Cleverly Review: What We Love (And Hate) About This LinkedIn Lead Gen Agency

I’m going to say what everyone’s thinking, LinkedIn lead generation is a real pain in the a**.

At least if you’re trying to do it all by yourself.

You need to:

1. Build out a list of potential customers and find their LinkedIn profiles.

2. Send them messages that don’t get ignored.

3. Follow up with them at least 4-5 times.

4. Nurture the conversation once they respond and try to convert them into leads.

Don’t you want an easier way out?

One that doesn’t make you want to jump off of a cliff?

That’s what LinkedIn lead gen services are for.

And today in my Cleverly review, we’ll learn about one of the popular names in the market. 

This blog is for you if you want to know:

• What even is Cleverly?

• The services you can outsource to Cleverly.

• Cost of subscribing to any of Cleverly’s services.

• Things that will make you avoid Cleverly. 

• And who you should look to if you want to automate your LinkedIn outreach the right way.

So settle in because we’re going to learn if Cleverly can be the service that will help you get loyal customers and earn the big bucks. 

Cleverly Review: What is Cleverly?

Cleverly is a cloud-based LinkedIn sales automation platform and service.

‍The service helps small to medium businesses target high-quality prospects for more conversions on LinkedIn.

Wanna hear that in simpler words?

‍Cleverly cuts the manual effort needed for getting leads from LinkedIn.

That’s less time spent on mindless, repetitive tasks like clicking Connect buttons on LinkedIn and more time spent closing deals. 💰💰

But here’s the kicker, Cleverly claims to use AI and ML to find winning cold outreach strategies from thousands of outbound B2B campaigns. 

They claim that this technology is the real secret sauce for reaching out to your ideal prospects.

That too with messages that they actually want to read. 

And before you say it, yes, Cleverly also claims to target your ideal customers based on their outbound sales data.

Cleverly claims to have enough experience targeting key decision-makers for any industry.

From the looks of it, it’s easy to assume that their data-based outreach just works. 

Well, that is until it doesn’t. 

As you’ll find out soon enough in this Cleverly review, their marketing hype only goes so far. 

Cleverly Review: What Can Cleverly Do For You?

Now, outreach automation and personalized messages aren't the only things Cleverly has to offer.

In fact, you have a laundry list of services to choose from. 

Keep in mind that each of its services has a separate pricing plan.

‍Check out their pricing plans here (saving you a lot of headache, eh?).

Back to the Cleverly review, here’s a comprehensive look at everything it can do for you:

LinkedIn Lead Generation

You already know about Cleverly’s claims around data and AI technology wizardry. 

Cleverly claims to use AI algorithms to scan for LinkedIn profiles that best fit your ICP.

It drafts personalized cold messages, and you get notified whenever your prospects respond. 

Of course, it’s not always that simple.

Let me show you what I mean:

• Prospect List Building:

Cleverly uses its prospect-building feature to create a contact list by scraping LinkedIn data. 

What does that mean for you?

You get a catalog full of prospects. 

But Cleverly is known to build prospect lists directly from Sales Navigator.

And it is well known that Sales Navigator has bugs and shows 40% or more irrelevant prospects!

Here is my good friend Vovik lamenting about this problem.

• A/B Testing:

With a prospect list in hand, Cleverly’s campaigns start sending messages automatically. 

But let’s be real.

Not every message will be a smash hit.

‍You’d be surprised at how the smallest changes can make or break response rates.

That’s why Cleverly comes with A/B testing for campaigns.

Now, you can compare each campaign and track prospect engagement.

• LinkedIn Training Resources:

A LinkedIn outreach campaign generating leads on auto-pilot forever is the dream.

Hate waking up from that, don’t you?

Cleverly helps you make LinkedIn lead gen efforts sustainable. 

They assign you a dedicated Account Manager.

You get weekly reports, monthly calls, and advice on improving your campaigns. 

If that wasn’t enough, they teach you everything you need to know about LinkedIn selling. 

In addition to these neat services, Cleverly also helps you tweak your LinkedIn business page to look more professional.

