Have you ever tried to automate LinkedIn messaging? It is far more likely that you have received automated messages! This is possible on LinkedIn and there are multiple online services that can help you with this task.
However, if you want to use this option, be careful to choose the right one because LinkedIn frowns upon automation and if you do it wrong, you can be thrown in LinkedIn jail (your account being restricted).
These tools generally play on 3 steps:
STAGE 1: FIRST TOUCH
The tool sends personalized invites to your 2nd and 3rd degree connection or the first message to your 1st degree connections.
STAGE 2: CHECK REPLIES
The tool detects any new connections and checks if they’ve replied. If there are any replies, the tool will stop messaging them. So, if you want to stop someone that is annoying you with multiple automated messaging, reply NO
STAGE 3: SEND FOLLOW-UPS
This is where the tool will send follow up messages to those who haven’t replied. The personalized follow ups will be sent based on the schedule you set up under the “Messages” tab of your campaign.
You can choose between;
BROWSER-BASED LINKEDIN AUTOMATED MESSAGING TOOLS
To use this type, you need to open LinkedIn from your favourite browser and fire up the tool in the form of an extension. The implications are:
- You can’t run the tool 24/7.
- They rely on browser caching, which makes them easier to detect.
- The use of different IP addresses every time you log in. This raises red flags.
Besides the safety implications mentioned above, browser-based LinkedIn automation tools are lacking when it comes to advanced features.
CLOUD-BASED LINKEDIN AUTOMATION TOOLS
Cloud-based LinkedIn automation tools are safer to use as they integrate with your LinkedIn account. You can log into your LinkedIn account from your automation tool and set filters and parameters for the activities you want to automate.
Some of the most significant advantages of using a cloud-based LinkedIn automation tool include:
- Having a Dedicated IP address.
- Harder to detect since it does not work on the front end like browser-based tools.
- Access to advanced features (like personalization) that boost your conversion rates.
With the advantages of convenience and enhanced safety, cloud-based LinkedIn automation tools have the upper hand over their browser-based counterparts. The caveat, however, is they tend to be more expensive than browser-based tools.
So, if you have a large number of messages to send out and are shopping around for a tool to help you automate your LinkedIn activities, consider these factors.
The Price of Automation
What is the price of these automation tools? Subscriptions vary a lot but you should consider paying a minimum of $50 per month.
Is it useful to get automated tools?
It would be useful for people with thousands of contacts and messages to send, but this is unlikely in the medical device industry. Ultimately, I cannot demonise automation tools since they are part of the game, but I think it lacks the human touch that makes the messaging strategy extremely powerful on LinkedIn.
In fact, whenever I sense that I have received an automated message, I immediately stop the conversation.
However, automated LinkedIn messaging could be useful only in very specific cases and only for first contact. For instance, in one campaign, we noticed that the physicians we targeted were responding only if contacted between 6 and 7am and that was forcing us to wake up extremely early. In this case, we thought it was useful to automate only the first message even though we knew we could be less effective because of the automation of the messages.