If you’re prospecting on LinkedIn, it certainly hasn’t escaped your attention: LinkedIn has propagated its update since May 2021, limiting for all users the sending of more than 200 invitations per week. 😅 If you’re here and not prospecting on LinkedIn… it might be time to get on that.
Indeed, LinkedIn offers response rates 10 to 20 times higher than cold email, while being much more qualitative and simple to implement.
In short, it’s time for you to prospect on LinkedIn. 😏
But if you’re well aware of this limitation, you’re bound to be thinking: how do you do it? How do you adapt to this restriction to keep prospecting?
Here are my top 5 tips! 😎
(Just so you know, we share all our tips and tricks on our Facebook group, so if you want to stay up to date without subscribing to 10 newsletters that spam your emails, join us!)
What is the weekly LinkedIn invitation limit and why?
Since early 2022 LinkedIn has been experimenting with an update that limits the number of weekly invites you can send to 200 per week.
This update has been generalized to all users since May 2022 and therefore affects prospecting on thousands of people.
LinkedIn has imposed this restriction following a clear increase in invitations and “spammy” behavior on the network, which was damaging the quality of it. This strategy obviously seeks to reduce the use of automation tools. 😅
1) Improve its segmentation and approaches
We keep saying it over and over again, but it’s far from being understood by everyone: prospecting is based on good segmentation and good approaches. 👽
How do you find YOUR prospects on LinkedIn?
The right segmentation, comes down to finding the right prospect.
A LinkedIn search returns 30-40% false positives, results that don’t match your search… even with Sales Navigator.
Now, it’s a simple mathematical fact: if only 60% of the people you contact match your target, then your maximum chance of success for your campaign is 60%. 😅
Whereas by using a few simple methods to do a good LinkedIn search and clean up your lists, you can easily reach 95% match. 😎
What is the best message on LinkedIn?
I’d love to tell you: it’s this one. But it doesn’t work like that.
Already, your approach is going to vary depending on who you are, who your prospect is, what you’re selling, what you want from the prospect.
So there is not ONE message that works all the time and those who sell you templates to complete are imposters 😜
Let’s say there are a few great messages that work every time. A CEO gets about 30 prospecting invitations on LinkedIn per week.
You understand that if he receives, even 5 times the same message, then this template is screwed… The key? Originality & empathy.
Try to find an approach that feels like you, that fits your audience, by putting yourself in their shoes. 😊
How do I know if my LinkedIn message will work?
Nothing could be easier!
Put yourself in the prospect’s shoes and ask yourself: “If I get 10 prospecting messages a day and I have to respond to only one of them, will it be this one?” If your answer is “no,” keep trying until it is, always remembering that your prospect doesn’t know you and doesn’t care about you.
By following these two main principles, you’ll get much better campaigns and therefore be able to maximize the 200 invites per week that LinkedIn gives you.
2) Go multi-channel
Multi-channel? What is it? 👽
We talk about multi-channel prospecting when we try to contact a prospect on different channels.
And inevitably, if one channel is limited, you will have to find others. Today, multi-channel prospecting is mainly focused on LinkedIn and email, which is the most efficient and represents 80% of the leads generated in B2B on the web.
The most eccentric will add Twitter and SMS but our message is: “Always master the channels independently of each other before attempting a multi-channel approach. Because multi-channel prospecting poorly mastered is called SPAM…”
4) Create content
I can already see some running away… And yet!
Creating content is not so complicated. It is a longer term strategy that requires regularity, but is to the benefit of highlighting your expertise to your prospects, and therefore give a positive image. 😄
Thus, your prospects will be more likely to contact you for a service or for a service because you have put forward your expertise. Create content, OK, but where to start?
Like prospecting, I advise you to start with one channel before testing different approaches.
The key to content creation is consistency and authenticity. So I recommend starting a content strategy on LinkedIn, where 70% of your prospects will never respond to your prospecting messages but are likely to see your content.
If you want to learn more, check out our article on“How to Start a Content Strategy on LinkedIn” 👽
5) Use Emails
I’ll tell you right now, this is one of the solutions, but I don’t recommend it. For me, Inmails are:
- super expensive (10 cents per Inmail),
- inefficient (your message appears “Sponsored” in your prospect’s email, nothing less “human”, than that).
Nevertheless, Inmails allow you to send messages to your prospects without going through the invitation request, thus without reaching the weekly limit of 200 invitations. Only… it has a price because you need a Premium subscription at least and then pay for additional email credits. So an automation tool that bypasses the limit will give you better results for less money!
Bonus: Send message requests to group members or event participants
A fairly new and somewhat “hidden” feature of LinkedIn. 😎
Yep, just like on Facebook Messenger, you can now send a “message request” which is different from an invitation request (as you can send messages without being in the person’s network), as long as you belong to the same LinkedIn group as the person or attend the same event. 😋
In this case, we’ll target themed groups or events we’re interested in, then send a message request to members. Want to know more about this technique that will soon be automated on Waalaxy?
Join our community and stay up to date on the best tips for getting around invitation limits on LinkedIn. 💪
Article FAQ
How much has LinkedIn limited invitations per week?
Invitations are limited to 200 per week.