Email and LinkedIn are some of the most effective communication channels for B2B. Nowadays, successful businesses don’t do manual outreach through these channels. Instead, they use cold emailing and LinkedIn automation tools. Skylead stands out as one of the leaders in the cold email market, promising stellar sales results.
But is Skylead really that effective? Can you get a better LinkedIn automation tool for less money? Let’s find out.
What is Skylead?
Skylead is a multichannel outreach tool that allows businesses and agencies to use cold emails and automated LinkedIn messages to reach prospects. It uses features such as cold email templates, AI personalization, smart sequence builders, automated follow-ups and more, to get more sales through the door for your organization.
Skylead: top features
If you want to spark new conversations, convert leads into customers, get precious information from LinkedIn profiles… You’re in luck. Here are some of the features you can expect from Skylead.
- Email discovery and verification: grab addresses from LinkedIn using the mail finder and then verify if they’re legitimate to ensure a high response rate
- LinkedIn automation: automated connection requests, messages, and InMails
- Image and GIF personalization: send personalized images for each cold email and improve your conversion rates
- Unlimited email accounts: add as many accounts for your company as you need for lead generation and outreach
Skylead as cold emailing and LinkedIn automation tool: downsides
The most common complaint about Skylead is the pricing and we’re going to talk about it in a minute. There are just two pricing plans, one suited for businesses and the other for agencies. If you want fewer features at a lower price point, you’re stuck.
Users also report that there are not very many outreach templates built into the tool as a starting point. If you’re new to prospecting and using outreach as a strategy, having templates is one of the main benefits of grabbing an email/LinkedIn outreach tool.
Speaking of being new, you’ll have to explore quite a bit before you can get your desired reply rates for each outreach campaign. There are quite a few features for cold emailing and LinkedIn outreach and you’ll need to set aside some time for learning.
The fact that the user experience is not the greatest is not going to help either.
Skylead pricing
Skylead has only two pricing plans and here’s a detailed explanation on both.
The All-in-one plan costs $100 per month and you can purchase it on a monthly or annual basis. There are no discounts for purchasing an annual plan upfront.
In this plan, you get:
- Unlimited email accounts
- 100,000 monthly emails
- One LinkedIn profile
- LinkedIn automation (sending personalized connection requests, messages, etc.)
- Email finder and verifier
- Email automation and smart sequences
- API integration
This plan is suitable for businesses of all sizes but it may be limited for agencies. This is why there is a second Skylead plan, called White Label.
In this plan, customers can expect:
- Your own branded emails and communication channels
- Branded customer support
- Dedicated customer success manager
- Tiered pricing system
- Agency dashboard
- Unlimited team members
Unfortunately, there are no additional details for this plan. To get the exact pricing, you have to talk to sales.
Top Skylead alternatives for LinkedIn and cold email outreach
So far, we’ve seen that Skylead has powerful options for cold emails and LinkedIn. But there are some downsides that may just require you to look at competitors. Here are some of the very best Skylead alternatives that should be on your radar.
Woodpecker
Woodpecker is a valuable tool designed to help sales representatives and agencies send personalized messages to large audiences. It’s particularly effective for organizing and managing email campaigns, making it a strong choice for teams looking to optimize their outreach efforts.
➡️ Top Features:
- Natural and Protected Sending: Woodpecker ensures your emails appear as if they’re sent by a person, reducing the likelihood of being marked as spam.
- Centralized Client Management: Manage all your clients in one panel, making it easier to oversee multiple campaigns from a single location.
- Warm-Up & Recovery: This feature helps maintain and recover your email sending capabilities, ensuring consistent performance.
- 24/7 Deliverability Monitoring: Continuous monitoring helps identify and resolve potential issues before they affect your campaigns.
- Email List Verification: Verify email addresses to ensure your messages reach the right recipients, improving overall campaign effectiveness.
- A/B Testing: Test different elements of your emails to determine what works best, enhancing the success of your campaigns.
➡️ Pricing:
Woodpecker’s pricing starts at $29 per month for up to 500 contacts. The cost increases with the number of contacts, but adding team members doesn’t incur additional charges. A 7-day free trial is available, allowing users to explore all features before committing.
➡️ Downsides:
- Email Marketing Focus: Woodpecker excels in email marketing but may lack the robust LinkedIn integrations that some alternatives offer. However, it does integrate with Hunter, which can extend its capabilities into LinkedIn automation.
Looking for a better way to drive sales from cold email? Grab your free trial of Woodpecker today!
