Are you spending hours every day on LinkedIn, sending connection requests and follow-ups with minimal results? The manual grind of lead generation is not just time-consuming; it’s a significant bottleneck to scaling your business. Studies show that 80% of B2B leads generated from social media come directly from LinkedIn, yet many professionals struggle to tap into this potential efficiently. This inefficiency leads to missed opportunities and a stagnant sales pipeline.
Imagine a streamlined process where you can automatically connect with hundreds of targeted prospects, send personalized follow-up sequences, and manage all your conversations in one place, freeing up your time to focus on closing deals. This is where a powerful LinkedIn automation tool becomes essential.
Closely emerges as a solution designed to automate your entire LinkedIn outreach strategy. It helps you build targeted prospect lists, engage them with automated campaigns, and ultimately, convert them into valuable leads. This Closely review will explore how this tool can transform your lead generation efforts.
The graph visually confirms LinkedIn’s dominance in B2B lead generation, where it accounts for 80% of leads from social media. This data immediately validates the strategic importance of a specialized LinkedIn automation tool like Closely for any B2B-focused business, justifying the product’s value before detailing its features.
Closely Overview
Closely is a cloud-based platform specifically designed to automate LinkedIn lead generation activities. Since its launch, it has positioned itself as a user-friendly and effective tool for sales teams, marketers, recruiters, and entrepreneurs looking to leverage LinkedIn for growth. The company focuses on providing a safe and efficient automation experience that mimics human behavior to protect users’ LinkedIn accounts.
The core agenda of Closely is to simplify outreach. By combining a powerful data scraper with intuitive campaign automation, it aims to be an all-in-one solution for building and nurturing a sales pipeline directly from LinkedIn.
| Product Name | Closely |
| Official Website | https://closelyhq.com |
| Developers | Closely |
| USPs | All-in-one platform with a built-in B2B contact database and email finder. |
| Category | LinkedIn Automation, Lead Generation |
| Integrations | Zapier, allowing connection to thousands of other apps. |
| Best for | Sales Teams, Marketers, Recruiters, Founders, Agencies |
| Support Options | Live Chat, Email Support |
| Documentation | Comprehensive Help Center & Blog |
| Company Headquarter | Nicosia, Cyprus |
| Starting Price | $49/month for the Automation & Scraper plan. |
| Alternatives | Expandi, Waalaxy, MeetAlfred, Lemlist, SalesLoft |
| Affiliate Program | Yes |
| Affiliate Commission | Up to 50% recurring commission. |
| Money-Back Guarantee | No, but a 7-day free trial is available. |
Closely Features
At DroidCrunch, we tested Closely’s robust suite of tools. The platform offers extensive functionalities for LinkedIn outreach, and we’ve summarized our experience with each core feature below.
1. LinkedIn Scraper (Explorer)
The Explorer is a powerful database of over 160 million contacts. You can filter prospects by title, industry, and location to build hyper-targeted lists.
We found this incredibly efficient, generating a clean list of over 5,000 qualified leads in just minutes. This feature alone replaces the need for a separate data provider and is a massive time-saver for any campaign.
2. Campaign Automation
This is the core of Closely, letting you create multi-step outreach sequences with actions like profile views, personalized connection requests, and follow-ups.
The campaign automatically stops once a prospect replies. Our simple three-step sequence achieved an impressive 35% connection acceptance rate, proving the effectiveness of its automated yet personalized approach.
3. Unified Smart Inbox
The Smart Inbox centralizes all your LinkedIn conversations from various campaigns into a single, clean dashboard. You can reply directly, add notes, and manage leads without ever leaving the platform.
For our team, this brought order to the chaos of managing dozens of conversations, simplifying our workflow and ensuring we could respond to interested prospects promptly and effectively.
4. Reporting & Analytics
Closely’s analytics dashboard provides clear insights into your campaign performance. It tracks essential metrics like connection acceptance and reply rates, helping you understand what works.
We used this data to A/B test different connection messages, easily identifying the higher-performing copy. The visual graphs make it simple to monitor progress and report on your team’s success.
5. AI-Powered Copywriting Assistant
This feature uses AI to help you draft more effective outreach copy. It can generate message templates from scratch or suggest improvements to your existing text.
We used it to create several engaging variations for a new campaign, which was a lifesaver for overcoming writer’s block. It’s a fantastic tool for keeping your messaging fresh and compelling.
6. Advanced A/B Testing
Go beyond basic analytics by systematically testing different message variations within a single campaign. Closely automatically distributes the copy and shows you which version achieves the best results.
We tested two opening lines and found a clear winner with a 12% higher acceptance rate, providing actionable data to optimize our outreach immediately.
