LinkedIn connections have been a hot topic among the platform’s active users ever since the major LinkedIn connection limit to 100 invites per week back in 2021.

The fall from over 1000 LinkedIn connections per week to merely 100 struck many users’ businesses, especially those who almost solely rely on the platform for prospecting and LinkedIn lead generation.

LinkedIn didn’t make any public statements regarding the introduction of the LinkedIn connection limit.

However, many users believe they’ve been introduced to provide a satisfying user experience and maintain the quality of the connections made through the platform. 

Despite everyone appreciating LinkedIn’s effort to remain a strictly professional, prime platform, they all want to know how to work around the LinkedIn connection limit. For this reason, in this blog, we’re going to show you 4 ways to bypass the LinkedIn connection limit. 

4 ways to bypass the LinkedIn connection limit 

Import via email 

Import via email is not to be confused with Invite via email.

Invite via email used to allow you to type in or import your leads’ emails through a CSV file to invite them to connect directly in the platform.

As mentioned above, LinkedIn discontinued this feature in the summer of 2022 and left its users with a similar feature - Import via email. 

Import via email, on the other hand, allows you to import saved contacts and other contacts from your email or any other email you have access to. 

Saved contacts are the email addresses you manually saved or imported through a CSV or Vcard file to your email. 

Other contacts are the email addresses of all people you engaged with via email, but you haven’t saved them as a contact in your email. 

How to use Import via email

So, to use Import via email, go to your LinkedIn home page, and click Show less. 

Then, choose More options. 

LinkedIn will then offer you to type in an email address you wish to import contacts from. Then click Continue. 

Once you click Continue, you will be offered to choose the account you wish to import contacts from. This implies that you can actually import contacts from any email address you have access to.

LinkedIn will let you know what contacts it will take into consideration and will ask for permission. 

Once LinkedIn imports contacts, you can check the box in the right corner of each contact you wish to Invite to connect and then click the button Add connection. 

If the emails you have, match the ones your lead's used to create their LinkedIn profiles, LinkedIn will send them an invite to connect over the email and directly in the platform as well. 

These connection requests don’t count toward your limits, so, in theory, there is a way to use the Import via email to bypass LinkedIn restrictions. 

You could upload a CSV file with your leads’ email addresses to your email and then use the import via email feature to invite them to connect on LinkedIn.

However, this way of bypassing LinkedIn limits is a bit of a hassle.

Here’s how. 

First you need to find someone’s email address. In other words, need to find a way to get a hold of all those emails – scrape them from somewhere or purchase them from a database.

Then, you will need to add them to a CSV file manually, upload the CSV file to the contact list on your email account, and hope that the leads you’re trying to reach used those emails in particular to make their LinkedIn profiles. 

Only then will Import via email actually work. 

LinkedIn InMails 

InMails are free or paid direct messages on LinkedIn that you can send to members not part of your network, contrary to a regular LinkedIn message.

By sending InMails, you can actually avoid using your LinkedIn Connection Requests. 

LinkedIn InMails are, for many platform members, a mystery, therefore underused and often wasted.

That’s quite a shame, taking into account that, according to the official LinkedIn learning courses, InMails have an average response rate of between 18 to 25% compared to cold emails’ 3% average response rate. 

Every member on LinkedIn can receive a paid InMail, but only paid LinkedIn subscribers can send them.

LinkedIn’s way to encourage meaningful LinkedIn connections is by giving the paid InMails credits back to the sender each time they get a reply.

Additionally, every paid LinkedIn subscriber gets 800 free InMail credits (but for LinkedIn Recruiter) that only users with open profiles can receive.

If you are unfamiliar with InMail as a LinkedIn feature, check out our guide on how to send LinkedIn InMail.

Since, as mentioned above, InMails can be sent to users not part of your network, they can be more effective than LinkedIn Connection Requests themselves.

When should I use LinkedIn InMail?  

InMails can be your last resource to get to the desired lead. Or they can be a wise hack to outreach busy decision-makers who get numerous new LinkedIn connections every day.

Let’s say you tried to connect with a specific lead on LinkedIn. You’ve sent several emails, and called them, and you never got an answer. In these cases, sending an InMail turned out to be a practice that brings results for many Skylead users. InMails can also be part of your Smart Sequence. 

An InMail, among other things, has all the characteristics of a regular email (subject line, body, and higher character limit). If well-written, is a secure way to stand out in your lead’s Inbox and stay remembered in the long run.

By sending a LinkedIn InMail to a complete stranger on LinkedIn and composing an engaging InMail copy by following these LinkedIn InMail examples with a 25% reply rate formula, you are also diminishing the possibility of your lead clicking I don’t know this person once you send a regular LinkedIn connection invite. 

Skylead allows you to include both free and paid InMails in your outreach.

By moving the toggle button to the right, you are allowing the platform to check if your lead has set their profile to Open profile status, and decide for you whether to reach them out via free or paid InMail. 

Emails

Since we mentioned LinkedIn’s version of emails, we cannot avoid highlighting all the advantages of regular cold emailing too! 

Yes, LinkedIn has over 800 million active users. But that doesn’t mean that the platform is the preferred means of communication for all of them. This is also one of the reasons, as mentioned above, why Smart Sequences come in “handy”.

By combining Email Outreach with LinkedIn Outreach, your sequence will show which channels work best for target leads. This information can be useful for your future sales and marketing strategies overall.

Here is how you can make the most out of emails.

The role of an email in a multi-channel approach

Send the same message as on LinkedIn and see where you get the answer faster. If you don’t get a reply whatsoever, here are some hacks on how to write a follow-up email after no response;

Use email to complement your Connection Message

Elaborate on the LinkedIn Connection Message you’ve already sent on LinkedIn, as email gives you more freedom in terms of character limits;

Subject line: Sara <> John

Hi Sara,

I recently tried connecting with you on LinkedIn.

I  saw that you’re VP of Sales at PowerData. 

I was curious if you are using cold outreach to get new clients. 

If the answer is yes, I would love to show you a multichannel solution that can help you scale your sales with minimal effort.

Would you be interested in learning more about our solution?

Best, 
 
John

Ask for a Connection Request via email.

Ask someone to send a LinkedIn connection to you by inserting a link to your profile in the email, if you reached the LinkedIn connection limit for the week. 

Subject line: Loved your post on cold outreach… 

Hey John,

Love the post you recently made on LinkedIn about Cold Outreach and totally agree with you on "how SDRs should be more creative".

I am a content creator, and I post majorly about prospecting, cold outreach, LinkedIn and email outreach hacks, and lead generation. 

I figured my content could benefit you and your team, so I wanted to connect with you on LinkedIn. 

Here’s a link to my profile - linkedin.com/in/jelenacerovic

Also, I saw that you’re Head of Sales at Leadgen.io and was curious if you are using any solutions to make your sales more efficient.

Best, 

Jelena

The Find & verify business emails via LinkedIn and Find & verify business emails by your source (if you are using a CSV file or API) are two of Skylead's native features. They make sure your email arrives at its correct destination. 

The most important segment of these two features is the “verification” part, which safeguards your domain from being blacklisted. That said, Smart Sequences will only send emails to double-verified emails. Moreover, they will make sure emails get delivered to the intended recipient. 

Smart sequences

Smart Sequences are AI-inspired algorithms that track your leads’ behavior and act accordingly. Yours is to create different paths to your leads (via email, LinkedIn messages, InMail), combine them with if/else conditions, and then click Start Campaign. Skylead will find the fastest and most effective way to your lead. 

This Skylead’s all-star feature allows you to combine all platform solutions in one campaign. That way, you can take advantage of all possible touch-points with your leads. 

As you may see from the above example, Smart Sequences are perfect for bypassing LinkedIn connection limits.

With Skylead’s 

• LinkedIn Outreach (LinkedIn Connections Requests, InMails, LinkedIn Messages) 
• Email Outreach
• Find & Verify business emails via LinkedIn or via CSV/API (whichever works for you and what brings the best result)
• Image & GIF hyper-personalization (Skylead’s native feature and available to all users)

you will, for sure, find a way to get in touch with your lead. Also, you will discover what your lead’s preferred channel of communication is, and, therefore, increase your response and engagement rates. 

FAQ about LinkedIn connections

Let’s go through several most commonly asked questions regarding LinkedIn connections and the LinkedIn connection limit.

How many LinkedIn connections can you have? 

LinkedIn limits the number of 1st-degree connections to up to 30 000. After you reach this number, you won't be able to send or receive Connection Requests until you resize your network under its limit. 

On the other hand, LinkedIn allows you to follow and be followed by an unlimited number of members. 

LinkedIn Follow VS Connect

When someone is your 1st-degree connection, you can see each other’s content and any update on your feeds. Also, you are allowed to exchange regular LinkedIn messages. You always follow your 1st-degree connections by default, but you can also unfollow them. 

If you turn on the Creator Mode, you can continue growing your network without necessarily adding new connections. 

What is the LinkedIn connection limit? 

The LinkedIn connection limit is the restriction introduced by the platform at the beginning of 2021. It implied that each member could send up to 100 Connection Requests per week. 

In the meanwhile, as of December 2021, LinkedIn raised the connection limit to approximately 200 invites per week. 

