LinkedIn Automation for Entrepreneurs: 8 Things You Need to Know

In today's digital landscape, LinkedIn has emerged as a powerful platform for entrepreneurs and senior leaders looking to build their businesses. With over 900 million users, it represents a uniquely powerful opportunity for networking, lead generation, and brand building. However, navigating such a vast network can be overwhelming, especially for busy entrepreneurs. This is where the promise of LinkedIn automation comes into play. By leveraging automation tools, users hope to streamline their outreach efforts, save time, and ultimately drive more business. 

However, if scaled poorly, such tools also risk flooding the platform with untargeted, low-value, communications that undercut the platform's core value proposition that bring users to it in the first place. This inherent push-pull, promise and peril, is something that LinkedIn's leadership is keenly aware of. Protecting the platform’s ability to equip users with tools for career development, enabling productive networking, improving recruiting outcomes, and facilitating business development while also maximizing revenue is no easy task.  In fact, the complex mix of free and premium accounts, as well as supplemental products, that users have to choose from conveys just how complex a challenge it is for LinkedIn to continuously attract individuals, teams, and enterprise users.

In this article, we will explore the eight most important things that entrepreneurs and organizational leaders need to know about LinkedIn automation, including software solutions, the problems they solve, and how to integrate them into your workflow.

1. What is LinkedIn Automation?

LinkedIn automation refers to the use of software tools to automate various tasks on the platform, such as sending connection requests, messaging prospects, and posting content. These tools can help you scale your outreach efforts, allowing you to connect with more potential mentors, clients, and collaborators without sacrificing the personal touch that LinkedIn is known for.

Benefits of LinkedIn Automation

• Time: Automating repetitive tasks frees up your time to focus on strategic activities and follow up.

• Scale: Automation allows you to reach a larger audience without the need for manual effort.

• Consistency: Digital employees never have to pick up the kids from school, never get frustrated, and don’t call in sick.  In addition, the platform’s algorithm rewards those who consistently post updates, interact with other user’s content, and develop a robust professional identity on the platform.

2. LinkedIn's Love-Hate Relationship with Automation Tools

LinkedIn has a complex relationship with automation tools. While these tools can enhance user experience and streamline outreach, they can also lead to misuse and spammy behavior, prompting LinkedIn to enforce strict policies that guide their use. Here’s how you can benefit from automation tools while staying compliant with LinkedIn's user policies:

• Understand LinkedIn's Policies: Familiarize yourself with LinkedIn's terms of service and community guidelines. Avoid practices that could be considered spammy, such as sending mass connection requests or unsolicited messages.

• Use Automation Responsibly: Limit the number of connection requests and messages you send daily. A good rule of thumb is to keep it under 100 connection requests per day to avoid triggering LinkedIn's spam filters.

• Focus on Quality Over Quantity: Instead of aiming for a high volume of connections, prioritize meaningful relationships. Target your outreach to individuals who align with your business goals and values.

• Regularly Review Your Automation Practices: Stay updated on LinkedIn's policies and adjust your automation strategies accordingly. Regularly assess your outreach methods to ensure they remain compliant and effective.

3. Common Problems LinkedIn Automation Solves

While LinkedIn is a powerful tool for networking and lead generation, it can also present several challenges for entrepreneurs:

• Limited Time: Whether you are a startup entrepreneur wearing too many hats or the leader of a mature firm with a narrow but deep span of control, most entrepreneurs and organizational leaders struggle to find time to engage with their network consistently.  No one has more than 24 hours in their day and nearly everyone can identify with the challenge of having more tasks to accomplish than time to complete them.

• Limited Reach: Manual outreach takes time, attention, and capacity; all of which are in limited supply.  A reduction in the number of connections you can make directly reduces your potential for professional growth and career development.

• Inconsistency: Maintaining a consistent voice and professional brand across multiple interactions can be challenging without automation.

By implementing LinkedIn automation, you can address these issues and create a more effective outreach strategy.

