Video Overview
In this #4 episode of The B2B Outbound Marketing & Sales Automation Series, our honoured guest was the CEO of LinkedCamp, Arslan Nasir.
Due to the pandemic, Arslan and his team had a little extra time on their hands.
So, they rolled up their sleeves, and worked tirelessly to improve the tool.
Arslan is also showing a demo about how LinkedCamp works, and leads us into their big plans, expectations and ideas for 2021.
With their awesome feature – Scheduler, you can select working hours, days, and time zone to target people.
Give it a try for 10 whole days:
LinkedCamp
STAY TUNED for more success stories, tips&tricks, and more awesome tools in the B2B Outbound world!
Speakers
Interview Transcript
[00:00:07.070] – Dancho – Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of The B2B Outbound Marketing and Sales Automation. For today, I’m excited to have Arslan. Arslan is actually the CEO of LinkedCamp. So, Arsalan, welcome.
[00:00:20.740] – Arslan – Welcome. Thank you for inviting me.
[00:00:22.970] – Dancho – Yeah, it was a pleasure having you here. So let’s make things a bit more comfortable for you and just start with who is Arslan?
[00:00:31.310] – Arslan – Well, I have been a tech guy from last 10 years, and so I started back in 2010 and then I started working with, providing the services in regards to the development for the web app, for the mobile apps, then move to artificial intelligence and that stuff. And then I started my company back in 2015. That was named as Mobile Logics. So I started back in 2015, from Lithuania, and it’s headquartered in Lithuania. And from last one year we have been working with some of our clients in regards to providing digital marketing services. So we have some of clients who are using LinkedIn automations. So we just created a simple tool for our internal use, for our clients. And later down the line, with the start of this year, as the Covid thing happened, and we got some time because of the business went a little bit down, we got some time. So we improved the tool, and launch it into the market, from around 6 months before.
[00:01:41.120] – Dancho – Nice. So it’s not just a LinkedCamp – the automation app, so it is a whole company with additional tools and software development applications.
[00:01:49.430] – Arslan – Yeah, yeah.
[00:01:51.260] – Dancho – Nice. So where are you currently located, Arslan?
[00:01:53.660] – Arslan – I’m currently in Lithuania.
[00:01:56.120] – Dancho – So, yeah, where the company is established.
[00:01:58.658] – Arslan – Yeah, yeah.
[00:01:59.090] – Dancho – So, very nice to hear the story. So how did actually LinkedCamp started? I mean, what actually motivated you or inspired you to build this kind of automation?
[00:02:10.250] – Arslan – Well, we always been a fan of automation. We believe that if you have to do the same thing over and over again, let’s create some tool for that so that we can automate the process and decrease the time that we are consuming for doing the same stuff over and over again. So like from around 2 years, we have been providing marketing services to our clients, as well. And there was a huge demand from markets like US, and UK, in regards to LinkedIn automation, as well. So we created, that leads us to, we started with one client, that was the time we was doing that manually. Then we got some more clients, and we felt like this is something we can automate. So let’s create a tool for that. We created a team and we started building the tool, that was just for the internal use. And later down the line, our client base increased, over the time. And now at this stage, like 6 months before, probably 9 months before we decided, okay, let’s make a better UI/UX, create something better that looks good, that is interactive for the people and launch it as a SaaS tool in the market. So, we started working on that, and we launched it 6 months before. And that was basically because we are already very much big fan of automation. So, in our company and in our parent company, we always look forward to automate the processes, where we need to do the same type of stuff over and over again.
[00:03:43.530] – Dancho – I see, so it is actually a need-driven solution where I mean, I remember like 5, 6 years ago, when there were very maybe no automation at all, where even we were offering some LinkedIn services, but it was fully manual, like one person clicks, copy paste an invitation message, click send, and then go to the next one, click it, click send. And then when the automation started rising, it really helped companies a lot, especially with the invitations, with the sequence and everything. So it is a need-driven, as you said. And I understand you are a developer, which means that, okay, we call it lazy part because who’s going to do this every day? There has to be a more lazy way of doing this. And that’s how automations came up. And fast forward now, there are so many automation out there, especially into the marketing and sales outbound. I was just curious to see how are you positioned in regards to other automation tools? We’ve seen a lot of Chrome extensions. We’ve seen a lot of cloud apps. We’ve seen desktop applications. So, how are you positioned in the whole ecosystem of automations?
