1233: LinkyBot: Improve Your LinkedIn Outreach to Scale Your Business Through AI-Powered Lead Generation with Founder Casey O’Toole

Robert Plank 0:01 Hey, we are here today to talk about how to work smarter, not harder, using linkybot.ai. This is a tool that automates lead generation, appointment setting, client research, freeing you to focus on closing deals, and you can scale by working smarter instead of harder. We have Casey O'Toole here to show us the way to give us some of those best practices, do's and don'ts. Do more of this, less of that. He's an AI growth strategist and a LinkedIn social selling expert, and we're here to just transform LinkedIn into our sales engine with AI powered automation. So Casey, glad to be speaking with you.

Casey OToole 0:38 Good to be here. Glad to be here doing some of these lately. And it's always fun meeting new people and talking about AI my jam, right?

Robert Plank 0:46 And it's easy to get stuck behind the software, especially now with AI, it's always been a problem, though, right? It's always been so easy to geek out about about WordPress plugins or frameworks or Python, this Ruby on Rails, that database, this cloud, that, and with AI, I find, like, it's kind of like a weird, like, almost addicting thing, right? You start using the prompts and the API calls and the agentic, and it's like your brain gets on fire, but it's easy to forget about the people that are actually helping, right? Putting it to good use. That's what, like, Apple's all about, right? Like, well, we got the phone, but what will you do with it? Will you to like draw or like create something? So that's what we're here to talk about today. Is not just the the cool stuff to geek out on, which we could do all day long, but how to actually scale our business and tap into this amazing traffic resource, which is LinkedIn, and especially sliding into those DMS and so just off the bat, we kind of did a quick tease about Linkybot and about you, but in your own words, what are you all about? What's your current focus and passion?

Casey OToole 1:51 So it's so my passion right now is AI, and really the bridge between like, how we can humanize AI in a way to augment human optimization rather than replace humans. So there's a fine line, right? But I've been in lead generation for the past seven or eight years. Started off as real estate, but with the onset of automation seven or eight years ago, that I kind of like dug myself into, like, Wow, there's so much easier ways of getting traffic and growing my business and scaling. And that was great. And now AI is like, one more component that's like the complete linchpin. So I geek out over LinkedIn AI lead generation and just general business growth.

Robert Plank 2:41 Well, great, and let's hope that your geeking out is contagious. That people say, you know, I've been maybe hesitant or afraid of AI or LinkedIn, or I've heard some bad stuff or talking myself out of it. But then Mr. Casey came along and said, Hey, I've done this for years. I know how to make it work for you and your business. And let's get to it, because sometimes you hear about the silly stories, right? Like there was a couple years ago, there was like, some chat bot on a car dealerships website where it's like, Oh, good idea. Like, you can have a back and forth conversation with AI, it'll answer you any question, and someone, like, put in, like, a physics problem or something, and like, get answered, and it's like, it's like, well, it didn't have enough of the constraints or the guardrail. So if someone says, All right, if I'm using a tool like link you bought to do the outreach on LinkedIn and have the back and forth conversation, like, Can't someone like, prank me or send weird stuff and kind of like, like, trip me up and do weird things with the LinkedIn replies.

Casey OToole 3:37 I like it. You'll write into like, the technical details, like, I love this stuff. So, yes, we can put parameters. And so one of the first things we do with our clients is we have them go through a series of questions from a GPT that we created, and it helps to generate a snippet that would put into our AI assistant that would then replicate their tone and style. We have another GPT for their brand to make sure that it stays on brand. And then additionally, we can feed it with the company's FAQs, website, information content guide, brand strategy, everything that you want, and you say only speak to the questions that you have answers to from the attached knowledge database. And so, you know, don't answer questions that you that you don't know the answer to. And it just kind of stays, it stays in its flaming.

