Wondering How to Use Apollo? Here are 5 Quick Ways to Get Started

So you’ve just created an Apollo.io account…

Welcome to your new end-to-end sales engine!

You now have access to the world’s largest, most accurate, and most in-depth B2B database, along with all the tools to automate your entire workflow in one single platform.

Having this much possibility may feel a little overwhelming. When you have this many tools and this much intelligence at your fingertips, where to even begin?

Worry not, we’re here to help!

In this article, we’ll cover the top ways to begin finding buyers, connecting with contacts, and moving deals forward, all in Apollo.

So, without further ado…

5 smart ways to start using Apollo

1. Book more meetings with automated Sequences

Building out a smart, personalized sales sequence should be one of the first things you do on our platform.

Apollo’s Sequences feature helps you automate your outreach efforts so you can speed your prospects through your pipeline and turn them into paying customers as efficiently as possible.

It’s your newest multi-channel approach for sales outreach, equipped with any number of sequential contact points and tasks to personally engage your target audience at scale.

You have eight types of steps at your disposal:

1. Automatic Email: Use any of your Apollo email templates or create new ones to craft personalized and targeted messaging that is delivered based on the parameters you set. An email will automatically be sent out once you add a contact to this sequence.
2. Manual Email: Use to schedule and deliver follow-up emails that you can fully customize for individual prospects. A task will be created for you to review the email and you’ll have to click send in order for it to go out.
3. Phone Call: Add notes, tips, scripts, and any other helpful information with a reminder to call a prospect (use Apollo’s Dialer to make these calls at speed and scale!).
4. Action Item: A blank canvas to schedule any number of necessary internal communications or processes along the way. Action items include a timeframe, priority, and notes for your team.
5. LinkedIn: View Profile: Access a contact’s LinkedIn profile from within Apollo and document key information that can help you build rapport when engaging with prospects.
6. LinkedIn: Interact With Post: Review a contact’s activities, engage with their recent posts, and give yourself direction with reminders and relevant notes.
7. LinkedIn: Send a Connection Request: Create connection request templates to make a great first impression.
8. LinkedIn: Send Message: Send personalized InMail messages using templates and snippets to personalize your approach at scale.

Here’s an example of what your sequence could look like:

​​As you use Apollo to hone your ideal customer profiles, create sequences using these steps to match each type of outbound and/or inbound prospect with automatic and manual messages, LinkedIn engagement, calls, and action items that speak directly to the value propositions they want.

For example, you could build a sequence for a specific inbound lead that sends an email, then another email a few days later, and then gives you a task to call or send a LinkedIn message under the condition that the lead has not responded.

The opportunities are truly endless.

Learn more about creating your first sequence here.

2. Find the perfect message with A/B Testing

Speaking of Sequences…

Apollo allows you to create multiple email templates in a sequence so you can A/B test their performance and deliver the perfect message, every time!

With more than one email template per step, you can determine which message or email subject line engages more prospects and helps you better reach your target audience.

Leverage this data to tweak your messaging and improve the effectiveness of your outreach campaigns and sequences!

Adding an A/B test to your sequence takes no more than a few clicks!

Navigate to the sequence you want to test and click “Add A/B Test.”

Click the email you want to edit and compose the alternative email template. Repeat this process for as many email variants as you would like to test.

(Don’t forget! To perform a valid A/B test, the content of the email templates should be similar. Aim to test small differences in language and delivery so you can easily identify which factor made the difference in engagement.)

3. Refresh and renew your data with CSV Enrichment

Over 50% of sales employees say they can’t make informed decisions due to their organization’s incomplete and/or inaccurate data.

Chances are, your contact list has some gaps.

Maybe you have a full name of a prospect with no email addresses, or you have some email addresses with no listed company info. Enriching your contacts will allow you to get more context on your leads and help you understand and accurately segment your ideal buyers.

With an Apollo account up-leveling your data is a walk in the park.

Apollo’s CSV Enrichment feature allows you to export contact and company data from Apollo’s database directly to a CSV file, as well as upload your existing CSV files and enrich them with Apollo’s world-class data.

Data points Apollo can add to your existing files include:

• Verified email addresses and phone numbers
• Location data
• Revenue and funding data
• # of employees (total and by department)
• Technologies used
• Industry information
• Engagement activity
• Job changes
• And more!

CSV Enrichment is a great way new users can refresh and leverage the vast amount of data they have stored from previous tools, but have not directly integrated with Apollo. Equipped with accurate and more expansive data, you’ll be able to create more personalized outreach campaigns and generate better results.

4. Optimize sales performance with pre-built analytics and reports

Once your outbound campaigns are in motion, Apollo can help you analyze your results and optimize your strategy with standard/pre-built reports.

As an Apollo user, all of your sales data is compiled into hundreds of pre-built reports, allowing you to make data-driven decisions without the time sink of report compiling and chart making.

Want to know which sequence steps have the most success? What your team activity looks like? Subject line ‘X’ percentage of emails opened? Last week’s call statistics?

Every question you have about performance can be found in Apollo Analytics in just a few clicks.

5. Find all the answers to your questions in the Knowledge Base

The most efficient Apollo users utilize our comprehensive educational materials.

While Apollo has a dedicated Technical Support team to help customers with their technical questions, the Knowledge Base is designed to answer all your questions quickly and thoroughly and help save you time.

The Knowledge Base contains articles and how-to guides, divided into categories such as:

• Getting Started: Learn how to set up your Apollo.io account and configure the basic settings required to use the platform. New users should start here to familiarize themselves with the Apollo platform.
• Use Cases: Explore learning paths that provide real-world solutions to real-world problems using the Apollo.io platform
• Platform Docs: One-stop-shop for all articles about the features and functionalities available in Apollo.io and how to use them.
• Integrations: Learn how to integrate Apollo.io with various third-party platforms and tools such as Salesforce, Hubspot, and Zapier.

Check out this Knowledge Base Intro video for a thorough walkthrough of our self-service portal.

There are dozens more ways to use Apollo as your new powerful end-to-end sales engine, but these five are a great place to start.

For more Apollo.io tips and sales insights, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. You’ll never be out of the loop!