4. Top LinkedIn Automation Software Providers

When it comes to choosing the right LinkedIn automation tool, there are more options to choose from than we can highlight in this article. Below is a comparison of a few of the more popular providers, including some basic pros, cons, and relative price points to give you a sense for the tools that are available to you.  

Software Provider	Pros	Cons	Price Point
Waalaxy	User-friendly interface that supports multi-channel outreach (LinkedIn + email) at an affordable price point, account management capability and team outreach coordination make it especially good for startups and small teams, available via browser extension or Cloud	Limited advanced features compared to competitors	Starting at $21/month
Phantombuster	Highly customizable, supports various automation tasks, excels at data scraping, available via browser extension or Cloud	Steeper learning curve, requires technical knowledge	Starting at $56/month
LinkedHelper	Comprehensive features for connection management, messaging, and auto-endorsing, installed as a standalone desktop application	Can be overwhelming for beginners, potential for LinkedIn restrictions	Starting at $15/month
Dux-Soup	Easy to use, integrates with CRM systems, good customer support, available via browser extension or Cloud	Limited features in the free version, can be costly for advanced features	Starting at $11.25/month
Expandi	Supports multi-channel outreach (LinkedIn + email), excellent for targeted outreach, available exclusively via Cloud.	Higher price point, may not be suitable for small businesses	Starting at $79/month
Zopto	Focused on sales lead generation, known for analytics and reporting, available exclusively via Cloud	Requires a LinkedIn Sales Navigator account, higher cost	Starting at roughly $157/month
Octopus CRM	Supports multi-channel outreach (LinkedIn + email), user-friendly, available exclusively via Chrome browser extension	Advanced features can be slow at times, browser extension only works while your computer is running	Advance features starting at $6.99/month

5. Integrating LinkedIn Automation into Your Workflow

To maximize the benefits of LinkedIn automation, it's essential to understand the difference between automation tools that work via the Cloud, those that work through browser extensions or programs installed on your computer, and the ecosystem of companion technologies that you will need to consider when integrating LinkedIn Automation into your company’s workflow.

• Cloud-based Vs Local Automation

Automation tools that are installed on your computer as a stand-along program or browser extension will only operate when the computer they are installed on is powered on and connected to the internet. As a result, these types of tools function as a sort of digital employee doing work behind the scenes on your behalf, clocking in on your computer whenever you do.  These automation tools utilize your machine’s hardware, siphoning off some of its excess computing power to do their work in the background. If your computer has an under-powered CPU or limited RAM, this may cause issues for users who routinely run resource-intensive programs such as video editing and graphics programs.  

Perhaps most importantly, users who want their automation tools to work for them when their computer is not turned on are likely to be disappointed by the performance of locally installed options. If you want a digital employee who never misses a day of work and has the ability to clock in and start their shift without you, you will want to prioritize cloud-based automation tools for that.  

• Companion Technologies

While LinkedIn offers company visibility in the form of company pages and marketing tools, the core functionality of the platform is intentionally designed to facilitate personal-to-person connections. As a result, investing resources into automation will typically cause leaders to see significant growth in the number of personal connections for themselves and other members of their team, and should expect much slower growth for the firm in terms of people following the company page.  

If leaders fail to take the steps necessary to leverage their team’s personal connections to create meaningful relationships with the company, then the value of the network that they worked so hard to build is at risk of exiting the organization anytime it is impacted by employee turnover.  Here are some companion processes and software that you can use to enhance your LinkedIn outreach strategy and insulate your organization against turnover:

1. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems

Integrating your LinkedIn automation tool with a CRM system is your primary defense against network losses from employee turnover. In addition, it is critical to help you and your team manage leads over time and respond more quickly and effectively. Popular CRM options include:

• HubSpot: Offers a free CRM with robust features for tracking leads and managing customer interactions.  As one of the more popular CRM providers, many LinkedIn automation tools offer native HubSpot integration functionality to capture and coordinate your LinkedIn outreach data at nearly any scale.  

• Salesforce: A powerful CRM solution for mature organizations that integrates well with ERP platforms. Salesforce can be customized to fit the needs of nearly any business and has multiple integration options to capture LinkedIn outreach and coordinate follow up.  

