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How much time are you spending on generating value from your LinkedIn? Whatever number you name, LinkedIn automation can significantly reduce it.
LinkedIn has over 810 million users, and you cannot reach each with a personalized message. Hence, you need an automated way to pick and target the most promising prospects. It allows you to increase sales, get higher response rates, and enhance recruitment.
The best thing one can do is take the strain of keeping up with conversations and identifying new opportunities by automating at every possible point. Here is a detailed look at LinkedIn Automation, how it works, and who needs it.
What is LinkedIn Automation and Who Needs It
Let’s start with definitions and terms related to LinkedIn automation to make things easier.
LinkedIn Automation Terms
LinkedIn automation
It is the use of automation software and tools to mimic human interaction on the LinkedIn platform. This involves using preset content for actions like posting, sending connection requests, commenting, and conducting automated messaging. Automation may also be about finding the best candidates to reach on LinkedIn, something like lead scoring.
LinkedIn lead generation
This is the process of compiling a database of potential customers from LinkedIn users. These people are the ones your company needs, and they are the most likely to convert. Since you shouldn’t contact all users randomly, lead generation is essential for any LinkedIn campaign.
LinkedIn messaging
LinkedIn has a feature that allows users to communicate privately on the platform. You can send and receive messages to connected users like on any other social media. There is also the premium InMail feature, which enables you to directly message LinkedIn members you don’t have connections with.
Automated messaging
Automated messaging is a process that allows chatbots to chat with leads without human interference. This allows the account owner to respond promptly to messages without being online. Tools like Outreachly use AI technology to mimic human behaviour and provide personalised experience to projects and connections.
LinkedIn automation tools
These are a collection of software tools that allow users to automate tasks like posting and LinkedIn messaging without having to manually initiate the actions. These tools are divided into the following categories:
- Automated activity tools
- Automated publishing and analytics tools
- Automated lead generation tools
- Automated extraction tools
- Automated connection tools
Connection requests
This is the act of initiating contact with a LinkedIn user to establish a relationship on the platform. The connect feature on LinkedIn adds other users to your network and allows you to see a detailed user profile for any of your connections.
LinkedIn campaign
LinkedIn campaigns are marketing efforts based on the LinkedIn platform. They may include paid ads, LinkedIn messaging, and publishing promotional LinkedIn posts on your profile. LinkedIn campaigns are particularly effective for B2B companies that need to build relationships with other businesses and cannot use standard B2C channels.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Sales Navigator is the paid version of LinkedIn that gives you access to advanced features and analytics on connections and other users. The paid version is valuable for active users as it eliminates the limitations like limited daily searches.
Who Would Benefit From LinkedIn Automation
LinkedIn is a hub of activity with organisations, job seekers, executives, and even college students using the platform to meet business and personal goals. To which group do you belong?
Here is a quick overview of how LinkedIn automation can help people in the following roles achieve their goals without breaking a sweat.
An organisation opens more doors to meeting business goals on LinkedIn. But there’s more to it than just the company’s LinkedIn profile. Look who needs LinkedIn automation for everyday tasks at the employee level:
Recruitment managers and HRs
In the second quarter of 2022, LinkedIn experienced a 110% increase in confirmed hires year-over-year. That’s a jump solidifying LinkedIn’s growing role in human resources.
Nevertheless, there is so much competition to hire qualified talent that your organisation needs to stand out. Fortunately, recruiters and HRs can upgrade screening with LinkedIn automation. It allows you to improve your image and concentrate on the most suitable candidates.
Recruiters and HRs use LinkedIn automation software to automate posts on the company’s profile and encourage readers to explore job opportunities. They can also automate message replies on business and personal profiles to engage possible candidates who connect.
Business executives
About 11 million millennials in decision-making positions use the LinkedIn platform. They spend time on LinkedIn for networking, sharing their ideas, communication, and more. Since executives are busy people, they can use automation to automate some of these tasks. They can also decide to implement automated solutions in their company as a part of digital transformation.
Besides, marketers can use the profiles of business executives to send messages to potential partners automatically. This approach saves the time of decision-makers, while making LinkedIn messages more authoritative.
Marketers and sales
Marketers are now aware of the power of LinkedIn outreach in lead generation. According to statistics published by the platform, LinkedIn InMail has a three times higher response rate than regular email. That presents a unique opportunity to drive up your sales with advanced LinkedIn lead generation enabled by automation.
When it comes to lead generation, consistency is key. Automation is just one of the easiest ways to be consistent in your LinkedIn marketing efforts. It also enables you to make prompt responses to anyone who directly shows interest in interacting with your brand. Being available makes your prospects feel important.
Moreover, marketers can align LinkedIn communications with other marketing channels by using automation solutions. The software will collect responses and automatically trigger the necessary action. For example, if the person shows interest in your LinkedIn message and you’ve got their email, the software will automatically deliver them a custom email.
This way, LinkedIn automation is something every business should tap into. It helps both large and small companies drive sales, conduct recruitment, and promote their services.
Key LinkedIn Stats & Metrics to Consider
Numbers speak louder than words. Afterwards, today any business decision must be data-driven. So here are some exciting stats about LinkedIn marketing you should know:
LinkedIn Automation Pros & Cons
Making the right decision for your company requires initial research on your part. How do you ensure you are making the right investment regarding LinkedIn automation? Here is a condensed analysis of LinkedIn automation tools’ pros and cons.
Benefits of LinkedIn Automation
Time savings
How much time do you think will be adequate to build the relationships you want on LinkedIn? It takes many communications and weeks or even months. With LinkedIn automation tools, it’s possible to steer direct engagement and target the right people without losing focus on your core duties. You can automate the whole process of connection requests, follow-ups, and promoting your brand with preset actions.