We say approximately because the truth is the LinkedIn connections limit depends on many factors.

These factors could be how old your profile is, the number of connections you have, how active you’ve been lately, your acceptance rate, etc. No one knows how many LinkedIn connections exactly you can send per week. Undoubtedly, it is far less than it used to be before the restriction. 

When does the LinkedIn connection limit reset? 

Your LinkedIn connection limit resets at the beginning of each week - over the weekend or Monday, depending on the user. 

Basically, if you use all your LinkedIn connections for the week on Friday, you won’t wait long to have your connection limit reset. 

However, despite respecting the LinkedIn connection limit, you must be careful to whom you send invitations. LinkedIn members who get turned off many times, left pending, or marked as I don’t know this person are more often subject to additional screening. Consequently, they are more likely to end up in LinkedIn jail or with restrictions. 

Summary

As you may see, there’s no reason to panic about the LinkedIn connection limit.

There are legitimate and secure ways to bypass them.

Furthermore, aside from sending LinkedIn connections, messages, InMails, and emails, Skylead also performs all time-consuming sales tasks for you. This way, it allows you to focus on finding qualified leads and closing the deal faster.

If you are not part of the Skylead team, register and test out Skylead for 7 days for FREE. Our support team is at your disposal from the start. They will be more than happy to help and answer all your questions. 

Let's scale up your business!

If LinkedIn prospecting, lead generation, and even marketing automation are a part of your job, you’ve probably heard of Dux-Soup. This tool helps you to find and engage with your target audience in real-time and on autopilot.

However, there is a lot of discussion about whether Dux-Soup is safe to use for your LinkedIn account, how effective it is, or if there is any better alternative. So, to resolve any mysteries revolving Dux-Soup, in this article, we cover everything you need to know, including:

• What Dux-Soup offers;
• How much Dux-Soup subscriptions cost;
• Is using Dux-Soup really safe;
• And the best Dux-Soup alternatives with the feature comparison table.

Let’s dive into it.

Dux-Soup or alternatives?

LinkedIn automation software, Dux-Soup, helps sales teams, recruiter specialists, and outbound marketers find LinkedIn prospects, reach them on autopilot, and close deals. In other words, it optimizes outreach workflow by streamlining some of the time-consuming tasks on LinkedIn. 

These tasks include: 

• Scanning your target audience’s LinkedIn accounts; 
• Sending connection requests, LinkedIn InMails, and regular LinkedIn messages; 
• And auto endorse feature. 

Dux-Soup also offers drip outreach campaigns that allow you to send messages and follow-ups in a simple sequence. In addition, you can add up to 12 messages in the campaign and set delays between them. However, these features are only available for Turbo plan subscribers.

Moreover, Dux-Soup is able to find email addresses of your 2nd and 3rd-degree connections. However, you will need to buy additional Dux-Soup points to do so. Prices of these points range from $11.91 for 100 emails, to $135.44 for 2000 emails.

For all those who wonder how it works, this LinkedIn automation software is a chrome extension. To clarify, you need to create your account and install a chrome extension to use it. Moreover, you need to keep your PC and browser on to run successfully.

If you use any CRM, like Pipedrive or Hubspot, you can integrate it via Zapier. If you need help with integration, you can always contact the Dux-Soup support team.

Lastly, Dux-Soup is considered one of the simplest LinkedIn lead generation software, as it doesn’t offer many prospecting and outreach features. So it’s suitable for small businesses that are just getting started and freelancers who are beginners.

Chrome extension disadvantages

Being a chrome extension, Dux-Soup does come with some severe drawbacks. 

Firstly, chrome extensions are unsafe since they automatically inject the code into LinkedIn. This code injection would’ve been fine if this social media platform didn’t like its users to use any LinkedIn automation. Thus, by injecting the code into this social media platform, LinkedIn can register if you’re using automation software. Furthermore, you risk getting your LinkedIn profile restricted.

Moreover, this LinkedIn automation tool doesn’t offer a dedicated IP to shield your activity. 

Secondly, chrome extensions cannot work unless your PC or laptop is on. This means you cannot set the software to run in the background, turn off your computer and forget about it for the day. 

Apart from these disadvantages, chrome extensions don’t offer an advanced reporting system or integrated inbox, nor do they mimic human-like behavior.

Due to the previously-mentioned limitations, you might find worth in exploring cloud-based LinkedIn automation tools. In other words, a cloud-based solution provides a dedicated IP address, doesn’t inject any code, and mimics human-like behavior. What’s more, with this type of automation, you can manage multiple accounts, have an integrated inbox, and, most importantly, it works even when your PC is turned off. What’s better than that? 🙂

Dux-Soup pricing

Dux-Soup offers 3 pricing plans and sub-plans, depending on team size and available features.

Individual Pricing Plan

Dux-Soup charges Individual pricing plans monthly or yearly, as per your choosing. In addition, if you’re looking to use the free version, you’ll soon notice that you cannot do much with it. So, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid version if you wish to use this software for real outreach. 

Team pricing plan

To clarify, Team plans are only charged annually and use a tiered pricing model. For example, choosing between 1-10 seats will cost you $135 per seat. If, however, you select a seat number between 11 and 20, you’ll pay $121.50 per seat, etc.

Agency pricing plan

Pro and Turbo Agency sub plans have 10 and 30 prepaid accounts, respectively. You can always add more seats, which will be charged additionally. However, if you do not use some seats, you cannot refund them.

7 best Dux-Soup alternatives

Dux-Soup is a beginner-friendly LinkedIn automation tool with very limited features. However, if you wish to really step up your outreach game and protect your LinkedIn profile, we suggest trying out one of the following Dux-Soup alternatives.

Skylead

That’s us - Hello! It’s nice to meet you 🙂

Skylead is a LinkedIn Automation & Cold Email Software that helps sales teams, recruiters, and alike streamline tedious outreach tasks. It even serves as marketing automation, helping individuals with backlink outreach and network expansion.

It’s not like we’re praising Skylead for no reason, but it really is the best alternative to Dux-Soup on the market. Let us explain.

Firstly, Skylead is a cloud-based solution. It means it doesn’t inject any code into LinkedIn, so this social media can’t notice the automation. Most importantly, your LinkedIn profile gets threefold security: 

• You get a dedicated IP that shields your activity; 
• Skylead mimics human-like behavior, making it impossible for LinkedIn to detect it; 
• And your profile starts from warmup mode, slowly increasing the activity over time. 

In addition, with Skylead, you get to manage multiple accounts. Moreover, you get an integrated Smart Inbox to see all your correspondence with the lead from any platform.

Skylead integrates with LinkedIn Premium, Sales Navigator, Recruiter, and Recruiter Lite. Therefore, anyone can use it to close deals - from sales teams, recruiters, marketers of any small businesses, agencies, and even freelancers. That said, you can create outreach campaigns based on 6 sources:

• LinkedIn search results; 
• Sales Navigator search results;
• Recruiter search results;
• Recruiter Talent Pool or Pipeline URL;
• Event attendees;
• People who reacted to the LinkedIn post;
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator Lead Lists;
• CSV file with native or custom variables to increase response rate or acceptance rate.

Lastly, while we’re still on the integration train, you’d be happy to know that Skylead can integrate with any other app via API, Zapier, or Integromat. You can even integrate it with your favorite CRM, like Pipedrive or HubSpot.

Sounds amazing, right? We’re just getting started. 😀 

Let’s cover other amazing features of Skylead.

Change your LinkedIn outreach game with Smart Sequences

Unlike Dux-Soup's simple outreach campaigns, Skylead offers Smart Sequences - a ground-breaking algorithm that performs actions according to your lead's behavior. In other words, Smart Sequences gather all outreach activities in one place and execute them depending on your leads’ actions. 

The true benefit of this unique algorithm is that it optimizes your workflow by streamlining all time-consuming tasks in real-time. Skylead then continues executing further actions depending on your lead's behavior, thanks to If/Else conditions.

In addition, Dux-Soup limits your drip campaign to a maximum of 12 messages. However, with Skylead, you can send an unlimited amount of LinkedIn messages, InMails, and emails and perform other actions in a sequence. 

Whatsmore, you also get advanced analytics and reporting for each step and action in a sequence. To be precise, you can analyze:

• Graph Metrics for visual representations of the ratio between the actions;
• Table view for spotting trends that happen during specific days;
• Sequence steps to examine steps in detail.

Moreover, with Skylead, you can A/B test each part of the messages and see which one works best for you. 

Increase conversion rates with email outreach

Dux-Soup specializes in LinkedIn outreach alone. However, we all know that email is an essential means of communication. So, the best sales approach is to multichannel your outreach. That’s why Skylead introduced an Email Outreach, allowing you to expand your reach to leads who aren’t active on LinkedIn. With this functionality you will increase response rate and the conversion rate, as well.

Decrease a bounce rate with email discovery & verification feature

Dux-Soup offers an email finder feature. However, there is no say if these emails are verified. Thus, the validity of these emails might be compromised, and you can end up with a high bounce rate and damaged domain. 

With Skylead, you can find and verify leads' business emails with any connection type from the chosen lead source. In addition, Skylead can find and verify an unlimited number of emails, whereas, with Dux-Soup, you can only find 2000.

Lastly, unlike Dux-Soup, Skylead doesn’t charge extra for Email Discovery & Verification features. In other words, you can find and verify as many emails as you’d like at no additional cost.

Increase your response rate with hyper-personalized images & GIFs

Did you know that you can increase the response rate and the acceptance rate by simply incorporating a personalized image or GIF? Yes, it’s true. This feature demonstrates the alternative sales approach and shows that you’re a human, not just another salesperson. 

That’s why Skylead offers Native Images & GIFs Hyper-Personalization feature, so you can stand out in the crowd and need not pay for this feature to other platforms to do so. 

Connect with your leads faster by sending 500+ invites a week

With Skylead, you can send 500+ invitations per week and thus avoid LinkedIn’s limits. This way, you can reach leads faster than with any tool on the market.  Most importantly, you’ll also achieve your sales quota by closing more deals per month. 

Pricing

Skylead is an All-In-One tool that costs $100 per seat a month. However, unlike other LinkedIn outreach tools on the market, and from this list, Skylead doesn’t limit the number of features you can use. 

In addition, we offer different video and article tutorials, as well as sequence and message templates to get inspired.

Lastly, Skylead has a very dedicated customer support team that is ready to help anyone with the questions they might have. 

Zopto

Next in line for the best alternative to Dux-Soup is Zopto. This tool is another cloud-based Dux-Soup alternative sales teams use for LinkedIn prospecting and lead generation. 

Firstly, Zopto supports LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Recruiter, or Premium accounts. Moreover, being a cloud-based solution, it offers integrated inbox and integrations with Hubspot, Pipedrive, or other CRMs via Zapier or API.

Secondly, feature-wise, Zopto has an email discovery functionality, named Email Enrichment. However, unlike Dux-Soup, it can verify them. Sadly, Zopto limits how many leads you can enrich with the email, depending on the pricing plan, whereas Skylead doesn’t. 

What differs between Zopto and Skylead is that with Zopto, you can create and schedule LinkedIn posts and like Tweets on autopilot. 

However, Zopto doesn’t have Smart Sequences like Skylead, which is a significant disadvantage. Instead, it offers a simple 4-step drip campaign with no conditions available. 

Zopto offers 3 monthly-subscription-based plans. 

• Personal: $215 / month for 1 account
• Grow: $344 / month for 2 accounts
• Agency: $860 / month for 5+ accounts

As you can see, Zopto estimates their pretty basic lead generation tool at the highest price on the market. So if you're considering Dux-Soup alternatives, you should analyze this and other tools' cost VS features ratio to make the right decision.

WeConnect

WeConnect is another cloud-based LinkedIn automation tool that can be used with either LinkedIn Premium, Sales Navigator, or Recruiter Lite accounts (it doesn’t support Recruiter accounts).

Firstly, WeConnect offers an integrated inbox where you can see all your messages. In addition, you can integrate WeConnect with any tool using API or Zapier and streamline your workflow to the fullest. 

As for other exciting features, WeConnect offers A/B message testing like Zopto and Skylead. 

Sadly, WeConnect, an Expandi alternative, doesn’t offer advanced features like Post Engagement Campaigns, Image & GIF personalization, or Smart Sequences. Even if they claim they have Smart Sequences, they do not since this sequence doesn’t have conditions, as Skylead does. Instead, they offer a simple drip campaign with a different action, including:

• Profile visit;
• Post like;
• Invite to connect;
• Follow;
• Regular and free InMail messaging;
• Message group members.

Lastly, the significant disadvantage of WeConnect is that you cannot use a multichannel outreach. In other words, it doesn’t offer Email Discovery & Verification and Email Automation features.

If you need some basic LinkedIn outreach campaign, such as from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Recruiter Lite search, or CSV, then WeConnect could work for you for $49 per user/month.

Lead Connect

Another Dux-Soup alternative is Lead Connect - a chrome extension you can use with LinkedIn Premium or Sales Navigator accounts. 

Even though it’s not a cloud solution, you can use it to create a campaign via CSV file. In addition, Lead Connect offers a drip campaign with a few features and steps available: 

• Sending a connection request;
• And sending messages and follow-ups.

If you don’t know what to write in a message, Lead Connect has got your back. They offer various templates to get inspired. However, you should know that the number of templates available depends on your chosen pricing plan. 

Lead Connect has integration with Hubspot, or you can connect it with any other CRM via Zapier. Moreover, it’s integrated with other email discovery tools, such as Hunter.io, so you can find your prospect’s emails. Sadly, you’d need to pay an additional cost for it. 

Unfortunately, Lead Connect doesn’t have Smart Sequences, Image & GIF Personalization, nor does it support Recruiter. 

Price-wise, this tool offers 4 plans depending on the number of invites and messages you can send and templates you can use per day: 

• Free
• Professional: $25.95 per month
• Grow: $45.95 per month
• Ultimate: $85.95 per month

Linked Helper 2

As opposed to Dux-Soup, Linked Helper 2 is a desktop-based tool. In other words, it’s a bit safer since it doesn’t inject code into LinkedIn. However, this kind of software still doesn’t offer a dedicated IP address, nor can you manage multiple accounts. Furthermore, you need to keep a PC on to work. 

With Linked Helper 2, you can create Recruiter search campaigns. In addition, all contacts are kept in Linked Helper’s CRM, and you can search them by tags and add notes. 

Sadly, Linked Helper 2 doesn’t offer a list of advanced cold outreach features other tools have, such as:

• Smart Sequences;
• Image & GIF personalization;
• Post-engagement campaign;
• A/B testing;
• Email Automation;

Linked Helper 2 is affordable, and you can get some basic lead generation features for $15 a month. Needless to say that they limit this plan based on invites and messages you can send a day. 

If you wish to get rid of this limit, you can opt-in for a $45 subscription with unlimited basic features. 

Meet Alfred

Another cloud-based LinkedIn outreach tool that salespeople use for lead generation is Meet Alfred. What separates Meet Alfred from other tools is that it mainly automates social media activities such as scheduling Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn posts.  

Even though they point out Email Outreach as their second main feature, it's worth noting that it is incomplete. To clarify, with Meet Alfred, you can only send emails to your 1st-degree connections. This means that if the prospects don't accept your LinkedIn invitation, you won't be able to reach them via email. So, you can't use multichannel to its fullest potential.

In addition, like other tools mentioned above, you can connect Meet Alfred with other software via Zapier's webhooks.

Unlike Skylead, Meet Alfred doesn't have Smart Sequences but offers a simple drip campaign with more steps available than Zopto. Other disadvantages include a lack of email discovery and verification features. In addition, it doesn't have native Image & GIF personalization. However, since they are integrated with Hyperise, you can pay an additional monthly amount for this feature. 

Price-wise, Mee tAlfred offers the following plans:

• $49 for single users and limited features; 
• $89 for Sales Navigator users;
• $699 for large sales teams.

Salesflow

A cloud-based solution, Salesflow, is a tool that isn’t compatible with Recruiter, unlike other solutions from our list. So you can create the campaigns only from Sales Navigator or LinkedIn search results.

You can also import a CSV file with the customer’s info and create a campaign sequence based on that source. Speaking of campaign sequences, like Zopto, Salesflow doesn’t offer Smart Sequences. However, you can send as many LinkedIn messages as possible, whereas Zopto limits you to a 4-step campaign sequence. Moreover, they offer some message templates should you need any inspiration. 

When connection requests, with Salesflow, you can send 400 invites per month.

In addition, Salesflow doesn’t have an Email Outreach feature, nor does it have Email Discovery & Verification. So, you cannot use multichannel outreach to the fullest. 

Lastly, it provides CRM. However, if you don’t find it adequate, you can always integrate it with other tools via Zapier.

SalesFlow users can opt-in for one of the 3 pricing plans, depending on the number of users and features available: 

• For small businesses €89 per user/month;
• Teams can choose from €71, €57, and custom price per month, depending on the number of users;
• If you wish a Done-For-You subscription, prepare for a €429 per user / month;
• The Agency plan comes with custom pricing.

How to cancel Dux-Soup?

If you wish to try out any of the LinkedIn automation tools listed above, you need to cancel your Dux-Soup subscription first and link your LinkedIn account to other software.

Here’s a short tutorial on how to do it.

To cancel your subscription, you need to access your Dux-Soup dashboard. Simply click the Dux-Soup extension at the top of your browser, and click the Dux-Dash button. 

Then, from your dashboard go to Manage Account & Subscription.

Then click the Dux-Soup subscription button. 

Lastly, click the Cancel Subscription button. Yes- it’s that easy.

Final thoughts and feature comparison

As mentioned, Dux-Soup has a so-called feature starters pack for LinkedIn lead generation, outreach, and prospecting. However, if you wish to step up your game, it might be time to move on to the next LinkedIn automation tool on the market. 

Thus, here is the table with full feature comparison to help you choose the best alternative.

And remember, it’s about your business needs. So, take time to analyze the features, check for limitations, and integrations, calculate the price VS features ratio and inspect LinkedIn profile compatibility. Only then will you be able to find the right tool for your cold outreach that will help you with your outreach conversion rate.

