Today, I'm excited to share a detailed video tutorial of setting up Apollo.io for Linens and Love, a non-profit organization repurposing linens from hotels to help those in need. I'll cover everything from account lists to messaging, personas, setting up mailboxes, workflows, and more to create an automated outbound engine.

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00:00
Introduction - Linens N Love Sample Client
02:00
Onboarding Document - Targeting Criteria
03:50
Building Account Lists in Apollo.io
09:30
Using Apollo Buying Intent Data
13:50
Using Apollo Website Visitor ID
16:50
Building Personas in Apollo
22:35
Setting up Mailboxes
25:20
Apollo Email Warmup
26:50
Apollo Custom Account Scores
30:10
Building Sequences in Apollo
31:20
Using Apollo’s AI Generated Emails
34:10
Manually Adding Contacts to Sequences
35:40
Adding Contacts to Sequences Automatically Using Workflows

Example Apollo.io Setup: Linens N Love

Introduction

In this tutorial, I’ll walk through a full Apollo.io setup from scratch for a nonprofit client, Linens N Love.

Linens N Love, founded by May and Vivian, repurposes linens from hotels—blankets, sheets, pillows, towels—that would otherwise end up in landfills. Instead, they donate these linens to charities like homeless shelters, low-income households, and animal shelters.

We helped them set up Apollo to reach hotels, build targeted account and contact lists, and launch outbound campaigns aligned with their mission.

Step 1: Understanding Targeting and Messaging

Before diving into Apollo, we reviewed the detailed information the founders provided:

• Target Accounts: Hotels worldwide
• Keywords: Sustainability, donation, corporate social responsibility (CSR), green, waste reduction
• Personas: General Managers, Marketing Directors, Sales Directors, Sustainability Managers, Operations Directors
• Pain Points & Solutions: Identified per persona (e.g., operations directors care about efficiency, sustainability managers focus on CSR initiatives)
• Customer Stories: Real examples that could be woven into outreach sequences

This foundation guided the entire Apollo setup.

Step 2: Building Account Lists

We started by building an account-level list in Apollo:

• Industry: Hospitality
• Keyword: “Hotels”
• Employee Count: Minimum of 10 employees

The result was ~10,000 accounts, including Marriott, Hilton, and Four Seasons.

Fine-Tuning with Keywords

• Using “Hotel” alone initially excluded Marriott.
• Switching to “Hotels” corrected the list.
• This process involved trial and error with filters and keywords.

Once finalized, we saved the accounts into a master Hotels list inside Apollo.

Step 3: Layering in Intent Data

To prioritize accounts, we added intent topics from Bombora data:

• Sustainability Programs
• Sustainable Travel
• CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)
• ESG Reporting
• Waste Reduction

Out of the 10,000 hotels, 110 showed high or medium intent around these topics. Examples:

• Marriott researching CSR software
• Hyatt researching ESG reporting
• Standard Hotel researching waste reduction

This smaller intent-based list helped focus outreach on the most engaged accounts.

Step 4: Website Visitor Tracking

We also recommended adding Apollo’s website visitor tracking script.

• Placed in the site’s header, it identifies company-level visits.
• Provides another strong buying signal, even when visitors don’t fill out a form.

Step 5: Building Personas

With account lists ready, we moved to persona-level filters to find the right contacts.

Examples created in Apollo:

• Sustainability Manager (32,000 people in Apollo database)
• Operations Director (filtered by seniority = VP/Director level, department = Operations)

We also fine-tuned by excluding irrelevant titles (e.g., interns, associates).

This ensured clean, persona-specific contact lists tied to target accounts.

Step 6: Connecting Mailboxes

Next, we connected Apollo to email mailboxes:

• Verified domains with DNS settings (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
• Set up Apollo’s email warming tool to gradually ramp up sending
• Disabled open tracking for better deliverability

In this plan, we could connect up to 15 mailboxes for outreach.

Step 7: Creating a Custom Account Score

We set up a scoring model to rank accounts:

• +20 points → High intent
• +15 points → Medium intent
• +10 points → Keywords like “Hotels”
• +10 points → More than 5 retail locations

This score highlighted excellent-fit accounts like Marriott, which matched multiple positive signals.

Step 8: Building Sequences

We built a General Outreach sequence in Apollo:

• Step 1: Email sent 30 minutes after contact is added
• Step 2: Follow-up email after 4 days
• Emails included personalization tokens like {{first_name}} and {{company_name}}
• A/B testing planned for different subject lines and CTAs

Step 9: Automating with Plays

To tie everything together, we created Apollo Plays:

• Weekly automation to pull new accounts and contacts
• Apply filters (only verified or “likely to engage” emails)
• Enroll contacts into the General Outreach sequence automatically

This ensured outreach ran continuously without manual intervention.

Step 10: Monitoring Activity

Inside Apollo:

• Activity Tab → Track Play success
• Email Tab → See scheduled, sent, blocked, bounced, and replied-to emails
• Unified Inbox → Manage replies directly in Apollo

This gave the nonprofit real-time visibility into campaign performance.

Conclusion

With this full Apollo.io setup, Linens N Love can now:

• Target the right hotels worldwide
• Prioritize outreach using intent data and account scoring
• Engage multiple personas with tailored messaging
• Run automated outbound sequences with minimal manual work

This project shows how a thoughtful Apollo setup—from account lists to plays—can power even a nonprofit’s outreach at scale.

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Apollo.io for Non-Profits and Fundraising

Can Apollo.io be used for non-profits and fundraising? Absolutely! Apollo.io is an all in one platform that includes a database of 275M contacts and email outreach sequencing capabilities to run fundraising and outreach efforts all in one place.

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Apollo.io Setup - Free Offer

Sign up for a new Apollo.io account for your business using this link and we can book a free 20 minute screenshare call to help you get setup