Zopto
Zopto is a powerful omnichannel revenue generation platform designed for B2B companies. It enables businesses to run AI-enhanced campaigns across multiple channels, including LinkedIn, Twitter, and email, while adhering to platform guidelines and limits.
➡️ Top Features:
- AI-Enhanced Omnichannel Campaigns: Leverage AI to optimize your outreach efforts across LinkedIn, Twitter, and email.
- Secure LinkedIn Prospecting: Safely prospect on LinkedIn without violating platform guidelines.
- Real-Time Campaign Reporting: Monitor the performance of your campaigns with up-to-the-minute analytics.
- Advanced Prospect Finder: Use sophisticated filtering to identify the best prospects for your business.
- Scheduled Outbound Campaigns: Automate and schedule your outreach across multiple platforms.
- Integrations: Seamlessly integrate with tools like HubSpot, Hyperise, and Zapier for enhanced functionality.
➡️ Pricing:
Zopto offers five pricing plans:
- Agency and Enterprise Basic: $156/month
- Basic Plan: $197/month
- Agency and Enterprise Pro: $237/month
- Pro Plan: $297/month (includes all AI features)
These plans provide various levels of access to Zopto’s features, with the Pro Plan unlocking the full suite of AI capabilities.
➡️ Downsides:
- Slow Performance: Users have reported that the platform can be slow, which may hinder workflow efficiency.
- Poor Customer Service and Cancellation Policies: The customer service and cancellation process have received criticism for being less than satisfactory.
- Steep Learning Curve: Beginners might find Zopto challenging to master due to its complexity.
- Reporting Limitations: The reporting features, while functional, could benefit from further enhancements.
➡️ User Reviews:
- “The price was a bit expensive. Also, there’s one thing I dislike about Zopto; you cannot use Zopto without LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Also, automating messages is, in my opinion, a really bad move and it’s so obvious. But other than that, it’s all good.”
- “It can be hard to learn the finer points of all that Zopto can do—and to remember them each time when building new campaigns. I’d like to see better step-by-step training videos.”
Waalaxy
Waalaxy is a lead generation tool that focuses on automating LinkedIn activities, making it easier to connect with potential leads and schedule interactions. While it’s primarily designed for LinkedIn, it also offers features for cold emailing, providing a more comprehensive outreach solution.
➡️ Top Features:
- Email Finder: Locate and verify email addresses to enhance your outreach campaigns.
- Integrations: Connect Waalaxy with various tools for a smoother workflow.
- Campaign Tracking: Monitor the performance of your campaigns with detailed analytics.
- A/B Testing: Optimize your outreach strategies by testing different approaches.
- AI Prospect Finder: Leverage AI to identify potential leads more effectively.
➡️ Pricing:
Waalaxy offers a free plan, though it comes with significant limitations. For more robust features, there are two paid plans starting at €112/month. Teams looking for collaborative features might consider the Team plan. Additionally, various add-ons are available to extend the tool’s capabilities.
➡️ Downsides:
- Limited Cold Email Features: The cold email functionality is not as comprehensive, with automation features only available in the highest plan.
- LinkedIn Focus: Waalaxy is more geared towards LinkedIn activities, which might be a drawback if you need a more balanced tool that also emphasizes cold emailing.
- Restrictions in Free Plan: The free plan is quite limited, which might not provide enough value for users looking to explore the tool’s full potential.
- No Native HubSpot Integration: For users relying on HubSpot, the lack of native integration could be a significant limitation.
➡️ User Reviews:
- “Automatic connection requests are a bit annoying.” (G2)
- “Sometimes not so easy to find your way through what to do.” (G2)
- “Some functions, such as search based on location and experience, are still missing, but I think they are still working on that.” (G2)
- “The platform is riddled with bugs that frequently hinder workflow. Speed, or the lack thereof, has been a recurrent issue. For a tool priced at a premium, one would expect seamless, efficient operations, but this has not been my experience.” (G2)
Salesrobot
Salesrobot is a robust sales engagement tool designed to help businesses automate their outreach efforts across email and LinkedIn. By centralizing communication and leveraging automation, it aims to streamline the process of reaching potential customers.
➡️ Top Features:
- Central Inbox: Manage all your LinkedIn and email outreach from a single, unified inbox.
- CSV List Imports: Easily import contact lists from CSV files for streamlined outreach.
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator Integration: Enhance your LinkedIn outreach with direct integration to Sales Navigator.
- Automated Follow-Ups: Set up automated follow-up sequences to ensure consistent engagement with your prospects.
