Growthlynk, a specialized lead generation agency exclusively serving recruitment firms, transformed from manual Gmail setups to a fully automated outbound powerhouse using Smartlead.Â
In just two years on the platform, founder Philipp Käming scaled from basic Slack-managed workflows to running hundreds of email accounts, generating $20 million in revenue for clients and consistently delivering 1,000+ positive replies monthly, making Growthlynk one of the highest-volume email agencies in the recruitment space.
Philipp founded Growthlynk approximately three years ago with a laser-focused mission: lead generation for recruitment agencies and nothing else.Â
The agency's specialization stems from a strategic insight; recruitment offers unique personalization opportunities through job descriptions and company needs, making it ideal for AI-powered, hyper-personalized cold email campaigns.
Growthlynk operates on a performance-based model, guaranteeing positive replies rather than traditional retainer-only agreements. Some clients invest $10,000-$12,000 monthly and generate $150,000-$200,000 in return, creating a compelling value proposition that has enabled rapid scaling.
Initially serving the German market, Growthlynk is now expanding into the US and UK markets, requiring even greater infrastructure sophistication and volume capacity.
A friend's recommendation led Philipp to Smartlead, where he immediately recognized the platform's potential after reviewing the API documentation.Â
Growthlynk deployed around 500 email inboxes managed entirely through Smartlead, enabling parallel campaigns across multiple clients and markets without losing control or visibility.
Leveraging Smartlead's API extensively, Growthlynk built sophisticated custom automations on top of the platform. "There's so much stuff built on top of it. I would be dead if I had to rebuild it with another tool," Philipp emphasized, highlighting the depth of integration.
Using Smartlead's client access feature, Growthlynk created seamless experiences for recruitment agency clients, managing all infrastructure, campaigns, and reply handling in one centralized system while maintaining clear separation and visibility per client.
The team integrated web scraping and data enrichment tools with Smartlead to create highly tailored emails based on job descriptions and company-specific needs—a strategy perfectly suited to the recruitment vertical.
Growthlynk implements a 30-day campaign lifecycle, deleting completed campaigns to reassign leads in the backend for potential re-engagement, optimizing long-term deliverability, and list utilization.
"I recognized, okay, I can go crazy with this, just automate everything and scale a lot further," Philipp explained.
Generated approximately $20 million in total revenue for recruitment agency clients, establishing Growthlynk as a premium player in the recruitment lead generation space.
Consistently delivers 1,000-1,500 positive replies monthly across all campaigns, with average reply rates of 10-20% and positive reply rates of 15-25%, which is well above market averages. Top-performing campaigns achieve 30% reply rates with 45% positive responses.
Multiple clients on yearly contracts paying five-figure monthly retainers ($10,000-$12,000), with some generating $150,000-$200,000 monthly from Growthlynk's campaigns.
Successfully manages 500+ email inboxes and sends hundreds of thousands of emails monthly without sacrificing deliverability or performance, with individual clients receiving 400-500 positive replies per month.
Eliminated manual overhead across email infrastructure management, allowing the team to focus on strategy, personalization, and client results rather than technical maintenance.
Built a foundation robust enough to expand from German markets into the US and UK territories, with infrastructure ready to scale to dedicated servers as volume demands increase.
Philipp identified several critical differentiators that made Smartlead irreplaceable for Growthlynk's operations:
"I can manage hundreds of senders easily. I can send hundreds of thousands of emails. I have a proper inbox. I have the client access."
The robust API documentation and flexibility enabled Growthlynk to build extensive custom automations impossible with other platforms.Â
"The reason why we're never leaving is that there's so much stuff built on top of it."
Smartlead's client access feature enables Growthlynk to serve multiple recruitment agencies seamlessly while maintaining complete control and visibility—essential for their business model.
Consistent email performance across hundreds of thousands of monthly sends without compromising inbox placement or sender reputation.
"What I need is just the best performance in the email space,"Â
This is what Philipp stated, appreciating Smartlead's focus on core email infrastructure rather than unnecessary add-ons.
Growthlynk continues to deepen its Smartlead integration and explore expansion into the US/UK markets, with plans to leverage dedicated servers as volumes increase.
By choosing Smartlead, Growthlynk transformed from a manually-managed, low-volume operation to one of the highest-performing email agencies in the recruitment space.Â
The platform's powerful API, multi-client management capabilities, and reliable infrastructure enabled a specialized agency to generate $20 million in client revenue while consistently delivering industry-leading reply rates.
