.6% of all emails worldwide were marked as spam.

Want to make sure that doesn’t happen to yours? Start warming up your email accounts!

That said, here’s what you stand to gain from doing so!

1. Better deliverability

Warming up your account improves deliverability by building trust with email providers. When you start small and slowly increase your sending volume, providers recognize you as a reliable sender. This keeps your emails out of spam folders and makes sure they reach primary inboxes.

2. Lower bounce rate

When you warm up your account manually, you’ll probably take time to make sure you’re only sending emails to valid addresses likely to receive them. Email warm-up tools, however, already have a database of active and valid email addresses, helping you avoid sending to inactive ones. As a result, your bounce rate becomes lower. With fewer bounces over time, your account maintains a stronger standing reputation, ultimately supporting your long-term outreach success.

3. Improved sender reputation

Sender's reputation is like the credit score of email outreach. It’s the measure ESPs use to decide whether to trust your emails. Email warm-up builds this reputation steadily through positive interactions like opens and replies. A stronger reputation means your emails are more likely to reach their destination, helping you maximize your results.

What are email warm-up tools?

Email warm-up tools ''train'' your email account to handle large-scale outreach campaigns without triggering spam alarms. They automate the process of slowly ramping up your email-sending volume, which helps you establish a solid sender reputation with ESPs. By keeping your email activity consistent and boosting engagement, these tools improve deliverability, lower bounce rates, and set the stage for successful outreach.

How do email warm-up tools work?

Most email warm-up tools operate by sending emails from your account to a network of engaged contacts—often other users within the tool’s ecosystem. They also handle recipient interaction by opening emails, replying, and sometimes even marking them as ‘’Not spam.’’ This simulated engagement is what ESPs look for in trusted senders, making email warm-up tools a fast and reliable way to build credibility.

Common features of email warm-up tools include:

• Automated sending and replying: The tool sends a controlled number of emails each day, gradually scaling up. They also engage with these emails from the recipients’ side, mimicking real interactions that ESPs expect from reputable senders.
• Spam recovery: If any of your emails end up in spam, many tools can help pull them out to reinforce your sender's reputation.
• Customizable settings: Most tools offer flexibility, allowing you to adjust daily limits, warm-up duration, and engagement targets to align with your outreach goals.

Simply put, email warm-up tools make it easy to scale up safely. They handle the warm-up process automatically to allow you to run email campaigns that actually find their way to your audience.

Pros and cons of email warm-up tools

As you can see, email warm-up tools are pretty handy. But just like anything else, they are not perfect. 

Let’s break down their pros and cons to get a full sense of what they offer and where they fall short.

Pros of email warm-up tools

1. Automated process

Email warm-up tools take the manual work out of the equation. They automate the sending, replying, and engagement needed to build up your reputation, which saves you time and ensures a consistent process.

2. Improved deliverability

By gradually increasing your sending volume and facilitating positive engagement between you and other tool users, email warm-up tools help you avoid spam filters and boost deliverability. As a result, your emails are more likely to land in your leads’ inboxes, which means more of them will actually see them.

3. Reputation building

Warm-up tools make it easier to build and maintain a good sender’s reputation. Many of these tools simulate human interactions, which ESPs recognize as positive signals. This reputation-building function is particularly important for new accounts or accounts that have experienced deliverability issues in the past.

4. Customizable settings

Most email warm-up tools offer settings you can adjust according to your requirements. This may include making adjustments to daily sending limits or setting the warm-up duration.

Cons of email warm-up tools

1. Subscription costs

Email warm-up tools can come at a hefty price. This cost may feel like a barrier to some, specifically when other expenses are also in play.

2. Potential for over-reliance

While great for warming up new accounts or improving deliverability, email warm-up tools don’t have the same quality. Moreover, relying solely on one without considering email content quality, frequency, or list hygiene could lead to issues down the road.

