LinkedIn InMails: Effective Strategies for Higher Engagement

LinkedIn InMail has become an indispensable tool for professionals seeking to establish a connection, generate leads, and foster business relationships. However, crafting the perfect InMail message can be a daunting task even for seasoned experts. This blog post aims to provide you with valuable insights on how to make your LinkedIn InMails more effective and impactful.

If you use LinkedIn for recruiting or sales, it’s essential to know how to write effective InMails. Whether you have a paid account or a free one, understanding how to navigate your inbox can improve your chances of success in the long run.

We will delve into the intricacies of what constitutes a good LinkedIn InMail message and its inner workings. We’ll also discuss best practices such as personalization, adding value and optimal message length that can significantly improve your open rate. Additionally, we will explore the importance of timing when sending your messages.

Finally, discover how to improve your productivity on LinkedIn InMail with tools such as FlyMSG. It’s an auto text expander and writing assistant that simplifies processes and increases efficiency.

What You Need to Access InMail Messages

LinkedIn users often ask us, “What do I need to set up to be able to access LinkedIn InMail?” Included first is a list of “must haves” in order to be able to leverage InMail messages. Next we’ll provide other LinkedIn accounts you might need to purchase in order to be able to send an InMail message.

Must Haves to Access LinkedIn InMail Feature

In order to get started, as a LinkedIn user, you must have access to the following:

1. Free LinkedIn Profile
2. Access to the LinkedIn Inbox

In order to access InMails, you will either need to upgrade to a premium LinkedIn account from which the InMail feature is accessible:

1. LinkedIn Sales Navigator Account
2. LinkedIn Recruiter Account

You can also acquire the Sponsored InMail feature, which is a part of the LinkedIn Ads platform.

Understanding the LinkedIn InMail Message

LinkedIn InMail is a premium message service that allows LinkedIn members to directly message another LinkedIn member, even if they are not connected. This feature is particularly useful for knowledge workers, business owners, B2B sales reps and marketers who want to reach out to potential leads or contacts.

What is an InMail?

A LinkedIn InMail message is a private message sent through the LinkedIn platform between two members who are not first-degree connections. Unlike regular messages exchanged between connected members on LinkedIn, InMails can be sent without needing an introduction or mutual connection.

Please note that this is a premium feature and has a fee and is exclusively accessible for LinkedIn Premium subscribers or those who acquire it via the LinkedIn Ads platform.

How Does a LinkedIn InMail Work?

With InMails, LinkedIn Recruiter and Sales Navigator users can leverage the credits that come with the premium subscription plan. When sending a message to someone who is not in your network (i.e., not a first-degree connection), one credit will be deducted from the number of InMails in the monthly allowance.

If the recipient responds within 90 days of receiving your initial message, then you’ll receive that credit back into your account. Hopefully this will encourage meaningful conversations and efficient use of resources. You can learn more about how these credits function by visiting LinkedIn’s Help Center.

It’s important to note that shorter InMails perform significantly better than longer ones. This means that you should aim to keep your messages concise and to the point. Additionally, using an active voice in your InMails can help to make them more engaging and effective.

One benefit of InMails is that, like a regular email, you get a subject line. Which means it’s important that you write a short and compelling subject line.

By following these tips, you can increase your chances of getting a response and building valuable relationships on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn InMail vs. Sponsored: What is a Sponsored InMail?

Sponsored InMails are a LinkedIn product which uses LinkedIn’s InMail advertising platform to target a certain group. Sponsored InMail is a messaging ad that is used to market or promote digitally or otherwise.

The LinkedIn advertising platform focuses mostly on digital marketing and enables marketers to establish relationships with a specific audience through promoting their products in different formats, including Sponsored InMails.

As with most advertising platforms, you are limited to the targeted audience that you set. Message ads are quickly distinguished from regular messages by the clear label of sponsorship in the inbox.

What is the Difference Between InMail, OpenLink and Messages on LinkedIn?

You can only send a message to a LinkedIn member if you are connected to them. (You sent and they accepted your LinkedIn connection request or vice versa). Or if you share a group with them.

In most cases, you must use an InMail credit to send an InMail message to a 2nd or 3rd degree connection. The exception to this is if the LinkedIn user has a Premium account themselves and has something called “OpenLink” turned on in their LinkedIn account. You can message anyone with OpenLink and will know this because the “message” button on their profile will be activated.

If you’re not connected with another LinkedIn member or don’t share a group with them, you’ll need a Premium account and use one of your LinkedIn InMail credits to message them.