This case exemplifies how agencies focused on vertical specialization can leverage Smartlead's automation and scalability to build sustainable, performance-based business models that deliver exceptional results for clients.
Ready to scale your agency like Growthlynk? Sign up for Smartlead's 14-day free trial and discover how you can achieve similar results in your niche.
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Founder, StackOptimise
Smartlead's combination of automation, unlimited inboxes, and easy campaign management has completely transformed how we run cold email campaigns.
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Founder, Cold Email Hackers
We have about 15 companies and we use Smartlead for all of them.
Founder, DutchSave Media
One of the things I love about using Smartlead is the deliverability feature. If they landed in the bounce or spam folders, we could resolve this quickly.
Co-Founder, Growth Today
I want to continue to use Smartlead to make operations more seamless - the plan is to bring more clients here and build more SOPs.
Founder, FueltoFly
Smartlead listens to the agencies and customers and builds according to what people want, that has really made things easier for us.
Founder, OutboundSync
We build an infrastructure product, and OutboundSync communicates with Smartlead itself. I love the webhook and API. They're really well done and keep getting better.
Founder, Axoleads
With SmartDelivery, you can put all of that in the hands of the tool. It ensures your emails land in inboxes, and by running a simple test, you can see if you're hitting the mark.
Founder, Claygen
Deliverability is the cornerstone of cold email outreach. You could have the best email copy in the world, but if no one is seeing it, it's useless. I really love the feature where you can actually give client accesses to your clients.
Co-Founder, Cymate
I do not want to switch to another software. Pick a solution you trust, stick with it, and keep refining your copy.
CMO, Avalanche Capital
Managing large volumes of emails through multiple inboxes used to be a logistical nightmare. With Smartlead, the process is seamless. We book thousands of discovery calls through cold emails. These campaigns are generating leads at a scale we never thought possible.
Founder, Growth Engine X
We came for the unlimited inboxes, and we stayed for the API. 1.5M cold emails/month, 7,767+ inboxes managed.
Head of Community & Ecosystem, TxtCart
You cannot replace having 10,000 touches with potential clients. When you have that much distribution and reach, you really start to see incredible results. The simplicity of Smartlead made all the difference. It doesn't require you to be a technical wizard.
Founder, Hyperke
Smartlead has been a game-changer for us. It increased our appointment volume, improved ease of use, and offered valuable features. 80% increase in appointments/month, peak of 276 appointments in a single month.
Founder, Kinetyca
Smartlead has been our cold email backbone from day one. The platform evolves constantly, keeping pace with how deliverability and personalization need to work today. 21% overall reply rate, $175K in 4 months for multiple B2B clients.
Founder, Reachflow
Smartlead is centered around deliverability and constantly evolving. Their API is not like any other platform. Smartlead covers all our needs. The focus on core features like deliverability and API integration is unmatched.
CEO, Halfwarm
Our approach to crafting conversational emails led to reply rates that many of my peers thought were unattainable.
Co-Founder, letstrike
We've grown on zero capital, zero marketing, purely cold emailing - and that's the story we love to tell. The best approach is no approach if you can't handle domain meltdown. The second best is something like Smartlead that's built from the ground up for deliverability at scale.
Founder, Fenixtal
Smartlead's white-labeling and automation let us punch above our weight. The 12M euros sales potential? That's what happens when you combine human creativity with Smartlead's precision.
Co-Founder, Digital Creativs
Nine out of 10. Ninety percent of our clients are on Smartlead unless they come in with an existing setup. That's the default.
Co-Founder, BuildingReach
At the end of the day, you have to take a bet on one tool or another. It was a no-brainer taking that bet on Smartlead. We had to even turn down the volume of our marketing campaigns - Smartlead was capable of driving more volume than our sales team was able to fulfill.
Founder & MD, Prospectiv
Since starting the business in January of this year, we've already generated $200K in sales exclusively from cold email. Smartlead has been central to our operations and has exceeded our expectations.
Founder, Growthlynk
There's so much stuff built on top of it. I would be dead if I had to rebuild it with another tool. I can manage hundreds of senders easily. I can send hundreds of thousands of emails.
Founder, Corebits
The platform's HubSpot integration, real-time Slack updates, and advanced campaign customization have been game changers for our business and our clients'.
Founder, Apex Ascension
From day one, we've never used anything else.
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