[00:04:54.410] – Arslan – Okay, so in regards to like our main focus was always to, we didn’t want to, like, go for the Chrome extension, there was at that time a lot of Chrome extensions in the market, but it’s sort of there, it’s not like sort of complete automation, but you need to have your computer on and things like that. So, you need to sit on the laptop or if not, your laptop needs to be turned on. So we came up with like, let’s go for something and create something cloud-based. So we did somehow, some of our research on the tech side. And then we went for the cloud-based solution. This is LinkedCamp, a cloud-based solution. Then we, our main focus was to make sure that the accounts of our customers are secure, because LinkedIn, people have been using it for years now. They created their account with the efforts from years, like some of the people using from 13 years now. So there is a lot of effort behind. There are a lot of connections that are very important for the people. So we, our main focus was to make sure that the tool is secure. Your account, the person’s account, or the customer account is secure. So in regards to that, we have done some of the important things to make sure that accounts are secure. We are, we have some inbuilt limiting elements, as well. So we are making sure that we are not throwing a lot of requests or messages every day. So we are just making sure that accounts are secure other than that, in the ongoing process. We got some more requirements in regards to some integration and other things. So this is like an ongoing process. And we are continuously working and building the tool and improving it continuously.
[00:06:44.920] – Dancho – I see. No, no, sounds exciting. And having it on the cloud, it means that I don’t need to have my computer on, just working remotely, right?
[00:06:53.560] – Arslan – Yeah, that’s right.
[00:06:55.270] – Dancho – I see. Well, can you show me and the audience on how the software works? I mean, I would love to see a demo if you can show to us.
[00:07:03.310] – Arslan – Yeah, sure thing. Let me quickly share my screen. Okay, so this is a quick overview. Here is the dashboard where you can see all of the stats if you have multiple campaigns running in, we also give the option, so some of our clients, they have their SDRs, and so they want to have the ability in the software where they can connect multiple LinkedIn accounts. So we also give the option to connect multiple LinkedIn accounts. Here is the dashboard where you can see the activities of all of your accounts and all of your campaigns running. So you can see the stats over here. Some of the stats from the previous days, some of the activities done today, and some of the recent activities done on leaves, recently, people connected, and replied. So here you can also filter down the data. Moving to the next step, you can create a new campaign. As of now, we are supporting 4 options to start a campaign. You can either search on the LinkedIn directly, the Sales Navigator, because we support the Sales Navigator, as well. So you can do your search on Sales Navigator or basic LinkedIn, and then you can copy the URL and put it over here, in the first option. Then we have some of the features available which can be used so you can use these filters. Some of them are available, which you can use and start your campaign
[00:08:21.460] – Dancho – They replicate from the LinkedIn filters, right?
[00:08:24.310] – Arslan – Yeah. So not all of them are available here. We are planning to add more in our, that is in our roadmap, but some of them are available. So they will map your searches as search on LinkedIn.
[00:08:35.950] – Dancho – Yeah, and Arslan, I also wanted to ask you about the LinkedIn URL. It can be also Sales Navigator URL or it has to be just a regular profile?
[00:08:44.770] – Arslan – It can be a Sales Navigator URL.
[00:08:46.960] – Dancho – I see. That’s great.
[00:08:48.640] – Arslan – Okay, then we have a complex query builder. So if you have like multiple queries in regards to some complex query, in regards you want to find a specific person who is working with a specific title but not working in a specific company. So these like, these kind of queries you can use our complex query builders, which use basically logic operators, so you can do the search from here.
[00:09:11.650] – Dancho – It’s a boolean search, I assume.
[00:09:13.210] – Arslan – Yeah, it’s a boolean search. So the 4th one is upload CSV, you can upload your CSV file with the link profilings. If you have any additional information available for your profiles, you can add that as well, into the CSV, and then that will allow you to further personalize your messages or to connect nodes, that will be sent to the people.