3. Lack of instant results

Building a reputation takes time, and even with automated assistance, it may take weeks for a new account to reach full-scale sending. So, if you’re looking for a quick fix, a warm-up tool might not be the immediate solution you need.

4. Varying success across providers

Some email service providers are more receptive to warm-up techniques than others. Depending on the ESPs you’re targeting, you may see different levels of success.

Best email warm-up tools to boost deliverability and stay away from spam

So, you know what email warm-up is all about. But now it's time to find the right tool for the job.

Lucky for you, we’ve curated a list of 12 email warm-up tools, all so we can help you improve deliverability, reduce bounce rates, and stay clear of those pesky spam filters.

1. InboxFlare - Best for AI-powered, infinite email warm-up

InboxFlare is an email warm-up tool that is only integrated with partnership tools like our Skylead. As a result, you get everything you need for outreach without paying extra!

Skylead has long been your ultimate LinkedIn automation and cold email software. 

In fact, we were the 1st tool on the market to introduce Smart sequences—ground-breaking algorithms that let you take advantage of multichannel outreach to reach your leads wherever they are.

Smart sequences combine LinkedIn and email actions to form coherent outreach sequences that Skylead will follow to get in touch with your leads. This way, it makes sure you find the fastest path to your leads!

Now, thanks to our partnership with InboxFlare, we’ve taken Skylead to a whole new level! 

We've become a real one-stop-shop solution that lets you:

• Harness the full power of LinkedIn automation and unlimited email outreach,
• Discover & double-verify leads' emails to reduce bounce rates and protect your domain,
• Hyper-personalize GIFs and images to increase your response rate to over 76%,

...but also warm up infinite email accounts to keep your emails away from spam—forever!

That's right! You get all of this at one cost!

All Skylead users can create InboxFlare accounts to start warming up their emails in 30+ languages.

Once you’ve created the account, just add your email and let InboxFlare handle the rest. It's compatible with all major email providers, including Gmail, Outlook, and Zoho, and also supports custom SMTP.

InboxFlare’s AI crafts a warm-up strategy customized to your domain’s unique needs, improving your sender reputation on autopilot. 

But it doesn’t send just any generic warm-up emails—you can choose specific topics, and it will generate and send customized messages on your behalf, making the warm-up process even more authentic.

In addition to building reputation, InboxFlare continuously monitors your email health by checking blacklists, domain configurations, and inbox settings. 

Plus, you can run deliverability tests to assess whether your mailbox server is blacklisted, see where your emails land in different inbox providers, and adjust warm-up accordingly.

Pricing

InboxFlare comes at no extra cost! With a Skylead subscription, you can warm up an infinite number of emails and unlock every other feature Skylead offers—all for just $100 a month. 

That means full power to boost your deliverability, automate email and LinkedIn outreach, and manage leads in one package.

2. Lemwarm by Lemlist - Best for detailed deliverability insights

Lemwarm is an email warm-up tool developed by Lemlist. But since it’s an add-on rather than integrated into the platform, it’s available for standalone usage.

It works by sending automated emails to a network of over 20,000 users, gradually boosting your deliverability. 

The tool also offers alerts on your deliverability score, spam risk detection based on your email content, and daily insights with expert tips to optimize performance. 

Moreover, detailed deliverability reports help you stay on track and keep your emails landing in the right place.

However, the pricing structure is based on the number of emails you warm up, meaning costs can quickly add up. 

Not to mention, while our testing ran smoothly, one reviewer, Vinayak G., noted:

‘’All our warm-up emails were going to the spam and categories section, which was really frustrating.’’

So, while Lemwarm proved effective to us, specific cases suggest it’s not ideal.

Pricing

Lemwarm is free for Lemlist users.

If you’d like to use it alone, you can, but expect to pay the following amount:

3. Mailivery - Best for domain reputation tracking

Mailivery is an AI-driven email warm-up tool designed to boost deliverability by interacting with real emails behind the scenes. 

It removes emails from spam, generates positive replies, like Lemwarm, and works with a network of over 20,000 real users to simulate authentic engagement.