Enjoy the research! 

If you have any questions about Skylead, feel free to contact our support team via chat. They’ll be more than happy to meet you and help. Or simply dive right in and try Skylead yourself by starting a 7-day Free Trial.

Humans are complex beings: We love, we care, we have jobs, hobbies, and the community we belong to. But when it comes to cold outreach and personalization, we suddenly forget everything we are and start thinking of ourselves as an automation machine offering a chocolate bar. 

Maybe at the beginning of time, it was like that, alas in recent years, sales outreach is not about pushing a product in someone’s face to buy. Not anymore. The classic consumerism approach is long out of the picture. Nowadays, Sales is about personalization, providing a solution to someone’s problem and actually solving it, especially if we talk about B2B businesses.

That is why we need to remember who we are as humans first and know how to personalize our approach before we conduct the cold outreach itself. 

But before we share how to personalize your cold outreach for LinkedIn lead generation, let’s check if you are structuring your message correctly, whether you are using email or LinkedIn InMails and messages.

Cold Outreach Basics: How To Write An Email Or LinkedIn Message For Your Prospects

As we mentioned before, personalization is a big deal in cold outreach. It provides your prospect with the sense of caring and that you really wish to remove particular pain points. Let’s discover how to write email or LinkedIn messages that get results and determine where personalization is possible.

How To Structure An Email Or a Message

There are three main parts of any message you would want to follow:

1. Hook
2. Body
3. Call to Action

While writing the hook for the cold outreach, you are still stating who you are and the reason why you are sending an email in the first place. Here you would need to add what about the prospect made you send the initial message. 

Your hook can be created to invoke different actions and interests in leads. For example: one of the goals could be to wove your company throughout their personal thoughts and feelings. In this case whatever psychographics reason for outreach you pick, you need to relate it to your company, what it does, and how it solves the problem concerning value.

The body should emphasize what your company offers in terms of value and features. Keep in mind that the body is the least valuable for the prospect to read. They will first read who you are and what you want from them and then skip to the end of the message. If that lines up with them, they will read the body itself. Length-wise, it should not be longer than your Hook. 

Call to Action aka CTA is the one-time request from the prospect to do the desired action, such as book a call or sign up for an event. This line should be the shortest, as opposed to others, and as direct as possible.

Your message length may vary depending on the channel of communication and character limit, but these are the main guidelines you should follow.

Personalization in Cold Outreach: Introducing Variables 

If you are using Sales engagement tools, you’ve probably come across variables that help you create personalized outreach messages for your prospects. 

If you are not using any tool mentioned above, placeholders or variables allow snippet information in your email or LinkedIn message to populate, making your emails resonate with the recipient. To put it simply, placeholders are parts of your messages that are customizable by certain personal aspects of the prospect, while the rest of your email can be uniform for all.

These placeholders, whether you are using a sales engagement tool or inserting them manually, differ in execution but can come in handy either way.

Example:

Let’s say you are using Skylead, a sales engagement tool to generate leads more effectively and personalize your cold outreach. As Skylead creates campaigns based on:

• LinkedIn and Sales Navigator Search Results
• Post engagement
• Lead list
• Your custom CSV file with the prospects’ information

It picks up the variables from the LinkedIn search results, so you do not need to search these manually (apart from the CSV file, in which case you need to make sure to include the leads' LinkedIn URL). The basic variables Skylead picks up, and you get to use in a message are the following:

• First name
• Last name
• Current company
• Years in current company
• Total career positions count
• Total years of experience
• College name
• Occupation

Thus making part of your email message look something like this:

Hi {{firstName}},

The reason for my outreach is that I’ve noticed you’ve been working as {{occupation}} in {{currentCompany}} for {{yearsInCurrentCompany}} years. 

As I wish to learn more about being {{occupation}} and the business struggles they might experience, I would like to connect and chat with you...

Custom Variables

Now, apart from these standard variables, you can import your Custom Variables, as well. Custom Variables are the placeholders that you can create, state their purpose yourself, and import in Skylead as an example. 

Whether in a sales engagement tool or manually inserted, Custom Variables can be:

Demographics - Variables such as age, gender, location.

Firmographics - Company name, size, performance, executive titles.

Psychographics - Classification by prospects’ opinions, values, attitude, interests.

If you wish to boost the process, you can use custom variables only in the outreach campaign created from a CSV file. Take a look at a quick guide on how to format and use custom variables for Skylead’s CSV campaign.

Custom Variables Examples for Your Message

The main part of the personalization process is finding as detailed information as possible on the prospect and putting it in the hook part of your message to catch their attention. That is why we are going to concentrate primarily on the variables for the intro of your message.

#1 Cold Outreach Hook: Prospects’ Original Content

When you first meet the person, do you instinctively like them more if they are interested in your thoughts, opinions, and what you created? Most of us will not admit it, but the answer to this question is a big YES (subconscious level included).

That is why the first type of placeholder you need to consider is the content they created by themselves, and you can find it on their LinkedIn page or company website. It usually includes the following:

• Webinars hosted
• Articles written
• Posts published

For the introduction, you need to tease out the need out of that content to hook them into what you do as a value. Choose the type of creation and put what you can offer through the content. 

Example email using prospects’ original content as variable:

Hey {{firstName}},

The reason I’m reaching out is that I’ve read your recent article {{ArticleName}} where you emphasized {{TheirPoint}}. One sentence that really resonated with me was {{TheirSentenceWithPainPoint}}. 

What if I told you that {{PainPoint}} is easily overcome by {{ProvideLightValue}}. So I was wondering, have you ever come across {{YourCompanyProduct}}?

Real-life example:

#2 Cold Outreach Hook: Content That Prospect Engaged With

This type of content implies any post, article, or video they liked or shared on LinkedIn but didn’t create themselves. Or you can use a webinar or event they attended. Although not as strong as the previous hook, the content they engaged with still shows your genuine interest and will provide you with an opportunity to relate it to your company. 

Example LinkedIn message using content that prospect engaged with:

Hey {{firstName}},

I’ve noticed that you attended {{WebinarOrEventName}}.

What did you think about {{PainPoint}}? I was wondering how does {{currentCompany}} deal with such an issue?

Real-life example:

#3 Cold Outreach Hook: Using Prospects’ Self-Attributed Traits

Prospects' self-attributed traits are short sentences you will find on their LinkedIn profile, and they usually show what they are talking about themselves. The prospects view LinkedIn as a place where they can talk about their accomplishments, things they are skilled at, and what they like to do in the business world. You can easily find this information on their LinkedIn amongst:

• Profile line, 
• Headline,
• Company description.

Here, they will communicate to the world what is important to them, therefore you can hook what your product/service does to this information. 

Example LinkedIn message using self-attributed traits:

Hi {{firstName}}, 

I really liked your profile line about the {{HeadlineWithPainPoint}}. What I really liked was the sentence {{HeadlineWithPainPoint}}. What if you could make sure that {{PainPoint}} can be easily overcome?

Real-life example:

#4 Cold Outreach Hook: Prospects’ Background Information

If you cannot find any of the previously mentioned hooks, you need to dig a little bit deeper, as a private investigator would. Find schools they attended, hobbies, and personal interests. Again, the rule is that you have to link it back to your company.

Template Email message using background information:

Hi {{firstName}}, 

I noticed you enjoy occasional {{Hobby}}. You know what they say: {{QuoteAboutHobby}}. 

Hiking is pretty much like {{department}}. What if I told you that {{Department}} process can be {{AtributesFromQuote}}? 

That said, have you ever come across {{YourCompanyProduct}}?

Real-life example:

Pause - Outreach Variables effectiveness check-up

The reason why the mentioned hooks are so strong is that they all include psychographic variables. Psychographic traits are something that someone believes in, has an attitude for, or something that hits them more to the core. That is why they trigger the largest response rate as they are closer to the heart.

And continue…

#5 Cold Outreach Hook: Company Information

Unlike psychographic variables, the following personalization placeholders are classified as firmographics. They include information such as:

• Merger and Acquisition information, 
• Growth information,
• Website language, 
• Hiring they have,
• Posts.

These variables are the least effective on the list. Nonetheless, if you say only one thing about their company specifically, they will feel more special as they know you are talking ONLY to them. 

Using this kind of information, you would like to be as detailed you can but briefer in character length.

Template Email message using background information:

Hi {{firstName}}, 

I noticed your company grew {{CompanyStatistics}} in the last year. Congrats!

I understand that as {{occupation}} you must have even more tasks when it comes to {{PainPointProcess}}.

What if I told you that your life as {{occupation}} can be easier so your {{CompanyStatisticsBoosted}}? 

I was wondering, have you ever heard of {{YourCompanyProduct}}?

Real-life example:

#6 Cold Outreach Hook: Personalized Intro

If you find that previous variables might be a little more in-depth than you are willing to go, you can help yourself with the previously mentioned concept ideas, but use one variable only. To put it simply, you can use a personalized intro that changes depending on the prospect, while the rest of your email or the LinkedIn message stays the same for everyone.

Template email message using personalized intro:

Hey {{firstName}},

{{PersonalizedIntro}}.