[00:09:35.030] – Dancho – I see, I see. So, these are the 4 ways how you can choose who you want to approach on LinkedIn.
[00:09:41.450] – Arslan – Exactly, exactly. So let me quickly, let’s say I want to search for Dancho. Let’s move to next. Here you got 4 options. You can either do the profile engagement, or you can send them a connect request, with follow-up message. You can send them a LinkedIn message, and then you can also send them emails. We offer up to 800 free e-mails, so our system supports that. So here I just created a simple sequence. You can just view the profile. You can just write down your connect note here. You can just put on the follow-up message, then you can send them another follow-up message, so there is no limitation. You can have unlimited number of sequences, so that completely depends on the customer, how they want to schedule, or set up their campaign. Moving, then you can move to the next step, here you put on your name, you can overview, see what was your all of the sequences you set up in the previous step. You can just put on the name and you can start the campaign. Then moving to the list of the campaign, so I have some of the campaigns that are already running.
[00:10:55.990] – Dancho – And that was what I wanted to ask if you have some ongoing or finished campaign where we can actually see how it looks like?
[00:11:01.780] – Arslan – So here are some of the campaigns that are already running where you can see different stats. You can see how many engagements are done, for how many of them are invited, different messages. There are no emails in this one. So there is nothing being displayed in emails. Let me go to any campaign. So let’s go to this one here. You will be able to see all of the different leads that are available. So you can see differently, it’s like the information is available, you can see here, you can move to the next pages, then here you can see all of the different activities, that are performed on different leads. Then here, you can see all of the sequences. Then here you have the scheduler. So if you would like to run the campaign, let’s say you are targeting your target market is UK. So you can select the time zone for UK, you can define, okay, I want to target the people, let’s say from in their working hours from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. You can select the time from here, and then you can select the days, from Monday to Friday. I don’t want to target them Saturday and Sunday. If you want to, you can select Saturday or Sunday, as well.
[00:12:10.760] – Dancho – I see, so to adjust to the time zones where the customers are. So if it’s in the States and we are here in Macedonia, we can just set it up to work within their time zone.
[00:12:21.680] – Arslan – Yeah, exactly. So the system will send them a request or your messages or everything, based on the time zone that is selected within the campaign. So in regards to the response rate, comparatively, there are better response rate. If you are targeting the people when they are working or they are using their laptops. So you will get better response rate, or better acceptance rate. So that is the reason why we provide the Scheduler.
[00:12:48.090] – Dancho – I see. I see.
[00:12:50.090] – Arslan – Then here is just the global activities of all the campaigns that are running, and you can see all of them all together for, different activities. Okay, so here is basically the daily limit, where you can set up your daily limit. So let’s say if you want to send people like contact 10 people in a day, you can set your limit from here. We recommend to go for up to 50 limits per day, for the basic LinkedIn accounts. And if you have a premium LinkedIn account, you can go up to 100. We also have auto feature, which will increase your limit every 4, 5 days. So that for the people who just started using automation, the best thing is to start with 10 or 20. And then the system will automatically increase your limits after every 5 days.
[00:13:39.110] – Dancho – Nice. So it won’t be like from the start you’re sending hundreds invitation. You start small, and gradually increase the number of engagements.
[00:13:47.120] – Arslan – Yeah, that’s right. Then you can put on your placeholders, that can be used to personalize your messages, such as your signature, your company name. You can use a placeholders. Then we have a LinkedIn inbox feature. So here we are showing all of the inbox, your conversation from the inbox. Here you can put on your internal notes. You can tag your conversation, as well, as you can filter by tag or the labels
[00:14:13.450] – Dancho – And this is real-time, Arslan? Right? If someone responds you now on LinkedIn, it goes directly here immediately?
[00:14:19.520] – Arslan – Not immediately. Like, once you come back, it will be appearing over here. Or once you get the reply, you will get your email or the notification, as well. But once you send the message from here, it will be sent on LinkedIn immediately.
