What is InMail on LinkedIn and how to send them ?

When you are prospecting on LinkedIn, there are 2 main ways to contact your prospects. You can either contact them via InMail or traditionally via a connection request with or without a note, or even a message if the prospect is already in your network. Therefore, you might be wondering which method to prioritize. To answer this question, we will analyze each of the two options in detail:

LinkedIn InMail vs LinkedIn Messages: What are the differences?

LinkedIn Message

Unlike an InMail, a LinkedIn Message can only be sent to your 1st degree connections.

These are the people to whom you've sent an invitation (or who have sent one to you) and it has been accepted. In other words, these are the people in your network.

That is, to send a standard LinkedIn Message you must send a connection request, the person then has to accept it. After which, you can send them a message.

The problem with this solution is that you can only contact a limited number of people, and even if you send an invitation first, you have no guarantee that your lead will accept the invitation.

However, the traditional LinkedIn Message has the advantage of being free, unlike InMail.

LinkedIn InMail

LinkedIn InMail is a form of premium message offered by LinkedIn.

They are highly limited but their major strength is that they offer the opportunity to contact a person who is not in your network without sending a connection request.

However, it's worth noting that it is possible to indicate that you do not wish to receive LinkedIn InMails from the privacy settings.

You've probably already received one, they are easily identifiable since they carry the "InMail" label.

With an InMail, you can theoretically contact any 2nd and 3rd degree connection.

In addition to allowing you to contact your 2nd and 3rd degree connections, InMails also allow you to add a subject to your messages:

In summary, an InMail is a bit like an invitation except that you do not add the contact to your network, and you can add a subject and more extended text.

Like when you send an invitation, you can't send a follow-up if your contact does not respond.

How Much Does LinkedIn InMail Cost?

To get LinkedIn InMail credits, you must first subscribe to a LinkedIn Premium subscription.

With the LinkedIn Premium Career offer, you only get 5 InMail credits per month which is a bit less. To obtain InMail credits, the most interesting offer is the LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core.

• The Core offer of LinkedIn Sales Navigator costs $99 and offers 50 InMail credits. This represents about $2 / InMail.
• On the other hand, with the LinkedIn Premium career offer at $30/ month you only get 5 credits which is about $6 / InMail. It goes without saying that at this price, you need to craft your message well :)

Note: LinkedIn refunds the LinkedIn InMail credits of messages that receive a response within 90 days.

How to send an InMail?

To send an InMail from LinkedIn Sales Navigator you just have to go to the profile of the lead you want to contact, then click on "Message".

You then just have to write your message with a subject.

To help you write a perfect InMail, LinkedIn highlights the relationships you share with the contact as well as their recent activities such as their latest posts, latest comments, etc...

It's a great way to create an original and relevant hook that will attract the person's attention.

You can also ask for an intro by one of your mutual connections.

Are InMails better than Messages?

Is the ability to reach out to almost anyone with a single click a good thing? Absolutely!

However, the number of LinkedIn InMail credits is far too low for the service to be fundamentally attractive.

And it's hard to justify the cost of a premium subscription if our sole and unique goal is to use InMail credits.

Another rarely addressed point is the issue of authenticity.

When you send a LinkedIn InMail, the user sees it and immediately knows it's for prospecting. This is unlike a more thorough approach that might involve visiting the profile first, followed by an add a few days later with a note.

Although it's challenging to categorically settle this issue, I would say no, InMails are not better than regular messages.

While the service may suit certain structures, most businesses or salespeople will not find it beneficial.

However, there is a more interesting and authentic method to automatically and personally connect with your leads on LinkedIn.

Introducing useArtemis, the alternative to LinkedIn InMails

If you're in prospecting, there's a high chance LinkedIn InMails may not meet your needs. And this could be due to several reasons:

• Too expensive.
• Not enough credits.
• No possibility of follow-up.
• Not authentic enough.