Its intuitive dashboard provides real-time insights into spam placement and detailed analytics to track your domain reputation. What’s more, you can check if you're blacklisted and get personalized recommendations for improvement.

While Mailivery offers full customization of warm-up volume and timing, which we liked, some users report there’s a bit of a learning curve to it. 

Additionally, the tool limits the number of warm-up emails sent daily despite allowing you to warm up unlimited mailboxes.

Pricing

4. Warmbox - Best for simple self-setup

Warmbox is one of the easiest email warm-up tools to use and is great for those who want a simple, self-setup experience.

The software automates the whole email-warm-up process using inboxes from real users and doesn’t interfere with your email routine.

Beyond improving deliverability, Warmbox also calculates your Reputation Score, compares it against a community benchmark, and suggests ways to improve. It even sends you alerts if your score drops below a certain percentage, so you can pause campaigns before things get worse.

However, it can get pricey, especially since you’re charged per inbox, and there’s no free trial available. 

Pricing

5. Mailwarm - Best for flexibility in warm-up intensity

Mailwarm helps raise your sender reputation by interacting with your emails daily. 

It automatically sends dozens of emails to over 1,000 Mailwarm accounts, where they get opened, marked as important, replied to, and pulled out of spam.

You can track everything through a dashboard that gives you insights into your email activity. You also have the flexibility to adjust Mailwarm’s intensity or pause the warm-up process if and when necessary.

Nevertheless, the major limitation we found is that even with the highest subscription plan, you’re capped at warming up a maximum of 10 inboxes. And considering its hefty price, you may be better off choosing a different email warm-up software.

Pricing

6. Folderly by Belkins - Best for keeping emails out of the Promotions folder

Folderly is developed by Belkins, a company known for its B2B lead generation and outreach services. 

Its main promise is to keep your emails out of spam and promotions folders with an impressive 99% inbox placement rate. It offers insights on why emails end up in spam, helps you optimize templates, checks your DNS records, and integrates with the most popular ESPs like Gmail and Outlook.

We haven't experienced major issues while testing Folderly, but multiple users have complained about it doing more harm than good.

And after reading this review left by Oguzhan U., in particular, we are seriously starting to question the tool’s reliability:

‘’Folderly sent 42,000 undelivered emails in 2 days (Saturday and Sunday) using 8 email addresses in our domain. Our team didn't realize the issue until Monday. Our email domain reputation is completely destroyed. That is completely the opposite of why we wanted to use Folderly.’’

Pricing

Folderly doesn’t have pricing plans, per se.

Instead, their rates depend on the number of mailboxes you’re warming up and are structured like this:

7. Instantly - Best for automated cold emailing with the built-in warm-up

Instantly isn't a standard email warm-up tool but one of the best cold email software with built-in warm-up functionality that can be activated with a click.

The software allows you to monitor your deliverability score, showing exactly how many emails land in the inbox or spam. You can also emulate human-like reading by enabling the read emulation feature, which scrolls through emails to simulate authentic interaction.

The tool sends a random number of warm-up emails daily, and you can choose specific open and response rates. 

Moreover, with a pool of over 550,000 real email accounts for warm-up, Instantly.ai's coverage is vast.

The price is reasonable, considering that, starting at $37, you can warm up unlimited emails. 

Nonetheless, some users have reported that its warm-up can blacklist your domain with certain ESPs, so exercise caution if you decide to use it.

Pricing

Instantly doesn’t have a dedicated email warm-up plan. 

Nonetheless, email warm-up is included in their following Sending & Warmup plans, along with email outreach.

8. Warm Up Your Email by Mailshake - Best for manual email warm-up

Mailshake, a popular cold email software, acquired the email warm-up tool ‘’Warm Up Your Email’’ in 2024 to ensure its customers' emails hit the inbox, not the spam folder. 

The team at Warm Up Your Email manually interacts with your emails by opening them, replying, and pulling them out of spam. This interaction helps signal ESPs that you’re a trusted sender.

