You don’t have to be a premium member to receive or respond to InMails. A few times, people have sent me InMails to see if I was interested in an opportunity. I didn’t know them, but it didn’t feel intrusive because they included some personal details, like “I see you actively participate in the Social Media Managers Group.” It’s important to break the ice in the subject line or the first line of the email to create a level of trust or familiarity.
Finally, when someone responds to your InMail within 90 days, you will receive an InMail credit so you can send another InMail. If they don’t respond, you lose that InMail credit forever.
Sending an InMail
You can send an InMail by clicking the Message button on the left side of a member’s profile page or from the search results. If you have a premium account, you will receive a specified number of InMail credits every month depending on your subscription. You can also check to see how many InMail credits you have remaining at the bottom of the new message from this screen, as shown in Figure 12–1 on page 132.
InMail credits can be used up to 90 days after they are issued. Once they expire, they are not renewable, so make sure you use them in a timely manner.
While InMail isn’t available for basic accounts, you can still message connections. You don’t need to use InMail to send messages to your 1st-degree connections or to open networkers. Just click Send a Message in the upper right of your connection’s profile, and you can send them a message for free. You can also send up to 15 free messages per month to other group members, even if they aren’t connected to you, as long as they accept messages from other group members. If you don’t want to receive messages from other group members with whom you are not connected, see Chapter 5 for how to modify your preferences. I don’t recommend trying to prevent people from contacting you on LinkedIn because the purpose of the site is to connect with others, and you never know why someone will want to reach you; it could be an opportunity that would lead to additional revenue.
FIGURE 12–1. Sending InMails
InMail Credits
If you send an InMail message and you don’t receive a response, you will not get credited back. If the recipient responds to your InMail message within 90 days of the send date, you will receive an InMail credit. You cannot send a second InMail to someone until they respond to the first InMail message. A reminder is sent to the person within three days if they fail to respond to your InMail message, and this is the only reminder they will receive. Many times, the reminders get buried in my Notifications tab because I am very active on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn added autoreplies to InMail messages to make it easier to respond. Clicking on an autoreply counts as a response. The autoreplies include “Interested” and “Maybe later,” which are reflected as accepted messages, while “Not interested” is recorded as declined. Once they click on a response or manually reply to your InMail, you will receive the credit back immediately.
Opting Out of InMail and Sponsored InMail
LinkedIn lets you opt out of receiving both InMail and Sponsored InMail. If you aren’t familiar with Sponsored InMail, it’s a type of ad you can use to reach your target audience. You can read more about Sponsored InMail in Chapter 20.
If you don’t want to receive InMail, you can opt out from your Settings & Privacy page. See Figure 12–2 below. Here’s how you do it:
1. Click the Me icon with your profile photo at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
2. Click Settings & Privacy.
3. Select the Communications tab at the top of the page.
4. In the Preferences section, click Change next to Messages From Members and Partners.
5. Under Allow LinkedIn Partners to Show You Sponsored InMail?, click the toggle to No.
6. If you want to opt out of InMail as well, you can click the toggle under Allow Others to Send You InMail? to No.
FIGURE 12–2. Opting Out of InMail
TIPS FOR WRITING INMAILS TO INCREASE YOUR RESPONSE RATES
It’s important to carefully structure your InMail so the recipient will open it and respond. If they don’t, you lose a credit. Your goal is to get them to at least respond to the InMail, even if they aren’t interested, so you will be credited back.
If you are familiar with email marketing, you know what I’m talking about, except that there, if they don’t open your email, your only penalty is that your open rate decreases.
According to a study by Constant Contact®, an email marketing company, the average open rate of direct-marketing emails sent through their software platform was around 18 percent as of April 2018, as you can see in Figure 12–3 below. The open rates vary by industry, but the overall average has been decreasing because we are overwhelmed with hundreds of messages each day and it’s getting harder to deliver email though spam filters. But look at the engagement from mobile devices. A whopping 61 percent of the emails you receive on your mobile device are opened.
FIGURE 12–3. Email Open Rates
The good news is that InMail open rates are much higher if you structure your message properly. If the open rate of InMails were only 18 percent, it would be a very expensive way to reach out. You would have to spend around $40 to get one person to just open your InMail, and opening the message does not guarantee anyone will respond to your request; you might easily shell out more than $100 to get one response.
LinkedIn doesn’t provide template options for InMail, which is a good thing. If it did, InMail messages would all start to look the same and people would stop paying attention. It’s hard enough to get someone’s attention these days when everyone is constantly being bombarded with messages and promotions.