• Zoho CRM: An affordable option for small to medium-sized businesses, Zoho CRM provides features for lead management, sales automation, and analytics. It integrates well with LinkedIn automation tools (either natively or via Webhooks using no-code tools such as Zapier or Pabbly), helping you coordinate and streamline your outreach efforts.

2. Scheduling and Appointment Setting Tools 

Once you've connected with prospects, scheduling meetings can be a challenge; and keeping track of the meetings that your team is booking can be a nightmare.  Scheduling tools simplify this process by allowing prospects to book appointments directly based on availability for you and your team. Importantly, many of these tools have the ability to automatically update your CRM when a meeting is scheduled and capture that activity within your reporting system. Here are some popular options for scheduling the follow up activity that LinkedIn automation demands:

• Trafft: A comprehensive appointment scheduling tool that includes features for managing bookings, sending reminders, and accepting payments. Trafft is ideal for service-based businesses looking to streamline their appointment-setting process.

• Calendly: A widely used scheduling tool that allows you to set your availability and share a link with prospects. They can then choose a time that works for both parties, eliminating the back-and-forth of scheduling emails.

• TidyCal: An affordable scheduling tool that offers similar features to Calendly. TidyCal allows you to create custom booking pages and integrates with various calendar systems, making it easy to manage appointments. While TidyCal is feature rich, it lacks some of the more robust features for reporting and teams that other providers offer. 

3. Link Tracking and Campaign Analytic Tools

To measure the effectiveness of your LinkedIn outreach, it's essential to track the performance of your content campaigns in addition to direct outreach. Tools for link tracking provide insight into how your audience interacts with your content. Consider the following options:

• Bitly: A popular link management tool that allows you to shorten, share, and track links. Bitly provides analytics on link clicks, geographic data, and referral sources, helping you understand which outreach efforts are most effective.

• Google Analytics: While primarily a website analytics tool, Google Analytics can be used to track traffic from your LinkedIn campaigns. By setting up UTM parameters on your links, you can gain insights into how your LinkedIn audience engages with your website.

• HubSpot Campaigns: If you're using HubSpot as your CRM, their campaign tracking features allow you to monitor the performance of your LinkedIn outreach alongside other marketing efforts. You can see how leads are generated and which campaigns drive the most conversions.

4. Email Marketing Tools

Combining LinkedIn automation with an email marketing opt-in process can create a multi-channel outreach strategy. Consider using:

• ActiveCampaign: Among the more expensive email marketing tool providers, ActiveCampaign offers advanced automation features for email marketing and CRM.

• Brevo (formerly Sendinblue): An all-in-one marketing platform that includes email marketing, SMS marketing, and marketing automation. Brevo is ideal for businesses looking to integrate multiple marketing channels, including LinkedIn.

• Constant Contact: A well regarded email marketing platform that allows you to easily create email lists with targeted segmentation.  

• Mailchimp: A user-friendly email marketing platform that allows you to create targeted campaigns.

5. Content Scheduling Tools

To maintain a consistent presence on LinkedIn, consider using content scheduling tools like:

• Buffer: Allows users to coordinate social media accounts for individual users and teams across multiple social media platforms, including LinkedIn, by creating content and scheduling it for posting immediately or over time.

• Followr: An affordable and user-friendly tool that leverages AI to learn your voice over time while helping you write, post, or schedule content across multiple social media platforms (including LinkedIn). Can incorporate breaking news and real time Google search data when desired.

• Hootsuite: A well-respected and fully featured social media management tool that supports content scheduling and analytics.

• Later: Primarily focused on visual content, Later is a scheduling tool that allows you to plan and schedule posts for LinkedIn and other platforms. It offers a visual content calendar, making it easy to organize your content strategy.

By integrating these companion tools into your LinkedIn automation strategy, you can create a seamless workflow that enhances your outreach efforts, improves lead management, and ultimately drives business growth.

