How to Use Apollo to Reach Ecommerce Brands After You Have a Finding
Use Apollo to find the right person at an online store once you have a finding: roles by store size, the filters to use, a short list and a four-part email.
Apollo answers one question for an SEO agency: who at this store should read the finding. The order of work:
- Confirm the finding: Crawl the store and check one finding on one live page before you open Apollo.
- Choose the role: The founder at a store of 1 to 10 people. The head of ecommerce or the marketing lead at a larger one.
- Search by company: Use Apollo's Company filter with the store name, then Job titles or Management Level.
- Filter a wider list with care: Industry & keywords, # of employees and Technologies narrow a list. Crawl each store before you add it.
- Keep one person per store: Save one contact per store to a list, with the finding written next to the name.
- Send four parts, follow up once: What you checked, what you found on which page, one likely cause, and one question about categories.
Leave out certainty, business advice and criticism of the site. Those are what lose the client.
This post covers one job: finding the right person at an online store and writing to them, once you already know something specific about their site. The teardown that produces the finding and the list of stores are covered in two sibling posts, linked below. Try CrawlRaven free for 7 days: 1 website, no credit card →
Apollo's pricing page says that, with no record selection limit, you can select and export up to 10,000 leads in one click. A list that long tempts you to write one message for everybody, and a store owner can tell when a message was written for everybody.
The short version: get one confirmed finding about a store first, then open Apollo to find the one person who should read it. This post covers which role to look for, how to search Apollo for them, how to keep the list short, and the four-part message with one follow-up.
Finding first, contact second
Apollo opens at step 3, after the finding is confirmed
Crawl the store and check the finding on the live page. Write down the URL and the date.
The founder at a small store. The head of ecommerce or the marketing lead at a larger one.
Use the Company filter with the store name, then Job titles or Management Level.
Save one contact per store to a list. Every name on the list has a finding next to it.
What you checked, what you found on which page, one likely cause, one question about categories.
Check the page again, say what you saw, repeat the question and offer to stop writing.
A store with no confirmed finding stays off the Apollo list.
Why the finding comes before the contact
I have run an SEO agency for more than 15 years. My advice is to open Apollo late in the process. The order has six steps, the same six shown in the illustration above:
- Confirm one finding on one page.
- Choose the role by store size.
- Find that person in Apollo.
- Keep one person per store.
- Send the four-part message.
- Follow up once.
Published Apollo tutorials start with the list. In US Google Ads data on 11 October 2026, “apollo lead generation” had 880 searches a month. The live Google results that day for “how to use apollo for lead generation” were YouTube tutorials, apollo.io, kaspr.io and Apollo's knowledge base. They are general tutorials. None covers reaching an online store with an SEO finding.
Step 1: Confirm one finding on one page
Before a store is a client you have no access to its Search Console or GA4. The crawl and the free tools are what you have. CrawlRaven's crawl reports pages with no internal links, crawler access rules, rendering problems and schema errors.
The full method is in the three-finding store teardown. For this message you need one of those findings, checked on the live page:
- A collection page nothing links to. Pull the URLs with the sitemap extractor, then run the homepage through the internal link analyzer to see which collections it links to.
- Duplicate product URLs. The Shopify duplicate URL checker samples 20 products and checks where each copy's canonical tag points.
- A weak category page. The collection page SEO checker runs 13 checks on one category URL and shows the observed values.
One specific, checkable fact about one page of the store. The reader can open the URL and confirm it in a minute.
Write down the URL, the finding and the date. If you are still choosing stores, start with finding Shopify stores that need SEO and qualifying the store.
Step 2: Choose the role by store size
The right reader is the person who owns the page you found the problem on. Who that is depends on how many people work at the store. The bands below are my recommendations.
