LinkedIn InMails provide direct outreach to non-connections, enabling users to reach professionals beyond their existing connections. InMail messages, with an average open rate of 57%, make them a powerful tool to give you a direct line to decision-makers who might overlook other outreach methods.
Available exclusively to mutual connections, LinkedIn Messages are a free option that helps users stay connected, maintain engagement, and foster ongoing conversations.
The key differences lie in pricing, availability, and ideal applications. While LinkedIn Premium grants access to InMail, free users rely on outreach campaigns via connection requests and follow-ups. InMail messages require a premium plan like Sales Navigator, which has a monthly message credits limit (usually 50), whereas regular messages have no limits.
Elevate your LinkedIn networking with TexAu. With TexAu, you can automate message credit tracking, streamline direct messages and InMail, achieve higher acceptance rates, and minimize bounces in cold outreach.
Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering LinkedIn Outreach with InMails, Messages & TexAu Automation
Understanding LinkedIn InMails and Messages
LinkedIn’s InMails and Messages provide unique opportunities, enhancing their network for different outreach goals.
Designed for premium users, LinkedIn InMails can bypass connection limits and let you connect with professionals outside your network. Their key benefits are:
Contact Non-Connections:
- InMails let you remove the need for a connection request, allowing you to engage with decision-makers or industry leaders who are outside your network.
Premium Access:
- As a premium plan within Sales Navigator, InMails boast a 57% open rate, making it highly effective for reaching top-tier prospects.
Targeted Outreach:
- Ideal for hiring top professionals, attracting potential clients, and reaching industry leaders, they make personalized outreach seamless.
Example Use Case: Imagine a recruiter trying to connect with a passive candidate who isn’t actively looking for a job. By crafting a personalized InMail that highlights a unique opportunity and clear value, the recruiter captures the chances of drawing the candidate’s attention with a positive response.
LinkedIn Messages are free and unlimited, but they are only restricted to first-degree connections. They work best for:
Cost-Free Communication
- They provide an easy way to stay connected with your network without any charges.
Strengthen Connections
- Perfect for keeping relationships through consistent interactions, updates, and follow-ups.
Automation Tip with TexAu:
Use TexAu’s LinkedIn Connections Export tool to automatically retrieve your first-degree connections for targeted outreach. By automating segmentation, this automation enables smarter audience segmentation and ensures well-optimized, data-driven insights. By fully understanding and mastering these tools, you can fine-tune your outreach strategies to achieve higher engagement in every campaign.
When to Use InMails vs. Messages
Understanding when to use InMails or LinkedIn Messages can help you improve your LinkedIn outreach. Each method plays a unique role for different target audiences and specific communication scenarios.
Use InMails When:
Engaging Beyond Your Reach:
- InMails allow you to connect with professionals, making it easy to reach executives who are not part of your first-degree connections.
Sending a Follow-Up After Unaccepted Requests:
- If a prospect doesn’t accept your request, use an InMail to grab attention and encourage a response.
Winning Over High-Value Prospects:
- A targeted InMail can make a lasting impact by aligning with their pain points and needs.
Example Scenario: Suppose a sales professional is reaching out to a C-level executive at a major company.
- Step 1: They craft a personalized connection request that leverages industry challenges or pain points.
- Step 2: If the request goes unanswered for a few days, they send a follow-up InMail that highlights their solution, increasing the likelihood of engagement.
Use Regular Messages When:
Keeping Conversations Alive:
- Regular messages are ideal for strengthening relationships, allowing you to stay in touch, maintain relationships, and keep connections active.
Following Up on Previous Interactions:
- Once a relationship is built, regular messaging ensures long-term engagement and maintains a steady flow of communication.
Automation Tip with TexAu:
LinkedIn Withdraw Invitation automation streamlines outreach by retracting unaccepted connection requests, enabling a smooth transition to an InMail. By creating a comprehensive outreach campaign, this strategy results in a high-impact outreach campaign, cultivating lasting professional relationships.
Pros and Cons of LinkedIn InMails
LinkedIn InMails provide powerful outreach efforts, but they also come with challenges. Understanding their pros and cons will allow you to refine your campaign strategy.
Advantages of InMails:
Reaching Key Decision-Makers:
- With InMails, you can eliminate connection restrictions, allowing you to connect with senior executives and decision-makers without needing a mutual connection.
High Open Rates:
- With a 57% average open rate, InMails outperform standard messages, ensuring better responses for more effective outreach.