- Team Collaboration: Collaborate with your team through a joint inbox, making it easier to manage outreach efforts collectively.
- AI Writing Assistant: Generate and refine your outreach messages with the help of AI-driven writing suggestions.
➡️ Pricing:
Salesrobot offers a straightforward pricing model starting at $99 per month for one email and one LinkedIn account. Additionally, there’s a free 14-day trial available for users who want to explore the tool before committing.
➡️ Downsides:
- Limited Email Automation: While Salesrobot excels in LinkedIn automation, it lacks advanced automation features for email, which might be a limitation for some users.
- LinkedIn Algorithm Dependency: The tool relies heavily on LinkedIn’s algorithm, meaning improper use could result in account restrictions or bans.
➡️ User Reviews:
- Ease of Use: Users find Salesrobot fairly easy to use and appreciate its effectiveness in delivering on its promises.
- Glitches: Some users report occasional glitches, particularly with LinkedIn automation, often due to changes in LinkedIn’s algorithm.
- Customer Service: The customer service is generally well-regarded, providing good support to users when needed.
Emelia.io
Emelia.io is a versatile outreach tool that combines the power of email and LinkedIn to help businesses maximize their outreach efforts. This all-in-one platform is designed to streamline the process of engaging with potential leads across both channels.
➡️ Top Features:
- Email and LinkedIn Outreach: Seamlessly manage and execute outreach campaigns on both email and LinkedIn.
- Email Warmup: Ensure your emails are primed for high deliverability with built-in warmup features.
- Email Finder: Easily discover and verify email addresses for your prospects.
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator Scraper: Extract valuable data from LinkedIn Sales Navigator to enhance your outreach.
- Cold Email Campaign Builder: Create and send personalized campaigns with multiple sender functionality.
- CRM Integrations: Connect Emelia.io with your CRM for a cohesive outreach experience.
- LinkedIn Profile Automation: Automate LinkedIn profile visits, messages, connection requests, and more.
➡️ Pricing:
Emelia.io offers flexible pricing based on the number of mailboxes, accounts, and credits you need. The basic plan starts at $39/month for one email account with 1,000 credits. If you want to add a LinkedIn account, it costs extra. For the most accurate pricing, it’s recommended to visit their pricing page and enter your specific details.
➡️ Downsides:
- Lack of User Reviews: There are no user reviews available on major platforms like G2, Capterra, or Trustradius. This absence of social proof could be a concern for potential users, as there’s no readily available feedback on the tool’s performance or reliability. Prospective users may need to sign up and test the tool themselves, which could mean investing money without external validation.
Smartlead
Smartlead is a powerful tool designed to help businesses scale their cold email outreach efforts. While primarily focused on cold emailing, it also offers multi-channel infrastructure, allowing users to diversify their outreach strategies if they choose to do so.
➡️ Top Features:
- Deliverability Capabilities: Ensure your emails land in the inbox, not the spam folder.
- Unlimited Email Warmups: Get your email domains warmed up to maintain high deliverability rates.
- Email Follow-Up Automation: Streamline your follow-up process with automated sequences.
- Unified Inbox: Manage all your emails from various accounts in one central place.
- API Access: Integrate Smartlead with your existing systems for a seamless experience.
➡️ Pricing:
Smartlead offers three pricing plans starting at $39/month. There’s also a custom plan for those with specific needs, and a free trial is available for users who want to test the waters before committing.
Downsides:
- Limited Add-Ons: Some features, like specific add-ons, are available only for subscribers of the highest plan.
- Reliability Issues: Users have reported occasional reliability problems, which can be a concern for time-sensitive tasks.
- User Interface: The UI is often described as being less user-friendly, with room for improvement.
➡️ User Reviews:
- “The tool is maybe a bit too ‘raw’ in terms of design.” (G2)
- “It’s slightly complex and often my MX inbox gets disconnected with confusing instructions on how to proceed to the next steps.” (G2)
- “While Smartlead offers many beneficial features, it occasionally lags, which can be a hindrance in time-sensitive scenarios.” (G2)
- “Loading sometimes takes too long; I need to refresh the inboxes manually as they didn’t fetch new emails in real-time.” (G2)
Conclusion
Skylead is a powerful tool, without a doubt. But is it really the best choice for the money? If you want to achieve success with cold emails, you need a flexible tool that guarantees you to break through to the primary inbox.
For this, you need Woodpecker. Our combination of deliverability tools, AI features and deep personalization lets just about any business knock it out of the park with cold email.
Take it for a free test drive today!