The role to look for, by store size
| Store team size | Role to look for | Apollo filter setting | Why this person |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 10 people | Founder or owner | Management Level: founder | The founder usually decides on the site and reads their own email. |
| 11 to 50 people | Head of ecommerce, or the marketing lead | Job titles: ecommerce manager, head of ecommerce, marketing manager | One person usually owns the store and its traffic. Copy the founder only if no such role exists. |
| 51 to 200 people | Head or director of ecommerce | Job titles: head of ecommerce, director of ecommerce, with similar titles included | This person owns category pages and can say which categories matter most. |
| Over 200 people | SEO manager or head of organic | Job titles: SEO manager, head of SEO, organic growth | An in-house search owner exists. They can check your finding in minutes. |
The size bands and roles are my recommendations. Set the band with a custom range in Apollo's # of employees filter.
The same table in text:
- 1 to 10 people: the founder or owner. They usually decide on the site themselves.
- 11 to 50 people: the head of ecommerce, an ecommerce manager or the marketing lead. Copy the founder only if no such role exists.
- 51 to 200 people: the head or director of ecommerce, who owns the category pages.
- Over 200 people: the SEO manager or head of organic. They can check your finding in minutes.
Step 3: Search Apollo by company
You already know the store, so search for it by name. These steps use the labels in Apollo's Search for People and search filters help articles, which I read on 11 October 2026.
- Open Apollo and click People.
- Click Show Filters, then More Filters.
- Open the Company filter and select the store. Apollo says this filter “includes or excludes specific companies” and accepts company names.
- Open Job titles and type the role from step 2. Put the title in quotation marks for exact matches, or check Include people with similar titles to widen it.
- For a small store, click Management Level inside Job titles. Apollo's article gives founder, manager and intern as example levels.
- Add Email status and select Verified, which Apollo describes as a fully confirmed, valid email address.
There is a second route. In a Companies search, check the store and choose Find people from the action bar. Apollo's Search for Companies article says this opens a people search scoped to the companies you selected.
Then check the person outside Apollo. Open the store's About page or the person's public profile and confirm they still hold the role.
Step 4: Filter a wider list by industry, headcount and technology
Sometimes you want Apollo to suggest stores as well. Apollo says it uses AND logic across filters and OR logic within each filter. Each filter you add narrows the results, and each value you add inside one filter widens them. Four filters do most of the work:
- Industry & keywords. Apollo describes industry as a self-reported, single value. Company keywords are matched against descriptions, websites and other profile data, and you can exclude keywords.
- # of employees. Choose a predefined range or set a custom range that matches a band from step 2.
- Technologies. Apollo says it supports filtering by 1,500+ technologies. The full list sits behind a login, so check in your account that the store platform you want is on it.
- Location. Select Account HQ to filter by where the company is based.
Apollo warns that broad keywords also match companies that only mention the word in a description. Expect wholesalers, agencies and software vendors in an ecommerce search, and remove them by hand.
Every store that comes out of this search goes back to step 1. A store gets a contact only after it has a confirmed finding.
Step 5: Keep the list to one person per store
I would keep the list short enough that you can name the finding for every row from memory. Apollo has three features that help:
- Max people per company. In Bulk Selection, this setting limits how many people Apollo selects from any single company.
- List. The List action adds the people you checked to a list. Name the list after the finding type, such as “unlinked collections”.
- Lists filter. Add stores you have written to into a company list, then exclude that list with is none of in later people searches.
Keep the finding next to the name. A spreadsheet with four columns is enough: store, page URL, finding, contact.
What Apollo's Free plan covers
I read Apollo's pricing page on 11 October 2026. These figures can change, so check the page before you rely on them:
- The Free plan is listed at $0 with 900 credits per seat per year, granted monthly.
- An email costs 1 credit and a phone number costs 8 credits.
- The Free plan lists “Basic Filters” and “2 Sequences”. The Basic plan lists “Advanced Filters” at $49 per seat per month, billed annually, with 30,000 credits per seat per year.
- On free plans you can connect Gmail accounts only.
Apollo's help centre says some plans include more filters than others. I could not confirm on Apollo's public pages which filters count as “Basic Filters”, so look at what your own account shows.
Step 6: Write the message in four parts
The message carries the finding and one question. The template below is a starting point. Fill in every bracket and rewrite the sentences in your own words.
