If you’re getting the message below – you need to know two things:
1) You’re not alone – LinkedIn seem to be randomly testing some new changes to their platform. In particular, how many connection requests they are allowing people to send out on a weekly basis (regardless of your account)
2) It’s got absolutely nothing to do with your usage of Dux-Soup
Of course, your LinkedIn account may be on a temporary restriction from sending invitations to people but, more likely, you are under new a LinkedIn limitation of 100 connection request invitations per week.
I’m going to add a third thing you need to know – this LinkedIn imposed change is something none of us can control.
And a fourth - Dux-Soup’s ability to scale your lead generation is totally unaffected. This is not a warning or a restriction that may lead to an account ban. LinkedIn is trying out ways to attempt to protect their users from spam and uphold the integrity of their B2B social networking platform.
Speaking to a Dux-Soup Turbo user today – with a team of 5 business development reps all using the tool, he likened the impact of the ‘100 connection request per week limit’ to the difference between using a scatter machine gun approach to that of a super targeted sniper.
And - he also was clear that, having lived with the restrictions in place for a few weeks now, the ability for Dux-Soup to scale their lead generation was unaffected.
Here’s why.
LinkedIn automation works just the same as ever. And there are ways in which, if this change affects you, that you can adjust your process and approach.
Let’s start with some facts
What’s really going on?
LinkedIn seem to be testing new algorithms that are causing some LinkedIn accounts to encounter restrictions - specifically to how many connection requests you are able to send out each week. Users are seeing a message stating “You’ve reached the weekly invitation limit”.
At Dux-Soup, we can’t say for sure, but LinkedIn does encourage a better experience for its users and so it’s important to think about the relevance of our interactions.
If impacted, LinkedIn is only allowing users to send 100 new connection invitations out per week. Everything else remains the same. There is no need to be concerned that your account is being flagged for any wider restrictions by LinkedIn.
From what we can see, it is completely random who this is happening to. We have users with multiple accounts all being used in the same way, and whereas some accounts are being affected, others are not. There doesn’t seem to be any way of predicting whether this will happen to your account or not.
The LinkedIn plan you are on does not seem to make a. difference either, as we are noticing restrictions across all types of LinkedIn accounts.
As quickly as it is imposed, your connection invitation limits can be just as quickly reinstated back to normal. This is how unpredictable it is.
Whilst we don’t know what LinkedIn’s future plans are, nor can we change these limits, we do know that they are testing this idea out. Whilst it is frustrating for users that are restricted, we can’t say whether this will be a long-term strategy for LinkedIn or not.
Whilst LinkedIn goes through their testing phase, we can look at guiding you on how to adapt to these changes and still make Dux-Soup work for you. We recommend the following:
1. Quality over quantity
When it comes to targeting new contacts, be tighter with your targeting. Focus on narrowing down your lists by doing more research into your target customer and sending fewer connection requests. You can refer to our LinkedIn search and filter masterclass article for more help on how to do this, and watch our short video tutorial.
2. You can still send Direct Messages and InMails
Use more direct messages and InMails to focus on nurturing your existing connections. By shifting your strategy towards the conversion end of the funnel you should be able to generate more leads from your existing pool. At least until we know what the future of LinkedIn will look like.
3. Use the visit profile feature and export your data.
Use our ‘visit profile' feature to view the profiles of your target audience. This will raise brand awareness as prospects will see that you have visited their profiles. However, instead of instantly inviting them to connect, you can export your list and start to carry out your outreach on other platforms in addition to LinkedIn if you need to expand your outreach (via email, or using Google ads for instance).
4. Scan & Revisit for better accuracy
It always helps to tidy up your list before you send out your connection requests too. So make sure you use our ‘scan and revisit’ function for better accuracy of who you then go on to invite to connect. This really makes sense if your numbers are restricted to 100.
5. Retargeting
Don’t get too hooked up on the size of your network for now. After all, there’s no point having a big network that you don’t do anything with. By retargeting your LinkedIn connections and segmenting them by tags, you can work harder on the next stage in your sales pipeline and perfect this to see more more leads come out of the bottom. With the Dux-Dash (which comes with Dux-Soup Turbo, which you can try for free if you're not already a Dux-user) you can analyse conversion rates at every step of your LinkedIn process. This is how smart marketers and sales reps improve results.
As a Turbo user commented, ‘Once you connect with a prospect, it’s just the start of the journey. Nurturing your network is where we as a sales team often drop the ball, always wanting the next shiny thing – use this opportunity to start working your network properly!’
For LinkedIn Sales Nav users, we suggest creating a support ticket directly with LinkedIn if you are encountering restrictions with your account. You can do this at https://www.linkedin.com/help/sales-navigator/ask and follow the steps shown below.
We know it can be frustrating – but don’t be too hasty, LinkedIn may decide that this test isn’t one they are going to implement full time.
We’ll keep you posted as and when we know more, in the meantime subscribe to our blog to hear all the latest news as it comes in https://www.dux-soup.com/blog
If you're not already a Dux user and you'd like to try Dux-Soup Turbo for free - get started with Dux-Soup Turbo here!
Happy Dux-ing!
Gin
Head of Customer Service
Dux-Soup
Handle your entire sales pipeline, track your performances, and in the end, close more deals.