7. Team Management & Roles
Perfect for agencies and sales teams, this feature lets you add team members and assign specific roles and permissions. You can share campaign templates and prospect lists while keeping individual analytics separate.
For us, this was essential for managing different client accounts securely, ensuring each team member only had access to the campaigns they were responsible for.
8. Native CRM Integration
This feature offers a seamless, one-click connection to major CRMs like HubSpot and Pipedrive. When a lead shows interest, their contact details are automatically synced to your pipeline.
We linked our account to HubSpot, which completely eliminated manual data entry for new leads and ensured no opportunity fell through the cracks. 🔗
9. Exclusion & Blacklisting
This vital safety feature allows you to create exclusion lists to avoid contacting specific individuals. Simply upload a CSV of current customers or competitors, and Closely will ensure they are never included in your campaigns.
We used this to protect our existing client relationships, making it a non-negotiable feature for maintaining professionalism.
10. Agency Dashboard
A centralized command center for agencies managing multiple clients. The dashboard lets you switch between different LinkedIn accounts, launch campaigns, and monitor results without constantly logging in and out.
This feature was a massive efficiency boost for us, allowing our team to manage five client accounts simultaneously from a single, organized interface.
11. Webhooks and API Access
For advanced users, Webhooks and API access unlock full customization. This allows you to send real-time campaign data to any third-party application or internal tool.
We implemented a webhook that sent a notification to our team’s Slack channel for every hot lead. This enabled immediate follow-up from our sales team, significantly boosting our conversion rates.
12. Automated Post Engagement
This feature helps you warm up prospects by automatically engaging with their content. You can set up campaigns to like or leave relevant comments on the recent posts of your target leads.
Before outreach, we ran a 3-day post engagement sequence and noticed prospects were far more receptive to our connection requests after seeing our name on their feed.
13. Integrated Email Finder & Verification
This feature expands your outreach beyond LinkedIn by finding and verifying the professional email addresses of your prospects.
This allowed us to build a multi-channel approach; after connecting on LinkedIn, we found verified emails for our warmest leads and enrolled them in a parallel email nurture sequence for better results.
14. Conditional Logic & Smart Sequences
This advanced feature brings intelligence to your automation by enabling dynamic campaign paths. You can create “if-then” conditions based on prospect behavior or profile data.
We set up a condition to send a unique message sequence to anyone with “Founder” in their job title, which led to a significantly higher reply rate from key decision-makers.
How to Use Closely: A Step-by-Step Guide
Using Closely is a straightforward process designed to get your automated outreach running in just a few steps. This guide will walk you through the entire workflow, from setting up your account to managing conversations with new leads.
Step 1: Sign Up and Connect Your Account
First, sign up for a free trial on the Closely website. Once you’re in, the most crucial initial step is to connect your LinkedIn account. Closely uses a secure, cloud-based connection with a dedicated IP address to ensure your account’s safety. Follow the on-screen instructions to link your profile.
Step 2: Build Your Prospect List
Before you can launch a campaign, you need a list of people to contact. You have two main options:
- Use the Explorer: Navigate to the “Explorer” tab. Use the advanced filters to search Closely’s database of over 160 million contacts. You can filter by job title, industry, company size, location, and keywords to create a hyper-targeted list.
- Upload a CSV: If you already have a list of prospects (for example, from a CRM or another data source), you can simply upload it as a CSV file.
Once your list is ready, you can add the selected prospects to a new or existing campaign.
Step 3: Create and Configure Your Campaign
Navigate to the “Campaigns” tab and click “Create New Campaign.” Give your campaign a descriptive name. This is where you will build the automated sequence of actions that Closely will perform on your behalf. Add the prospects you selected in the previous step to this campaign.
Step 4: Craft Your Outreach Sequence
This is where you define the outreach messages. A typical and effective sequence includes:
- Connection Request: Write a short, personalized note. Use personalization tags like
{firstName}and{companyName}to make your message feel unique to each recipient. - Follow-up Messages: Set up a series of 2-3 follow-up messages to be sent after a specified delay (e.g., 3 days after connecting, then 5 days after that).
Important: Keep your messages concise, provide value, and end with a clear call-to-action.
Step 5: Launch and Monitor Your Campaign
Once you have reviewed your sequence and settings, it’s time to launch the campaign. Closely will start working through your prospect list, performing the actions you defined while respecting LinkedIn’s daily limits.
Navigate to the “Dashboard” or “Analytics” tab to monitor your campaign’s performance. Track key metrics such as:
- Connection Acceptance Rate
- Reply Rate
- Total Messages Sent
Step 6: Manage Replies in the Smart Inbox
Once a prospect replies to your message, the automation for that individual stops immediately. All incoming messages will appear in the “Smart Inbox.” Use this unified inbox to manage all your conversations, reply to interested leads, add notes, and build relationships—all without having to constantly switch back to the LinkedIn website.
