The post-pandemic market killed a lot of businesses, but Iskala isn’t one of them. Ehab Darwish found a new angle to his 2017-founded company during the pandemic. He ventured into lead generation by helping out struggling businesses in their outbound channels.
Since then, the Iskala team has come a long way. They experimented with AI-driven tools and scaled their outreach efforts to another level.
Iskala successfully established themselves as cold outreach experts in the Middle East and Egypt markets. Currently, they book as many as 20 meetings per day.
Let’s dive into the details of how Iskala managed to succeed in such a short duration.
What is Iskala?
Iskala is a lead generation service provider specializing in assisting startups and businesses in the Middle East, particularly Egypt, to generate high-quality leads through strategic cold email outreach campaigns. They leverage tools like Smartlead to achieve exceptional results and drive business growth for their clients.
Why do people hire Iskala?
People hire Iskala for lead generation services for the following reasons:
- Expertise: Iskala specializes in lead generation, offering deep expertise and knowledge in developing effective cold email outreach strategies tailored to clients' needs.
- Results-driven approach: They focuses on delivering tangible results, such as increased lead generation, higher open and reply rates, and ultimately improved sales and revenue for clients.
- Scalability: They utilize tools like Smartlead to scale lead generation efforts efficiently, enabling clients to reach a larger audience and generate more leads effectively.
- Reputation: Iskala has established a strong reputation in the Middle East as a trusted provider of lead generation services, backed by a track record of successful campaigns and satisfied clients.
- Customization: They offer personalized solutions, crafting tailored lead generation strategies based on clients' unique business goals, target audience, and industry verticals, ensuring maximum effectiveness and ROI.
How It All Started?
Iskala began as a learning and development company based in Egypt, primarily focused on providing business development consultations to startups in both early and growth stages. However, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Iskala faced challenges as they observed a decline in growth within the learning and development sector.
In response to this shift, they decided to pivot their services and started offering lead generation consultations to assist businesses struggling during the pandemic. This transition marked a crucial turning point for Iskala, as they ventured into the world of lead generation as a service.
Initially, they experimented with various tools but encountered limitations in terms of scalability and results. It was during this period that they were introduced to Smartlead, a platform that would ultimately revolutionize their approach to cold email outreach and lead generation.
This introduction to Smartlead marked a significant milestone in Iskala's journey, enabling them to achieve remarkable success and establish themselves as experts in the field of cold email outreach in the Middle East, particularly in Egypt.
Challenges Faced
Limited Volume
Previous tools imposed restrictions on email volume, hindering Iskala's ability to reach a broader audience efficiently, and limiting their potential for lead generation.
Ineffective Personalization
Despite using tools like cold email tools, Iskala struggled to personalize emails effectively, resulting in lower engagement rates and diminished effectiveness of their outreach campaigns.
Concerns Over Deliverability
Iskala faced challenges regarding email deliverability and open rates, impacting the success of their cold email campaigns and potentially limiting their ability to reach their target audience.
Lack of Whitelabel Feature
The absence of a whitelabel feature in their previous tools made it difficult for Iskala to present their services with their branding, potentially undermining client confidence and the perceived value of their offerings.
Adapting to Market Changes
The outbreak of COVID-19 necessitated a shift in Iskala's focus from learning and development to lead generation services, requiring them to adapt their strategies and offerings to meet evolving market demands.
Navigating Competition
In a competitive market, Iskala struggled to differentiate its services from competitors, highlighting the importance of effectively communicating its unique value propositions to potential clients to stand out in the crowded marketplace.
Notable Achievements
- Iskala achieved a financial milestone of $10,000 per month, a significant feat for an early-stage agency.
- The Iskala team has established themselves as cold outreach experts in the Middle East and Egypt, garnering a strong reputation in their market.
- Iskala books as many as 20 meetings per day.
- They managed to achieve a $2.5 million pipeline solely from cold outreach campaigns.
- Iskala successfully transitioned to specialized niches with higher financing power, such as software agencies and SaaS products, enhancing their ability to deliver tailored services and drive profitability.
How Smartlead Helped Iskala
Smartlead significantly enhanced Iskala's outreach efforts by addressing key challenges and providing essential features tailored to their needs. Firstly, Smartlead's scalability enabled Iskala to overcome previous limitations, allowing them to expand their outreach efforts efficiently and cater to growing client demands. With Smartlead's robust platform, Iskala could send a higher volume of personalized cold emails, reaching a broader audience and generating more leads effectively.
Smartlead's advanced features, such as the white labeling option and unlimited warm-up feature, played a pivotal role in improving campaign performance. The white labeling option provided Iskala with a professional and branded interface, boosting credibility and instilling confidence in their clients. Meanwhile, the warm-up feature lets them warm up bulk email accounts, resulting in higher open and reply rates and, ultimately, greater engagement from prospects.
Additionally, Smartlead's comprehensive tutorials and frameworks empowered Iskala to refine their email copywriting and targeting strategies, leading to more effective campaigns and improved results for their clients. Overall, Smartlead's innovative features and user-friendly interface enabled Iskala to elevate their outreach efforts, achieve greater success in lead generation, and solidify their reputation as experts in the field.
Conclusion
Cold outreach, if done right, can change a business entirely. It can not only take companies to greater heights but also save them from going under. The Iskala team, like our other certified partners, has proven it by achieving huge success in a short time and helping out their clients.
If you’re running a small business or a lead gen agency or even thinking of starting one, check out Smartlead. Our customers have amazed us by booking as many as 20 meetings per day using Smartlead. If they can, you can do it too.
Rajnish Das
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Frequently asked questions
What is Smartlead's cold email outreach software?
