LinkedIn Changes InMail Policy To Improve Quality of Messages and Response Rates

InMail has long been a powerful way for social sellers to connect with business prospects through LinkedIn.  When done right, it can open doors and drive opportunities for sales professionals in a highly effective way.

Today, we are announcing changes to our company InMail Policy to improve the quality of messages our members receive, and help sales professionals increase response rates that come through Sales Navigator.  Our policy change will go into effect on January 1, 2015.

Incentivizing Quality InMails

We know that our members prefer to receive relevant and personalized messages from social sellers, and a well-timed, strategic InMail can boost prospecting efforts.  In fact, nearly half (48%) of B2B decision makers don’t respond to sales professionals who don’t personalize their messages.  Our goal with this change is to encourage and incentivize sales professionals to write high value InMails that not only make the experience more rewarding for recipients, but also increases their chance of making meaningful contact.

On LinkedIn, there’s an art to crafting winning InMails.  In a world where prospects’ have multiple mailboxes that are saturated with canned messages, a brief note that starts a conversation, rather than hits with a hard sell, is a good start to engaging.  Leveraging one’s network and finding a common thread is also a great way to immediately increase credibility.  Those who want to learn more about best practices for writing InMails can do so by clicking here.

Sales professionals who send InMail which receive a response within 90 days will be rewarded with a credit back into their accounts. Whether it’s a direct message specifically addressing the subject of the InMail, or the recipient replying with non-interest, we consider each scenario as a response.  Those who don’t receive a response of any kind will not be credited back.

InMails sent before January 1, 2015 will be treated under the current policy where those that don’t get a response within seven days are credited back.

Boosting InMail Allotments

Once the new policy is implemented, sales professionals will receive additional InMail credits each month. Here’s the breakdown based on the member’s level within Sales Navigator:

• Sales Navigator Team: 30 credits (25 currently)
• Sales Navigator Professional: 15 (10 currently)
• Sales Navigator Basic: 8 (5 currently)

The total number of InMails a sales professional has can be found in their Inbox in the new version of Sales Navigator, or under settings in the original version of the product.

InMail has tremendous member and customer value.  We believe that this policy change will benefit both our customers and members by making the experience a welcomed one.  For more information about InMail, check out our product page here.

UPDATE: While our goal for making this policy change was January 1, 2015, it will now be by the end of January.