First impressions count, y’know?

But speaking of first impressions, what you say to your prospects matters.

Sound too robotic, fill your message with technical jargon, and you have a surefire way to tune out customers.

You’ll find out soon enough that Cleverly has had a bad streak of poorly personalized messages. 

Cold Email Lead Generation

Cleverly uses its database to create cold email campaigns.

And all the good stuff about LinkedIn messages?

You get it all here.

Proven templates, personalization, you name it.

You also get help from a dedicated cold email expert from their agency.

So, rather than receiving help from someone outside the team, you get to work with an outsourced expert.

While their approach to email outreach remains the same, there are a few tweaks to help you evade the dreaded SPAM folder:

1. Cleverly engages with your team to pick out your ideal customer persona (ICP).

You get to craft messages that will hook your target audience. 

Cleverly’s team will set up the email infrastructure needed to pull off your cold outreach.

2. Once that’s done, Cleverly will launch what they call “micro” campaigns.

What does that mean?

It’s basically A/B testing email copies on a small fraction of your target audience. 

3. Cleverly scans campaign metrics to focus on exactly what makes the winning emails, well, win. 

LinkedIn Paid Advertising

Now, what if I told you that everything I have mentioned thus far in my Cleverly review can come bundled in a package for LinkedIn ads?

‍Because that’s exactly what this service does.

Prospect hunting, A/B testing, ad design, Cleverly helps you get more conversions through LinkedIn ads.

That too with done-for-you campaigns. 

Scaling your LinkedIn advertising efforts can be a chore.

Especially when you don’t even know where to start!

Cleverly first circles on the key decision-makers and creates lead magnets that are guaranteed to get more eyes on your business. 

After that, the only thing left to do is book a meeting and close the deal!

LinkedIn Content Service

Let’s be real, LinkedIn is a massive place.

And it’s growing by the minute. 

If you want to convince your prospect your business knows what it's doing, you need to be a vocal member of the LinkedIn sphere. 

But how exactly are you supposed to build your business as one of the experts in your niche? 

You want my opinion?

I feel your LinkedIn content (posts and comments) does wonders.

LinkedIn posts are the perfect place to assert your authority in the market or make relevant posts for your target audience.

Cleverly offers content creation and ghostwriting services to help you with that.

‍Answer their preliminary questions and just sit back. 

Cleverly’s team creates posts that engage your prospects and you get notified when they like, comment, or message you. 

Now this would be the perfect service, if not for the poor quality of writing that Cleverly offers.

Poorly personalized will absolutely ruin your market reach.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg with Cleverly’s shortcomings

LinkedIn Recruiting

Recruiting the perfect candidates for your company gets harder the more you think about its logistics.

There’s targeting, outreach, engagement, hiring fees, InMail credits if needed, and the list can go on for a while.

If you’ve noticed a pattern by now, then you already know how this will work with Cleverly.

Cleverly’s algorithm compiles LinkedIn data for relevant candidates based on your location, sends messages on auto-pilot, and notifies you when they respond.

White-label Lead Generation

As you’ve seen in my Cleverly review, they find the best LinkedIn prospects for you and nurture them into sales-ready leads with AI-based campaigns.

Now, I get it.

‍Building a LinkedIn outreach tool can be insanely difficult if you want to do it in-house.

And it can be done if you have a vault full of gold just lying around.

So, you want your business to generate leads for your clients like Cleverly.

And you can do that by choosing to white-label Cleverly.

White-labeling Cleverly lets you add their advanced list-building and message sequences to your brand solutions. 

Cleverly onboards your clients with non-branded questionnaires and meetings.

They basically act like a part of your team by running your client’s campaigns on your behalf.

These services mean Cleverly has something for everyone.

But wait, isn’t there something you’re forgetting? 

You need to know how many changes you’d need to make in your budget to afford Cleverly’s LinkedIn lead generation services.

Trust me, you need to re-think your financial plans after you see the next part of my Cleverly review…

Cleverly Pricing: How Much Does Cleverly Cost?