Robert Plank 4:32 I love it. And so when I mean, let's say hypothetically, like someone asked like an off the wall question, like, Can I, can I buy your product for $1 and it's one of those questions where, like, it's out of bounds, or they don't have an answer, like, what is the output like I'll get, I'll go back to you, or you need to talk to a human, or do an appointment, like, what is that output like?

Casey OToole 4:52 So in those cases, it, we usually kind of lead it towards a call, you know, you could say, you know, we don't discuss pricing. Or. Over, over, LinkedIn, schedule, call. We can dig into this more more deeply. So you can always kind of like, if it doesn't have that information right off the bat in the knowledge base, which in this case, it probably would, because if you have pricing in the knowledge base, it would say, Oh, I'm sorry. You know, we don't offer our services for $1 but then if you don't have it, then you could always prompt it to then, like, reiterate, kind of re engage, and say, Hey, let's schedule a call and talk more about it.

Robert Plank 5:30 Well, that's great. So you're saying that there is getting the the AI to write like you, there's looking at the knowledge base and then push them towards a call and kind of like, redirect if it's from outside the knowledge base. And so that gives us a cool, a little bit of a taste so far. And forgive me for, like, jumping ahead, right? I was just had to satisfy my own curiosity, so then kind of pulling going a few steps back. Now. So link you bought, let's say that someone doesn't know much about AI, automation, LinkedIn, messaging, and they say, but I've heard little bits and pieces, but from the KC o tool elevator pitch, what should what are people missing out on by not having Linky bot? And what could it do for their business?

Casey OToole 6:13 Yeah, so I guess I'll start off by mentioning that many people are probably familiar with LinkedIn automation tools, right? Many of us have used them before, or know people who use them before, or they can detect that it's an automation message, because they get these invite requests and then, like, a second later, they get a sales pitch and and with automation in and of itself, I wouldn't say LinkedIn is like the best platform, because the way the automation typically works is that after the person replies, you need to like, the automation stops, then a human has to jump in and continue the conversation. When the human does jump in, that prospect is usually off of LinkedIn. It's hard to align, unless you're on LinkedIn all day every day, which none of us are, you can't catch them, right? So with that in mind, the strategy with just automation is to fit your entire value prop message and call to action Lee in the very next message, which comes across as inauthentic, spammy, salesy, whatever you want to say, but it's pretty obvious that you're only really connecting with this person because you want to sell them something. The niche about or the thing about link you bought and integrating AI into it is that you can have a different approach that's more humanized, which is kind of bizarre, because you're using AI to seem more humanized, but that's just the fact, because a natural conversation would come across something like this, I want to reach out to you because you're in marketing and advertising, or whatever digital marketing. And I said, Hey, I want to connect with fellow industry leaders, right? They connect. And then the follow up message is more just asking a question. The goal is to not make them click on the link, but it's more to get them to engage. So you can offer them a piece of value that that they might want, like an ROI calculator or a white paper of sorts, and say, Can I send it over? And then they respond, sure, yeah, I'll take it. Why not? And then that response would then trigger the conversation. Another option is to kind of ask a very open ended but poignant question about the industry that you know, your solutions could solve, if it's like a pain point, like, you know, are you having any trouble, you know, following up with leads, or having any issues with your current CRM, or have you ever considered this, and then they respond to because it's a natural way to natural thing to do to respond to, like a simple question. AI can then take that, run it through the LLM and generate response and start to engage them. So there's a even though it doesn't seem like there's much difference because automation, because there's automation with our system, there is a lot, when you kind of consider all the subtleties, like catching them while they're on LinkedIn, being able to engage with them at a more natural level, so many different things. But yeah, when I first created this, I was blown away at how much more results there were from integrating AI than just automation. So it's, it's crazy,