Subject: [Collection or page name] on [store name]: one thing I found Hi [First name], I crawled [store domain] on [date] and looked at [what you checked. Example: how your collection pages link to each other]. On [exact page URL] I found this: [the finding in plain words. Example: the page is in your sitemap, and no link points to it from the menu, the homepage or any other collection]. One possible reason: [one likely cause. Example: the collection was created and never added to the navigation]. I can only see the site from outside, so I may be wrong. Is [category on that page] one of the categories that matters most to you, or should I be looking at different ones? [Your name] [Agency name] [Street address, city, state, ZIP] This is a sales email from an SEO agency. Reply "no thanks" and I will not write again.
- What you checked. Say you crawled the site, give the date, and name the area you looked at.
- What you found, on which page. Give the exact URL so the reader can open it and see for themselves.
- One likely cause. Offer one, in plain words, and say you may be wrong. Write “no link points to this page” where an SEO would write orphan page.
- One question about categories. Ask which categories matter most to them. Their answer tells you where to look next.
Four parts, written about one store
Hi [First name],
I crawled the Store D site on [date] and looked at how your collection pages link to each other.
The page /collections/linen-bedding is in your sitemap. I found no link to it from the menu, the homepage or any other collection.
One possible reason: the collection was created and never added to the navigation. I can only see the site from outside, so I may be wrong.
Is linen bedding one of the categories that matters most to you, or should I be looking at different ones?
[Your name], [Agency name], [street address, city, state, ZIP]. This is a sales email from an SEO agency. Reply “no thanks” and I will not write again.
Illustration with placeholder names. A template layout, shown to label the four parts.
The illustration uses placeholder names. The email goes to the head of ecommerce at Store D, about the page /collections/linen-bedding, which is in the sitemap and has no links pointing to it.
Apollo's action bar has an Email action for a one-off email and a Sequence action for automated outreach. For a list this short I would send each email one at a time and read it once more before it goes.
You may be the SEO expert, but they know the business. The question about categories is the part of the message I would protect. The store knows which categories carry its margin and its season. Do not try to teach business to them.
Step 7: Follow up once
I would send one follow-up, about a week later. Open the page again first, so the follow-up reports something new.
Subject: Re: [Collection or page name] on [store name]: one thing I found Hi [First name], I checked [exact page URL] again on [date]. [One sentence on what you saw. Example: the page still has no links pointing to it. Or: the page is now linked from the menu, so this one is fixed.] My question is still open: which categories matter most to you this quarter? If this is not a priority right now, tell me and I will stop writing. [Your name] [Agency name] [Street address, city, state, ZIP] This is a sales email from an SEO agency. Reply "no thanks" and I will not write again.
- Report what you saw. If the store fixed the page, say so. It shows you report honestly.
- Repeat the question. It is still the easiest thing for them to answer.
- Offer to stop. Then keep your word.
What to leave out of the message
Three things lose the client, and all three are easy to put in a cold email by accident:
- Certainty. Being too sure of your recommendation, and not listening to their specific requirement, loses the client. Offer one likely cause and ask.
- Business advice. They know the business. Keep your message to what you can see on the page.
- A list of faults. Bashing their site too much offends some owners. One finding is enough for a first message.
I would also leave out a price and any promised ranking. You do not know the scope yet.
US rules for commercial email
If you email businesses in the United States, read the FTC's CAN-SPAM compliance guide. It says the law covers commercial email and makes no exception for business-to-business email. The guide's requirements include:
- Accurate header information.
- A subject line that reflects the content of the message.
- A clear statement that the message is an ad.
- A valid physical postal address.
- A clear way to opt out. You must honor an opt-out within 10 business days, and the opt-out method must work for at least 30 days after you send.
The templates above carry an address line, an ad statement and an opt-out line for this reason. This is a summary of one US guide and it is no substitute for legal advice. Other countries have their own rules, and you should read the ones that apply to you and to the store.
When Apollo does not have the answer
What if Apollo has no one at the store?
If the search returns nobody, look on the store's own site for a contact page, an About page or a press address, and send the same four parts there. Address it to the role: “for whoever looks after the website”.
What if the person has left or the title is wrong?
Apollo marks some saved contacts with an Update Required email status when it identifies a job change. If a reply tells you the person has moved on, thank them and ask who looks after the category pages now.