With a huge list of services, offering a one-size-fits-all pricing plan would be a little dumb, wouldn’t it?

That’s why every service provided by Cleverly comes with its own cost. 

Just so that you don’t have to go digging around for this info, my Cleverly review comes with a handy guide to help you see it all in one place:

• LINKEDIN LEAD GENERATION

Cleverly offers this service in three packages: 

1. Silver for $397/month - The Silver pricing plan gives you access to a dedicated account manager AI prospecting, A/B campaign testing, and other Cleverly features and lets you reach out to 500 prospects a month.

2. Gold for $697/month - Gold gets you an added bonus of getting a dedicated appointment setter and done-for-you meetings.

This includes everything in the Silver plan.

3. Platinum for $997/month - For larger groups, Cleverly offers the Teams plan.

You can add 3 LinkedIn profiles and 500+ guaranteed prospects. 

• COLD EMAIL LEAD GENERATION

The “Growth” plan for email lead generation requires you to contact Cleverly’s team and get custom pricing to pay for every meeting-ready lead.

• LINKEDIN PAID ADVERTISING

Cleverly has 3 pricing plans if you want them to manage your LinkedIn advertising campaigns:

1. Starter for $999/month - With up to $3k/month for ad spending, the Starter plan includes a few basic features for your LinkedIn ad campaigns.
   You get ad analytics, LinkedIn ad campaign management, dedicated account managers, and monthly optimization calls.

2. Scale for $1,999/month - With the Scale plan, you’ll get services that the previous plan is missing.
   You get to play around with retargeting strategies, campaign segmentation, new ad images, and weekly reports.

3. Enterprise for $2,999/month - Now for their highest pricing plan, you can go all out with unlimited ad image revisions and testing.

Quick aside, it looks like you need to pay some big bucks to get the complete LinkedIn ad experience with Cleverly. 

Customers going for the lower tier plans are locked out of some neat services.

Your LinkedIn ad strategies can get incredibly slow, if not worse. 

• LINKEDIN CONTENT SERVICE FOR $997/MONTH

Cleverly’s content writing and posting services give you 10 LinkedIn posts every month. 

Cleverly posts LinkedIn content for you. ‍

These are written by proven ghostwriters on the Cleverly team. 

But the last part can be a bit of a monkey’s paw.

The problem comes with Cleverly’s poor quality of work from its team of writers.

• LINKEDIN RECRUITING FOR $397/MONTH

The LinkedIn recruiting plan from Cleverly combines services you’ve come to expect from their agency, pivoted for talent recruitment.

This plan assures you of gathering 500 recruits a month.

Cleverly takes care of crafting cold messages, identifying the best talent in your industry, and consistently improving your campaigns.

• WHITE-LABEL LEAD GENERATION FOR $397/MONTH

Cleverly offers this pricing plan for businesses that want to include LinkedIn lead generation in their core offerings. 

Whew, that was a lot.

Congrats if you have made it this far without going insane.

But wait, there’s something else to think about. 

Do all these services sound too good to be true?

How personal are Cleverly’s personalized messages?

Are you even talking to prospects who want to listen to you?

It wouldn’t be much of a Cleverly review if we didn’t look at what some verified customers had to say…

3 Reasons Why You Should Use Cleverly

• Supportive Account Managers

Cleverly takes a hands-on approach when it comes to onboarding, ICP targeting, and brainstorming campaign ideas. 

In fact, several users praise their assigned Account Managers for being responsive and prompt with answers.

‍Their deep understanding of the LinkedIn ecosystem definitely helps. 

• Advanced Prospect Targeting and Engagement

What sounds better, more faceless connections on LinkedIn or a steady list of contacts who are ready to engage with your company?

If you’ve spent more than a day on LinkedIn, your answer is definitely the latter. 

Cleverly’s LinkedIn algorithm targets prospects with whom you’re more likely to have meaningful connections (wink wink 😉).

Verified Cleverly users state the high response rates their clients receive when Cleverly handles your outreach and prospect engagement. 

