Let’s get this straight: LinkedIn has become the champion of B2B prospecting, with around 80% of B2B leads coming directly through this platform. However, when it comes to outreach, companies are quick to claim that LinkedIn InMail has surpassed its predecessor – Email.
So which one should YOU use?
In this post, we’ll compare both outreach channels on eight metrics and help Barbados Email List you find the best solution to present your offer to potential customers. But first, let’s make sure you’re familiar enough with LinkedIn InMail.
Summary:
What is LinkedIn InMail?
InMail vs. Email: Which is More Effective?
LinkedIn InMail Best Practices
What is LinkedIn InMail?
If you've ever tried to reach out to people on LinkedIn, you know how difficult it can sometimes be to reach 2nd or 3rd connections , even if you're sure that your communication will benefit both parties.
Under normal circumstances, you can't send a message to someone unless you're connected to them. But LinkedIn InMail makes it possible to communicate outside of your network.
InMail is a premium LinkedIn feature that allows you to directly contact other LinkedIn members who are not among your connections.
From a convenience standpoint, reaching out to a prospect you just found on LinkedIn directly on the same platform seems like a real time-saver. But does that mean you should ditch your old friend, email, for LinkedIn InMail? Let’s find out.
InMail vs. Email: Which is More Effective?
There’s no doubt that both LinkedIn and email have advantages and disadvantages over each other. So, instead of restating this truth, it’s time we compare these two channels on the parameters that matter most for B2B cold outreach.
- Price
The first thing you should consider before making a decision is the cost to your business, right? Considering that email is a free channel of communicating with your leads, LinkedIn InMail, as mentioned above, is a premium feature, so it will definitely cost you a bit.
The cheapest option is to purchase the Sales Navigator annual account .
Good news: According to LinkedIn’s policy , you can get credits back for messages that received a reply within 90 days of the date they were sent. Additionally, you can accumulate InMail credits month over month. However, there are limits to the total number of InMail credits — the maximum you can accumulate is 150 InMail credits.
- Follow-up
Building meaningful relationships and leading your prospects to conversion is impossible without follow-up. As a rule, 50% of all sales happen after the 5th contact!
Let’s say that if your prospect hasn’t responded to your previous message, you can send them as many follow-ups as you want for free with emails, unlike InMail. Unfortunately, if you want to send an InMail to a prospect you’ve reached out to before but who hasn’t yet responded to your initial message, it will result in another credit being used.
- Analysis
No matter which sales and marketing outreach strategy you choose, your actions should be data-driven. You need to track all of your messaging with prospects so you can stay in sync with your team, analyze your performance results, and improve your communication and outreach approach for future campaigns.
With Email, you can always measure the effectiveness of your campaigns – there are many tools that will provide you with valuable data about your email reach. For example, with Snov.io’s Email Tracker , you can track email opens and link clicks directly in your Gmail, see the full history of email opens, and get reminders to follow up.
Email Tracker analytics
And with Snov.io's email drip campaign tool , you can always get important data by checking the detailed statistics of your emails.
Email Drip Campaign analytics
With LinkedIn InMails, you can also derive data. You can check the response and acceptance rates of your InMails, see how many messages were rejected or didn’t receive a response. But again, unlike free email tracking tools, InMail analytics is a paid feature
- Timing
The success of any cold outreach campaign depends on reaching out to your prospect at the right time. And that’s where InMail comes in handy. On LinkedIn, you can see who among your connections is currently active, so you can send your InMail message right away.
On the other hand, with email, you can’t guarantee that you’re reaching your prospect while they’re checking their inbox. It’s no surprise that the perfect timing and frequency for sending emails has been the subject of much research. Marketers and salespeople are trying to find the right day and time when emails can get the best open and response rates.
- Open and response rates
When it comes to statistics, LinkedIn InMail looks more promising than Email. The average email open rate is around 21.6% , while InMail can bring open rates of 57.5%. The response rate, on the other hand, reaches 10-25% for InMail messages, while for emails,
The reason for this gap is clear: the number of email and InMail users is different. With around 756 million LinkedIn users and over
4.1 billion email users, you have a better chance of reaching potential customers with your InMail message than with an email.
Additionally, if you’re sending an InMail, your prospect can click through to your profile to learn more about you, your company, and the product you offer, making your InMail outreach more interactive.
- Segmentation of Potential Customers
Personalization and segmentation of potential customers are the main basis for successful advertising, especially when contact with potential customers occurs en masse.
You can’t prospect everyone, as it’s a huge waste of resources. Once you’ve built your ideal customer profile and started looking for potential ideal customers, you need to think about segmenting your list so that each of your potential customers can receive a highly personalized message.
While with email you can divide your prospects into various segments – from specific demographics, to a prospect’s position in the sales funnel – with InMail, this is not possible.
- Automation
If your business aims to send mass messages, you should have automation tools in your arsenal that will do the mass outreach for you. Luckily, you can now use such software for both email and InMail.
Email automation services allow you to send triggered messages based on specific recipient actions. For example, with Snov.io’s email drip campaign tool , you can create and send complex, multi-stage email sequences, schedule automatic follow-ups, and analyze your campaign’s performance.
snov.io email automation
LinkedIn automation tools , meanwhile, will be eager to send InMail messages and follow-ups on your behalf, allowing you to set your desired level of engagement with prospects and track the performance of your InMail campaigns.