Be cautious when sending messages on LinkedIn, whether to a first-level connection, through a group, OpenLink, or InMail. Don’t spam! A LinkedIn member can easily block anyone they don’t want to get messages from. And if you are blocked by enough people, LinkedIn might revoke some or all of your outreach privileges.

So, how can you make sure you are not looking spammy? Keep reading!

Best Practices for Sending Effective InMails

When it comes to LinkedIn InMails, not all messages are created equal. An analysis of tens of millions of messages sent through LinkedIn’s platform revealed several key findings regarding best uses for sending effective InMails.

Sending personalized messages resulted in a 15% improvement compared to bulk messages. Additionally, messages with less than 400 characters had a 22% higher open rate than average. Let’s dive into the importance of personalization and optimal length.

Importance of Personalization

No one likes receiving generic, copy-pasted or automated emails – and this holds true for LinkedIn InMails as well. By taking the effort to customize each InMail, you can demonstrate that you’ve done your research and are genuinely interested in forming a connection.

In 2021 we polled 1,295 professional B2B sellers from around the world and found that 69% of sellers reported prospecting to be the hardest part of the sales cycle.

Our team at Vengreso recognizes the importance of effective prospecting, which is why we’ve created The PVC Sales Methodology. This three-step process concentrates specifically on the pre-hello to hello phase of prospecting. By leveraging this simple yet powerful approach, your sales team can produce game-changing results.

PVC stands for:

• Personalization
• Value
• Call-to-action

When it comes to communicating – no matter what platform, PVC will drive engagement. Starting with an attention grabbing subject line and ending with a CTA, and the personalization and value added within will make a difference.

So – what does personalization look like? One way to make a good impression when reaching out to someone is by mentioning something you have in common, like a connection or interest. Another approach is to refer to specific details from their profile or work experience. It’s also a good idea to address them by name instead of using a generic greeting. By doing so, you’ll show recipients that you’ve taken the time to research them and genuinely care about making a connection.

Personalize To The Buyer Persona

But what about those buyers who are elusive online?

When this happens, consider personalization specific to their buyer persona.

With this approach, you need to look for ways to write to recognizable challenges that are similar to the customers you already serve. What are the common business challenges that your product or service helps solve? Once you understand that information, you can then personalize your message to address those business problems.

For example, at Vengreso we sell to the following Buyer Personas:

• Sales Leaders
• Marketing Leaders
• Sales Enablement Leaders
• Individuals Responsible for Growing Revenue (e.g. Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, etc.)
• Individual Sales Professionals

When our sales team is unable to find any relevant information to cater to the buyer’s interests, we will simplify our message to suit the buyer persona minimum essentials. For instance, we might write a message (social or email) starting this way:

“Hi PROSPECTFIRSTNAME! The majority of sales leaders we speak to have 2 common problems they are trying to solve:

1. How to help their team create more sales conversations with more qualified buyers AND
2. How to help their team increase their sales pipeline”

By writing an email this way, we are speaking to the problem that we solve, and we are hoping that they have this problem.

Here is the beginning of the script for you to use:

Hi PROSPECTFIRSTNAME! The majority of INSERT YOUR BUYER’S FUNCTION (i.e. Sales) leaders we speak to have X common problems they are trying to solve:

1. INSERT PROBLEM 1
AND
2. PROBLEM 2.

Other examples of information relevant to your Buyer’s Persona include:

• Specific news that impacts their company or industry
• Company milestones (anniversaries, expansions, annual planning and budgeting timeframes, etc.)
• News about their competitors

Value (V)

Giving value is really about addressing and alleviating one thing: pain. When you do this part right, especially at this stage of the sales cycle, then you enter “value selling”.

Salespeople often face the challenge of approaching a decision maker who is either unaware of the problem they can solve or not showing any interest in their product. In such cases, sales reps must bring value to the prospects as soon as possible and continue doing so consistently.

The good news is that once your sellers offer credible value and solutions to address those specific problems of their ideal buyer persona, the prospects are going to listen.

How To Deliver Value

In our sales training course, we teach sellers how and when to use content to address their buyers’ specific pains.

Tailoring your content to address the particular problems your business can solve for your customers, taking into account the stage of the buying process and the specific issues, is a surefire way to engage your potential buyers using your resources.

Your InMails have to bring value to build value – there are no shortcuts.

Continuing with the script discussed above, a cold outreach email or InMail might look something like this.