• Easy Automation Setup 

Cleverly has an easy-to-use interface that customers can navigate through without any hassle.

And for those who still needed a helping hand understanding their features, their customer support team has been prompt. 

Not to mention, the onboarding process for new users is an absolute walk in the park. 

...And 3 Reasons Why You Should *NOT* Use Cleverly

Look, I really wish using Cleverly was all sunshine and rainbows.

But the truth is, there’s a fair share of reasons NOT to use Cleverly.

Don’t believe me?

Here are 3 cons of Cleverly’s LinkedIn lead generation service:

• Poorly Personalized Messages and No Meaningful Connections

Based on your business’ industry and target audience, you could have a hard time figuring out who to reach out to and what to say to them.

While Cleverly’s services promise to fix that for you, chances are, it makes no difference to your outreach.

Several customers report that their first impressions had a rocky start.

From misunderstandings to account managers not understanding the industry, it can mess up your campaigns before they even start.

All this results in you barely receiving any connections.

And even when you do, there’s a low chance that they want to talk to you or schedule meetings at all.

Ready for the kicker?

Some tech-savvy users who know their way around outreach tools managed to get the same results (if not better) without Cleverly’s help!

• Zero Communication and Optimization Attempts

Not getting the prospects in their seats for meetings is one thing.

But being in the dark when it comes to how your campaigns are doing is downright criminal.

As mentioned earlier, Cleverly has a bit of a problem in communication.

Several users have reported that Cleverly never notified them about failing campaigns.

Worse yet, Cleverly does nothing to re-strategize and get your campaigns back in shape again.

• Poor Copywriting Service

The real nail in the coffin, however, is the poorly written messages.

‍Forget personalization, users often see messages with typos galore!

In a world where first impressions with company execs mean everything, do you really want to start things off with horrible spelling mistakes?

Not to be dramatic, but it’s a cutthroat market out there.

Perfecting your outreach is perhaps the most important part of your million-dollar money-making scheme. 

Despite the promise of outreach automation and targeting, betting on a service that might fail to do either for you sounds like a recipe for disaster.

So, what are your options now?

You still need an automated LinkedIn outreach tool that targets your prospects.

The ones that actually want to talk to you about your business solutions.

You probably also want to white-label a lead gen service that writes engaging LinkedIn posts.

Oh, you need constant updates for your campaigns. 

Sounds like a service you can only get by selling your soul?

Boy, do I have a surprise for you… 

SalesRobot: The Ultimate LinkedIn Lead Generation Solution

SalesRobot is an automated LinkedIn outreach tool that helps you meet with the perfect customers.

Our platform makes LinkedIn outreach fun again with advanced messaging campaigns targeted at the prospects that actually matter.

Look, Cleverly is great.

But they’re one of those agencies that claim to do everything.

They do:

1. Linkedin lead generation

2. Cold email lead generation

3. LinkedIn Paid Ads

4. LinkedIn Content Service

5. White-label lead generation

SalesRobot focuses just on LinkedIn lead generation with a dash of cold email, and our deep focus on that channel produces great results for our customers. 

In fact, many of our customers are ex-Cleverly customers.

‍There’s a reason we are rated 4.8 stars out of 5 on G2.

But that’s just the beginning.

Let me show you what SalesRobot has in store for you:

What Does SalesRobot Offer For LinkedIn Outreach?

LinkedIn has tons of places where you can find the perfect prospects.

The only problem?

You probably don’t have the time (or sanity) to go through them manually. 

SalesRobot lets you import prospects from LinkedIn and Sales Nav searches, Groups, Events, posts, hashtags, and even make custom CSV imports. 

So, we have some nifty targeting features to build your prospect pool.

What’s next?

• AI-powered Outbound Campaigns

SalesRobot offers you highly customizable LinkedIn messaging campaigns.

‍ Bonus fact, it’s so easy to set up that even a total beginner can use it from day 1. 

That’s because you have an ace up your sleeve.

We call it SalesGPT.

SalesGPT is our AI-powered sales assistant.