Optimising growth
You may be tempted to send hundreds of connection requests to increase your circle of influence. While a noble idea, LinkedIn is quick to pick out any spamming activities and root out the source. In cases, an account is suspended or even worse, banned. The platform has rules enforced to stop users from abusing the platform e.g., limits on the number of connection requests you can make per hour or a day. Reliable LinkedIn automation tools are designed with these rules in consideration. They help you optimise opportunities on the platform without exhibiting spamming traits.
Optimised sales funnel
Campaign managers leveraging LinkedIn to generate qualified leads for their sales teams need LinkedIn automation tools. What’s the benefit, you may ask? Imagine being able to set the upper limit to the number of prospects you send messages and connection requests to in a day and having an algorithm at your disposal to pick the most appealing targets. By generating more interactions on the platform, you increase qualified leads for your business.
Precise targeting
LinkedIn has over 810 million active users. Blind sending of LinkedIn connection requests is counterproductive if you want to grow your influence quickly. The easiest way to get qualified leads is to leverage LinkedIn automation tools to help you filter through possible leads. For example, you can send LinkedIn connection requests to Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) in financial firms to build relationships that help you sell your fintech software. Precise targeting helps cut down research time and reach responsive prospects faster.
Unless your organisation uses the LinkedIn Sales Navigator, there is a limit to the number of searches you can conduct. Those using the platform to hire people and those looking for qualified leads can overcome this limitation by using LinkedIn automation tools to identify the best connections. It allows them to make the most of the limited searches.
Advanced analytics
While the LinkedIn platform does provide users with some analytics like search appearances, data-driven actions require more advanced metrics (e.g., unique impressions for your posts). You want to know the best time to send InMail and publish posts for high response rates.
With the right automation LinkedIn tools, you can access the metrics critical to your future online efforts. For example, marketing reports with detailed analytics will enable you to convince the board to increase marketing resources for LinkedIn. Personalised reports also simplify evaluating ROI.
Enhanced engagement
You will have a better experience building relationships on LinkedIn if you are an active user. Can’t find time to pursue more than a handful of recommended connections? LinkedIn automation tools are the one thing missing in your plan. Effective engagement requires mixing brand awareness and LinkedIn outreach to drive powerful connections. An automation partner can help you improve the response rates to your content and find a formula that works for the relationships you want to build online.
Limits & Challenges of LinkedIn Automation
Platform bans
As you research LinkedIn automation, you may have already encountered several warnings on how the platform does not fully support automation tools. Safeguards against spamming can lead to bans for using LinkedIn automation tools.
However, there is always a way out. Find the right automation partner to help you build genuine connections and have personalised conversations, and you won’t have to worry about platform bans. You can avoid disappointments by listing down your goals, asking the right questions during the consultation, and making your requirements clear before committing to a provider.
How Does LinkedIn Automation Work
So how exactly does LinkedIn automation work? LinkedIn automation tools reduce human effort in carrying out regular activities on the social media platform. These may be tasks like messaging, posting, personalised comments, likes, sending LinkedIn connection requests, etc.
Overall, the functionality varies by tool. For example, Outreachly relies on AI to mimic human behaviour in LinkedIn messages and send personalised communications to each lead. It also supports advanced filtering capabilities.
Some tools specifically tackle LinkedIn lead generation. The software will analyse more profiles than any campaign manager can on their own to build a B2B prospect database. The result is a constantly updated list of relevant connections for the user to explore.
No campaign manager is fully-equipped without the analytics to back their decisions and guide the progress of their LinkedIn messaging campaigns. LinkedIn automation will help you optimise your marketing content and approach through detailed reports on the performance of your ongoing and past campaigns.
Tips & Options for LinkedIn Automations
There are multiple use cases for LinkedIn automation you can look into to find what will be beneficial to you. Here are some of the best practices to adopt:
Target Both New and Existing Leads
LinkedIn automation helps build new connections and maintain existing ones. Hence, you should balance these target groups. That’s when automatically customised messages can help. When software adapts the response to what the user says, you can cover everybody.
Have a Content Strategy
The worst thing that can happen to a marketing campaign is spending thousands of dollars yet failing to convert qualified leads. In some cases, the problem is in the marketing content itself. Hence, be sure to analyse your target audience and find the best ways to make them respond. Once you know who you deal with and how you will be able to pick the most suitable LinkedIn automation tools.
Be Active in LinkedIn Groups
Making a dent on LinkedIn goes beyond the apparent action of sending connection requests. Another goldmine for LinkedIn lead generation is groups. These are activity hubs where professionals from one or related industries share content, insights, and opportunities. Join the right LinkedIn group to find valuable connections. Automation tools will allow you to stay active in the group, contributing even as you focus on other aspects of your duties.
Why Outreachly for LinkedIn Automation
Questions to ask yourself when picking the right LinkedIn automation partner include things like reliability, track record, features, and customer support. Outreachly LinkedIn Automation ticks all these boxes and more.
Outreachly LinkedIn Automation platform leverages AI to deliver more accurate results for searches and tailor communications. It evaluates your prospect’s profile and generates a message that mimics human behaviour. As a result, you always sound relevant and convincing to whoever you reach. It translates to higher response rates and ROI.
Outreachly’s team also offers a done-for-you service for businesses that want to outsource the LinkedIn lead generation process fully. You won’t have to do anything to engage, activate, or nurture leads. We do it for you.
Would you like to learn more? Contact us for a talk or book a demo now.
The time savings and optimisation from LinkedIn automation tools are worth the investment. The benefits can propel you to meet your targets faster and with less effort. It’s a valid reason to get started on your LinkedIn automation journey. Contact our team here and we will help you set up.