That said, I was curious if you are using a solution for your cold outreach?

I would love to show you a solution that can combine Email and LinkedIn with a hyper-personalized approach that will help you book 30+ additional meetings per month and keep your pipeline full.

Real-life example:

Bonus: Short Variables

As additional placeholder ideas that you can use for personalization, take a look at other custom variables that we singled out.

• {{TeamMemberName}} - Using the leads’ colleague’s name will create a sense of familiarity (combination of firmographic and psychographic).

• {{SalesPitchAccordingToTheIndustry}} - You can create a short pitch block in your message according to the prospects’ industry with the main pain points and values demonstrated. 

• {{BirthdayDate}} - If listed on their LinkedIn profile, you can extract this information and prepare a special pre-birthday gift as a Pain Point relief for their business needs.

Top The Cold Outreach Up a Notch With Other Type Of Personalization

The one thing people do not use more often but should integrate into their cold outreach is personalized GIFs and Images. Trust us - you will get a far better response rate.

A buying experience personalized to the prospects’ profile image, apart from custom variables, is perfect for cutting through the noise of other emails and reaching out. 

For example, Skylead, as a sales engagement tool, likes to get personal, offering native GIFs and images personalization with prospects profile image or company logo. Of course, you can do this manually as well, but the point stays the same: additional and creative personalization will get you far in establishing the relationship with the lead. 

Summary

To sum up, here are all custom variables ideas that have been used throughout the text:  

LinkedIn prospecting and outreach is a necessity. Done correctly, you will improve conversion, customer relationship, retention, sales figures and KPIs.

The key to success lies in personalizing your outreach and building a relationship with your leads. Remember, they are humans too. 

So start creating a targeted cold outreach strategy and show your leads that you’ve actually done the research, and that you are genuinely interested to help. Empathy is everything. 

If you wish to boost and hyper-personalize your cold outreach, check out how Skylead works, come, say hi and try it out free for 7 days. 

Hi!
My name is

Huh?

My name is

Who? 

My name is

Slim Shady?

No? 

Then nobody cares what your name is. 

So stop starting your emails like that. 

Cold emails: Business scale-ups or annoying practice? 

Let’s be honest. The battle for attention in the Inbox is real. 

That’s why you shudder at the very thought of cold emailing. Maybe you wonder if it even works. Well, statistics show it does. And pretty well too. 

Now when you know that your email outreach efforts are not necessarily in vain, put in some time and wit to write them well. You have only few characters to catch their attention, so why waste them on repeating yourself. If you do believe that your name, your company name, and other info of that kind can be a game-changer to generate sales, use the signature section. You are afraid that your leads won’t get till the end of it? Write a killer copy then. 

But write it from the start. Actually, write it from the very subject line. 

Subject line: Why it matters and how to make it better

The subject line of your email is like the cover of the book. Unless you are drawn to it, you won’t buy it. The same applies to emails. If the subject line is not attractive enough, your email will end up in the trash folder. Unless, of course, you are Eminem. ‘Cause, who would not want to know what Eminem wants from them? 

That being said, if there was a one-size-fits-all recipe for writing killer subject lines, all emails of this world would be opened. But not everyone’s the same. Therefore, different subject lines affect different individuals. All we can do is help you out with several tips (that work. Not for everyone, of course).  

Make it catchy, but not misleading

Your subject line should have a maximum of 9 words or up to 60 characters. In those 60 characters, you need to find a way to summarize what your email is all about and make it attractive enough for your prospects to open it. 

What lots of people do, and is strongly frowned upon, is write catchy, yet misleading subject lines. In case you are considering it, just think about the consequences. It might work once, but the next time you send an email, it will immediately end up in the trash. 

Examples

1. 8 ways to find somebody’s email address (numbers work)
2. Why you should invest in Sales Automation platform (use catchy words such as why, how, what)
3. Original ideas for personalizing Invites to Connect (people are always on the lookout for something new and different)

Convey urgency 

Putting a deadline on what you are offering conveys importance and limited availability. It leaves an impression in a world where everything is utterly accessible. 

That’s why subject lines that work usually have some kind of an urgency indicator. If your offer really does expire in a week or your content is available for a certain period of time, mention it right away. Otherwise, don’t delude your prospects. 

Examples

1. Last chance for 15% off for additional seats
2. Expires tonight - download top experts’ sales book
3. 10% off if you purchase within the next 24h 

Make them feel the FOMO

The fear of missing out is the driving force of today. Write an email that contains valuable information and/or industry updates for your prospects. Then tell them so. Use the subject line to make your prospect understand that, unless they open your email, they will be missing out on something important. Something that would potentially change their lives for the better. 

Examples

1. LinkedIn Lead Generation trend everyone is talking about
2. You don’t want to miss out on this offer!
3. Uh-oh, your subscription is expiring.

Preview text: Why is it as important as the subject line 

The preview text is what you see below or next to the subject line before opening the email from your Inbox. It is the first several words of your email body, 35 to 90 characters to be precise, depending on your email provider. However, the majority of people open their emails on the phone. That means that you are limited to around 45 characters of the preview text. Sometimes even less! Therefore, make your email opener matter.

It’s your second chance to make the first impression. 

Make it an extension of your subject line 

Your subject line and preview text should be a cohesive unit. The flow has to be logical and stylistically unified to drive the desired action. Otherwise, no matter how compelling individually, your readers will be confused. The best way to go about it is to think about the preview text as the opportunity to provide a detail that did not fit into your subject line. 

Examples

1. Subject line: Andy, did you know?
   Preview text: More than half of your leads read emails on their phone. This [...]
   
2. Subject line: Free gift for any purchase! 
   Preview text: Until the end of October, with every new account your buy [...]
   
3. Subject line: LinkedIn template that scaled up Skylead
   Preview text: Don’t miss out to get original message copies that made our [...]

Reference something about the lead

Just like on LinkedIn, the best way to get somebody’s attention is to make a concrete reference about them. It can be a post they’ve made or reacted to on LinkedIn, bring up a colleague or an industry professional you have in common, or simply congratulate them on the promotion they’ve recently got. Your leads will appreciate that you’ve done your homework before reaching out. 

Examples

1. Hi {{firstName}},
   Love the post you made on LinkedIn...
   
2. Hey {{firstName}},
   I saw that you attended {{nameOfEvent}}...
   
3. Hi {{firstName}},
   Congratulations on the promotion! ...
   
4. Hi {{firstName}},
   We recently connected on CompanyTinder... I mean on LinkedIn...

Highlight your value proposition

Use the preview text to communicate the most compelling benefit of your product or service. Highlight the value that you bring to the table that already starts with opening your email.

You don’t know what to point out? Think about why you decided to send the email in the first place. Tell your leads what’s in for them and how it will make their lives easier and scale their business. 

Examples

• Save 11 hours a week while generating 6 times more leads. 
• Increase the email deliverability rate by using [...]
• 1000 more visitors on your website each week. 

***

A/B test your subject lines/preview text

If you are not sure what to go for, split test different subject lines/preview texts. See what your audience reacts to best. Is it a question, an intriguing statement, or a direct and clear call to action?

A/B testing (aka split testing) is a randomized experimentation process where two or more versions are being sent to different target users at the same time to determine which one makes results and influences the desirable business action. 

When deciding on the “winner”, take into consideration other factors as well, such as your response rate and click rate, for example, depending on what your end goal is. 

Maybe down the road you realize what works best for your prospects. Or go ahead and segment them. 

Segment your audience

Not all of your leads will appreciate the same type of content. And that’s totally fine. If you don’t think that one subject line/preview text would produce the same effect for everyone, segment your leads list or use different LinkedIn prospecting method. Tweak the subject line/preview text according to their interests, business goals, and what you think might pique their curiosity. 

Summary

Yes, these are some tips that will most likely work to your advantage. 

But do you know what else will work to your advantage? Like, for sure? 

Being prospect-centric. 

Your prospects don’t care how something worked for you. They want to know how it will benefit them instead. This perspective will get you far ahead of your competition. 

Do you know what else will get you far ahead of your competition? Trying out Skylead. 

The rules of selling have changed. 

A formal product presentation days where Sales Representatives would meet face to face with their potential customers are far behind us. 

Nowadays, around two-thirds of the B2B buyers make their decision via online content.

And as you're not the only one with an online presence, you need to find a way to stand out in the era of information overflow. 

Nowadays, LinkedIn is the platform that provides salespeople with valuable tools for prospecting on LinkedIn, and researching ideal customers. It allows them to get in touch with their perfect leads and send product or service offers directly in their Inbox. 

However, just like salespeople put in less time to reach their potential customers, it takes only a few seconds for customers to decide if they have any further interest in what you are presenting. 

The age of the customer 

The ability to quickly access information about any product or service changed how business is being done. 

Furthermore, customers openly talking about their experience with your company and sharing it for everyone to see has had a considerable impact when opting for a product or service. 

Customers are tired of random products and services being pushed into their faces.

They want to hear from salespeople who know how to adapt the qualities and properties of what they have to offer to their customers’ needs and expectations. 

They want you to know what they lack better than they do. 

The salesy lingo doesn’t work anymore. Moreover, it is highly unwelcome. 

