Struggling to decide between LinkedIn InMail and Email for your next outreach campaign? With numerous tools available, choosing the right platform can significantly impact your ability to connect with others and achieve your objectives. In this blog, we’ll explore the features, advantages, and limitations of LinkedIn Inmail and Email to help you make informed decisions about which to use in various scenarios.
Understanding LinkedIn InMail
LinkedIn InMail provides users with an opportunity to personalize their outreach efforts, allowing them to craft tailored messages that resonate with recipients. It offers advanced targeting options, enabling users to filter their message recipients based on criteria such as industry, job title, or location. This targeted approach increases the likelihood of connecting with individuals who are relevant to their professional goals. InMail messages are less likely to get lost in the noise compared to traditional email, as they are specifically designed for professional networking purposes. Finally, LinkedIn provides analytics for InMail messages, allowing users to track the performance of their outreach campaigns and optimize their strategies accordingly.
InMail is good for reaching out to people outside your network, but LinkedIn’s Direct Messaging (DM) is better for keeping in touch with people you already know, like your current connections. This tool is especially helpful for businesses like, for example, ABC Tech, which offers software as a service (SaaS) focused on customer relationship management (CRM). They can use DM to have ongoing chats with clients, partners, or their own team members.
Here’s what makes LinkedIn DMs stand out:
- Private and Secure: Unlike InMail, which can feel more formal, DMs are private and offer a more relaxed, conversational tone.
- No Message Limitations: With no character limits, DMs allow for longer, more detailed exchanges—ideal for discussing complex ideas or sharing important updates.
- Multimedia Friendly: You can enrich your communication by sharing files, images, and even GIFs to make conversations more engaging and interactive.
Effective Use of DMs for B2B SaaS
For a company like ABC Tech, LinkedIn DMs can be a powerful tool for maintaining relationships with current clients and nurturing leads. Here’s how:
| Objective | How to Use LinkedIn DM Effectively |
| Client Retention | Keep up regular, informal conversations with your 1st-degree connections, offering updates on new product features, or addressing any concerns. |
| Relationship Building | Regularly engage with key stakeholders—congratulate them on milestones or share relevant industry insights. |
| Collaboration Opportunities | Use DMs to seek advice, pitch co-branded opportunities, or explore partnerships with complementary businesses. |
| Feedback Collection | Ask your closest clients or partners for feedback on a recent product rollout or beta feature. |
Personalization is Key
For instance, ABC Tech would like to harvest feedback on the new feature of a CRM. Instead of blanket emailing all employees at a time in the company, it could make use of the DM to have direct word-of-mouth communication with targeted customers and ask how they feel about it, sharing appropriate information regarding the business.
To be effective, the messages should contain relevance and value. Be it advice, developments in your industry, or seeking feedback on whatever grounds, your message needs to be important and authentic.
Pro Tip for SaaS Leaders: Automate via LinkedIn DM some of the outreach then do it in such a personalized way that it doesn’t feel too generic or robotic, especially in the SaaS world – where many such client relationships are spread out.
When and How to Use It Effectively
LinkedIn InMail serves as a powerful resource for professionals aiming to extend their network beyond immediate connections. Think of it as your key to reaching potential clients, industry influencers, or hiring managers—people you don’t have a direct connection with. Unlike LinkedIn’s standard messaging, InMail empowers you to send messages straight to a prospect’s inbox, making it an ideal tool for strategic outreach.
However, LinkedIn InMail isn’t free. It’s bundled with LinkedIn Premium, where you receive a set number of credits depending on your subscription plan.
When Should You Use InMail?
Here is where InMail wins for B2B SaaS companies like XYZ Corp, a provider of cloud-based product management tools. Suppose XYZ Corp wants to onboard new enterprise clients.
Here is how LinkedIn InMail comes in handy:
It allows critical decision-makers access to it: Whether it’s the CIO of a potential client or industry influencers for partnerships, InMail allows immediate access without needing some kind of prior relationship.
Presenting New Opportunities: For SaaS companies eager to fill essential positions—such as software engineers or sales leaders—sending a thoughtfully composed InMail directly to top talent can render recruitment efforts both more personal and practical.
Pitch Your Solution: Your team at XYZ Corp just launched an AI-powered feature that will save enterprises loads of time. InMail is an excellent tool for personal outreach, demonstrating how your solution can solve specific pain points inside a prospect’s organization.