And what it needs from you is a simple conversation in English. 

One chat, and our tool will make detailed prospect lists, the top pain points, and how your business solutions can help them. 

Congratulations, that’s literally all it takes to create your very first campaign with SalesRobot.

• Personalization Options for the “Human” Touch

Quick, if you want your sales efforts to fall flat on its face, start sending generic cold messages without a hint of personality.

Trust me, a little visual flair helps your messages stand out.

‍And hey, make your customers laugh once and you probably have a long-term customer in your hands.

Since we hate manual efforts to LinkedIn outreach at SalesRobot, our Hyperise integration automates message personalizations for you. 

It’s not just customized pictures and GIFs, you can also embed content with your business links or attach a short URL.

• Configurable Follow Ups 

Chances are, you’re probably not converting every prospect with your first message.

Configuring follow ups is crucial to keep your recipient engaged. 

Aside from adding more messages to your sequence, SalesRobot lets you automate advanced steps like endorsing your prospects’ LinkedIn profiles.

We also let you configure delays in your follow ups.

‍This makes your messages feel like they are coming from an actual human rather than a spambot.

The profile-based personalization options scan your prospect’s profile to add some authenticity to your messages.

Mentioning small details about your recipient is a serious knockout move. 

Our Smart Reply Detection feature automatically stops the follow up sequence when your prospects reply to you.

This is your time to shine by closing the deal.

As for writing the actual messages, the Readability Score feature calculates the likelihood of a response based on your message draft. 

• Templates for Every Occasion

Don’t worry, we have something for the seasoned veterans out there too. 

If you’re confident enough to design your own messaging sequence, you can start off by choosing one of three templates on SalesRobot. 

“Quick Start” offers ready-made message sequences.

If you have made a sequence earlier, “From Template” lets you reuse earlier templates.

If you want to start from square one, you can choose “From Scratch”. 

• Safety Features

LinkedIn prospecting is all fun and games till your beloved LinkedIn profile gets banned. 

Going by what you’ve seen in my Cleverly review, it’s probably not the best idea to put your company’s reputation in the hands of an unreliable outreach tool.

That’s why, in addition to a Safe Mode feature, SalesRobot keeps you away from hot water by safely bypassing the LinkedIn limits to help you reach 100s of prospects daily.

By the way, about the Safe Mode feature, we offer that with every pricing plan. 😉

And if you want to whitelabel SalesRobot’s product/service, then I have the perfect video for you!:

SalesRbot White-Labeling Options

Unlike Cleverly, SalesRobot offers you a complete product when you choose to white-label us. 

But does that mean we’re skimping out on the agency services?

Not at all!

Here's what you get when you choose white-label SalesRobot’s LinkedIn lead generation services:

• Complete Branding Control - 

Hey, branding is a big deal.

How else are your customers supposed to remember you otherwise? 

SalesRobot lets you customize our white-labeled tool in every way you see fit.

I’m talking domain and company name, logo, and Favicons.

To ensure no part of our brand shows up in your white-labeled tool, you can assign the support email for your clients to your domain. 

• Outreach and Optimization Management - 

When I say SalesRobot manages every part of your outreach, I truly mean every last bit of it.

SalesRobot pairs you with a dedicated account manager (and definitely one that you won’t have miscommunications with 😉).

We tweak your LinkedIn profile and messaging to give you an extra edge.

To help you figure out the perfect outreach, SalesRobot hosts scheduled calls every 2 weeks.

• Superior Client Management - 

Life would be a lot easier if white-labeling a product was just a set-it-and-forget-it affair.

But it’s not.

Managing all your clients at once sure sounds like a chore.

Only if you aren’t using SalesRobot’s Customer Management dashboard. 

Complete view of your clients, subscription statuses, client tagging for easy organization, all at your fingertips. 

Speaking of subscriptions, all the money your clients pay always goes to you first.

SalesRobot checks the total number of paying customers daily and charges you based on that.

• Premium Customer Support - 

Clients can hit a snag at any point in their LinkedIn outreach.