All you have to do is connect your email account and set your daily send volume while they handle the rest. You’ll get insights on how many of your emails land in spam and track your progress with a 10-day spam pattern report that shows your account’s improvement over time.

The downside? The process isn’t fully automated—it’s done manually by the Warm Up Your Email team. This can feel a bit counterproductive if you’re looking for full automation.

Additionally, their top plan caps the number of email accounts you can warm up at 8. 

Not to mention, replies are sent as separate messages, not within the same thread, which might limit the natural conversation flow.

Pricing

Mailshake users can use Warm Up Your Email free of charge. 

As for those who’d like to use it separately, the available plans are as follows:

9. MailReach - Best for real-time reputation tracking

MailReach is an email warm-up tool designed to enhance your email deliverability, helping you hit more inboxes and land more deals. 

It automatically repairs, improves, and maintains your sender reputation by facilitating genuine, positive interactions with a network of high-reputation accounts.

Its main feature is consistent spam checking, which allows you to track inbox placement and measure deliverability performance. You can run these tests manually or automate them based on your preferred frequency.

MailReach comes with a Smart AI warming algorithm that makes sure your account is properly warmed up before hitting full-scale outreach. At the same time, the Reputation Tracking Dashboard gives you real-time insights into your email performance, allowing you to fine-tune your campaigns as needed.

MailReach works with any email service provider that supports SMTP. However, the setup process can be tricky, especially when connecting emails for the first time. 

Downsides-wise, since pricing is inbox-based and spam checker credits aren’t included in the base cost, you’ll need to account for those extras when budgeting.

Pricing

MailReach prices are based on the number of mailboxes you’re warming up, starting at $25 per mailbox. 

Spam credits are sold separately, starting at $28 for 100, though you get 20 free credits to start you off.

10. Smartlead - Best for email provider matching

Smartlead is another tool that bundles email warm-up into its larger cold outreach infrastructure. 

Its AI-powered warm-up emulates human conversations, allowing emails to appear natural and avoid automation detection. In addition to authentic AI conversations, the system delivers a gradual ramp-up for safe email sending.

One feature we really liked is how Smartlead automatically matches your email provider with that of your recipient. So, for instance, if you have both Gmail and Outlook accounts, and your recipient is using Gmail, Smartlead will use your Gmail account for optimal deliverability.

One downside, however, is the lack of customization—you can’t choose the topics or content for the warm-up messages. For this reason, and the fact that other warm-up tools offer more functionalities, you may be better off opting for one of the Smartlead alternatives.

Pricing

Much like Skylead and Instantly, Smartlead doesn’t have a sole email warm-up plan. 

Instead, this functionality is included in their standard plans, which also give you access to email outreach.

11. Mailflow by QuickMail - Best for blacklist tracking

Mailflow is QuickMail's email warm-up tool, primarily aimed at its users. Nevertheless, it can also be used separately.

The tool is designed to improve your email deliverability with features like a real-time auto-warmer score for each inbox, SPF and DKIM monitoring, and blacklist tracking across nearly 100 lists. The latter makes it easy to act quickly if any blacklist flags your domain.

Unfortunately, its analytics are somewhat limited for our taste. In addition, the support team is only accessible via email, which can delay issue resolution.

Pricing

The tool is free for all QuickMail users. 

Nevertheless, those who’d like to use it separately can expect to pay the following amounts:

12. Allegrow - Best for integration with CRM and outreach platforms

Allegrow is an email warm-up tool focused on delivering in-depth insights to help optimize your deliverability. 

It offers unique features like Spam Rate Analysis, allowing you to see exactly how much of your email traffic ends up in spam. Also, there’s the Safety Net™, which automatically stops emails that could damage your sender's reputation. 

With continuous DKIM, SPF, and DMARC testing, like InboxFlare in Skylead has, you’re also covered in authentication. At the same time, the Deliverability Leaderboard ranks users by spam rate to prevent one bad sender from affecting the whole team.

