Is Linkedin automation dead?(at least for 2021?)

What is up guys, Kyrill Krystallis here of Inside Insight, a growth hacking agency, and the growth hacking bootcamp.

In this quick breakdown, I want to cover whether Linkedin is still automatable in 2021 and if yes, to what extent... 

"The good ol' days of Linkedin automation are over..."

Briefly put, yes. 

Long gone are the good old days where you could just send 700 new connection requests (with a connection message) per week. 

Linkedin has DEFINITELY amped up its response against hardcore "automators", especially with its latest 100 connection per week restriction. 

Side note: As of February to March 2021, Linkedin had rolled out a new restriction, restricting numerous heavy outreaching profiles to 100 new connections per week, effectively slicing their weekly outreach numbers by 70%. 

Now it's also important to note that not all profiles receive this restriction. 

As per studies, and yes; actual studies, carried out by the team over at Expandi, this restriction seems to be affecting profiles that fall under a certain connection request acceptance rate. 

Meaning that if you maintain a connection request acceptance rate over that of 25%, you will most likely remain unaffected. 

By now you're probably thinking, why not just consistently stay over 25%? 

The issue is that it's not that simple... 

Especially when you're trying to scale your outreaches to 2000 connection requests per day. (spread across several accounts) 

Increasing the size of the target market means that you're decreasing your ability to cater to the "personalization needs" of every individual within your list which effectively decreases your chance of staying over the limit. 

Realistic connection request acceptance rates usually hover around 10-15% depending upon the industry, offer & sending profile, which still isn't enough to keep you safe from the 100 per week restriction. 

So what are the options? 🤔

The options are the following: 

• Scale the number of accounts you have outreaching @ 100 per week. 
• Utilize Linkedin's Free Inmail System. 
• Resort to Inmail ads. 
• Ditch the channel. 

Let's cover them one by one...

The idea of scaling your accounts whilst adhering to the restriction is definitely possible. 

Blackhatworld houses numerous aged Linkedin account providers and offers them at a pretty reasonable rate. 

Low-cost automation tools also exist on the market. 

Take LH2 for example. 

The only challenges that remain are the costs of the account building process & automation stack and the lack of a centralized CRM system where you can manage all responses from all accounts. 

Decreasing the associated costs further whilst also developing a cloud centralized CRM for replying from 20+ accounts with ease will make a scaled Linkedin automated outreach significantly easier to load out & manage. 

As of now, we're currently in touch with several providers that are developing the relevant solutions and we'll have more updates shortly. 

How about the free Inmail system? 

That's an option, but the issue lies in the fact that most solutions at the given moment are either too under-developed or too buggy for running this in a scaled manner. 

It's a solution for 1 or 2 accounts. 

But I haven't yet come across anything that's fully functional and worthwhile when automating 20+ accounts. 

What about Inmail Ads? 

Honestly speaking, Inmail ads seem to be the most favorable solution out there for scaled mass messaging. 

The cost per message sent is still definitely high, especially when you're outreaching to C-Levels in tier 1 countries. 

But it does seem to be the most fail-proof solution out there for the given moment considering how under-developed the solutions of most automation providers currently are. 

The only issue with Inmails ads, excluding the cost of course, is that the receiver knows that it's an ad and therefore treats the message as an ad. 

Not as a personalized message that's been carefully crafted for him. 

This effectively decreases the efficiency of the outreach itself meaning that you'd have to spend much more to replicate the results you were getting with Linkedin automation back in 2020 for example. 

Important to note that there's no follow-up, either. 

You can, of course, retarget an audience with a follow-up ad but that brings on further additional costs. 

But again, costs aside, it's definitely an option. 

And what about ditching Linkedin as a channel altogether? 

Definitely an option, especially when you consider the differences in cost vs. results since 2020.

But...

Linkedin, nonetheless, is STILL the best B2B social media platform out there. 

You do, of course, still, have email outreaches as an option. 

And Facebook B2B custom audiences made from groups with tools like Leadenforce. 

But, I do believe that it's only a matter of time until some scalable solution is developed. 

But until then, we either develop or we wait...

Kyrill Krystallis