Apollo.io: one of the largest contact databases in the world
Apollo.io has a sizeable database with contact details for more than 10 million companies and 200 million people. Worth noting too: the database is refreshed every three months. The data is generally good quality. Every email goes through a 5-step verification process.
The solution offers a search engine with more than 60 advanced filters that let you sort companies as well as the profiles you’re after.
On one side, Apollo.io lets you search and sort companies by location but also by headcount, revenue, funding rounds and so on.
On the other, their people search engine works as an ideal tool for finding a prospect’s contact details. You can search for people with key filters such as their location, their company or their job title. Then you can contact them straight from the Apollo.io interface.
Another strong point of Apollo.io is that it can connect to your CRM. That makes sure you don’t contact a company or a person twice. Apollo.io’s search engine leaves out the people you have already contacted, which helps you keep a clean customer database.
The Salesdorado take
Impressive as Apollo.io is on prospecting features, we may prefer other solutions depending on the market when it comes to data quality.
A genuine CRM built around prospecting
A free cold mailing tool
Cold emailing is often part of your sales prospecting plan. Without an effective tool, though, your campaigns often see weak engagement rates. Apollo.io offers a free cold emailing solution that does a real job of lifting the engagement of your emails.
You can also build sequences by adding or removing contacts by hand. And you can create automated or semi-automated sequences to raise the engagement of your emails.
The tool lets you detect when a recipient is out of the office. So you can pick the best moment to send your emails based on your contacts’ schedules.
Not sure which engagement strategy to go with? Apollo.io offers an A/B test feature.
The tool also lets you set email sending limits per day or per hour, to keep a good sender reputation and stay out of spam. Apollo.io recommends setting the sending limit between 100 and 400 emails a day and a maximum of 100 an hour. On sending limits, though, don’t forget to factor in the specifics of your own tools and company.
A complete calling tool
Apollo.io also covers your needs on the cold calling side. The tool offers click-to-call, for instance: you can make calls straight from the tool.
You can also change your phone number’s area code and therefore change the location your call appears to come from.
Apollo.io also lets you record calls. Recordings can help you spot what to improve in your call scripts, for example.
Apollo.io’s Google Chrome extension
One of Apollo.io’s big assets is the Google Chrome extension, which connects to both your inbox and LinkedIn.
Connecting your Gmail account to Apollo.io lets you send emails with open tracking and follow the status of each email.
The tool also lets you build prospecting email templates.
Apollo.io also integrates neatly with LinkedIn. This extension lets you build email send lists from LinkedIn or LinkedIn Sales Navigator. 
So you can email them directly from LinkedIn.
The extension therefore lets you pull every email and phone number out of LinkedIn and sync them instantly with your CRM.
Worth knowing too: this extension gives you access to LinkedIn from your Gmail inbox.
The Salesdorado take
Apollo is a real multichannel prospecting platform covering LinkedIn, cold email and calling, with detailed tracking of every lead’s interactions and plenty of contextual data (open job postings, role changes, tools in use, and so on). All of that data is available very quickly.
Apollo.io’s integrations
Apollo.io’s Google Chrome extension comes with several integrations that can make prospecting easier: Salesforce, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Salesloft and Outreach.
Apollo.io also integrates with CRMs, Hubspot and Salesforce in particular.
Apollo.io has its own API as well, which gives access to Apollo.io’s features without any integration work on your side.
Apollo.io pricing
Apollo.io offers 4 different plans. Note that you can start on the free plan, or use the 14-day trial on the Basic or Professional plans to try the solution out.
- The Free plan: this plan lets you connect your Gmail account to the solution, run two email sequences and send 250 emails a day. You can also track the open status of the emails you send and their engagement. Apollo.io can be integrated with other tools such as HubSpot, Salesforce, SalesLoft and Zapier, though API access is limited on this subscription. You get 50 email credits a month.
- The Basic plan at $49 a month ($30 a month on an annual subscription): on top of the free plan’s features, there is no cap on sequences or on emails sent per day. You also get the more advanced filters and can customise the various filter fields. The solution can be connected not just to Gmail but to every email provider. This subscription unlocks deeper integration features with HubSpot and Salesforce. Reporting data and dashboards are extra features you get as well. And you get 200 email credits a month.
- The Professional plan at $99 a month ($79 a month on an annual subscription): you get the Basic plan’s features, plus A/B testing for your email sends, call recording and the ability to customise the steps of your prospecting. Your email credits are unlimited.
- The Custom plan, available on request only: you get the tool’s deepest features, including call transcription and the ability to customise your number by country or region. The API features go further too. And you get onboarding plus a direct relationship with the company.