6. Best Practices Are Critical For LinkedIn Automation

Automation gives you the power to scale, but to make sure that you don’t scale up poor outcomes, and stay compliant with LinkedIn's policies, be sure to follow these best practices:

• Personalize Your Outreach: While automation can save time, it's crucial to maintain a personal touch. Customize your connection requests and messages to make them more engaging.

• Monitor Your Activity: Regularly review your automation activity to ensure you're not exceeding LinkedIn's limits. This will help you avoid account restrictions.

• Test and Optimize: Experiment with different messaging strategies and connection approaches to see what resonates best with your audience. Use analytics to track your performance and make data-driven decisions.

7. Measuring Success with LinkedIn Automation

To determine the effectiveness of your LinkedIn automation efforts, track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as:

• Leading indicators:

• Connection Rate: The percentage of connection requests that are accepted.

• Response Rate: The percentage of messages that receive a reply.

• Quality Score: Your sales team's objective or subjective assessment of lead quality stemming from Linkedin outreach.

• Process Indicators:

• Appointments Booked: The number of appointments generated through LinkedIn outreach, reported as either a raw number or percentage of total outreach.

• Appointments Held: The number of completed appointments generated through LinkedIn outreach, reported as either a raw number or percentage of appointments booked.

• Outcome indicators:

• Sales from LinkedIn: The number of sales attributable to LinkedIn outreach or their total dollar value.

• Average Sale / Ticket Size: The value of all sales attributable to LinkedIn outreach divided by their total number.

• Lead Conversion Rate: The percentage of leads generated through LinkedIn that convert into customers.

• LinkedIn Customer Value: Calculated by applying the Customer Lifetime Value formula to the subset of customers that you attribute to LinkedIn

• Customer Lifetime Value = (Average Purchase Value x Average Purchase Frequency) x Average Customer Lifespan - (Customer Acquisition Cost + Customer Retention Cost)

By monitoring these metrics, you can refine your strategy and improve your results over time.

8. The Need for Human Oversight in LinkedIn Automation

While LinkedIn automation tools can significantly enhance your outreach efforts, they are not a set-it-and-forget-it solution. Just as cars automate the transportation process but still require fuel, maintenance, and a driver, LinkedIn automation tools need an operator to function effectively. Here’s what you need to consider:

• Continuous Input and Management: automation tools require regular input to be effective. This includes:

  • Prospect Lists: You need to continuously supply the tool with the right prospects to reach out to, ensuring that your outreach is targeted and relevant.

  • Targeted Messaging: Crafting personalized messages that resonate with your audience is crucial. Automation can help with the delivery, but the messaging must be thoughtful and tailored.

• Transitioning to Real-Time Conversations: when prospects respond, the conversation shifts from a scripted sequence of outreach actions to a real, live interaction. This requires:

  • Human Engagement: Be ready to step in and engage with prospects personally. Automation can initiate conversations, but genuine relationships are built through human interaction.

  • Appointment Setting: Ensure that appointments are set, calendars are updated, and follow-ups are conducted. This often requires manual intervention to maintain organization and efficiency.

• Data Management: Finally, someone needs to ensure that all interactions and appointments are logged into your company's CRM and other workflow software. This includes:

  • Data Entry: Keeping your CRM updated with new leads, interactions, and outcomes is essential for tracking progress and measuring success.

  • Workflow Integration: Ensure that your automation tools are integrated with your existing workflows to streamline processes and avoid duplication of efforts.

Ready to take your LinkedIn outreach to the next level? 

Here are two options to get you started:

• Try it yourself:

• Use our Waalaxy affiliate link (and discount Code: IDKPUXKSUKSR) to get a 15 day free trial and 20% off for the life of your account on a great tool that’s particularly easy for DIYers to get started with. 

• Use our Trafft affiliate link to equip your LinkedIn outreach with the tools you need to spend less time scheduling and more time connecting with the people and prospects that you’re looking for.

• Use our Followr affiliate link to give social media content management tools a try and see how much time you can save by batching your work and leveraging the power of AI across multiple social media channels and a combined social media inbox.

• Want help?

  • Let us help you figure out if LinkedIn automation makes sense for you. Click the button below to book your free consultation to explore your LinkedIn automation strategy.