Tools that make this faster
- CrawlRaven. Our tool. Before the store signs, the crawl finds the pages with no internal links, the crawler access rules, the rendering problems and the schema errors. After they grant access, it joins the crawl with Search Console and GA4 in a workspace with content priorities and separate audits. See the ecommerce SEO audit.
- Free ecommerce checks. The collection page SEO checker, the Shopify duplicate URL checker and the Shopify app script checker confirm a finding on one page before you write.
- Apollo. It finds the person and holds the list. CrawlRaven does not find contacts or send email.
We are also launching an AI SEO tool soon. Join the waitlist to hear when it opens.
Sources used in this post
- Apollo – Use Search Filters to Find Prospects: filter names, AND and OR logic, and the note on plans, read on 11 October 2026.
- Apollo – Search for People: the search steps, Bulk Selection and the action bar, read on 11 October 2026.
- Apollo – Search for Companies: the Find people action, read on 11 October 2026.
- Apollo – Pricing: plan prices, credits and plan features, read on 11 October 2026.
- Federal Trade Commission – CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business: the requirements for commercial email, read on 11 October 2026.
- Google Ads search volume and live Google results for Apollo lead generation queries, United States, checked 11 October 2026.
Related reading on CrawlRaven
- How to get ecommerce SEO clients with a store teardown, for the finding this message is built on.
- How to find Shopify stores that need SEO, for the list of stores.
- The AI shopping test, for a second kind of finding.
- Category page SEO and technical SEO for ecommerce, for the work after they say yes.
Frequently asked questions
How do I use Apollo to find ecommerce SEO clients?
Start with a finding about one store, then use Apollo to find the person who should read it. In a People search, add the Company filter with the store name and a Job titles or Management Level filter for the role. Save one contact per store to a list and send a short message built on the finding.
Who should I contact at an online store about SEO?
My recommendation depends on team size. At a store of 1 to 10 people, contact the founder or owner. From 11 to 200 people, look for the head of ecommerce, an ecommerce manager or the marketing lead. Over 200 people, look for an SEO manager or head of organic, because that person can check your finding quickly.
Which Apollo filters help find online stores?
Apollo's help centre lists Industry & keywords, # of employees, Technologies and Location among its search filters. Industry is a single self-reported value, and company keywords are matched against descriptions and websites. Apollo says some plans include more filters than others, so check which ones your account shows before you plan a search around them.
Is Apollo free to use for outreach?
Apollo has a Free plan. On 11 October 2026 its pricing page listed that plan at $0 with 900 credits per seat per year, granted monthly, 2 Sequences and Basic Filters, and priced an email at 1 credit. Free plans connect Gmail accounts only. Apollo can change these figures, so read the pricing page yourself.
What should an SEO outreach email to an ecommerce brand say?
Four things: what you checked, what you found on which page, one likely cause, and one question about which categories matter most to the store. Give the exact URL so the reader can confirm the finding in a minute. Say you may be wrong, because you have only seen the site from outside.
How many people at one store should I email?
I would email one person per store. One message to the right role is easy to answer and easy to forward. Apollo's bulk selection has a Max people per company setting that limits how many people it selects from a single company, which helps when you select from a wider search.
Does the CAN-SPAM Act apply to cold email sent to a business?
The FTC's compliance guide says the law covers commercial email and makes no exception for business-to-business email. It requires accurate header information, a subject line that reflects the content, a clear statement that the message is an ad, a valid physical postal address and a clear way to opt out. Other countries have their own rules.
Where does CrawlRaven fit in Apollo outreach?
CrawlRaven supplies the finding and Apollo supplies the contact. Before a store is a client you have no access to its Search Console or GA4, so the crawl and the free ecommerce tools are what apply: pages with no internal links, crawler access, rendering and schema errors. CrawlRaven does not find contacts or send email.
15+ years of growing SaaS websites through SEO | Author, 200-Point Audit Checklist
Aditi has spent 15+ years helping SaaS companies scale organic traffic through technical SEO and content strategy. She is the author of the CrawlRaven 200-Point Audit checklist used by agencies and in-house teams to systematically improve search performance.