As with all email marketing, your subject line is the most important part of your message. Some email-marketing experts claim the subject line is 90 percent of your message. If you don’t catch your recipient’s attention in the subject line, they’ll never open the email and see what you have to say. Many copywriters spend more time crafting the subject line than they do writing the rest of the email.
Here are some tips for creating a powerful subject line for your InMail:
■ Arouse curiosity by asking a provocative question.
■ Promise answers to a question or solutions to a problem.
■ Include a key benefit for the recipient.
■ Ask for advice or an opinion.
You want your subject line to be brief and to the point, catching their attention without giving away the details of your message. On TV, news programs have mastered the technique of teasing upcoming stories to keep us tuned in. Many times, the actual story is nowhere near as exciting as the teasers made it sound. The subject line in an email is like a TV news teaser, a headline in sales copy, or even the title of a book. Its sole purpose is to grab our attention and make us want to learn more.
Remember, your goal is to get the recipient to open your InMail so he’ll read your message and start a dialogue with you. You want him to be unable to resist opening your message. Don’t overhype your subject line or deceive them, but grab their attention enough to want to open it.
Here are some basic guidelines for composing your InMail that will help increase your response rates:
■ Design your InMail as a conversation starter. You don’t ask someone out on a date the second you meet them. You strike up a conversation first and get to know them before moving to the next level. The same holds true when you’re establishing a new business relationship. If you are too aggressive like a used-car salesman, they will naturally back away.
■ The goal of sending the InMail is to discuss and explore an opportunity—not seal the deal immediately. Again, don’t be too aggressive. You just want to establish a channel of communication.
■ Mention the profile content that prompted you to write. If you were impressed by their education or a specific project, mention it in the first sentence or paragraph of your message.
■ Adopt a conversational, enthusiastic tone like you would if you wer
e having a cup of coffee with them at Starbucks. Don’t use a form-letter approach with boring, scripted text. Be friendly and inviting so they’ll want to get to know you.
■ Be yourself. Choose words that reflect your personal voice. Write your message in a natural tone, like you’re speaking with your colleagues. Don’t use words you wouldn’t use in everyday conversation; it will sound unnatural.
■ Express interest in helping them achieve their goals, rather than your need to fill a position (if you’re looking to hire). As Brian Tracy says, people are always thinking What’s in it for me? You have to approach them from that perspective.
■ Get to the point so you don’t waste anyone’s time. If you write a long, drawn-out message, they’ll lose interest because people tend to scan content quickly from their mobile device.
■ Don’t share too much. If you do, they may not feel a need to reply. Remember, your only goal is to get a response to begin a conversation.
■ Focus on finding out their availability and interest in a job or networking opportunity.
■ Express your objective clearly so they know exactly why you reached out. Give them a reason to reply by asking for advice, opinions, or referrals. Don’t send a message with a subject line like “Look at this job and tell me if you’re interested.” It will be ignored 99 percent of the time, wasting your valuable InMail credits. A better subject line would be, “Are you interested in joining the #1 consulting company in the world?”
Every InMail you send should be a very personal message with a unique subject line containing something you read in their LinkedIn profile. Don’t cut and paste subject lines and email content; it’s too impersonal and won’t grab their attention. If you are recruiting for a position, write individual messages mentioning specific skills or accomplishments in their profiles and include a link to the job description. Do not include the entire job description in the InMail.
The same holds true if you are using InMail for networking. Each message and subject line should be unique and let the recipient know your objective in the first sentence or paragraph. If you met them at a conference, mention the conference and why you want to keep in touch. Explain what you read in their profile that made you want to reach out to this person. People love it when others notice their accomplishments. Play to someone’s ego, and you’ll have a friend for life!
Personally, I don’t use InMail to network; I prefer LinkedIn messages. When people catch my eye, I reach out in a Group or comment on their content. Most of the time, they are very responsive to connecting.
CONCLUSION
InMail is a great, unobtrusive way to reach out to people who are not part of your immediate network. It has a very high success rate because LinkedIn’s rules ensure that people don’t abuse the system. If people don’t respond to your InMails, you waste your credits, so you must take the time to craft meaningful messages to your recipients. InMail is a unique tool that makes it relatively easy for you to connect with key decision-makers who are outside your network.
In the next chapter, we’re going to learn about LinkedIn Groups, which are niche communities within the larger LinkedIn community. I’ll show you how to effectively connect with subject-matter experts in your industry and how you can become a recognized thought leader in your field.
For additional updates and how-to videos, visit https://tedprodromou.com/UltimateGuideUpdates/.
Chapter 13
LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups are forums or discussion boards where LinkedIn members can talk to each other to find solutions to their problems or share relevant information about a product, service, or topic related to their industry or niche.