Another plus is that Allegrow natively integrates with popular CRM and sales outreach tools like Outreach.io and SalesLoft.

Not everything is ideal about Allegrow, though. The lack of pricing transparency is a con in our eyes. Moreover, the customization of warm-up messages is rather limited.

Pricing

Allegrow doesn’t share its pricing details publicly, so it’s likely they adjust prices based on the number of connected mailboxes. 

However, sources suggest their plans start at $300 for 10 inboxes, which is, consequently, also the minimum you can connect.

How to choose an email warm-up tool

You’ve seen the top email warm-up tools—now let’s show you how to pick the best one for your workflow.

1. Look for features you need

Not all email warm-up tools are created equal, meaning they come with different features. With that in mind, start by identifying the ones that matter most to you. 

Do you need automated sending and replying? 

Customizable warm-up settings? 

Or perhaps spam recovery features? 

Either way, the tool you choose should have the functionality you need. Otherwise, what’s the point of paying for it?

2. Verify ESP compatibility

Before you invest in a tool, check that it’s compatible with your ESP. Some tools are specifically suited for Gmail, while others are optimized to work better with Outlook, Zoho, or more specialized ESPs. This step saves you from potential headaches down the line.

3. Assess ease-of-use and setup

Your ideal warm-up tool shouldn’t have a steep learning curve. Instead, it should be simple to set up and easy to navigate. 

That said, look for intuitive dashboards, straightforward settings, and clear instructions. The less time you spend figuring out the tool, the sooner you’ll start seeing results.

4. Confirm support for multiple accounts and team usage

Running campaigns across multiple accounts and teams? You’ll want a tool that can handle it. So, make sure the tool supports multi-account use and includes team collaboration features. That way, you can streamline your efforts and keep everything organized.

5. Gauge the quality of customer support

Customer support can make or break your experience with any tool. After all, if things go sideways, you’ll need reliable help.

But how do you know the support quality if you haven’t used the tool yet? Check out reviews from real users. Their feedback usually reveals how responsive and helpful the support team is and whether they’re truly invested in resolving issues.

Ideally, the support team should be reachable 24/7 through multiple channels—live chat, email, phone, you name it.

6. Evaluate cost vs. feature ratio

Finally, consider whether the cost is appropriate for what you’re getting. Some tools are pricey but lack crucial features. Meanwhile, others offer everything you need at a reasonable rate. Compare pricing plans and weigh the cost against features to make sure you’re getting the best quality you can afford.

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Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Is email warmup necessary?

Yes, if you want your emails to reach inboxes instead of spam folders. Skipping this step can result in poor deliverability and a damaged reputation. Both of these can seriously hurt your outreach.

How can I warm up my email?

You have 2 options: manually or with an email warm-up tool.

To warm up manually, start by sending a small number of emails each day to trusted contacts—people who will open, reply, and engage with your messages. Gradually increase the volume over several weeks, allowing email providers time to recognize your account as trustworthy.

For a faster and more efficient approach, consider using an email warm-up tool. These tools automate the process by sending emails to a network of engaged users who interact with your messages, helping to quickly build your sender reputation and improve deliverability with minimal effort.

What is the best email warm-up tool?

One person's best may be another person's worst. So, the best email warm-up tool for you is the one that has the features you need, all while fitting within your budget.

Did Google ban email warmup?

Google didn’t ban email warm-up outright. However, they have restricted the use of third-party tools that access the Gmail API, which is often used for email warm-up. However, this move is about enforcing their policies against unauthorized API access, not banning the concept of warm-up itself.

That said, this doesn’t mean you can’t use email warm-up tools altogether. Many tools offer warm-up services that comply with Google’s policies by avoiding direct API access or by using methods that align with Gmail’s guidelines. So, if you’re using Gmail, just make sure you choose a tool that follows these regulations to avoid any issues.

Email warm-up tools: Final comparison

Your search for effective email warm-up tools ends here!