So, for all of you that use this platform for LinkedIn Lead Generation and other sales activities, here are 5 tips on how to sell without sounding too salesy. 

A pitch should never be your first conversation

When you are connecting with someone on LinkedIn, it is highly frowned upon to start a conversation with a pitch. 

Moreover, when approaching a potential lead, the Invite to Connect is what in real life is the first impression. You only get a couple of seconds to catch your prospect’s attention or be dismissed for any reason. 

That’s why the best way to approach a potential customer is to make a reference to something that you have in common.

It could be a shared interest, you might be members of the same LinkedIn group, work in a similar or adjacent industry, or have attended a specific LinkedIn event, etc. 

This type of well-thought approach brings high acceptance and response rates. 

Here’s an idea for your Invite to Connect. 

[template]

Hello {{firstName}}, 

I see that you attended the “5 Marketing Strategies for a Post-Covid World” event.

As someone with {{totalYearsInCareer}} experience in the industry, I would love to hear your thoughts on a multi-channel approach to engagement.

After you’ve been accepted, you can proceed following the same “hook”.

[template]

Multi-channel outreach implies so many online and offline channels of communication!

When speaking of LinkedIn, Skylead is an online platform that combines messages, InMails, and Emails with LinkedIn features such as View, Follow, Invite to Connect, etc., to create the highest number of touchpoints with your perfect leads.

It is a very effective way to do multichannel outreach and, with the right targeting, you will be able to generate and get through to leads who are most likely interested in whatever you have to offer.

I would love to tell you more about it. Would you like to join our group Demo Call? By clicking on the link, you will see several dates and times available.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Best, 

Joshua

Avoid hyperbolic words & phrases

Avoid hyperbolic words such as “cheap”, “one-in-a-lifetime opportunity”, “incredible”, “amazing”, “promotion”, etc. 

Clients take these statements with skepticism. 

Instead, show them that you’ve done your research and that you are messaging just because you genuinely believe that what you have to offer will significantly improve the quality of their business. 

Be precise where exactly you’ve seen room for improvement and how you can help.

Use words that imply the same.

There is no better selling proposal than the one that is supported with well-researched facts. 

[template]

Hello {{firstName}},

I have been following the work of {{currentCompany}} for quite some time now. 

Due to your vast experience in the role of {{occupation}} at {{currentCompany}}, I am sure you know the struggle with the timely and accurate flow of critical information during international transport.

I am here to offer a solution. 

“OnTheWay” is an application developed in collaboration with over 100 customs worldwide. It provides the most precise, reliable, and real-time information on any type of international shipment. You will be able to give even your biggest customers the exact day and time of their long-awaited purchase. 

I would love to schedule a call and further discuss the benefits it could bring to your company. 

Best regards,

Evan 

Turn your sales into a conversation, not a rehearsed monologue 

A genuine back-and-forth conversation will work more to your advantage than just blurting out a rehearsed monologue. 

By asking thoughtful and well-aimed questions not only will you keep your leads interested but you will also gain a more thorough understanding of what they exactly need. 

This will allow you to position your product or service better in comparison to your competitors that “haven’t done their homework”. 

Of course, all of this is on the condition that you have previously targeted your audience well enough to know that most likely there is room for your product or service to help. 

Start with something like this.

[template]

Hello {{firstName}},

I can see that you’ve been working in the Manufacturing Industry for quite some time now. 

As someone who has been holding the position of {{occupation}}, what is your experience regarding the problem of forecasting demand for products? 

Thank you so much for sharing! 

Best, 

Robert 

Once your lead answers back, you can go ahead and investigate further on what they need. 

[template]

Thank you {{firstName}} for sharing your insight! 

I hear you. 

Forecasting demand for products is for sure one of the main challenges of any Manufacturing business. 

If you fail the customer demand, your sale will significantly drop. On the other hand, the cost of producing too many items that don’t sell weighs hard on your budget. 

Do you mind sharing how you have been handling it so far? 

And then, once you’ve come to the root of the problem, try selling your service by showing them how it can apply directly to their particular situation. 

[template]

That is quite an interesting way of dealing with it. 

What if I told you there was a management system that helps manufacturers analyze consumer behavior, which products they are interested in, when they usually make purchases, how many products they buy at certain times, etc?

Would you be interested in hearing more about it? 

If the answer is yes, go ahead and explain why doing business with your company will save them time and money. 

Make it all about them 

At the end of the day, customers don’t care about the product or service itself. They care about what it can do for them. 

And with that being said, it means that they don’t even care about how that product or service worked for YOU. People want to know how it can change THEIR lives and the way THEY have been doing business. 

So, when you are reaching out to your potential customers, never start with “Here is how {{product}} helped ME”. 

[template]

Hello {{firstName}},

Thank you for taking your time to hear me out! 

I am reaching out because I would like to show you how our software could save up to 6 hours a day to your Sales Team while producing 10 times more leads. 

- Email Discovery & Verification works perfectly for your cold emailing campaigns. You will be able to discover verified business emails of your LinkedIn leads and expand your prospects list.

- Real-time insights offer detailed analytics so that you can evaluate which campaigns produce the best results. 

- Smart Sequences combine LinkedIn with Email Outreach. Would you consider adding LinkedIn outreach to your sales and marketing efforts? 

Let’s hop on a Demo Call and discuss how your company can further benefit from it! 

Best regards, 

Mary J. Luis 

It’s OK not to sell 

Last but not least, you don’t need to sell at all costs! 

Learn how to take no for an answer while still ending on a high note. 

Being pushy will not turn a no into a yes. It could just refrain people from ever doing business with you in the future. 

You would be surprised how often a genuine interest in customers and in selling them what they really need might result in them coming back or recommending your services to someone else. Even if they have never worked with you before. 

Know when to stop, but also how to leave the ending open to a potential collaboration in the future. 

[template]

Hello {{firstName}},

It was nice talking to you. 

Thank you once again for taking the time to hear about my services. 

I appreciate your feedback. 

Should you have any questions in the future or simply want to exchange experiences regarding Event Planning, feel free to reach out!

Have a great day and good luck with all your future projects!

Best, 

Michelle 

Summary

Nowadays customers have access to enough information to make a purchase without ever talking to you. 

However, it is usually a personal touch that gives them that extra push. 

They want to feel heard and taken care of and not just some random target of the act of selling.

That’s why make sure to narrow down your audience as much as possible, research their needs and room for improvements, and then get through to them with a well-defined offer. 

For more effective outreach, consider using a Sales Automation Platform. 

Skylead is an excellent choice for those who want to combine LinkedIn with Email Outreach for their sales process. Not only will you have a higher number of available paths to your prospects, but you will also, as seen in the above examples, be able to use their publicly available information on Linkedin to hyper-personalize your outreach. 

Long story short - be smart and let Skylead think for you.

Whether you want to network, find your perfect client, do cold outreach, showcase your expertise, or educate other users about your product, LinkedIn is a place to be. 

The platform offers so many possibilities not only when it comes to reaching pretty much anyone on the planet (crazy, isn’t it?) but also in terms of different communication channels - from direct messages to InMails, posts, polls, emails, etc. 

Get on LinkedIn, and the (business) world is your oyster. 

But what about the time? Yes, there are only so many hours at our disposal and so many things that need to be done. Luckily, the development of automation and AI-powered solutions took some strain off us and helped us focus on more “important” things. 

Take AI lead generation tools, for example. Sales reps that use them to automate lead generation and prospecting on LinkedIn have more time to focus on building meaningful relationships and closing deals, instead of getting stuck in certain repetitive actions.

The same goes for LinkedIn itself. If you automate these 3 things, you’ll reach more customers in less time and increase your company’s value.

Sales Navigator 

Sales Navigator is LinkedIn’s paid sales solution. It is designed to help its users do their outreach more effectively and land better deals.

Not only.  

Sales Navigator gives you some advanced options that can improve the quality of both your targeting and outreach efforts. 

Access to out-of-network connections

One of the biggest benefits of LinkedIn Sales Navigator, especially nowadays with the newest LinkedIn restrictions and limits, is the opportunity to extend your sales reach outside your network. 

Namely, you can only view a limited number of profiles outside your network. Sales Navigator lets you “unlock” that information for up to 25 profiles a month. This way you can better understand your leads and make more meaningful connections. 

Furthermore, the LinkedIn Sales Navigator account gives you 20 InMails each month. This way you can reach out to your 3rd-degree connections and establish significant business relationships. Additionally, InMails are credit-based. That is, if the user replies to your LinkedIn InMail, the one you sent first will not be counted towards your monthly limit. 

More targeted search

Sales Navigator gives you the chance of ultimate targeting!

With 24 filters only for “Lead Search” at your disposal, you can narrow down your audience until you achieve the very best results. Imagine how well you can refine your search and pick quality leads that will almost for sure be interested in what you have to offer. 

However, before you go ahead and start searching for that perfect customer of yours, learn how to use Sales Navigator filters. 

It would be a shame not to take it to your full advantage just because you haven’t done your research. 

Lead recommendation 

The “Lead Recommendations” feature suggests relevant leads based on your sales preferences, search history, profile views, and past saved leads. AI-powered techniques make this happen due to the pre-collected and labeled data.