Strategic Network Building: Instead of waiting for the opportunity to be connected on LinkedIn, you can proactively reach out to the most important contacts of your business via InMail. This would simply reach out to get into new markets or cross-industry partnerships.
Ensure that your InMail messages capture attention by focusing on writing personalized notes specific to the role and needs of the individual. A generic pitch rarely succeeds, so investigate the recipient’s challenges and provide solutions in your letters.
Pro Tip for SaaS Businesses: Don’t Run from AI-Based Tools to Draft and Personalize Your InMail. It could help to ensure that your outreach is relevant and exciting, at least in the context of challenges it may bring to the recipient.
The Versatility of Email
Email offers a level of formality and professionalism that is often lacking in other forms of digital communication, making it ideal for business correspondence. Email enables users to easily attach files, documents, and multimedia content, facilitating the sharing of information in various formats. Email provides a convenient means of organizing conversations through features such as folders, labels, and search functionalities, enhancing productivity and efficiency. Its asynchronous nature allows recipients to respond at their own convenience, eliminating the pressure of immediate communication and accommodating diverse schedules and time zones. Email serves as a reliable method of documentation, providing a written record of conversations and transactions that can be referred back to as needed.
Also Read: Eliminate 25 Spam Trigger Words from Your Email Communications
Accessibility and Reach
Despite email’s widespread accessibility, its effectiveness can be hindered by spam filters and overflowing inboxes. InMail, on the other hand, offers a more direct channel of communication within the LinkedIn ecosystem, where professionals are often more engaged. LinkedIn provides features like read receipts and profile insights, allowing users to gauge the effectiveness of their outreach efforts more accurately. However, reliance solely on InMail can limit outreach to individuals who aren’t active on the platform or who have privacy settings that restrict messaging. Thus, a combination of email and InMail strategies can maximize reach while ensuring effective communication across different channels and audiences.
Cost Considerations
Certain email services offer premium features or advanced security options at a cost, catering to specific needs such as increased storage capacity or encryption. While the basic functionality of email remains free, businesses often invest in email hosting services or enterprise solutions for enhanced reliability and support. The cost-effectiveness of email communication becomes evident when compared to traditional mail or courier services, which typically involve per-item charges and postage fees. Businesses may incur costs related to email marketing campaigns, including fees for email automation software or services that manage subscriber lists. Ultimately, understanding the various cost considerations associated with email usage is crucial for individuals and businesses alike to make informed decisions about their communication strategies.
Response Rates and Engagement
LinkedIn InMail offers the advantage of being perceived as more credible and trustworthy by recipients, as it is associated with professional networking. This credibility factor can significantly increase the likelihood of receiving responses compared to generic email. LinkedIn’s algorithms prioritize InMail messages, often placing them prominently in recipients’ inboxes, thus increasing visibility and engagement. Another aspect to consider is the ability to tailor messages more precisely on LinkedIn, leveraging the platform’s rich user data and targeting options. Lastly, the interactive nature of LinkedIn, with features such as profile viewing and endorsements, fosters a sense of familiarity and connection that can enhance response rates and engagement.
Segmentation and Personalization
Personalization is no longer a “nice to have” in email marketing; rather, it is a must-have. Sending mass, blank emails is the surest way to observe your engagement rates plummet. The issue is that segmentation and personalization require both time, effort, and the right tools. And this can be an overwhelming challenge if not managed correctly, most especially for smaller SaaS firms with limited resources.
Example of a SaaS HR management company: Consider ABC Solutions. The exact same email to both the recruiter and the CHRO represents a missed opportunity, as the recruiter would be concerned with user friendliness and the compatibility of it all with existing tools used, whereas the CHRO will be far more interested in strategic outcomes: lower turnover, for instance. Mis-segmentation can make what otherwise would be a perfectly relevant email seem completely off target.
Here’s how companies like ABC Solutions can tackle these challenges:
| Challenge | Solution |
| Impersonal Campaigns | Use data enrichment tools to gather insights on your leads |
| Poor Engagement Rates | Segment lists based on role, industry, or company size |
| Lack of Customization | Leverage personalization tokens to tweak email content |
| Broad, Untargeted Messaging | Create dynamic email sequences tailored to specific pain points |
Also Read: Maximizing Newsletter Impact: Effective Strategies for Sending Newsletters with Gmail
How SaaS Companies Can Make Email Work
Here’s how some B2B SaaS companies might structure their email campaigns to maximize engagement and avoid the common pitfalls of generic outreach.
