Setup Guide
Get Your First Campaign Running the Right Way
From installing the desktop app to launching a safe, AI-personalized campaign that runs on autopilot — here's every step, in order. The setup itself takes about five minutes.
What you'll do:
- 1. Install the desktop app
- 2. Sign into your ZenMode account
- 3. Connect your LinkedIn account
- 4. Create your first campaign — targeting + AI messaging
- 5. Understand the safety limits
- 6. Launch and monitor
Install the Desktop App
ZenMode runs as a desktop app on your own computer. This is what makes it safe — everything happens locally from your own machine and IP address, so LinkedIn sees normal human activity. No cloud servers, no shared proxies, no bot fingerprint.
Download for your platform:
- • macOS — Apple Silicon (M1–M4) or Intel
- • Windows — 64-bit
Downloads live in your dashboard after signing in, so the latest build is always one click away.
Go to Dashboard to DownloadMac users: On first launch, macOS shows a confirmation dialog because the app was downloaded from the web. Click “Open” to proceed — ZenMode is signed and notarized by Apple, so this only happens once.
You'll know it worked when: the app opens to a ZenMode sign-in screen.
Sign into Your ZenMode Account
Open the app and sign in with the same email and password you use on the ZenMode website. This is your ZenMode account sign-in — separate from LinkedIn, which comes next.
Enter your ZenMode email and password on the app's sign-in screen
The app securely links this computer to your account in the background
Why the sign-in matters. When you sign in, ZenMode issues this device a private, per-user security token that authenticates every request the app makes to our servers. In plain terms: your campaigns, contacts, and settings are tied cryptographically to your account and only your account — another machine can't act as you. It all happens automatically; there's nothing to copy or paste.
You'll know it worked when: you land on the app's main screen and are prompted to connect LinkedIn.
Connect Your LinkedIn Account
ZenMode opens its own built-in Chrome browser — this is separate from your everyday browser (Safari, Chrome, etc.). Sign into LinkedIn inside that ZenMode browser. This is the heart of what keeps your outreach safe: everything runs locally, from your own machine and IP address, in a clean dedicated session. Your LinkedIn credentials stay on your computer and are never sent to our servers.
The app opens its own Chrome window — this is not your regular browser
Sign into LinkedIn there with your LinkedIn email and password
Complete any LinkedIn verification (email code, etc.) if prompted — just as you would signing in normally
Why a separate browser? Running LinkedIn inside ZenMode's own browser means your outreach comes from your real machine, your real IP, and a dedicated session — the same place you'd normally browse from. It's completely separate from your personal browsing (that's never touched), and LinkedIn simply sees natural activity from your device. This is why ZenMode doesn't use cloud servers or shared proxies the way many risky tools do.
Important: “Sign in with Google” doesn't work inside ZenMode's browser — use your LinkedIn email and password. If you normally sign into LinkedIn with Google, set a password first: go to linkedin.com in your regular browser, sign out, click “Forgot password?”, and create one.
Tip: Keep the desktop app running in the background while your campaigns are active — it needs to be open to send connection requests and follow-ups. It runs quietly and uses minimal resources.
You'll know it worked when: ZenMode shows a green Connected status for your LinkedIn account.
Create Your First Campaign
This is the step that decides your results. In your dashboard, click New Campaign and set two things: who to target and what the AI should say on your behalf. Get the second part right and every message writes itself well; rush it and the AI has nothing good to work with.
4a. Define your target audience
Add job titles, industries, and locations. Each field is free-text with suggestions — type your own or pick from the list, and add as many as you like. ZenMode searches LinkedIn for people who match and builds your prospect list.
- • Titles — e.g. VP of Sales, Head of Customer Success, CTO (add several — they're searched together)
- • Industries — e.g. SaaS, FinTech, Marketing & Advertising
- • Locations — e.g. London, United States, DACH
Narrow beats broad. “Head of CS at 50–200-person SaaS companies” converts far better than “anyone in tech” — because the message can actually speak to them.
4b. Write your value proposition — the highest-leverage box on the page
In the “What do you help your clients with?” field, describe what you offer in plain language. You can paste your website URL and hit Generate to have ZenMode draft it for you, then edit. This single input is what the AI reads to decide the angle for every prospect — so specificity here is worth more than anything else you do.
Too vague — avoid
“We provide innovative, best-in-class solutions that help businesses grow, scale, and succeed in today's competitive market.”
No audience, no outcome, no numbers — the AI has nothing concrete to work with.
Specific and strong — do this
“We help B2B SaaS companies with 50–200 employees cut customer churn by around 30% using automated onboarding sequences. Most clients see positive ROI within their first 60 days.”
Names who, a concrete outcome, a real number, and a timeframe.
A strong value proposition answers four things:
- • Who you help (the more specific the segment, the better)
- • What problem you solve for them
- • The concrete outcome — ideally with a number
- • How fast or how it works, in one line
Optional: add a proof point
There's a separate “Proof point or case study” field for one real result you can reference — e.g. “We helped a fintech company cut hiring costs by 40% in 3 months.” ZenMode works this into your second follow-up. If you leave it blank, the AI won't invent one, so add a genuine result if you have one.