[00:14:34.640] – Dancho – I see. I see.
[00:14:35.930] – Arslan – Yeah. So you can search the conversation. If you have multiple accounts, you can switch between different inboxes from here. Then moving to the next section. Here in the settings, we have auto-withdrawal settings, so you can set up when you want to withdraw your request. Let’s see if you have a pending request. System will automatically withdraw your request after 7 days. Then we have blacklist keyword feature, where if you would like, you can blacklist your competitors, or like any of the person you want to blacklist, you can put on their name, or the company name, and any of the campaigns that are running in your account, that person or that company, or that any person that belongs to that company will be neglected from all of the sequences in your account. Then we provide integration with HubSpot, we have integration with Zapier. So there are different integrations that are available. Some of them are in beta testing, in regards to, we also have our roadmap available publicly. So if it were like I would share the link with you as well, you can probably put that link of public roadmap with the video. Then, here is our public roadmap, where we are doing some beta testing that will be released in a few days. Then, some of things are in development. Then, these are different things that are planned and scoped already. Here are some ideas
[00:16:07.270] – Dancho – Actually, quite a big roadmap. But, if you can summarize, for example, now is December. What is your view for 2021, in terms of features or functionality that you think, the bigger one, of course, there will be some bug fixing and stuff. But in terms of how you see the application, how you see LinkedCamp going forward?
[00:16:27.130] – Arslan – Yeah, we would like to go for some more integrations. We want to make it more of a marketing automation tool, rather than just a LinkedIn automation tool. So we will be working on some of the integration with some other tools. And other than that, we will be adding some other automation, such as Twitter automation, Email automation. So that will be something we are working on. As of now, lot of our customers are using just their mobile apps, to monitor their campaigns. So we also aim to create a mobile app, for our customers, so that they can easily view different stars from their mobile device directly.
[00:17:09.240] – Dancho – I see, I see. It’s actually convenient having everything going on mobile app. And you can even make notifications in the mobile app, it’s like someone responded to your campaign.
[00:17:19.240] – Arslan – Yeah, that’s exactly that’s what the purpose of having the mobile app, as well. So we can send them the push notifications, and we will keep them updating what’s going on in their campaigns.
[00:17:29.970] – Dancho – I see. I see you also use Trello, which is quite good for the roadmap. We use Trello internally in BizzBee, for managing projects. So yeah, if you show me the link, I’ll actually put it just below this video, so people can actually see where your app is headed, and hopefully, they give it a try.
[00:17:47.020] – Arslan – Yeah, sure thing. I will get to share with you, and then you can put it under the video.
[00:17:53.200] – Dancho – And Arslan, I just had another question, is that I mean, application on its own, it constantly needs partnerships in order to grow. So I just wanted to ask you, do you have any partnership opportunities with LinkedCamp? Are there any, I don’t know, affiliate or stuff that you currently offer, that you can share with us?
[00:18:13.180] – Arslan – Yeah. So we have like multiple affiliates, at the moment. There are some agencies, which are also affiliated with us, so they are working with us as an affiliate. Other than that, we have some white label integrations, as well. So there are different agencies in Canada, and US, and UK, that are using our white label solution for their customers. So other than that, we are also looking forward to integrate or partner with different tools, such as Hyperise, that is in our development. As of now, we are already in discussion with our partnership with Hyperise, so that we can integrate their tool within our tool, and our customers can use their tool, as well, and the service they are providing.
[00:19:04.660] – Dancho – I see no, no, that’s quite, quite interesting. The reason why I was asking you is that it’s the most common question that, okay, is there any affiliate program or is there a white label? But you actually have both. And with the affiliate, I mean, anyone can join and have an affiliate link. And for the white label, are there any criteria that our listeners need to meet?
[00:19:27.990] – Arslan – Well, for now, they just need to, we have our different plan, like 3 plans listed on our site. So they just need, there is an agency planner out there, which includes the white label. So if somebody wants to go for white label, they can choose our agency plan, and then they will need to enter some of the details in regards to the white label like, their logos, their branding themes, then there is the link, where they want the white label to be set up. And we will send them an email with some of the records they need to add on their registrar. And we will take around 48 hours to set up their white label. Once that is done, we will notify them and then they can use their white label, and all. The e-mails and the other implementations, all will be branded as their own brand. So their client will get the e-mails and everything as their brand, not as LinkedCamp.
