Clientell generated 30 positive replies in three days with a targeted Dreamforce campaign
From unproductive events to a calendar full of relevant conversations
Clientell, an AI-enabled Salesforce admin company, had struggled to get value from conferences. Without a clear plan for identifying the right people, events often meant spending time on conversations that went nowhere.
For Dreamforce 2024, Clientell wanted to connect with potential customers and learn what they needed from an AI-enabled Salesforce admin.
The Kiln (a 2X company) helped Clientell build a targeted outbound campaign to reach those prospects before the conference. The effort generated 30 positive replies in three days, 15 meetings held, and $60K in closed-won revenue.
The challenge: Finding the right people without an attendee list
For Dreamforce 2024, Clientell wanted to use customer interviews to inform its product development rather than focus on immediate sales opportunities.
But without an attendee list, the team had no straightforward way to identify potential customers who would be at the conference, assess their fit, or contact them in advance.
Clientell needed a more reliable way to find relevant attendees and arrange conversations before the event began.
The solution: A targeted, three-day outbound campaign
1. Identify likely Dreamforce attendees
The Kiln scraped public posts mentioning Dreamforce and used AI to determine whether the authors planned to attend.
This process identified approximately 850 likely attendees. The team then enriched their profiles with LinkedIn information to support qualification and outreach.
2. Qualify contacts against Clientell’s ICP
Using Clay and an OpenAI prompt, The Kiln evaluated potential fit based on company information and job title.
The team focused its qualification on decision-makers at startups with enough funding to consider a less expensive alternative to a Salesforce administrator.
3. Personalize outreach without overcomplicating the message
The Kiln developed a simple outreach template that referenced each prospect’s post about Dreamforce, with personalized opening lines and follow-up messages.
This gave recipients a relevant reason to respond and helped Clientell start conversations ahead of the conference.
4. Launch the campaign close to the conference
The Kiln used Clay to prepare contact data and personalized messaging, identified work email addresses, and sequenced the outreach through Smartlead.
The campaign ran for three days, close to the start of Dreamforce, to keep the outreach timely and reduce the risk of prospects losing interest before the event.
The results
The campaign generated strong initial interest, filling Clientell’s calendar with customer interviews and producing commercial results beyond its original research objective.
Campaign performance
- Approximately 850 potential attendees identified: Sourced from public Dreamforce-related posts without an attendee list.
- 450 leads contacted: Selected following attendee research and ICP qualification.
- 30 positive replies in three days: Generated through personalized outreach ahead of Dreamforce.
- 15 meetings held: Clientell could accommodate only 15 meetings due to scheduling constraints.
Business outcomes
- $60K in closed-won revenue from three clients: The campaign produced commercial results even though customer research was Clientell’s primary objective.
The interviews also gave Clientell direct access to potential customers, helping the team better understand their needs and gather insights for product development.
Turning conference attendance into meaningful customer conversations
What began as an effort to gather product feedback also produced new business. By connecting Clientell with relevant prospects before Dreamforce, the campaign made better use of the team’s limited time at the conference and created opportunities that resulted in closed-won revenue.
The Kiln is now part of 2X, extending its Clay and GTM engineering expertise into a broader model connecting GTM strategy, technology, and operations.