And that can happen at the worst times (for eg. right as you’re about to cut into your Thanksgiving turkey).

But don’t worry; SalesRobot has your back 24/7.

By that we really mean any day of the year. 

The best part is that SalesRobot knows you don’t deserve a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all plan.

Here's a super handy table that shows Salesrobot's prices for white labeling:

Need a custom quote for 100+ LinkedIn accounts? Then get a custom quote

How Much Does SalesRobot Cost?

Much like what you’ve seen in my Cleverly review, SalesRobot has three pricing plans.

Only difference?

You won’t lose your mind trying to read this!:

• Starter Plan: Do It Yourself for $99 per month - 

The Starter plan comes with our out-of-the-box awesome features to set you on the right track.

AI-generated message sequences, personalized messages, CRM integrations, A/B testing for campaigns, you name it.

• Pro Plan: We Do It For You - $1000 per month -

The Pro Plan includes everything you get from Starter, with a little extra kick.

SalesRobot starts you off with a detailed questionnaire. Based on your answers, we build detailed prospect lists and high-converting message sequences to target your ICP.

SalesRobot also assigns you a dedicated Account Manager and sits you down on optimization calls to help you with A/B testing every fortnight. 

• Pro+ Plan: We Do It All - $1500 per month - 

Now, this is where we really take things up a notch. Our Pro+ pricing plan gives you everything in the Pro plan. 

But with that you get the added perks of LinkedIn profile enhancements, 4 quality LinkedIn posts, and 40 comments on your prospects’ posts by our copywriters, and weekly optimization calls. 

Oh, almost forgot to tell you.

SalesRobot books 3-5 meetings monthly.

Just opt for the Pro and Pro+ plans, and sit back as we give you an audience with customers who actually want to buy from you.

Sound like a promising start to your brand-new LinkedIn outreach strategy?

Then, let’s chat over a quick call.

Coffee’s on me. 😄

But if you want our results to speak for themselves, don’t worry.

You can take SalesRobot out for a test drive with this 14-day free trial to try our features risk-free.

Is Investing in Cleverly worth it in 2024?

Cleverly is a LinkedIn lead generation agency you can effectively outsource your prospecting efforts to. 

Cleverly claims to use AI to scan through LinkedIn data and build prospect lists.

This technology also drafts cold messages and personalizes them accordingly.

‍But in practice, it relies on LinkedIn Sales Navigator which shows you irrelevant prospects 40% of the time.

And to figure out what works for you Cleverly claims to take on A/B testing micro-campaigns to see what works for your business.

Their experience with every industry means you always have the best way to reach key decision-makers.

However, this experience doesn’t always work as expected.

‍You might end up with poorly personalized messages that your readers will tune out while reading. 

Worse yet, their copywriting services are riddled with typos and content that doesn’t even concern your industry.

So, if you’re looking to turn to another LinkedIn outreach agency that also comes with a kick-ass tool, you can check out SalesRobot. 

AI-powered message campaigns, dedicated LinkedIn experts, quality copywritten content, complete white-label control, you name it, SalesRobot has it covered.

How would you like to talk to 100s of quality prospects every day?

Because SalesRobot safely bypasses those pesky LinkedIn limits.

Without risking your account. 

Check out our website here if all of this sounds like a dream come true.

Feel like we have more to talk about how you want your LinkedIn outreach?

Book a quick call with me!

Or maybe just read about why we’re rated 4.8 stars out of 5 on G2? 

And hey, if you think this is too good to be true, we have a 14-day free trial so you can see how our product lives up to its promises.

Until next time,

Good luck!  

‍

^{Disclaimer: The content of this blog post reflects our own opinions and judgements based on our research and experience as of 12.04.2024. Comparisons made to other software or tools are for informational purposes only and are based on publicly available information and our own analysis. We do not claim absolute accuracy and encourage readers to conduct their own research to form their own opinions. While we may discuss competitor offerings, our primary focus is to showcase the features and benefits of SalesRobot. SalesRobot is not affiliated with any other software or tool mentioned in this blog post.}