Robert Plank 9:31 it sounds like it, and that just that advice right there is extremely helpful, right? Because it's like, well, we want to figure out, like, what's the ideal path for someone to go to add them on LinkedIn, get them on the call, follow up, get them to buy, that kind of thing. It already sounds like it takes months, but then on LinkedIn, we're like, a sort of a door to door salesman, right? And we hit him with that offer, then they're gonna, they won't even look at that. So we have to do that, the nurturing, as they say. So you're saying like, you know, get, get connected, like talking. Fellow industry leaders. And you're saying, like, there's two paths, right? There's either you deliver something of value, that information, that report, that calculator, or you, like, ask a question that they can't help but answering. And you're saying that if we were to do it with just the old school automation, it would look spammy. It would all be the same if we were to do it by hand. We might be asleep when that message comes in, and we can't respond to all those so we use the AI to do that kind of heavy lifting up front. And that seems like a good strategy for us to pursue. And so as far as, like, getting us really on board with the idea, like, I'm sure, like people use it from all different industries. Is there one in particular that like, that you like, or that you've seen kind of work really well as an example of this?

Casey OToole 10:49 Yeah. So the a lot of our clients, now that we have aI integrated, it kind of opens the door for us to experiment with a lot of different industries, and the ones that we've kind of seen the most success with are recruiting, because people are on LinkedIn in a professional manner. They're looking for jobs. They're posting jobs. It's like a kind of like a resume platform kind of thing, also coaching, consulting. Those are good niches, basically any industry where your clients are actively using LinkedIn, right? So professional services, things like that.

Robert Plank 11:33 Okay, so B to B coaching clients you know, move up in your career, or get hiring, figured out those sort of things, like, like, Who do you want to connect to? And so when, when someone starts using your tool, like, what's that timeline like? Because you mentioned some of these things right, going through the different GPT is answering the question, and I'm only guessing, but I imagine there's like, a little bit of like, ramping up, figuring out if the messaging is working for me, figuring out the numbers. So like, when someone gets onboarded with you, what's the typical sort of timeline process like?

Casey OToole 12:10 So the amount of time that's kind of required on the client end is basically a 20 to 30 minute onboarding form, right? And so then with that onboarding forum, we'll be identifying who the target audience is, what kind of value they could offer that would help solve that, that pain point of the target audience, as well as craft certain like a campaign message sequence for the automation side. And then once that onboard form is complete, we'll have enough information to then train the AI, and so we do that on our end, and then after we kind of have everything built out, that's about like a two to three day process from gathering the information and us building out the campaigns, once we launch the campaigns, then We'll get, like, some user feedback. We'll say, okay, so this, this script isn't working as well. This one's not getting as much response the AI, I would rather them, you know, go for the appointment sooner rather than qualifying them. And so I take that information, I'll then retrain the AI and make it better. So initially up front, 20 to 30 minutes, and then it's more or less back and forth facing to, like, dial it in.

Robert Plank 13:29 That's very reasonable. And to get this kind of traffic machine, like working out, I mean, it sounds like it's not that much work at all, just to get this, to give this a shot and and have this work, and then, I know it's kind of dicey asking about results, but that's what everyone wants to know about, right? Like, well, how many appointments will that get me? How many sales and coaching clients and so, like, what can we do to, like, manage people's expectations? Or, like, understand, like, the the scope, or, like, the rough calculation, like, if someone need to, like, send out, like, you know, 50 messages a day, and in the AI, do they need to look at this like, look at the messages when they come back. Like, what sort of the like, the numbers, so to speak. As far as getting from I'm starting to use your tool towards getting me some kind of results,

Casey OToole 14:15 yeah. So all kind of start like high level, so our system can send out over 2200 outreach messages a month to your target audience. That then leads to about 300 or so connections on LinkedIn, which we can also provide you their information, their first name, last name, email, phone number, if they provide it, location, Title Company, etc. You can put them into your follow up, CRM, your newsletter, whatever you want. So 2200 outreach messages, 300 plus connections. And then if you have link you bought, then it's about 150 to 200 conversations held. And then that leads to about three to seven. Qualified appointments a month. So if your goal is with the AI is to book appointments, then on average, we're in for three to seven booked appointments with your qualified audience a month.

