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Your First Campaign

Goal of this guide: send 20 real outbound messages to real leads in under 15 minutes of active work. The first campaign isn’t a “does this work?” experiment — it’s the foundation of a consistent outbound cycle you’ll run every week.

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Before You Start

Make sure 3 things are ready:
  • Sender connected and Sender Health = Green (Sender Setup)
  • Warmup running for at least 14 days (if it’s a new sender)
  • 20 credits available in the Dashboard (the starter trial covers this)
If anything’s missing — don’t start. Fix it first. Launching with a half-broken setup hurts more than not launching at all.

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Step 1 — Write a Sharp ICP (5 minutes)

ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) is the single biggest factor between a campaign that books meetings and one that gets deleted. Link AI takes ICP as free-text, in English.

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A Good ICP Structure

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Example: B2B SaaS

“VP Marketing or Head of Demand Gen at B2B SaaS companies in the US or UK, 50-200 employees, that raised Series A or B in the last 12 months, and where the product is sold to mid-market companies (10M−10M-200M revenue).”

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Example: Agencies

“Founder or Head of Operations at marketing agencies in Israel, 5-20 employees, that work with B2B clients, and that announced a new service line or hired a new senior person in the last 6 months.”

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Example: Bad (do not do this)

“Anyone who needs marketing help.”
This ICP produces 20 random leads, of which 0 are relevant.

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Tricks That Work

  • Add time triggers: “recently launched”, “hired last month”, “raised in Q1”. Triples reply rate.
  • Be specific on Geography: “Tel Aviv, Israel” > “Israel” > “Middle East”.
  • Add negatives: “NOT consulting firms”, “NOT pre-revenue startups”. Cuts noise.

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Step 2 — Pick Volume and Tone (30 seconds)

Volume: for the first campaign, 20 leads. Don’t jump to 200 even if you have the credits. Read the messages, see what Link AI is inferring from the ICP, sharpen, then scale. Tone:
  • direct — short, no fluff. Best for cold outreach to busy decision-makers. Recommended default.
  • consultative — hook question + insight + soft CTA. Best for technical or academic audiences.
  • casual — friendly, less formal. Best for creators or early-stage founders.
For most B2B use cases — direct wins in A/B testing.

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Step 3 — Generate Preview (60-120 seconds)

Click Generate Preview. Link AI runs in the background:
  1. Discovery — finds companies matching the ICP (Apollo + Exa + internal sources)
  2. Enrichment — pulls the right contact (name, role, email)
  3. Validation — verifies the email is live (not a bounce)
  4. Generation — writes a custom message per lead with a personal hook
At the end — you get 20 lead cards with 20 ready-to-send messages.

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Step 4 — Review (5-7 minutes)

Don’t skip this. Read 10 out of 20 messages. Check:

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Checklist

  • Name correct — not “Hi ”, not a weird nickname
  • Relevant company — does this actually fit the ICP you defined? If not — spot the pattern and tighten the ICP
  • Personal hook — does this specific message reference something specific about this company? (funding, product, recent post)
  • Clear CTA — one question. Not “are you free for a call?” or “let me know what you think”. Something specific like “would 15 minutes Thursday work?”
  • Right length — 60-90 words. Over 120 → cut it down.

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What to Do If There’s an Issue

  • One specific message is off → Regenerate on that message
  • Multiple messages with the same issue → ICP isn’t sharp enough. Go back to Step 1, refine, and Regenerate all
  • Wrong enrichment (totally irrelevant company) → Reject that lead. We’ll replace it

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Step 5 — Launch (10 seconds)

When you’re happy — click Launch Campaign. Link AI doesn’t send all 20 at once. It spreads them over 6-8 hours on a schedule that mimics a human (not a bot). First one goes out in 2-5 minutes.

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Follow-ups

For non-responders — Link AI sends up to 3 follow-ups, 3-5 days apart. Each with a different angle.

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Replies

Replies sync automatically to your Inbox. You reply from regular Gmail/Outlook. The thread continues as a normal conversation.

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Stop Conditions

Link AI stops sending when:
  • The lead replies (positive, negative, or neutral)
  • The lead says “unsubscribe” or similar (automatic)
  • Max follow-ups reached (3 by default)

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Real-Time Reporting

In the Dashboard, Campaigns → [campaign name] → Stats:
  • Sent — how many actually went out
  • Opens — open rate (target: 40%+)
  • Replies — reply rate (target: 5-10% for cold)
  • Positive Replies — replies that are substantive, not “remove me” (target: 50%+ of replies)

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What’s Next After the First Campaign

  1. Three hours after launch — check opens. If less than 20% within 3 hours → deliverability issue, see troubleshooting
  2. 24 hours after — reply to replies. Speed = meetings
  3. A week after — summarize: how many meetings? Which segment of the ICP performed best? Refine the ICP for the next round

Launch your first campaign

Sign up to Link AI and send 20 outbound messages today