If you’re looking for a world-class tool to automate personalized outreach and empower your sales team to do better work, Clay is one of the top choices. It has a user-friendly interface and a large number of features for businesses that want to use cold email for successful outreach. But is it truly an awesome platform, as some users claim it to be?
Today, we take a look at Clay review – its pros, cons, top features, pricing, and some of the finest alternatives you can use with similar features.
What is Clay?
Clay is a tool that helps scale personalized outreach with enriched contact data. With its artificial intelligence integration, it helps businesses find contacts and contact updates, consolidate contacts, and then use AI to craft personalized messages for better sales results.
Top Clay features
Some of the very best features and reasons to choose Clay as your sales intelligence, prospecting, and outreach tool include:
- Integrations with 75+ data sources for accurate lead information
- Waterfall enrichment to easily grab data from as many sources as possible without having to manually research anything
- AI research agent to make it extremely simple to find the right data
- AI email builder to help you write world class emails without spending massive amounts of time writing
For many users, Clay eliminated a lot of the manual work with research and prospecting, allowing them to take their sales in their desired direction and get more business.
Clay pricing
There is a total of five pricing plans in Clay:
- Free
- Starter ($149 per month, billed annually)
- Explorer ($349 per month, billed annually)
- Pro ($800 per month, billed annually)
- Enterprise (get in touch with sales to find out more details)
The Free plan gives you 100 credits and access to the tool for 14 days. It’s unclear whether this is a free trial or a plan, but you get access to 50 data sources and unlimited users. AI message writing is available even in the free plan.
The main difference between the paid plans is in the number of available credits. Starter, Explorer, and Pro offer 2,000, 10,000, and 50,000 credits, respectively.
All of the really good features are unlocked in the Explorer plan, where you get email tool integrations and webhooks. Unfortunately, CRM integrations are only unlocked in the most expensive, Pro plan. Even if you have an excellent relationship manager tool, it will cost quite a bit to get a direct integration.
Some downsides to consider with Clay
While Clay has a lot to offer, there are some things you should be aware of before committing to a paid plan.
Despite its great interface design and huge potential for sales teams, the overall sentiment of Clay users is that there very many useful features. This makes for a steep learning curve, especially if you never used a tool for personal CRM enrichment and prospecting. In real life scenarios, you can expect a few weeks at least to navigate all of Clay’s features.
The second frequently mentioned issue is the lack of outreach templates. Users start off with a detailed list of contacts but they have to make their notes afterward because the choice of templates for outreach is pretty limited.
While the CRM integrations are supposed to be the pinnacle of using Clay, unfortunately, they are not the greatest. Users report that in particular, the Hubspot integration can be very buggy and break often.
Clay makes it easy to get contact data and for each update, it users up credits. The game changer is that instead of using Clay’s proprietary system, you can also enrich with third-party services such as Dropcontact. The issue is that sometimes, it’s cheaper to enrich with third-party API services and webhooks compared to Clay’s very own credit system.
The overall sentiment is that Clay is an excellent tool for effortlessly translating contact data to new sales, but it’s still not polished enough to be the perfect one.
Best Clay alternatives for cold email outreach
Clay offers a lot, but what if you’re put off by the high pricing? Or perhaps you want CRM integrations in cheaper plans? We highly recommend giving these tools a look. Stay tuned for the very best Clay alternatives.
Woodpecker
Woodpecker is an all-in-one cold email platform designed to help sales teams and agencies efficiently manage their outreach efforts and generate more leads. With a focus on automation and personalization, Woodpecker makes cold emailing straightforward and effective, catering specifically to teams looking to scale their email campaigns.
Key Features
Woodpecker offers a suite of features that streamline the cold emailing process and enhance campaign effectiveness:
- Automated Follow-ups: Keep your communication consistent and relevant with automated follow-up emails that can be personalized for each recipient.
- A/B Testing: Optimize your messaging by testing different versions to see which resonates best with your audience.
- Easy Integration and Onboarding: Simplify the setup process with seamless integration and straightforward account onboarding.
- Condition-Based Campaigns: Send the right message at the right time with condition-based campaigns and manual tasks that adapt to your prospects’ actions.
- Email Deliverability Monitor: Ensure your emails reach the inbox and avoid the spam folder with built-in deliverability monitoring.
- Timezone Detection: Increase open rates by sending emails at the optimal time based on the recipient’s time zone.
- AI-Powered Video Personalization: Stand out in crowded inboxes by creating personalized videos with AI tools to engage your audience more effectively.
- Warmup and Recovery: Maintain and improve your email deliverability with warmup and recovery options that keep your email reputation in check.
- Unlimited Team Members: Collaborate and scale your outreach efforts with support for unlimited team members.
User Reviews
Woodpecker is highly regarded for its effectiveness in managing cold email campaigns. Users particularly appreciate:
- Specialization in Cold Emails: While primarily focused on cold emailing, Woodpecker excels in this area, making it a top choice for email marketers and agencies.
- Helpful Customer Support: Users report positive experiences with Woodpecker’s customer support, finding it responsive and helpful.
- Detailed Reporting: The platform offers in-depth reporting on email performance, allowing users to track and optimize their campaigns effectively.