4c. Set the angle — the “why now” behind your outreach
Your angle is the situation your outreach speaks to — the reason this message lands now. On Connect campaigns you can start from a Signal-Based Playbook (“Start from a playbook”), which targets a trigger like recently funded, changed jobs, or hiring and feeds that context to the AI. You can also just bake the situation into your value proposition. A good angle names three things:
Weak angle
“Anyone who might want better customer onboarding.”
No segment, no trigger, no reason it matters today.
Strong angle
“Heads of Customer Success at Series A–B SaaS startups that just raised funding and are scaling fast — their onboarding is about to buckle under new volume, which is exactly when our automation pays off.”
A specific segment, a trigger (funding + scaling), and why it matters now.
Your value prop and angle are never pasted into messages. ZenMode uses them behind the scenes to choose the right approach, then writes every message about the prospect — their role, their company, their challenge — not about you. That's what makes the outreach feel human instead of like a pitch.
4d. Review your messages
Hit Generate All and ZenMode drafts your connection request plus a short follow-up sequence. The messages you see are examples — at send time, every prospect gets a unique AI-personalized version built from their real profile. Edit the tone or the copy until it sounds like you.
- • Connection request: keep it under 300 characters (LinkedIn's limit) for the best acceptance rates
- • Up to 3 follow-ups, spaced a few days apart — they send automatically after someone accepts, on the schedule you set
- • Follow-ups stop the moment someone replies — nobody gets chased after they respond
- • Personalize with variables like {{first_name}}, {{company}}, {{title}}, and {{location}} — filled in per prospect
Free LinkedIn accounts: LinkedIn no longer allows a personalized note on connection requests from free accounts, so ZenMode sends note-free connects for you — your personalization moves into the follow-ups once they accept. On Premium or Sales Navigator, you can include a note.
Understand the Safety Limits
LinkedIn caps how many connection requests you can send before it flags an account. ZenMode knows those limits and enforces safe pacing for you automatically — you don't have to think about it. It even detects your LinkedIn plan and paces to the right tier.
Roughly what each account type can send:
| Account | Per day | Per week |
|---|---|---|
| New account (warm-up) | ~10–15 | builds up gradually |
| Free LinkedIn | ~20 (up to 30) | ~100 |
| Premium | ~30 (up to 40) | ~150 |
| Sales Navigator | ~40 (up to 50) | ~200 |
Newer accounts (roughly under 6 months old or under ~500 connections) start slower and ramp up — ZenMode does this warm-up for you.
What ZenMode does automatically to keep you safe:
Human-like delays between every action — a few minutes apart, with occasional longer breaks, never a burst
Business hours only — actions run during the hours and days you configure, not at 3am
Weekly safety pause — if you approach LinkedIn's weekly limit, ZenMode pauses your campaigns and resumes them automatically the following week
Why staying under the limits matters. Slow, paced, human-looking activity from your own machine is the entire safety model. Trying to blast hundreds of requests a day is exactly what gets accounts restricted — so ZenMode won't let you, even if you ask it to.
Launch and Monitor
When your campaign is ready, click Create Campaign. If the desktop app is open, ZenMode saves the campaign and auto-starts it, bringing the app to the front so you can watch it kick off. Keep the app running and it handles the rest.
The app finds matching profiles and begins sending — always within your safety limits and business hours
The app's Today's Activity panel shows Requests, Accepted, Replies, and Meetings at a glance
Handling replies: autopilot or review
Your outreach (connection requests and follow-ups) runs on autopilot within the limits above. When people reply, conversations land in your web Inbox, and you choose how much to stay in the loop:
- Manual (default): you write and send every reply yourself — full control.
- Auto-reply with a Review Queue: turn on auto-reply and the AI drafts a response to each reply, then holds it in the Review Queue for your approval — nothing sends until you approve it. It's the middle ground: the AI does the typing, you stay the final say.
Where to watch your results
- • Analytics in your dashboard — acceptance rate, reply rate, and meetings booked over time
- • Each campaign's detail page — per-campaign progress and the status of every contact
- • The Inbox — every conversation in one place
You'll know it worked when: the Requests counter starts climbing and, within a day or two, acceptances and replies begin arriving.
Tips for Best Results
Spend your time on the value proposition
It's the one input that changes every message. A specific value prop and a real proof point do more for your reply rate than any amount of message tweaking.
Start slow, then scale
Begin near the lower end of your daily range and let it ramp. If your LinkedIn account is newer (under 6 months), keep it around 10–15/day — ZenMode warms up automatically, so you don't need to babysit it.
Keep the app running during business hours
ZenMode only sends during your configured business hours, with human-like delays between actions. Leave the app open and it handles everything quietly in the background.
Reply quickly when people respond
The whole point of automation is to free your time for real conversations. When someone replies, jump in fast — that's where meetings get booked.
Ready to go?
Most users have their first campaign sending within 5 minutes of signing up.
Need help? Email us at hello@zen-mode.io