Example 1: Data-Driven Outreach
Let’s assume you’re working at Tuskmaster, a B2B SaaS company that offers project management tools. You want to reach out to potential clients in the tech sector. Using a tool like Sprouts.ai you can enrich your lead list by adding information like job titles (CTOs, project managers) and company size (startup, enterprise). This allows you to craft personalized email sequences that speak directly to the unique challenges each persona faces.
For instance:
- CTOs might receive messaging around how TaskFlow integrates seamlessly with their current tech stack.
- Project Managers could get content that focuses on how the tool improves team productivity and reduces project timelines.
Example 2: Hyper-Segmented Campaigns
Imagine you’re at SkyLedger, a SaaS accounting platform targeting mid-sized enterprises. You want to run a campaign targeting CFOs in the fintech space. By segmenting your email list based on company size and role, you can tailor your messaging to highlight financial forecasting and reporting features that specifically benefit CFOs in high-growth fintech firms. In contrast, lower-level finance staff might receive information about how SkyLedger automates manual tasks like payroll and invoicing.
Also Read: Craft Compelling Event Invitation Email Templates and Samples
Deliverability and Open Rates
LinkedIn InMail’s advantage in deliverability and open rates stems from its inherent credibility within the professional sphere. Being part of LinkedIn, a platform primarily used for business and networking purposes, lends legitimacy to InMail messages. Users tend to be more receptive to communication within this context, leading to fewer instances of messages being marked as spam. The personalized nature of InMail messages, often tailored to the recipient’s profile and interests, increases the likelihood of engagement. Research suggests that messages perceived as relevant and personalized are more likely to be opened and acted upon. LinkedIn’s algorithms prioritize InMail messages within users’ inboxes, increasing their visibility and chances of being opened. This preferential treatment within the platform contributes to the higher open rates observed with InMail compared to other communication channels. Overall, these factors combine to make LinkedIn InMail a potent tool for reaching and engaging with professionals effectively.
Analytics and Tracking Capabilities
Analytics and tracking capabilities play a pivotal role in evaluating the performance of communication channels, offering valuable insights to marketers and professionals alike. In this regard, both LinkedIn InMail and email platforms offer tools for monitoring engagement metrics, albeit with differing levels of granularity and accessibility.
Email Analytics:
- Email platforms typically provide comprehensive analytics encompassing metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and conversion rates.
- These metrics offer a detailed overview of how recipients interact with email campaigns, enabling users to gauge the effectiveness of their messaging strategies.
- Through tracking features, users can identify trends, measure campaign performance over time, and pinpoint areas for improvement.
LinkedIn InMail Analytics:
- LinkedIn offers basic analytics for InMail, providing insights into metrics like open rates and response rates.
- While these analytics may not be as extensive as those available for email, they still offer valuable feedback on the efficacy of InMail campaigns.
- Users can leverage these insights to refine their targeting, messaging, and timing strategies, thereby enhancing the overall effectiveness of their communication efforts.
Overall, while email platforms provide more comprehensive analytics, LinkedIn InMail analytics still serve as a valuable tool for optimizing communication strategies within the professional networking sphere. By leveraging these analytics alongside other performance indicators, users can craft more impactful and engaging messages that resonate with their target audience.
Use Cases and Suitability
The suitability of LinkedIn InMail versus email depends on the specific communication goals and objectives. Email is versatile and suitable for a wide range of purposes, from personal correspondence to mass marketing campaigns. It excels in conveying detailed information and supporting long-form content. In contrast, LinkedIn InMail is ideal for professional networking and targeted outreach within the LinkedIn platform. Its concise format encourages direct communication and fosters connections within the professional community.
Both LinkedIn InMail and email offer distinct advantages and limitations for effective communication. By understanding their differences and respective strengths, users can leverage each platform to achieve their communication goals. Email remains a ubiquitous and versatile tool, offering broad reach and flexibility in message customization. Meanwhile, LinkedIn InMail provides a focused approach to professional networking, with higher response rates and enhanced context.
By incorporating both platforms into their communication strategies, individuals and businesses can maximize their outreach efforts and build meaningful connections. Through continuous evaluation and optimization, individuals can refine their communication strategies and harness the full potential of these powerful platforms to connect, engage, and succeed in today’s interconnected world.