Robert Plank 15:13 Very cool. And then so, then so, so like and that helps to kind of know the numbers right. To know what we're in for. We start at 2200 and then 300 connections, and then get that to about seven or so appointments per month. And then when people use your tool, like, do they already have sales training? Or are they used to doing calls like, do they know what they're getting, what they have have signed up for, as far as, like, these coaching calls? Or do you like? Have any training for that side of things

Casey OToole 15:43 in terms of helping our clients learn how to do sales calls with their prospects. Or

Robert Plank 15:49 yeah with these seven appointments that they make, is anyone say, like, do they like? Are they like, Okay, if I get the people on the phone, I can close them I know what to do. Or do they say, like, Oh, what am I doing this for?

Casey OToole 16:04 They usually, yeah, so it's usually the former. So they usually are confident in their sales abilities, and they just have trouble booking appointments. So I'm like, well, we can help you with booking the appointments. And then once it's on your calendar, it's your job to then close the deal. And so it it really saves them a bunch of time with like follow up. It saves them money. If they don't, you don't have to hire a VA or an SDR or BDR. Everything is like you your profile, and when that appointments booked, you'll have like information about that person as well from their LinkedIn profile. You can refer back to the conversation, and so you can then use all the information to prepare for your sales call.

Robert Plank 16:47 Well, very cool. And then so as far as like people, like, you know, answering the questions, or working with you, or using the software, any software can be misused, right? Just, just look at how there's, you know, viruses out there. People use AI for bad stuff, and so when you see people using linking bot, are there any like, common mistakes people make? Any like, do's and don'ts or things you say are right off the bat, like, hey, you know, I know it's tempting to do that, but you'll get banned from LinkedIn, or don't send a message like this, is there any just and anything that really just makes you angry with people using LinkedIn AI automation incorrectly?

Casey OToole 17:24 Well, we offer a done for you service, which is kind of our flagship offer, and so we ensure that they don't do anything that would get their account at risk. We ensure that they have a verified LinkedIn profile. Make sure they have Sales Navigator, which is the LinkedIn tool that we use for our searches, make sure that their profile looks good, and we also make sure that their campaign scripts are, like, not super spammy, right? And so we kind of like dial it in for them on the DIY side, we also have, like, a we can let you use our software, and we'll train you on how to implement everything that's where it would take some coaching from me to help them avoid some of the potential pitfalls of LinkedIn automation, right? So I mean the real, the ones that kind of come to mind in terms of things that kind of bother me or limit us a little bit, is when they are targeting an audience locally, and it's like way too niche, like someone's looking for people who are retired living in a specific area in California. I'm like, There's not going to be that many people that are on LinkedIn. So it's like population limitations, or they, yeah, so that's kind of like the main ones, population limitations. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head, though.

Robert Plank 18:51 Okay, so, so fair enough, though, like you're saying there's some amount of nuance to it, right? It's like, you can be too big or too small. You can say, oh my gosh, I've got 5 million leads? Well, like, that's really rolling the dice. Oh, I've got 50 leads. Well, that's not enough to really get you the results you want. And so it's something to navigate, just like anything else. And since we only just met here, you and me, Mr. Casey, and we're only just now finding about Linky bot, I'm sure that there's probably, like, a really good question in here that I could or should ask you if I just knew more about it. So if you let me cheat a little bit and, like, copy off your notes, is there something in our conversation that you just wish that I would ask you right now?