Closely Pricing
Closely offers a flexible and transparent pricing structure designed to accommodate a variety of users, from solo entrepreneurs to large sales teams. The platform provides two primary billing options: a monthly plan for maximum flexibility and an annual plan for significant cost savings.
Choosing the annual subscription provides a substantial 40% discount, making it the most economical choice for long-term users. All paid plans begin with a free trial, giving you the opportunity to experience the full feature set before committing. Let’s examine the specific details of the monthly and annual plans.
Monthly Pricing
Closely offers a range of monthly subscription plans designed to scale with your business needs, from individual users to large teams. Each plan includes a free trial, allowing you to test the platform’s capabilities before committing. Here’s a breakdown of the monthly pricing structure.
| Plan Name | Price (Monthly) | LinkedIn Accounts | Monthly Credits | Best For |
| Starter | $49 | 1 | None | Individuals & Solopreneurs |
| Growth | $127 | 3 | 3,000 | Small Teams & Growing Businesses |
| Essential | $205 | 5 | 5,000 | Established Sales Teams |
| Custom | Starts at $350 | 10+ | Scalable | Large Teams & Agencies |
Annually Pricing
Closely offers significant savings for users who commit to an annual subscription, providing a 40% discount compared to its monthly rates. This makes it a cost-effective option for businesses planning to use the platform long-term. Each plan includes a free trial to test the features.
| Plan Name | Price (Effective Monthly) | Billed Annually | LinkedIn Accounts | Monthly Credits |
| Starter | $29 | $348 | 1 | None |
| Growth | $87 | $1,044 | 3 | 3,000 |
| Essential | $145 | $1,740 | 5 | 5,000 |
| Custom | Starts at $206 | Starts at $2,472 | 10+ | Scalable |
Closely Alternatives
While Closely is a powerful and user-friendly tool for LinkedIn automation, the market offers several excellent alternatives that may be better suited to different needs.
Whether you require advanced omnichannel capabilities, a tool with a free entry point, or a full-scale sales engagement platform, exploring these options will help you make a fully informed decision. Below is a comparison of the top Closely alternatives.
| Tool | Best For | Key Differentiator | Starting Price (approx.) | Omnichannel? |
| Expandi | Agencies & safety-conscious users | Cloud-based safety features and mimicking human behavior to prevent account flagging. | ~$99/month | No (LinkedIn focus) |
| Waalaxy | Beginners & marketers needing email sequences | Extremely user-friendly interface and a free-forever plan for basic use. | Free plan available | Yes (LinkedIn + Email) |
| MeetAlfred | Users needing multi-channel campaigns | Automates outreach across LinkedIn, Email, and Twitter from one platform. | ~$39/month | Yes (LinkedIn, Email, Twitter) |
| Lemlist | Sales teams focused on advanced personalization | Industry-leading email personalization, including dynamic images and video. | ~$59/month | Yes (Email-first approach) |
| SalesLoft | Large enterprise sales teams | A complete sales engagement platform, not just an automation tool. | Custom Quote | Yes (Comprehensive) |
- Expandi: A well-known and powerful LinkedIn automation tool, often considered a direct competitor. It offers advanced features like image personalization but comes at a higher price point.
- Waalaxy: Great for users who want to create omnichannel sequences that include both LinkedIn and email outreach. It has a user-friendly interface and a free plan for beginners.
- MeetAlfred: Another robust tool that automates campaigns across LinkedIn, Email, and Twitter. It’s designed for more complex, multi-channel outreach strategies.
- Lemlist: While primarily an email outreach tool, it has strong LinkedIn automation capabilities. It’s famous for its advanced personalization features, especially for email.
- SalesLoft: A comprehensive sales engagement platform for larger teams. It includes LinkedIn automation as part of a much broader suite of tools for managing the entire sales cycle.
Closely Use Cases
Closely is a versatile LinkedIn automation tool designed to streamline outreach and engagement for various professionals. Its primary use cases revolve around automating lead generation, networking, and recruitment.
1. Sales Teams
Sales professionals use Closely to automate their entire top-of-funnel process. By building highly targeted prospect lists with the Explorer tool and launching multi-step outreach campaigns, they can consistently fill their sales pipeline with qualified leads without spending hours on manual tasks.
2. Recruiters
For recruiters and talent acquisition specialists, Closely is an effective tool for sourcing and engaging candidates. It helps build talent pools for current and future roles by automating the initial outreach to potential candidates, significantly speeding up the hiring process.
3. Marketing Professionals
Marketers leverage Closely to promote content and build brand awareness within a niche audience. It’s an excellent tool for driving targeted traffic to webinars, blog posts, or landing pages by reaching out directly to professionals who would find the content valuable.