Groups can be open, allowing anyone to join (which is now called Standard), or your group can be Unlisted, meaning you have to be approved by the group manager before you can participate. Standard group members can invite others to join, which can help grow your Group faster. In the past, only the manager could invite people to join.
Keeping your Group unlisted can keep the discussions focused and cut down on the unwelcome comments that plague many open social networking sites. This means your group discussions will generally be of higher quality and will be more relevant to members, since a group manager must approve all members. The manager can moderate discussions and remove inappropriate posts or comments, as well as remove people from the Group if they are disruptive or out of line.
When used properly, LinkedIn Groups can be a powerful tool to help grow your business or professional network. Groups can give you the connections you need to reach new industries or markets. You can participate in existing groups as an individual, or you can start your own Group.
In order to create an effective Group, you need to understand how they work and determine the purpose for your Group. Some companies use Groups to support their products, while others use them to build a relationship with prospects or solidify relationships with existing customers.
LINKEDIN GROUPS AREN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE
Before we continue, I must warn you that the quality of most LinkedIn Groups has declined significantly since I wrote Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business, Second Edition. Many Groups have become “spam buckets” and provide little value. Aggressive marketers discovered they could blast articles into multiple Groups every day, giving them exposure and generating business. Over time, they taught this technique to their clients, so now we have Groups with lots of new content every day and almost no interaction between group members.
This is the opposite of what LinkedIn envisioned when it created Groups. The purpose of Groups is to encourage interaction among members so they can help each other out. In 2013, LinkedIn changed the rules and began encouraging group managers to moderate self-promotional content in an effort to curb this behavior, but I am seeing more self-promotional content than ever. Some Groups have hundreds of new posts every day and absolutely no comments, likes, or shares. It’s sad to see a valuable resource overwhelmed by aggressive marketers.
The result is many LinkedIn Groups have thousands of members but very little discussion. Most members have stopped participating in Groups. That said, you can still start and manage a successful Group that will generate lots of leads and new clients for your business if you follow my advice. There are plenty of well-managed Groups on LinkedIn where you can still find value.
The good news is LinkedIn is actively trying to resurrect Groups at the time of this writing. Groups you belong to are now displayed in a small widget on your LinkedIn home page in the left column. I’m a member of the LinkedIn Advisors program. I provide input and feedback to LinkedIn features, and there is talk of letting you display new Group posts right in your LinkedIn newsfeed. This hasn’t been officially released but I think it would be a great way to increase interaction in Groups.
FINDING QUALITY GROUPS
How many groups should I join? This is one of the most common questions I get about LinkedIn. There are approximately 2 million Groups on LinkedIn at the time of this writing—surprisingly about the same number as when I wrote Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business, Second Edition. You may join up to 100 Groups. The problem with joining too many Groups is that you just don’t have time to participate in all of them. Another issue with joining a lot of Groups is that you may receive daily or weekly email updates from each one. If you belong to 30 Groups, your inbox will be full of updates that you won’t have time to read. You can turn off email notifications from Groups, but then you would have to visit each Group manually to see new discussions.
It comes down to quantity and quality. I believe you can expand your network reach by joining many relevant Groups and by participating in the ones with active conversations. People can see if you are actively participating in a Group, which helps build your reputation and searchability in LinkedIn.
I have to be honest: I belong to at least 40 Groups, but I’m only active in about five. I belong to the others to expand the reach of my network and give me
access to people who are 3rd-degree connections. Remember, when you are in a Group, you can message other members even if you aren’t 1st-degree connections. However, LinkedIn now limits you to 15 messages per month to group members who are not your 1st-degree connections. That isn’t 15 messages per Group—it’s 15 messages per month, period.
To keep your membership focused, you can join a Group if you want to learn about a specific subject and leave once you receive the information you need. For example, if you’re looking for a new social media monitoring tool, you can join a social media Group and see which products the members are recommending. Ask a few questions so you can make an informed decision when it’s time to buy. Once you make the purchase and get the software running properly, leave the Group, since you’re unlikely to need their advice again.
LINKEDIN SEARCH TIP
To find the most popular Groups on LinkedIn, click on the empty search box and then the magnifying glass icon. Under the More menu item, select Groups. This will display the most popular LinkedIn Groups and the number of members in each Group, as you can see in Figure 13–1 on page 142.
Finding Groups
You can search for Groups using the search box in the top toolbar by Groups under the More filter. You can also look under Advanced Search and select Groups to find Groups related to your niche.
LinkedIn has changed the way we search for Groups, and to be honest, it’s now harder to find Groups related to your job, position, industry, or skill set. Using LinkedIn Search, you have no way to select keywords related to the Groups and will only see the top Groups when you perform a search with the Groups filter.
Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business Page 13