Hi PROSPECTFIRSTNAME!

The majority of INSERT YOUR BUYER’S FUNCTION (i.e. Sales) leaders we speak to have X common problems they are trying to solve:

1. INSERT PROBLEM 1
AND
2. PROBLEM 2

Attached are two items that have helped your peers address these problems.

The first is a BLOG article that answers the question: INSERT QUESTION

The second is a X-minute VIDEO/WEBINAR, which addresses INSERT BUYER’S CHALLENGE.

With this template, sellers can demonstrate to buyers that they not only comprehend their concerns, but also possess the necessary resources to provide solutions. In addition, they can offer valuable content that directly tackles their unique needs.

Many of these templates can be found as FlyPlates in FlyMSG.

Call-to-Action (C)

When selling, we are often trained (and measured) on the number of appointments we book. We get it!

But here’s where most ineffective InMails go wrong: the first call-to-action asks for a 15-, 30- or 60-minute call or meeting with the prospect.

No one likes receiving InMails like that. It’s understandable why the majority of approaches that begin with “Hey, drop what you’re doing and meet with me” feel like spam. Without establishing a sense of value or a clear reason to connect, these requests tend to fall flat. If you want to succeed in convincing someone to meet with you, it’s important to provide them with a compelling reason to do so.

Early Suitable CTAs:

• Direct the person to a helpful resource (e.g., downloadable e-book or video)
• Solicit their opinion by asking simple questions they can respond to
• Invite them to an event (webinar or live event)
• Ask a question to validate their pain(s)
• Ask for advice.

And once you put that all together, you have a perfect PVC InMail Message!

What are some other factors that will get people to open your InMail?

Optimal Message Length

You might think that longer is better when crafting the perfect InMail, but that’s usually not the case. According to LinkedIn’s data, shorter InMails perform significantly better than their longer counterparts.

Many have said to attempt to keep your InMail brief – 400 characters or fewer for optimal readability across devices. FYI 400 characters is 60-80 words.

Tips for Keeping Your InMail Short:

• Focus on one main point or purpose for reaching out.
• Avoid lengthy introductions; get straight to the point.
• Share valuable resources.
• Edit ruthlessly – cut any unnecessary words or phrases.
• Use bullet points or numbered lists if appropriate (but keep them brief).
• Don’t forget your Call to Action.

Incorporating these into your LinkedIn InMails can help increase responses and make more meaningful connections with potential leads, clients, or collaborators. Remember: personalization is key, and shorter messages often yield better results.

By personalizing your InMails and keeping them concise, you can ensure that they are effective in capturing the attention of your intended recipients. Now, let’s talk about the ideal timing for sending InMail for greatest effect.

Choosing the Right Time to Send Your InMails

Timing is everything, especially when sending LinkedIn InMails. You want to ensure that your message doesn’t get lost among other notifications or get ignored if it’s not convenient for the recipient. So, what’s the best day and time to hit that “send” button? Let’s dive into some insights from LinkedIn’s data analysis.

Avoiding Weekends

The study found that the day of the week did not significantly impact responses as long as you steer clear of Fridays and Saturdays. It makes sense – most professionals are winding down their workweek on Friday and enjoying their weekend off on Saturday. Sending an InMail during these days might come across as intrusive or simply go unnoticed.

Why Mondays are Optimal

• Motivated Mindset: On Mondays, people are generally more motivated and ready to tackle new tasks after recharging over the weekend.
• Fresh Start: A new week means a fresh start for many professionals who may be more open to exploring opportunities presented through well-crafted InMails.
• On Monday mornings, people often catch up on emails and messages from the weekend. This means your message has a better chance of being noticed among the others.

When sending LinkedIn InMails, it’s a good idea to choose Mondays and specific times during business hours when people are more likely to check their inbox. For example, mid-morning (around 10 am) or just after lunch (around 1 pm) are good options. This can further increase the likelihood of your note being read and receiving a response.

Remember, shorter InMails perform significantly better than longer ones. So, when crafting your InMail for optimal timing, keep it concise to maximize its effectiveness.

Choosing the right time to send your InMails can help you increase responses and maximize productivity. Leveraging the Recommended Candidates feature will provide even more opportunities for success in connecting with potential contacts.

Leveraging Recommended Candidates Feature

When it comes to getting the most out of your LinkedIn InMail efforts, using features like “Recommended Candidates” can significantly improve your chances of receiving responses from recipients. This tool is particularly useful for recruiters who want to find top talent and increase their reply rates.