Smartlead's cold email outreach tool helps businesses scale their outreach efforts seamlessly. With unlimited mailboxes, fully automated email warmup functionality, a multi-channel infrastructure, and a user-friendly unibox, it empowers users to manage their entire revenue cycle in one place. Whether you're looking to streamline cold email campaigns with automated email warmups, personalization fields, automated mailbox rotation, easy integrations, and spintax, improve productivity, or enhance scalability with subsequences based on lead’s intentions, automated replies, and full white-label experience, our cold email tool implifies it in a single solution.
How does Smartlead's unlimited mailboxes feature benefit me?
Our "unlimited mailboxes" feature allows you to expand your email communications without restrictions imposed by a mailbox limit. This means you won't be constrained by artificial caps on the number of mailboxes you can connect and use. This feature makes Smartlead the best cold email software and empowers you to reach a wider audience, engage with more potential customers, and manage diverse email campaigns effectively.
What do you mean by "unibox to handle your entire revenue cycle"?
The "unibox" is one of the unique features of Smartlead cold email outreach tool, and it's a game-changer when it comes to managing your revenue cycle. The master inbox or the unibox consolidates all your outreach channels, responses, sales follow-ups, and conversions into one centralized, user-friendly mailbox.
With the "unibox," you gain the ability to:
1. Focus on closing deals: You can now say goodbye to the hassle of logging into multiple mailboxes to search for replies. The "unibox" streamlines your sales communication, allowing you to focus on what matters most—closing deals.
2. Centralized lead management: All your leads are managed from one central location, simplifying lead tracking and response management. This ensures you take advantage of every opportunity and efficiently engage with your prospects.
3. Maintain context: The "unibox" provides a 360-degree view of all your customer messages, allowing you to maintain context and deliver more personalized and effective responses.
Can Smartlead help improve my email deliverability rates?
Yes, our cold emailing software is designed to significantly improve your email deliverability rates. It enhances email deliverability through AI-powered email warmups across providers, unique IP rotating for each campaign, and dynamic ESP matching.
Real-time AI learning refines strategies based on performance, optimizing deliverability without manual adjustments. Smartlead's advanced features and strategies are designed to improve email deliverability rates, making it a robust choice for enhancing cold email campaign success.
Can I integrate Smartlead with other tools I'm using?
Certainly, Smartlead cold email tool is designed for seamless integration with a wide range of tools and platforms. Smartlead offers integration with HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Clay, Listkit, and more. You can leverage webhooks and APIs to integrate the tools you use. Try Now!
What is Smartlead, and how can it enhance my cold email campaigns?
Smartlead is a robust cold emailing software designed to transform cold emails into reliable revenue streams. Trusted by over 31,000 businesses, Smartlead excels in email deliverability, lead generation, cold email automation, and sales outreach. A unified master inbox streamlines communication management, while built-in email verification reduces bounce rates.Additionally, Smartlead offers essential tools such as CNAME, SPF Checker, DMARC Checker, Email Verifier, Blacklist Check Tool, and Email Bounce Rate Calculator for optimizing email performance.
How does Smartlead, as a cold emailing tool, automate the cold email process?
Smartlead’s robust cold email API and automation infrastructure streamline outbound communication by transforming the campaign creation and management processes. It seamlessly integrates data across software systems using APIs and webhooks, adjusts settings, and leverages AI for personalised content.
The cold emailing tool categorises lead intent, offers comprehensive email management with automated notifications, and integrates smoothly with CRMs like Zapier, Make, N8N, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive. Smartlead supports scalable outreach by rapidly adding mailboxes and drip-feeding leads into active campaigns Sign Up Now!
How does Smartlead ensure my emails don't land in the spam folder?
Smartlead, the best cold email marketing tool, ensures your emails reach the intended recipients' primary inbox rather than the spam folder.
Here's how it works:
1. Our "unlimited warmups" feature is designed to build and maintain a healthy sending reputation for your cold email outreach. Instead of sending a large volume of emails all at once, which can trigger spam filters, we gradually ramp up your sending volume. This gradual approach, combined with positive email interactions, helps boost your email deliverability rates.
2. We deploy high-deliverability IP servers specific to each campaign.
3. The ‘Warmup’ feature replicates humanized email sending patterns, spintax, and smart replies.
4. By establishing a positive sender reputation and gradually increasing the number of sent emails, Smartlead minimizes the risk of your emails being flagged as spam. This way, you can be confident that your messages will consistently land in the primary inbox, increasing the likelihood of engagement and successful communication with your recipients.
What features does Smartlead offer for cold email personalisation?
Smartlead enhances cold email personalisation through advanced AI-driven capabilities and strategic integrations. Partnered with Clay, The cold remaining software facilitates efficient lead list building, enrichment from over 50 data providers, and real-time scraping for precise targeting. Hyper-personalised cold emails crafted in Clay seamlessly integrate with Smartlead campaigns.
Moreover, Smartlead employs humanised, natural email interactions and smart replies to boost engagement and response rates. Additionally, the SmartAI Bot creates persona-specific, high-converting sales copy. Also you can create persona-specific, high-converting sales copy using SmartAI Bot. You can train the AI bot to achieve 100% categorisation accuracy, optimising engagement and conversion rates.
Is Smartlead suitable for both small businesses and large enterprises?
Smartlead accommodates both small businesses and large enterprises with flexible pricing and comprehensive features. The Basic Plan at $39/month suits small businesses and solopreneurs, offering 2000 active leads and 6000 monthly emails, alongside essential tools like unlimited email warm-up and detailed analytics.
Marketers and growing businesses benefit from the Pro Plan ($94/month), with 30000 active leads and 150000 monthly emails, plus a custom CRM and active support. Lead generation agencies and large enterprises can opt for the Custom Plan ($174/month), providing up to 12 million active lead credits and 60 million emails, with advanced CRM integration and customisation options.