In-Depth Analytics:
- Tracking open and response rates allows you to gain valuable insights, enabling continuous campaign optimization.
Example Use Case:
To engage potential investors, a startup founder sends concise, personalized InMails. By presenting compelling business insights and market opportunities, the founder creates a direct pathway to industry leaders, leading to high-impact conversations.
Disadvantages of InMails:
Monthly Credit Limit:
- Users receive around 50 InMail credits per month, particularly on Sales Navigator, making efficient use of strategic messaging important.
Cost Considerations:
- Since InMails are a paid feature, one must use them wisely by crafting high-impact messages to maximize effectiveness.
Need for Precision:
- Since InMails are a premium feature, they should be carefully tailored, as generic or poorly targeted messages can deplete credits without significant impact.
Automation Tip with TexAu:
Use LinkedIn Inbox Scraper to extract and analyze responses from your InMail campaigns for smarter follow-ups. This tool can optimize your outreach by analyzing message effectiveness to maximize engagement. By considering these pros and cons, you can fine-tune your InMail strategy, making every message purposeful and efficient.
Pros and Cons of LinkedIn Messages
LinkedIn Messages are a powerful, cost-efficient tool to stay connected. But, like any tool, they also have certain limitations. Let’s dive into the details.
Advantages:
Free Professional Messaging:
- Unlimited Messaging: LinkedIn allows unlimited messaging with first-degree connections without any additional costs, making LinkedIn Messages an efficient tool for ongoing conversations and seamless professional networking.
Effective for Relationship Building:
- Ongoing Engagement: Perfect for maintaining consistent communication by enabling regular follow-ups and valuable knowledge exchange.
Disadvantages:
Limitations on Connections:
- Limited Messaging Reach:
Messaging is limited to first-degree connections, making it challenging to initiate conversations with cold prospects.
Reduced Engagement from New Connections:
- Limited Engagement:
Reaching out to new contacts without an existing relationship may result in reduced interaction.
Automation Tip with TexAu:
LinkedIn Message Thread Scraper:
- Automatically analyze and extract key insights from conversation threads to enhance your messaging strategy, ensuring more meaningful interactions and targeted network growth..
How Combining InMails & Messages Maximize Engagement
A strategic combination of LinkedIn InMails and Messages creates a holistic prospecting approach for better engagement, improved response rates, and more meaningful conversations. This strategy combines the capabilities of both tools, ensuring a smooth and effective communication flow.
Step-by-Step Hybrid Strategy:
Step 1: Personalized Outreach Message:
Targeted Networking:
Begin by crafting a personalized request that aligns with industry trends, shared interests, or mutual connections. A well-personalized request creates a positive first impression and increases the chances of higher acceptance rates.
Step 2: Effective InMail Follow-Up Approach:
Timely Outreach:
In case your connection request goes unanswered within 5 days, send a personalized InMail to reinforce your message. Focus on your value proposition and the benefits of connecting. This step is crucial for fostering a stronger connection outside your immediate network.
Step 3: Transition to Consistent Messaging:
Continuous Engagement:
After connecting, move to LinkedIn messages to keep the conversation going. Leverage messages to share updates, organize calls, and foster the relationship over time.
Example Scenario: A digital marketing agency targets an e-commerce business:
Connection Invitation:
- Add a personalized note highlighting recent industry insights to capture the prospect's interest.
Follow-Up InMail:
- Share a well-structured proposal highlighting the potential of their services to enhance online sales.
Consistent Messaging:
- Regular updates and conversations to develop the relationship and set up a meeting when appropriate.
Automation Tip with TexAu:
LinkedIn Auto Message:
- You can set up automated follow-up messages for connection requests and InMail recipients. By automating this process, you can ensure consistent and timely outreach, without manual involvement, making the entire workflow more scalable.
By combining these strategies, you can create a well-rounded multi-touch outreach approach that initiates connections and maintains engagement, resulting in higher conversions and more impactful business relationships.
How to Optimize InMail Outreach
To capture the attention of busy professionals and encourage meaningful engagement, refining your InMail strategy is crucial. To ensure your messages grab attention in a cluttered inbox, adopt these best practices:
Be Concise:
- Make sure to restrict your messages to a maximum of 400 characters. By keeping it concise, you are forced to highlight your key value, enhancing the chances of the message being fully read.
Customizing Your Message:
- Highlight mutual connections, common industry events, or relevant challenges that apply to the recipient. Personalized messages feel more genuine, leading to a greater chance of engagement.