[00:20:22.050] – Dancho – I see. Yeah, yeah. No, I was a bit curious even I’m also interested in hearing about that more. Arslan, I also wanted to ask you one last question. Is that our main audience, our high-ticket service providers, and when I say high-ticket service providers, I’m thinking about consultants, software development companies, software as a service – SaaS, and marketing and sales agencies. So is there any particular thing that our target can actually use in your solution, in LinkedCamp, and how they can actually get more clients? To give you the background is that, yeah, if you’re a corporation, you can have 30, 50 SDR people that are working full time for you. While, we’re talking about consultants or software development companies or even software as a service, it is usually a small team. We’re talking one or two people in sales or with a consultant, it could be just a one-man show, and doing everything. And I just wanted your opinion how they can use your automation in order to scale quickly, to actually grow bigger, find new clients, reach out to them and actually get better?
[00:21:27.110] – Arslan – Yep. So basically, LinkedIn is a big platform if you want to, like we have many software companies, they are using our platform to target different clients on LinkedIn. So LinkedIn is a big platform, where millions of people so you can always set up an account, and you can start targeting the people. We can always help you out, in regards to, our support is very much active. So we provide that support for 24/7, in case of any question. You can reach out to us, but they can reach out to people on LinkedIn. They can define their audience, the best strategies that do not put on your sales pitch directly on the first message. You don’t know the person. So the best is to try to create a relationship with them, and then try to pitch them, with your idea or with your product. And based on that, you can, they will be happy to be your customer or buy your services. So that will really help out in regards to set up your campaign.
[00:22:30.920] – Dancho – Sounds very perfect. This is exactly what we’re preaching in BizzBee Solutions, that you shouldn’t start going, and pitching through the invitation, or even through the first message. But actually, LinkedIn automation should be used carefully in building relationships. And then if there is an opportunity to start pitching, rather than just doing the automation in order to, you know, just read the email, start spamming people on LinkedIn.
[00:22:55.550] – Arslan – Yeah. So like we are very curious about that. Like you can see here, we have spam detection in our roadmap, as well. So we don’t want people to spam. But LinkedIn is a good platform, and we don’t want any of the person joining us, using our platform as a spam, to create a spam on LinkedIn. So we don’t want that. So we are, that is something we already have on our roadmap, so that I think that the tool should be used very carefully. There is no number game, like you can get even better results from 100 people, rather than targeting maybe 2500 people. So I always go for deep searches, target your relevant audience, and then you will definitely get the results out of it.
[00:23:41.740] – Dancho – You have said it perfectly, Arslan. I mean I think those were my questions. I think you answered them all. I just wanted to thank you very much Arslan, for showing your software. For everybody that is interested, I’ll just put the link below this video, so they could actually come. Do you have any free trial or something that people can just sneak in what is it inside?
[00:24:05.400] – Arslan – Yeah, so they can always go and register. We provide 10 days free trial, so you can just create your account, start a campaign. We offer one campaign in a trial, so you can set up your one campaign, and see how the tool works. And you can, we are always open for the feedback or any criticism, as well. We are always happy to help you out.
[00:24:26.190] – Dancho – Perfect, perfect. That’s why I asked, because if we put the link down so people would say, okay, let’s give it a try. If they have 10 days, they can play a bit, start the campaign, see what kind of response they’re getting. And of course, if they like it, they can stick with LinkedCamp. Arslan, thank you very much for your time, and joining the show. I think we’ve helped a lot of people with this video, because it is always ambiguous and foggy on how automation looks, how it can be used. So I really appreciate your time in being on this show.
[00:24:56.190] – Arslan – Thank you very much. Thank you for inviting me. It was very nice talking with you. Thank you for your time. Have a good day.
[00:25:02.130] – Dancho – It was a pleasure.