- Sales Campaign Management: Woodpecker is praised for its ability to manage sales email campaigns efficiently, helping teams stay organized and achieve better results.
Ready to give it a try? Sign up for your free trial of Woodpecker today!
Apollo
Apollo is a robust end-to-end sales intelligence, engagement, and prospecting platform designed to streamline the entire sales process from lead sourcing to closing deals.
Whether you’re looking to enrich your leads or empower your sales team with advanced prospecting tools, Apollo offers a one-stop solution to enhance your sales strategy.
Top Features
Apollo stands out with a comprehensive set of features that cater to every stage of the sales funnel:
- Lead Sourcing and Enrichment: Easily source and enrich leads to ensure your sales team is targeting the right prospects with accurate data.
- Prospecting Tools: Equip your team with tools to effectively reach out to potential customers and move them through the pipeline.
- Lead Scoring: Prioritize leads based on their likelihood to convert, allowing your team to focus on high-value prospects.
- Chrome Extension: Streamline communication within Gmail and LinkedIn directly through Apollo’s Chrome extension, enhancing productivity.
- Email and Call Sequences: Create and launch email and call sequences effortlessly, with the option to use AI-generated sequences or hand-crafted ones for a personalized touch.
Pricing
Apollo offers competitive pricing starting at $49 per user per month with the benefit of unlimited email credits. For those who want to explore the platform’s capabilities before committing, a free plan is available.
Downsides
While Apollo is a powerful tool, it comes with a few drawbacks that users should be aware of:
- No Unified Dashboard: Managing multiple users can be cumbersome due to the lack of a unified dashboard.
- IP Address Penalization: Companies with physical offices may face issues with overlapping IP addresses, potentially leading to penalization.
- Data Accuracy Concerns: Some users have reported inaccuracies in contact data, particularly with phone numbers and email addresses.
- Slow Setup for Sequences: The process of setting up sequences can be slower than expected, which may hinder efficiency.
- Outdated User Interface: Despite its capabilities, the platform’s UI feels dated, which can impact the overall user experience.
- Feature Overload: The rapid growth of Apollo has led to the addition of numerous features, some of which may not work as seamlessly as intended.
User Reviews
Apollo has received mixed reviews from users. On the positive side, the search functionality is praised for its effectiveness, and the platform’s integration with CRMs like HubSpot is seen as a significant advantage. Users also appreciate the ease of creating and launching sequences.
However, some have criticized the platform’s pricing model, noting that it may not be flexible enough for smaller teams. Additionally, customer support has been highlighted as a major pain point, with numerous complaints about the quality and responsiveness of the support team.
Snov.io
Snov.io offers a comprehensive collection of sales tools designed to help businesses generate leads and engage with them effectively through email and LinkedIn automation.
With a robust mix of features, including a sales CRM, Chrome plugin, and LinkedIn prospect finder, Snov.io aims to streamline the sales process from prospecting to closing deals.
Top Features
Snov.io provides a diverse range of tools to support various aspects of the sales funnel:
- Email Finder and LinkedIn Prospect Finder: Locate and connect with potential leads across LinkedIn and through email, making it easier to build a strong sales pipeline.
- Email Verifier: Ensure your emails reach their destination by verifying email addresses before sending campaigns.
- Drip Campaign Creator: Automate follow-ups and nurture leads with personalized drip campaigns.
- Email Warmup and Gmail Email Tracker: Improve email deliverability and track interactions directly from your Gmail account.
- Sales CRM: Manage your sales pipeline efficiently with Snov.io’s integrated CRM, helping you stay organized and focused on high-priority tasks.
Pricing
Snov.io offers flexible pricing starting at $30 per month. A free trial is available, providing 50 credits per month, which allows users to test the platform’s capabilities. However, advanced features like verification, integrations, and API access are only available in paid plans.
Downsides
While Snov.io offers a powerful set of tools, there are some downsides to consider:
- Challenging Setup: New users, particularly those without technical expertise, may find the setup process complex and time-consuming.
- Pricing Scalability: As your needs grow, especially with a large number of email addresses, the pricing can become quite steep, making it less cost-effective for small businesses.
- Data Accuracy Concerns: Users have reported issues with the accuracy of the data provided through email verification and data enrichment features.
- Customer Support: The platform’s customer support has been criticized for being unresponsive, which can be frustrating for users encountering issues.
User Reviews
User feedback on Snov.io has been mixed, reflecting both the strengths and challenges of the platform. The user experience is often noted as an area needing improvement, with some users finding the interface and workflow less intuitive than expected.
Email verification accuracy is a recurring concern, as is the effectiveness of data enrichment tools, which some users feel do not meet their expectations.
Additionally, while the platform offers a range of useful features, the pricing can quickly escalate, especially for businesses managing large volumes of email addresses, making it less accessible for smaller teams.
Conclusion
Clay is a solid choice if you need to scrape contact lists as a base for outreach efforts. But as many Clay customers have noted, Clay still needs some improvements in the sphere of user experience, integrations, templates, and the way credits are consumed.
If you’re looking for an alternative that focuses more on outreach than building lists, we have just what the doctor ordered. With Woodpecker, you can easily create and manage cold email sequences, helping you turn prospects into customers.
Grab your free trial and get started today!