Benefits of Using Recommended Candidates

• Better targeting: The Recommended Candidates feature helps you identify potential contacts that are more likely to be interested in what you have to offer, increasing the likelihood of a positive response.
• Faster results: By focusing on individuals who are already pre-qualified by LinkedIn’s algorithm, you can save time and effort compared to manually searching through countless profiles.
• Informed decision-making: With insights into each candidate’s skills, experience, and connections provided by this feature, you’ll be better equipped to make informed decisions about whom to reach out via InMail messages.

Increasing Reply Rates with Recommended Candidates

LinkedIn’s study showed that recruiters using the Recommended Candidates tool had up to 35% more replies than those using only search. To maximize these benefits when sending InMails:

1. Create personalized messages: As mentioned earlier, shorter InMails perform significantly better when they’re personalized. Make sure each InMail addresses the recipient by name and highlights specific aspects of their profile that caught your attention.
2. Be concise and clear: Keep your InMail messages short, ideally under 400 characters. Focus on the most important points you want to convey and avoid overwhelming recipients with too much information.
3. Follow up strategically: If a recipient doesn’t respond to your initial outreach, consider sending a follow-up after an appropriate amount of time has passed (e.g., one week). This can help re-engage potential contacts who may have missed or overlooked your first InMail.

By leveraging LinkedIn’s Recommended Candidates feature and implementing these best use cases when crafting your InMails, you’ll be well on your way to maximizing responses and making valuable connections within the platform.

By leveraging the recommended candidates feature, you can significantly increase your reply rates and maximize sales potential. To further enhance your productivity on LinkedIn, it is important to understand how to effectively use InMail credits through a Sales Navigator subscription.

Maximizing Sales Navigator Subscriptions

If you’re serious about making the most of your LinkedIn InMail efforts, it’s essential to understand and maximize the benefits of your Sales Navigator subscription. By choosing a subscription with a certain amount of monthly InMail credits, you can improve your outreach success when you understand how to use them effectively.

Understanding InMail Credits

InMail credits are essentially tokens that allow you to send messages directly to other LinkedIn users without being connected. Depending on your Sales Navigator subscription level, you’ll receive between five and one hundred fifty credits each month. It’s important to note that unused credits will roll over for up to three months before expiring – so don’t let them go to waste.

How do I get more InMail Credits?

• Premium Business: 15 monthly InMails with rollover feature.
• Sales Navigator Professional: 20 monthly InMails with rollover feature.
• Sales Navigator Team: Up of 30 monthly InMails depending on team size with rollover feature.

How To Effectively Use InMails in Your Sales Navigator Accounts

To ensure maximum impact when using your precious credit allocation, follow these tips for sending effective LinkedIn InMails:

1. Create personalized messages: Avoid bulk messaging by personalizing each message and addressing recipients by their name. Remember that shorter InMails perform significantly better than longer ones. This not only increases responses but also helps build rapport with your potential leads.
2. Choose the right time to send: As mentioned earlier, Mondays are optimal for sending InMails. Avoid weekends and try to schedule your messages during regular business hours in the recipient’s timezone.
3. Leverage recommended candidates feature: Using LinkedIn’s “Recommended Candidates” feature can increase reply rates by up to 35%. Take advantage of this tool when searching for new connections or prospects.

Incorporating these tips into your LinkedIn Sales Navigator strategy will help you make the most out of every single InMail credit, ultimately leading to more successful outreach campaigns and a higher return on investment (ROI) from your subscription.

Automating Your InMail Funnel with FlyMSG

You should never ever automate LinkedIn. It goes against their End User Agreement and could get your account shut down. That being said, you can 100% streamline your LinkedIn InMail process by using tools like FlyMSG.

With FlyMSG, you can quickly use pre-written messages with just a few keystrokes. Plus, it organizes your messages in the cloud, making them accessible from anywhere online. This will help streamline your communication strategy and save you time.

Perhaps you have an excellent InMail sequence, but then you discover that you’re already connected with the person you intended to send it to. Guess what? You don’t have to look for it anywhere else. The same keystroke shortcuts (FlyCuts) you created to access your InMails will work just as well in your LinkedIn inbox as in your InMail inbox. And, BTW, it will work in Outlook and Gmail too!

What is FlyMSG?

FlyMSG is a powerful tool designed to help knowledge workers streamline their communication processes and increase productivity. It is a text expander and messaging platform that enables users to send personalized messages to multiple recipients, in seconds, on Emails, LinkedIn, Instagram, and other social media platforms, as well as anywhere else online.