The more you use Sales Navigator, the more it will use the data to do the valuable targeting for you. 

Therefore, it saves you a step in the sales process. 

Powerful sales insights

As you search for prospects, save leads, and make connections, Sales Navigator will keep you posted on updates in your network such as: 

• Job changes;
• Company updates;
• Relevant connections and warm leads.

This way you will always stay up with the latest industry tendencies.

CRM integration 

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management Software. 

A CRM gathers customer data and interactions across all channels in one place. Managing centralized data helps businesses improve customer experience, satisfaction, retention, and service. 

Briefly, a CRM will help you understand your leads’ needs, segment your audience, and therefore, know how to target them better. 

That being said, Sales Navigator integrates with the following major Customer Relationship Management Software: 

• Salesforce;
• Hubspot;
• SugarCRM;
• SAP; 
• Pega;
• Oracle;
• Microsoft Dynamics. 

Hootsuite 

Hootsuite is a social media management platform where you can do everything from creating quality content and scheduling posts to managing team members and measuring ROI.

It gives you the option of: 

• Creating and scheduling posts;
• Managing all of your social media channels;
• Planing upcoming campaigns;
• Staying on top of incoming messages on social media;
• Measuring your performance and analyze results;
• Extending your social reach;
• Staying on top of the trends;
• Optimizing your advertising budget;
• And much more. 

Social media presence is crucial for any type of business. Nowadays, when companies and their employees have multiple accounts on multiple social media platforms, it is getting harder to post quality content and to plan a good strategy without using an automation tool. 

At the end of the day, trying Hootsuite out doesn’t cost you anything. 

Literally.

It is the only social media management platform that allows you a 30-day free trial. 

Check it out! 

Skylead

Surprisingly, cold emailing and/or reaching out on LinkedIn turned out to be some of the most effective ways of generating leads on LinkedIn. 

However, this works only if you have targeted your audience well, if you came up with a highly elaborated strategy, and have strong copies of the messages you will be sending. 

This is where Skylead comes into the picture. It is an Automation Tool, Scraping Tool, and an Email Finder, all in one software. 

Check out Skylead’s solution for an all-embracing outreach. 

LinkedIn outreach 

To perform LinkedIn outreach, you connect with your leads and message them. 

Or you can use paid or free InMail options depending on whether you have a LinkedIn basic or paid account. 

As you may see, Skylead gives you the option of hyper-personalizing Invites to Connect, LinkedIn messages, and InMails, and fully automating this process. 

It supports both LinkedIn Basic and Premium Accounts, but it is better to upgrade it to the extent of your possibilities. 

LinkedIn Premium Account, in comparison to LinkedIn Basic Account, can perform more in terms of features, such as having the option of an Unlimited Profile Search and sending a certain number of LinkedIn InMails. You can also view and engage with a much greater number of profiles with a Premium account.

Sales Navigator is more advanced as far as filters are concerned in comparison to a LinkedIn profile. 

Email outreach 

Skylead personalizes Email Outreach and combines it with LinkedIn features.

Email Outreach implies personal emails, emails imported through a CSV file, and business emails discovered and verified through Skylead’s Email Discovery & Verification Feature.

Here is an example of a campaign that combines LinkedIn outreach with business emails. 

As you may see from the picture, Skylead uses multiple channels to reach out to your leads. 

Email discovery & verification feature 

Thanks to its Email Discovery & Verification feature (see above), Skylead manages to collect the data, “compose” all the possible business email options, and verify them even without you being connected with the lead on LinkedIn. 

This is how your leads list will look like on Skylead. 

Image & GIF hyper-personalization tool 

With Skylead’s Image & GIF Hyper-personalization tool, you can offer products and services in a less conventional way, make fun job opportunity announcements, wish your clients happy holidays, or schedule a casual meeting. 

This option is available for LinkedIn Messages, Emails, and InMails.

As you may see, there are options to:

Add me: import your LinkedIn profile picture;

Add lead: import your lead’s LinkedIn profile picture;

Choose custom logo: import a logo from your computer;

Add lead’s logo: import your lead’s current company’s LinkedIn profile picture;

Add text: text is perfectly personalized by using all Skylead’s available tags. Additionally, in case you import your leads through a CSV file, each column of your CSV file becomes a tag as well. 

Smart sequences 

Skylead is the only Sales Engagement Tool that offers multichannel outreach through Smart Sequences. That is, it combines LinkedIn messages, Emails, and InMails, with other LinkedIn features such as Invite to Connect, View, Follow, thanks to the “if/then (condition)” step. 

The “if/then (condition)” step allows multiple scenarios in your outreach. Briefly, it ensures that you will reach out to your leads one way or another - whether by connecting on LinkedIn, sending an email, or simply following them on LinkedIn as a subtle reminder of you trying to connect. 

For example, let’s say you make the flow in the following manner: Invite to Connect - LinkedIn Message -  (follow-up) LinkedIn Message. 

In case the prospect doesn’t accept your Connection Request, the rest of the sequence goes down the drain. 

With Smart Sequences, the same flow would be put in the following manner - “If Connection Request Accepted” then “Send Message”, “If Connection Request Not Accepted” then - a whole bunch of other options, such as “View Profile” - “Email Discovery & Verification” - “If has verified email” then “Send Email”, etc. 

As you may see, your Smart Sequence will not just stop but will proceed with other available/possible paths to your lead. 

Integrated inbox 

Whether your leads’ responses come from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, or Emails, Skylead has an Integrated Inbox. Its role is to put all of these together in a neat and organized way. You know where your prospects answered from at any moment thanks to the chat’s well-defined icons. It’s your choice where you want to continue the communication – in the Integrated or directly in the channel’s Inbox.

Summary 

Automation is there to help you scale your business while ensuring consistency in customer experience and opportunity costs. 

That is to say that with the right automation tool you will be saving and making money while watching your company grow. 

To learn more about how Skylead can help you make the most of your LinkedIn experience, schedule a demo call with our team representative. 

We look forward to opening a world of outreach possibilities for you! 

Are you tired of having to sign up to different platforms and then merge them for a successful sales engagement?

Do you get headaches from rarely being sure what step you are at and what your next move should be? 

How often do you wish there was one Sales Engagement Software that already has all the necessary features for successful and smoothly operating campaigns?

Well, there is!

Let us show you how Skylead replaces multiple different tools and generates and nurtures leads while saving you time and money. 

1. Email outreach feature

Unless you use a Sales Engagement Tool that is as versatile as Skylead, you will most likely need to go through different steps before starting a campaign. Down below we will present different types of platforms as necessary stages to complete the process of outreach. 

1a. Phantombuster (Growth Hacker Package, $30/month) + Hunter.io ($49/month) + NeverBounce ($10/month) + lemlist ($59/month) = $148/month

The flow would go as follows: 

1. Sales Navigator Search
2. Paste URL to Phantombuster
3. Paste results into a downloadable CSV file
4. Subscribe to Hunter.io and upload CSV file to scrape emails
5. Upload CSV file to NeverBounce to verify emails
6. Send emails through lemlist or any other outreach tool of this kind. 

1b. Skylead’s All-in-one plan ($100/month)

With Skylead, not only do you have an Email Discovery Feature, that finds and verifies business email addresses, incorporated but you also need just an URL from LinkedIn Search/Sales Navigator Search to obtain all the necessary data for personalizing your outreach. You have an option of running a campaign through Emails, LinkedIn Messages, and LinkedIn InMails.

2. LinkedIn outreach via image and GIF hyper personalization feature 

The majority of Sales Engagement Tools outsources the Image and GIF hyper personalization feature, while Skylead has it integrated. 

2a. Expandi ($99/month) + Hyperise ($99/month) = $198/month

Expandi outsources Image and GIF hyper personalization feature to Hyperise that is limited to 10 templates and 10 000 impressions (counted each time an image is viewed).  

2b. Skylead’s All-in-one plan ($100/month)

Skylead’s Image and GIF personalization feature offers an unlimited number of templates and impressions as part of its All-in-one plan. 

3. Multichannel outreach 

3a. Lemlist ($148) + Expandi & Hiperise ($198/month) + Zapier ($39/month) = $385/month

When you use multiple different tools for your outreach, you will need a software, such as Zapier, or any other of its kind, to “glue” them together. This will allow you the Multichannel Outreach and the Image and GIF hyper personalization feature. 

3b. Skylead’s All-in-one plan ($100/month)

LinkedIn Messages, InMails, Emails, and Image and GIF hyper personalization feature are all incorporated into Skylead’s All-in-one package. 

Plus, have you heard of Skylead’s Smart Sequences? 

Skylead’s Smart Sequences are groundbreaking algorithms that allow you to use Multichannel Outreach and personalization to its maximum potential. 

Due to the newest LinkedIn restrictions, Smart Sequences are actually the only effective way of generating leads on LinkedIn and via email. They combine LinkedIn features (LinkedIn InMails, Connection Requests, Messages, Follow) with Emails (found and verified by Skylead) and create the highest possible number of personalized touchpoints with your Prospects. 

While the old Skylead’s predefined threads are still available, now you have the option of making an entire branch of steps and operations the way you think it will work best for your business goals. 