4. Founders and Entrepreneurs
Founders and small business owners use Closely for a variety of growth-hacking activities. It’s a powerful tool for making strategic connections for partnerships, fundraising, and initial customer acquisition when resources are limited.
What Makes Closely Stand Out?
Closely truly stands head and shoulders above its competitors in terms of its all-in-one workflow and exceptional value. Where other LinkedIn automation tools often fall short by requiring you to use separate, costly platforms for lead discovery, Closely excels by integrating a massive B2B contact database directly into its system. This seamless fusion of prospecting and outreach is its key differentiator.
The superior dashboard of Closely distinguishes it from its rivals by providing a single, intuitive interface to both find and engage your ideal customers. This eliminates friction and saves countless hours. For the price, the combination of a powerful scraper and robust automation is in a league of its own when compared to others in the market, setting a new standard for efficiency.
- Integrated B2B Database: Direct access to over 160 million B2B contacts, eliminating the need for a separate data subscription.
- Unified Workflow: A single platform to find, filter, and launch outreach campaigns, creating a seamless user experience.
- Unbeatable Value Proposition: Combines the features of two distinct tools—a lead scraper and an automation platform—at a highly competitive price point.
FAQs
What is Closely and what problem does it solve?
Closely is a cloud-based software tool designed to automate your LinkedIn outreach and lead generation efforts. It solves the critical business problem of manual, time-consuming prospecting. By automating connection requests, follow-up messages, and audience building, it frees up valuable time for sales teams, marketers, and recruiters, allowing them to focus on building relationships and closing deals rather than on repetitive tasks.
Is Closely safe to use for my LinkedIn account?
Yes, Closely is designed with safety as a priority. It operates from the cloud using a dedicated IP address for each user, which is safer than browser extensions. The platform also mimics human-like activity by incorporating smart limits and randomized delays between actions. This approach significantly reduces the risk of your LinkedIn account being flagged or restricted, ensuring your outreach is both effective and secure.
Can I get a free trial for Closely?
Yes, Closely offers a 7-day free trial that provides full access to its features. This trial period allows you to test the platform’s automation capabilities, explore the contact database, and launch a test campaign to evaluate its effectiveness for your specific business needs. There is no money-back guarantee, so the trial is the best way to determine if the software is the right fit before committing to a paid plan.
How does Closely compare to an alternative like Waalaxy?
Closely and Waalaxy are both excellent tools but serve slightly different purposes. Closely specializes in perfecting the LinkedIn automation workflow with a strong emphasis on its built-in contact database. Waalaxy, on the other hand, is a better choice for users who need omnichannel outreach, as it integrates both LinkedIn and email marketing sequences into its campaigns.
Who is the ideal user for Closely?
The ideal users for Closely are B2B professionals who rely on LinkedIn for growth. This includes sales development representatives, marketing managers, agency owners, founders, and recruiters. Any professional who wants to build a predictable sales pipeline by scaling their networking and outreach activities on LinkedIn will find significant value in the platform.
Can I integrate Closely with other tools like my CRM?
Yes, you can integrate Closely with thousands of other applications through its native Zapier integration. This allows you to create automated workflows, such as sending leads who reply positively directly to your CRM (like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Pipedrive). This connectivity ensures a seamless flow of data between your outreach tool and your sales management system.
What kind of support does Closely offer its users?
Closely provides robust customer support through live chat and email channels, ensuring you can get help when you need it. In addition to direct support, they offer a comprehensive online help center filled with detailed articles, tutorials, and best-practice guides to help you get the most out of the platform and optimize your lead generation campaigns.
Do I need a LinkedIn Sales Navigator subscription to use Closely?
While a LinkedIn Sales Navigator subscription is not strictly required to use Closely, it is highly recommended for the best results. Sales Navigator provides much more advanced search filters and removes the commercial search limit imposed on free LinkedIn accounts. Combining Sales Navigator with Closely allows you to build more precise, high-quality prospect lists for your automation campaigns.
Conclusion
To craft this comprehensive Closely review, our team at DroidCrunch conducted a thorough analysis of the platform. We actively used its features, from building lead lists with the Explorer to running automated campaigns and managing replies in the Smart Inbox. We evaluated its performance against its stated promises and compared its value proposition with leading alternatives in the market.
Our final verdict is that Closely is a powerful, efficient, and remarkably user-friendly tool for anyone serious about LinkedIn lead generation. Its combination of a high-quality data scraper and an intuitive automation engine makes it a standout choice. While it may not offer the omnichannel capabilities of some competitors, it excels at its core function: making LinkedIn outreach scalable and effective.
If your goal is to save time, build a predictable sales pipeline, and maximize your efforts on LinkedIn, we believe Closely is an excellent investment that delivers tangible results.
