From the course: Learning LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Effective engagement strategies with InMail - Sales Navigator Tutorial

From the course: Learning LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Start my 1-month free trial

Effective engagement strategies with InMail

“

- You've searched for your leads. You've saved them, and you're following their interactions on LinkedIn. Well, now is the time to talk to those leads, but what happens if there's no one in your network that can provide you with an intro? Well, Sales Navigator comes with a built-in tool designed to help you engage with people outside of your network called InMail. InMails can be sent to another LinkedIn member that you're not connected with. They're a direct link to someone allowing you to bypass any gatekeeper, but unlike direct dialing or email, InMail lets you engage with a prospect or lead without needing their email address or phone number. Let's send an InMail and see it in action. Again, I'm going to click on Message here, and let's expand out this window so that we can work on this based on some best practices. First of all, you need to make sure that you capture someone's attention and stand out from any other InMail with a catchy subject line. I'd encourage you to personalize this. Perhaps call out your lead's name or company name or a recent post that they shared. Next, personalizing your message is super important for success. I don't just mean adding the person's name. Go another step beyond that. Review their profile. Consider where they live in the world. What are some of their interests or recent updates? This is all about building rapport and establishing a connection, but be clear on why you've chosen to reach out to them specifically. Let's take a look. Now, InMail will prompt you to use rapport building content as you can see here to the right, highlighting mutual connections or if there are shared posts or indeed common groups that you might be able to add in to your content. These are all things that can help to get that conversation started. Next, you also want to make sure that your message is intriguing and compelling. The goal of your InMail is not to make a sale there and then, it's to spark enough intrigue and curiosity that will make this person want to continue a conversation with you. When you take that pressure off to make the sale in this InMail, you'd be less likely to pitch too early and focus on building the relationship first, but also make sure that you keep your content concise. At the bottom of your message, you'll see a character count that will turn red once you grow over 500 characters and that's just a signal that you may want to edit your message to be brief. Lastly, it's going to be all about your call to action. What do you want your recipient to do next? Is it to book a 30-minute call? Be clear on your ask and upfront with things like time zone differences to avoid any miscommunications. Remember, InMails are an introductory method of engagement designed to warm up your prospect to future conversations. So be thoughtful in your outreach so that your message is interesting and authentic.

Contents