The tool lets you send personalized messages to customers, prospects, and other business contacts quickly and easily, without having to spend a lot of time creating individual messages for each person. By using FlyMSG, you can save time and effort, while still maintaining a high level of engagement with their network.

Benefits of Streamlining the Process

• Time-saving: Auto Text Expanders free up valuable time that you would otherwise spend manually sending messages, allowing you to focus on other important tasks.
• Data-driven insights: FlyMSG provides analytics features that share how many characters were typed as well as time and money saved.

In addition to FlyMSG, there are several other popular LinkedIn tools worth considering. Dux-Soup and Octopus CRM both provide functions for sales professionals who need an efficient way to manage LinkedIn outreach campaigns and maintain personalized communication in today’s competitive market.

Remember, while these tools can significantly improve your LinkedIn InMail strategy, it’s crucial to strike a balance between efficiency and personalization. Keep your messages concise, but make sure they’re customized to the recipient’s needs or desires. This will not only increase responses but also help you build genuine connections with potential leads or contacts.

In short, using tools like FlyMSG to streamline your InMail funnel on LinkedIn can help save time, improve outreach, and achieve better results for knowledge workers seeking to connect with potential prospects.So why wait? Start leveraging these powerful tools today.

InMail Examples

InMail is like sending a cold email. And there is an art to crafting an excellent cold email.

The key is having a clear and thorough understanding of your  buyer personas. What pain points do they have? What Solutions have they tried without success? What goals do they have?

If you figure out what they’re interested in and write an email that offers value, they’re more likely to open it and engage with the content.

A simple way to add value is to send a link to a blog post or podcast or free download in our cold outreach campaigns.

In this way, it’s our goal to give our potential customers something of value that will help them see that we are a credible source that they can trust (and that can solve their problem).

Remember, there is a big difference between cold emails (or InMails) and warm emails. When your prospect is a warm lead, then you can approach the email conversation very differently.

However, with cold emails, your focus has to be on overcoming their most immediate objection which is “Who is this salesperson emailing me? Why should I listen?”

The more you can earn their trust through providing value in your cold emails, then the faster you can get them to want to move forward with booking a sales call with you. Check out this article for more tips on cold emails.

FAQs in Relation to LinkedIn InMail

How Effective are InMails on LinkedIn?

InMails can be highly effective when used strategically, with responses ranging from 10% to 25%. Tailoring messages to your target audience, making sure the subject line is attention-grabbing, providing valuable content and clear instructions, and sending the message at the right time can greatly improve its impact. Utilize our PVC Sales Methodology for optimal results.

How Many InMails Does LinkedIn Have?

The number of InMails a user has depends on their subscription plan. Free users do not receive any InMail credits. Premium plans offer varying amounts of monthly credits: Career (0), Business (15), Sales Navigator Professional (20), Recruiter Lite (30). Unused credits roll over for up to three months. Learn more about LinkedIn’s credit system.

What is the Purpose of LinkedIn InMail?

InMail serves as a direct messaging tool that allows users to contact people outside their network without needing an introduction or connection. It is particularly useful for sales professionals, recruiters, and marketers seeking new opportunities or building relationships with potential clients or candidates. Explore reasons to use InMail.

What is the Average Response Rate for LinkedIn InMails?

The average response rate varies depending on factors such as personalization and relevance but typically ranges between 10% and 25%. To improve responses, focus on crafting personalized messages, targeting the right audience, and timing your outreach. Review tips for increasing InMail responses.

Conclusion

LinkedIn InMails are a powerful tool for knowledge workers, company owners, sales reps, sales leaders, and marketers. By personalizing your messages and timing them right, you can increase the chances of getting a response from potential leads or clients. Utilizing the recommended candidates feature and tools like FlyMSG can streamline your approach and maximize your outreach efforts.

Shorter InMails perform significantly better than longer ones. Keep your message concise and to the point. Avoid using jargon or buzzwords that may confuse or turn off your recipient. Instead, use clear and direct language that highlights the value you can offer.

In conclusion, LinkedIn InMails offer great opportunities to connect with prospects on a professional level. Develop good tactics such as using productive tools to simplify your outreach.

If you’re looking to take advantage of LinkedIn InMails to generate more sales leads but need help with crafting effective campaigns or managing the process efficiently, then a great place to start is our Sales Navigator course in FlyMSG Sales Pro today!