Effective Call-to-Action (CTA):
- Incorporate a direct CTA, such as setting up a call, requesting a response, or leading the recipient to a landing page. A clear CTA makes it easy for the recipient to understand the next step.
A/B Testing:
- Experiment with diverse messaging formats, subject lines, and CTAs to refine your outreach strategy. By comparing the results of various approaches, you can identify which strategies drive the best results with your audience.
Example Use Case:
The B2B software company sends an InMail to a decision-maker beginning with a personalized greeting that mentions a recent industry event they both participated in. The message highlights how their solution can solve a critical issue and ends with a call to action to schedule a demo.
Automation Tip with TexAu:
LinkedIn Post Likers Export allows you to automatically pull profiles of users who have interacted with your posts. This allows you to send personalized InMails to these individuals based on their interests and past engagement.
Analytics: Assessing the Impact of InMails and Messages
Measuring performance metrics plays a key role in refining your LinkedIn outreach approach. By analyzing analytics, you can extract meaningful insights and refine your messaging as time progresses.
Key Metrics to Monitor:
Open Rates:
- Measure the percentage of recipients opening your InMails, providing insights into how well your subject lines and preview content are performing.
Tracking Reply Rates:
- Monitor the response rate to understand engagement and measure the level of interest.
Click-Through Rate Analysis (CTR):
- Track the number of clicks on links or buttons within your outreach messages to gauge the response rate of your CTAs.
Engagement Analysis:
- Examine how interactions develop over time by focusing on follow-up messages and the complexity of the conversation.
Example Scenario:
The marketing team manages several InMail campaigns, each with its own template. According to the findings, it was observed that messages containing personalized CTAs achieve a 30% higher reply rate compared to their generic counterparts. Based on these insights, the team fine-tunes future campaigns by adding more personalized CTAs and customized elements.
Automation Tip with TexAu:
Take advantage of LinkedIn Company Followers Export automation to segment your audience based on follower insights, enhancing your outreach strategy without manual efforts. Regularly reviewing these metrics enables ongoing enhancements in your overall strategy.
Case Study: InMails That Deliver - A Proven Method
A recent campaign highlighted how a targeted InMail approach, when combined with TexAu automations, can transform cold outreach into tangible, measurable business results.
Campaign Overview:
Objective:
- Schedule 14 calls within a week.
Approach:
- The team used LinkedIn Sales Navigator to identify key prospects and crafted personalized InMails targeted to their unique challenges.
Results:
Outreach:
- A total of 170 prospects were successfully approached.
Engagement:
- The campaign resulted in 50 responses.
Conversion:
- 14 calls were successfully booked, fulfilling the campaign objective.
Example Scenario:
A tech startup worked to connect with high-value investors for meetings. Using personalized InMails, they circumvented traditional gatekeepers to connect directly with decision-makers. The initial outreach led to a series of follow-up strategies that turned into scheduled meetings.
Automation Tip with TexAu:
LinkedIn Event Scraper was used to seamlessly extract profiles of users from relevant industry events. This led to a considerable expansion of the prospect pool, ensuring no opportunity went unnoticed.
This case study demonstrates how a well-planned InMail campaign, enhanced by powerful automation tools like TexAu, can turn cold leads into valuable prospects, leading to impressive conversion rates. Integrating personalized messaging with automation not only simplifies the process but also maximizes the impact of your LinkedIn outreach efforts.
Conclusion: Bringing It All Together
The secret to a successful LinkedIn outreach strategy lies in the smart combination of InMails and regular messages, each playing a specific part.
Key Takeaways:
Distinct Advantages:
- InMails: Highly effective for contacting non-connections with impressive open rates.
- Messages: Great for engaging and maintaining established relationships.
Balanced Strategy:
- Start by initiating personalized connection requests.
- Send InMails if there’s no response.
- Switch to regular messages for consistent engagement.
Role of Automation:
- By leveraging TexAu automations, you can simplify workflows, making campaigns more scalable and efficient.
- Tools like LinkedIn Connections Export and LinkedIn Auto Message help you balance personalization while automating large volumes.
By blending personalized connection requests, InMails, and regular messages, you can embrace a hybrid strategy for effective outreach. With TexAu, you can automate routine tasks, allowing you to concentrate on the strategic aspects of your outreach.
Apply this integrated strategy and see your LinkedIn outreach transform into an effective lead-generation tool.
