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We encourage sending fewer, more thoughtful invitations to people you know to keep LinkedIn a trusted community.
It finally happened. LinkedIn saw the complaints by their users and decided to take action . . .
“I’m getting so many irrelevant connection requests”
“People are trying to sell me out the gates”
“There’s too much spam on LinkedIn”
Every single one of these concerns is valid. Because LinkedIn was created to be a network-focused community, not a place to push as many people for sales as possible.
When people agree to be part of a community, it’s rarely in their interest to be sold to from minute 1.
And yet, this is the story of any platform.
This exact same thing played out with email over the past few years. What was designed as a tool to connect people turned into a way to blast people with as many messages as possible.
That’s where things stand. And, as is believed by many in the industry, LinkedIn has lowered the weekly limit of outgoing connections to as low as 100 connection requests per week (~400 per month).
So, you might be wondering, where does a company like Lead Cookie—one who relies heavily on LinkedIn—stand on LinkedIn imposing limits on how many people can be contacted within a set period of time.
Our thoughts: HELL YES.
We heard our clients’ concerns (some of which are quoted above) and realized that the “fishing with dynamite” approach was not the future. Where as LinkedIn used to be a feasible place to reach a broad audience with generalized messages, we saw those campaigns taking a dive while the more targeted ones continued to thrive.
So we adjusted.
Here’s what we’ve learned over the past year and how it turns a “LinkedIn just hampered my ability to run outreach” to a “this is the best thing that could have happened for my outbound-based business growth.”
You’re in hot water now . . .
Now this change affects everyone. Most for the better, but some for the worse.
For those that send out 2,000+ requests a month, this is a catastrophe. With the weekly limits seeing a massive drop from ~500 outgoing connections to just 100, your results are likely to drop off by 80%.
But what’s important to realize there is that any search that can yield 2,000+ possible fits per month is probably not a search worth relying on.
Because what we’ve found over the years is that LinkedIn filters are unreliable at best.
If you’ve heard the following statement (or maybe said it yourself), you’re in the same boat as 95% of the people who come to us:
“I got leads, but they weren’t relevant”
When you’re fishing with dynamite, going after prospects that fit within a few LinkedIn filters is unlikely to get you in front of the right people.
Instead of thinking about the number of leads generated or the quantity of appointments, we firmly believe that the brunt of the emphasis needs to be placed on the quality.
Leads are not sales.
Appointments are not sales.
Sales are sales.
And if you are not talking to the right people, you will not be closing sales. It really is as simple as that.
So for anyone that relies on fishing with dynamite (aka a spray-and-pray) approach to LinkedIn, this change is going to hurt.
Ok . . . but who does this help?
The simple answer is this change helps the majority of people.
It helps individuals who are wanting to use LinkedIn for networking.
It helps people who feel bombarded whenever they log into their LinkedIn.
It helps people who put time and energy into making their messages relevant and helpful.
It helps people who sit down and work through who their ideal prospect is, what they care about, and where they are looking to go.
It helps thoughtfulness and the pursuit of genuine connection.
This change reverts the platform back to its roots.
What does this mean for using LinkedIn as a tool to grow my business?
If you’ve talked with us in the past year, we’ve likely mentioned how excited we have been for the future of LinkedIn. We’ve spent the past year preparing for this inevitable outcome and we’re glad to say that our optimism is still incredibly high.
Here is why.
LinkedIn will once again be a fantastic tool to get in front of your ideal prospects.
There will be ~80% less noise to cut through.
There will be less incentive for software and “fishing with dynamite” services to send irrelevant messages.
Which means that thoughtful messages sent to the right people are going to again be where the opportunity is.
When there is less noise, the sounds made will be so much clearer.
If you can genuinely help someone, your message will once again be pushed towards the front of the line.
Because once again, targeting matters.
Reaching the right person with a relevant message matters.
Does this spell the end of Lead Cookie?
We’ve been asked this question many times when we’ve told people that we have a strong belief that LinkedIn will crack down on the (seemingly) limitless outreach.
And our answer is absolutely not.
We’ve taken steps to prepare for this and built out an internal research and verification team to make sure that our targeting is second to none.
For example, we had one client tell us he wanted to target men in the oil and gas industry in Texas.
Client: “So I want to target men in the oil and gas industry in Texas.”
Lead Cookie: “Sure. We’ll have our research team put together a list and pull out the men.”
Client: “Can they only be those that are 50-70 years old?”
Lead Cookie: “Ok . . . what we can do is look at their profile pictures and find those that look to fit the bill.”
Client: “. . . can we just get those with mustaches?”
(side note: we did laugh very hard at this question)
Lead Cookie: “Why not? We’ll have the team get on it.”
You’ll never guess, but there is a limited number of men in the 50-70 year-old range with mustaches in Texas. But it makes for a fantastic campaign as each message is incredibly relevant.
And that is where Lead Cookie has been heading: unparalleled relevance.
Not only do we work with you to figure out what it is that makes your perfect client/customer, but we then go out and find them, contact them, and hand them over to you when you’ve shown some level of interest.
Targeting is everything for this new LinkedIn.
And with there being so much less noise coming, you can stand out in front of your ideal prospects like never before.
Looking for a team that can generate leads amidst LinkedIn’s changes?
The Lead Cookie team saw these changes coming and have been preparing for them years in advance. At Lead Cookie, we can:
Hand-qualify every single lead we reach out to. Not a single connection request is wasted on a bad fit lead.
Run small batch, highly targeted outreach campaigns to ensure a high amount of relevance and conversion.
We can reach your prospects on Linkedin, email, and phone. We do not rely on a single channel.
Don’t wait, reach out to us today.