Find out more about it here. 

As far as an Email Discovery feature is concerned… 

Skylead can discover emails in two ways - either collect the already existing email from the profile when connected with the lead, or discover and verify an email before connecting to the prospect or engaging with him/her in any way.

If you opt to reach via email by doing the search on LinkedIn or Sales Navigator, all you need to do is copy/paste the URL (once you finish prospecting on LinkedIn or other LinkedIn solutions) and use the following procedure:  

• For 1st degree connections on LinkedIn - first “View Profile” step and then “Send Email”;
• For 2nd degree connections on LinkedIn - first “Send Request” step to connect and then “Send Email”. 

If you opt for a campaign by importing a CSV file, Skylead only requires your document to have a column named “email” (lower case!). You can start an email sequence right away. 

With other tools, you either need to collect emails manually or choose to reach out via LinkedIn and then email them as a follow-up. Skylead gives you the option to launch a campaign on LinkedIn and through Email at the same time. Basically, “Email Step” is part of the sequence. 

4. Outreach to leads interested in a certain topic 

Let’s say you would like to reach out to all people who liked or commented on a post/any type of published material on LinkedIn.

4a. Other tools

The flow would go as follows: 

1. Phantombuster Post Likers first scrapes names of the people who liked the post and their LinkedIn URLs
2. LinkedIn Profile Scraper extracts their names, professions, contacts etc
3. Paste results into a downloadable CSV file
4. Subscribe to Hunter.io and upload CSV file to scrape emails
5. Upload CSV file to NeverBounce to verify emails
6. Send emails through lemlist or any other outreach tool of this kind.

4b. Skylead

1. Take URL and post it to the “Post Engagement” campaign type, then: 

• For 1st degree connections on LinkedIn - first “View Profile” step and then “Send Email”;
• For 2nd degree connections on LinkedIn - first “Send Request” step to connect and then “Send Email”. 

Have you noticed how everything with Skylead is just so much easier? 

As I said, one tool to rule them all, indeed! 

Explore all the benefits that Skylead offers by contacting our customer support team. Discuss how you can make the most out of our product and find out how you can benefit from Skylead the most.

Is it in your nature to always want more?

Do you have a feeling that if you’re doing something, and you’re dedicating your time and expertise to it, you need to do it the best way possible and use your highest potential?

If yes, we have a New Year’s present for you! 

We are giving you the possibility to multi-channel your outreach and step up your Lead Generation game with Skylead.

Your LinkedIn Lead Generation Strategy rocked and your campaigns brought many benefits. You turned bulk messaging into personalized thoughtful notes. By managing to reach so many people, you turned them into clients – your partners in business.

And that’s the core.

But actually, there is more we can do for you.

Including Email Automation into your Marketing Strategy is a must and now you can do it on Skylead!

Skylead’s new email automation feature 

Our main goal with the Email Automation feature is to provide a well-rounded experience of outreach campaigns.

Other than reaching out via LinkedIn, you are now able to:

• Send follow-ups via email, depending on the action a lead partaken 
• Discover business emails and collect personal ones
• Nurture your relationships by keeping in touch with leads or keeping them updated
• Use emails for fun occasions - wish them a happy holiday season, after all, it is the most wonderful time of the year now.  ?

Newsletters and one-time-only campaigns sure are an important part of your Email Marketing Strategy.

However, to level up means to start automating your Email Campaigns based on a user’s actions.

Your automated emails can be well-timed, personalized and relevant to the actual reader.

And that’s what we aimed for – setting up ONE email template, personalizing it by using various tags such as their names, occupations, company names, and creating workflows for different scenarios.

This version is a beta. Everyone gets a chance to develop it with us by giving feedback and pointing us in the right direction.

Here’s a 6-step guidance about creating email campaigns:

1. Introduce your Skylead account to your Gmail/Outlook account

Your first intersection is on the Settings page, and it’s the most intuitive thing.

The question is: are you more of a Gmail or an Outlook type?

Verify your account in less than a minute, et Voilà!

You’re one step closer to starting your first email-based campaign.

Keep in mind that you have all of Skylead’s features available in our all-in-one plan.

2. Target group - feel free to be picky

You can be picky as you want. Finally, you can get a narrowed and precise search result or use your Mailing list to grow your potential customer poll in the most efficient way.

Mailing list-based campaigns are now also a thing! 

If you have a rich list of contacts, that includes at least their emails and LinkedIn profile URLs, here’s the best way to use it.

If not, you can build it within our Discovering Emails feature. We will automatically extract prospects’ emails so you can download the results to a CSV, and build an extensive contact list of potential buyers. 

The best part about prospecting on LinkedIn with Skylead is that you can choose between getting someone’s personal emails and business ones, that are actually not listed on their profiles.

Just choose which Importing option suits you better:

• Importing a CSV file
• Post engagement
• Pasting the URL from LinkedIn search, 
• or from Sales Navigator lead list or saved search

3. Post engagement campaigns - Know what your leads' like

Target LinkedIn users who are engaged with your or anyone’s post actually.

Consequentially, you’ll have people who obviously share interest in that subject.

And that right there is a great conversation starter.

All you have to do is:

• Copy the link to that post;
• Paste it into the LinkedIn URL section of Post engagement, enter a Campaign name,  and hit Next;
• Choose the kind of campaign you want to start on LinkedIn, by setting a winning combination of steps

4. Campaign creating - your moment to shine

Until now, you’ve had a chance to create different campaign flows with Skylead, but let’s add a little spice. 

Improve your campaigns by adding an Email step.

Knowing that almost everyone checks their email inboxes multiple times a day, makes cold emailing one of the most reliable ways for businesses to develop relationships and boost sales.

First, View a lead’s profile to spark some interest.

Secondly, send a Connection Invite to enrich your network.

Thirdly, after some time an email surprises them with an update on that matter. 

Afterward, you can freely pursue your Email Automation, as you now have them on your Mailing List.

Keep in mind that if you’re aiming for your 1st-degree connections, you would need to have a View Profile before the Email step. That way we could actually collect the email deets from a profile.

Major hack: When your campaign finishes and you download the collected data, including profile URLs and email addresses, you can use that file for only emailing purposes, without having to add other steps.

And that’s how you get a campaign solely based on emails.

5. Watch your campaigns kick - the real deal

Skylead’s practical design enables you to easily create campaigns and switch between them in a single click.

Once they have started executing steps, you can easily track their path on the Monitoring campaigns or on the Reports page.

Choose what you want to track on the graph or in tabular view, and download your data to present it to your colleagues, team leads and clients.

6. Inbox management - All-in-one inbox

When you use the right automation tool that provides you with the right support and features, you can free up a whole lot of time to devote to tasks that require more creative thought. 

Skylead can help you save up to 7 hours a day that you’d otherwise spend contacting prospects manually.

On a plus side, a good automation platform gives you the freedom to reply to all your messages from a single dashboard – Messages, InMails, and now even Emails, all in the Integrated Inbox.

And a proven benefit is that Skylead provides a very useful chat feature for organizing your messages per campaign, label leads, add notes next to the conversations so that you never miss a message due to a chaotic inbox.

Additionally, emails too have daily limits that we recommend you follow.

We care about your campaigns running in the most human-like behavior as possible.

Image personalization feature o’clock

It’s almost 2021, and it’s time to get over those non-personalized messages.

Yeah, making a message template by using different tags is good, but how about crafting an image or even better, a GIF?

When I said all-in-one experience, I wasn’t joking.

Skylead’s unique set of features makes it the only software on the market to provide LinkedIn automation, Email automation and Image personalization gathered in one tool.

Here’s short guide on how to make your campaigns stand out using fun images and gifs:

• Make sure to set Message as a step in your campaign
• Pick Add personalized image/gif and upload some image that you wish to use
• Add a tag, leads’ LinkedIn profile avatar or their company’s logo
• Start the campaign, of course, and get this party started!

For example, within a Message step, you should click on the Add Image button, and a range of images and gifs show up, ready for you to make some art.

Pick the template or insert your own image. Spice it up with personalized messages by adding some {{tags}}. 

For example, we have a simple ‘Thank you for connecting‘ image. We could further experiment with it by adding the name of a recipient and using their LinkedIn. 

Put your creativity to use

Don’t forget to use the same template within the same campaign. Make sure everyone on your lead list receives this dynamic Image personalization going on with their names and  LinkedIn profile picture.

When and why to use Image personalization:

• Anytime and for many reasons, but let me get into details:
  • You’ll have a completely unique set of features at your disposal. Kind of a service that others would need multiple tools for setting up or would lose XY hours to manage it manually.
  • Standing out because you can surprise a person by sliding into LinkedIn or Sales Navigator inbox with a killer copy, follow-up via email, and insert an image as an extra touchpoint.
  • If there’s an event coming up and you’d like to send out the invitations, wish a happy holiday, say thank you for connecting, or send some updates via newsletter - we are your guys. 

Summary

Bravo to you, for reading this whole guide!

I hope you learned a lot.

If this was too much to process in one reading, feel free to ping us on the Support Chat, ask all about Skylead and how you can benefit the most.

Now go and make some memorable campaigns!