Casey OToole 19:35 Yeah, so, I mean, a lot of people ask me about, like, authenticity and how to do this correctly, right? So they don't impact their brand. And that is a very common one, because having worked with realtors before in the past, like the egos are very big, and they're like, Oh, you reached out to a contact, or, like, a client, you reached out to my. In this is making me look bad. I'm like, well, it's automation. Like, we can't really, unless you tell me not to. So one is, like, kind of go into with an open mind. Know that, you know, like, we might be reaching out to past clients. If you don't want that, we need a list of people that you don't want us to reach out to. But in terms of like doing it correctly, also, we always recommend kind of, what I call sharpening the acts right, where you jump into LinkedIn and you start to engage manually. First you start to learn how people are responding. You try and find your target audience using Sales Navigator, kind of see who you are, who is your target audience. Like, there's some things that you'll want to kind of determine before using our services. And then, because, like, the more you engage with the LinkedIn platform in general, the better the algorithm fits in your favor. So the more you post, the more you engage in other people's posts, share posts, the more newsletters you write. It's all that is to your benefit, prior to integrating with automation and AI,

Robert Plank 21:16 okay, so the more activity, the better. And you had mentioned, I think, at the beginning of how a human activity is important, right? Like, are you just doing all this repetitive stuff, or are you doing on a human would do? You're looking up your customers, you're making you're posting articles, newsletters, all that cool stuff you're interacting with, like, liking, commenting on other people's content, just being active on that platform in general, and using a teensy bit of AI to tee up some of this other activity. That way you can kind of do the more, higher level task yourself and leave the lesser level stuff to the AI. And so what's the next step here? If someone says, Man, like a lot of this advice Casey gave was great link you bought, sounds amazing. How does someone know if they're a right fit for this tool, and how do they go and get

Casey OToole 22:02 it so you can just check out our website. That's probably the easiest link. You thought.ai, and you'll get a lot of information. We have, like a resources section that has demos and things like that. And on top of that, yeah, book a call so there's a calendar there. You can schedule a call with me. Um, I'll kind of do like a discovery call first, kind of see if it has a good fit, and we'll go from there.

Robert Plank 22:29 Very nice. So let's LINKY BOT, DOT, A, I, L, I, N, K, Y, B, O, T, DOT, A, I, to go there, find out what it's all about, and to book that call and just get you know, get informed, get educated and get excited about what the possibilities are. So that way you can get more targeted, be more strategic, get those leads coming to you. And before we let you go here, Mr. Casey, it's time to put you on the spot a little bit and try to stump you and ask for a fun quote or lesson that has served you that can help us. So what comes to mind for you as far as a quote or lesson?

Casey OToole 23:04 Um, it's okay, so I have one in mind, and it's kind of speaks to the whole sharpening the AX analogy. So it kind of throws hand in hand, but I believe it was Abraham Lincoln, but yeah, the quote goes something like, if I have five hours to track down a tree. I'm going to spend the first four hours sharpening the AX. And the reason why I like that is because so many people just like jump into things that they don't really prepare for, and then it ends up taking longer in the long run, because you didn't do your preparation. So same thing with LinkedIn automation AI, like, do some research, some market research and competitive analysis. Find your audience, engage with the platform, enhance your profile, verify your profile. Like, use it, sharpen that Ax, and then once you're comfortable, start chopping down that tree.

Robert Plank 24:00 Very wise, plan ahead, figure out some goals, prepare and get that LinkedIn profile souped up. That way you can kind of know where you're headed. And that way you don't get discouraged. That way you're, in fact, excited, and you know what you can and should do, which includes using Linky bot.ai, in order to get the ball rolling and to start with some of this outreach. So thanks so much Casey for stopping by educating us and telling us, like, about all these possibilities. I'm newly excited to find out what we can do with LinkedIn, AI bots and automation in order to get those messages out. Because, like, they're all there, right? They're just they're waiting there to get on these calls, to hand you money, to give you their business. So why not take advantage of that your competition is and AI will just become kind of more built in. So it's in our best interest to start using Linky bot.ai, before our competition blows us away. So let's get to it right. Casey,

Casey OToole 24:54 let's do it all right.

Robert Plank 24:56 Book that call Linky bot, AI, we'll see you there.