What is InMail on Linkedin? The Complete Guide 2023

When initiating a business conversation on LinkedIn, you have two options: sending regular messages or using InMails.

What does InMail mean on LinkedIn?

If you’re wondering why and how you should send an InMail instead of sending a regular message, you’re in the right place.

Let’s dive in.

What is a LinkedIn InMail?

With LinkedIn InMails, you gain the ability to send messages directly to any user on the platform without having to establish a connection first.

1. The difference between LinkedIn Inmail and message

With LinkedIn’s regular messaging, you can only contact people you’re connected with. (The individuals you’re directly linked to because they’ve accepted your connection request or vice versa)

The distinction lies in your ability to contact 2nd and 3rd degree connections without sending a connection request first.

InMail allows you to reach beyond your immediate network. That’s why LinkedIn InMail provides a broader range of networking possibilities.

2. The power of LinkedIn Inmail Messages

On average, InMails have an open rate of 57.5%.

In addition to bypassing the initial connection request, when you send an InMail, it is clearly labeled as “InMail” in the recipient’s inbox. A key feature of LinkedIn InMail messages is the ability to add a subject line, which allows for more personalized communication. 

With effective use, the subject line lead to a very high response rate.

It’s important to remember that InMail doesn’t allow for follow-up messages. If your prospect doesn’t reply to your first message, your next step would be to send a connection request to try to get in touch.

3. How to get InMail Credits on LinkedIn

The LinkedIn InMail messaging feature is exclusive to premium accounts. You can’t send InMails to users and professionals if you’re using a free account.

Each LinkedIn premium offer, whether it’s for business or recruiters, provides a different number of InMail credits.

• Linkedin Premium Career: 5 inmails credits/month
• Linkedin Premium Business: 15 inmails credits/month
• Linkedin Sales Navigator: 50 inmails credits/month
• Linkedin Recruiter: 150 inmails credits/month

Is LinkedIn Premium worth it for your business? We recently published an article discussing this. The short answer is yes, especially LinkedIn Sales Navigator. 👇

The quick answer is yes, but we highly recommend Sales Navigator for most situations, unless you’re primarily looking for a job. Its value surpasses others, partly due to the high Inmails credit number.

Important to note: you’ll be refunded for every reply you receive.

LinkedIn encourages good practices by refunding your InMail credit for each response you get. So, the more responses your messages get, the more credits you will retain.

Don’t worry, I’ll help you to maximize your response rate very soon in order to maximize your outreach.

LinkedIn Inmails Vs Message : What is the best for cold outreach ?

None. There’s no need to choose one over the other. For effective results, it’s advised to utilize both as they are complementary.

How to use Inmails for lead generation

It’s clear that incorporating LinkedIn inmails in your workflow is crucial for success. It can help you reach a recruiter, a lead, or any people that matter for your work. That being said, are you curious about how to make the most out of Inmails?

Here’s the template that experts typically use for their outreach:

Let’s breakdown this sequence :

By order of importance from least important to rarest, your resources to contact your leads are :

• Emails (Hundreds per weeks)
• LinkedIn Connection (100 per week)
• Inmails (50 Inmails per month with sales navigator)

By following this sequence you ensure you won’t waste resources and you’ll get the most from your list of leads. It’s best to save your Inmails for last.

You don’t know how to extract verified emails from LinkedIn Sales Navigator ? It’s pretty simple, here’s a short video:

If you don’t have LinkedIn Sales Navigator don’t worry, I will give you a tip to extract emails directly from linkedin profile for free so you can contact them without inmails. We will get there soon.

How to send unlimited Inmails on linkedin ?

InMail is one of the most powerful tools in your LinkedIn outreach arsenal, but their quantity is quite limited.

What if you could contact hundreds of targeted leads without spending any Inmail credits? Spoiler : you can.

Open Profiles are LinkedIn profiles that have agreed to be contacted by any LinkedIn user, even without a connection. Sending InMails to Open Profiles doesn’t use any credits, making these profiles valuable for cold outreach.

So, how can you identify these Open Profiles?

There is no method to identify them in bulk on LinkedIn. Sales Navigator doesn’t have an “Open Profile” filter. The only thing you can do to identify an open profile is to go on user profile, click on More > Message.

But no worries, you can use Prospeo’s Sales Navigator Extractor to identify open Inmails.

Best Practices for Inmails on LinkedIn

As promised, here are the best practices to adopt during your outreach to maximize your outcomes. These simple tips, based on LinkedIn data, are used by top-performing outreach agencies and will increase your response rate

1. Write short Inmails

This one is pretty obvious yet a lot of people make this mistake while sending inMails.

People don’t have the time or desire to read lengthy messages. Always strive to make your message as brief and direct as possible. The same rules apply to InMail subject lines – keep them concise.

2. Make your InMail personal

Personalization is the top factor impacting the success of prospecting campaigns.

Based on LinkedIn’s data, individually sent InMails perform 15% better than bulk-sent InMails. This difference is attributed to the fact that personalization is harder to achieve when sending InMails in bulk.

For example, you should always aim to include as many details as possible about the industry or niche of your targeted lead in your InMail. This makes them appear more organic and personalized.

For a more personalized approach, consider customizing each message. While it may be time-consuming, it enables you to make the most of your limited number of InMails.

3.  Don’t send your InMails on Fridays and Saturdays

According to LinkedIn data, InMails sent on Fridays and Saturdays have a lower 

response rate, suggesting they may not be the best days for effective campaigns. Always aim to initiate your InMails Campaigns earlier in the week.

LinkedIn Message Ads

LinkedIn Message Ads, also known as Sponsored InMails, are paid messages that directly reach the LinkedIn inbox of the recipient.

Similar to InMail, a connection to your prospect isn’t required to contact them. These messages will appear as “sponsored.” And do not use LinkedIn InMail Credits.

LinkedIn enhances your Message Ads campaign by delivering your message only when the recipient is active on LinkedIn.

How to use InMail Message Ads

It’s quite simple. Remember the professional LinkedIn outreach sequence we talked about earlier?

Since Sponsored Messages receive approximately the same response rate as InMails, I would advise using them as a last resort to maintain cost-effectiveness. Just include InMail Message Ads in this sequence for prospects who haven’t responded to Emails, LinkedIn Connections, and InMails.

As promised, here’s a free tool I made that allows you to extract email addresses from LinkedIn profiles. I strongly recommend using Sales Navigator for bulk extraction, but this tool can be great if you’re just starting out. Enter any LinkedIn profile to try it now: