January 21, 2014

HOW TO EMAIL ALL YOUR LINKEDIN CONNECTIONS

green lightYou've been working hard building a nice quality LinkedIn network. Now you have a meaningful message for all your connections. How do you reach them?

Why Not Post An Update?

Posting an update is quick and easy, but will enough connections see it? The chances decrease if their network is large and they don’t visit LinkedIn often. You can post your update more than once but risk annoying your connections with smaller networks who visit LinkedIn regularly.
LinkedIn update

Email Through LinkedIn

LinkedIn limits your message to 50 recipients at a time. If you have 500+ connections, you can be spending a long time reaching them. The process of selecting the names is a hassle too.
LinkedIn: max 50 email recipients
LinkedIn’s limits are probably designed to discourage spam but most of the messages I receive this way are spammy. Also, you lose basic formatting options like bold, italics and bullets and friendly links (e.g., this instead of http://www.marketingactuary.com/2012/10/building-trust-with-linkedin-your-30.html).

What happens if LinkedIn limits the number of emails you can send in a day?

Email Through Your CRM

max emailsYou can send email through your CRM system like Contactually (the best option for small business). Again. you may face limits on how many emails you can send at a time (e.g., 50) and in a day (e.g., 300). These systems aren’t designed for mass emails.

Perhaps they have concerns over spam even though the messages go through your own email provider (which may also have daily limits).

Your CRM likely holds non-LinkedIn connections too. Selecting the ideal recipients takes time, but is a worthwhile exercise. For instance, you might want to only reach people who live in the same city.

Email Through an Email Service

The ultimate solution is to use an email service like Mad Mimi (review). A free account may be all you need. These services give you a quick, fast way to reach your connections. You also see who’s opening the emails and what they’re clicking on.

Here’s the one-time process
You’re now ready to compose and send your email.

Do You Have Permission?

Are you allowed to send messages to all your LinkedIn connections? I’ve asked around. This isn’t legal advice but the answer looks like yes if you
  • build a quality network
  • send messages infrequently
  • have meaningful content (e.g, skip generic messages like “Happy New Year”)
Your LinkedIn connections gave you permission to establish a business relationship with them. You can’t without communication. You’re simply finding a efficient, considerate way to reach them.

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PS Transparence, my monthly newsletter still requires opt-in.

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