We will therefore explore how to contact your leads in a hyper-personalized and 100% automated way with useArtemis.

We'll proceed in several steps. We'll start by installing the Chrome extension and creating an account on useArtemis. Then we'll import the results of a LinkedIn search into useArtemis using the extension.

We'll then automatically enrich this list from useArtemis to find our leads' emails, and then we'll launch an automatic and personalized prospecting campaign. Ready? Let's get started!

• First, you need to create an account for free on useArtemis.co.
• Once registration is completed, install the useArtemis Chrome extension.

• Now that the extension is installed and your account is created, visit LinkedIn or LinkedIn Sales Navigator (preferably Sales Navigator), and do a search.

• Once your search is complete, launch the useArtemis Chrome extension. Give a name to your export, select the number of pages you wish to export, and then click on "Import".

• Head over to useArtemis to monitor the progress of your scraping. Once the import is done, you can click on "Start enrichment" to enrich your lead list. This step is not necessary if you only want to contact your leads via LinkedIn, not via email.
• Then, go to the "Campaigns" tab to create your prospecting campaign.
• Click on "New Campaign".

• Here you are on the campaign creator. This is where it all happens! You will be able to create a sequence to contact the list of leads that you've just exported.

useArtemis suggests a default sequence that you can modify as you wish.

Now you know how to contact your leads in a personalized and automated way without limitations. A powerful alternative to LinkedIn InMails.

However, if you still wish to test out InMails, here are some good practices.

Tips to Improve Your LinkedIn InMail Response Rate

There are good practices to follow to increase your chances of receiving a response to your LinkedIn InMails.

Don't be Marcel Proust.

The shorter the messages, the more they are read. Put yourself in your contact's shoes; do you read the lengthy emails you receive in your inbox?

Probably never, and your contact will do the same.

You've probably already heard this advice, but the chart below will make you realize how true it is and should be strictly adhered to.

The above chart, produced by LinkedIn, shows that the response rate is closely related to the message length, with a standard deviation of 30% between an InMail of 0-400 words and an InMail of over 1200 words.

• The response rate is 22% higher than average for messages that are less than 400 words.
• And the response rate is 11% lower than average for messages over 1200 words.

Another chart shows that 90% of InMails are more than 400 words. In other words, 90% of InMails do not have a response rate 22% higher than average.

If you write a relevant message of fewer than 400 words and properly target your prospects, you will likely be in the top 10% of users who get the most InMail responses.

Don't send InMail on Friday and Saturday (especially Saturday)

According to LinkedIn, 65% of InMail responses arrive within 24 hours of sending. And 90% within a week.

In other words, 2 out of 3 responses arrive within 24 hours. And the following chart clearly shows the impact of bad timing on the response rate.

This chart also shows, paradoxically, an InMail sent on a Sunday will get more responses than an InMail sent on a Friday.

Avoid mass sending and prioritize personalization

It seems quite obvious to the discerning reader that you are, but personalized InMails perform much better than mass-sent InMails.

The same goes for messages and invitations. I wouldn't be surprised if personalized invitations have a response rate significantly higher than 15%.

That's why we've integrated ChatGPT into our prospecting tool. When you send an invitation automatically, useArtemis will retrieve the content present on your lead's profile and ask ChatGPT to write a relevant hook.

This is by far the best way to personalize while automating.

InMails sent to Recommended Connections or job seekers have a 35% higher response rate

According to LinkedIn, when you send an InMail to someone recommended by the algorithm (usually because you have mutual connections), the response rate jumps by 35%.

The same goes when you send an InMail to someone "Open to work".

However, there's likely a bias in this number, and it is rarely relevant to contact job seekers in a B2B context unless you're a recruiter.

In conclusion

If you write an InMail of fewer than 400 words, send it between Monday and Thursday, in a personalized manner to a connection recommended by the algorithm, you should be among the top 10% of LinkedIn users with the highest InMail response rate.