Is LinkedIn Premium Worth Subscribing to ?
Is LinkedIn Premium Worth Subscribing to?
Over the past week I’ve been exploring LinkedIn’s premium features on a 1 month free trial. As a LinkedIn enthusiast I was curious to see if premium features would be a game changer. However, there are several plan options, so let’s break each of them down.
Career
$39.99/month
The career plan features probably aligns best with most of my readers’ needs. The ability to direct message is a huge networking advantage as the alternative is to send a connect request with a 300 character note. The InMail allows you to provide much more info about yourself and why you’re interested in connecting with them specifically. Job and applicant insights are also helpful to see how you compare to other applicants and what skillsets the job is prioritizing.
Business
$69.99/month
While the career plan is more positioned towards getting hired, the business plan is positioned to form relationships, such as potential buyers, sellers, partnerships, sponsors, or invitations (surveys and e-mail subscriptions). This plan is still useful to get hired, especially with additional InMail credits, but at a greater cost.
Sales Navigator Core
$119.99/month
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This plan begins to exit the realm of most LinkedIn users. Although it has a ton of InMail credits, it’s designed for salespeople as a CRM platform. This probably works best for self-employed users or teams of <5 as an alternative to pricey plans from popular CRM platforms like Salesforce or HubSpot. Although 50 InMail credits would certainly help to get you hired, I don’t think it’s necessary at all for the price.
Recruiter Lite
$169.99/month
As the previous plan was designed for salespeople more so than the average job seeker, this plan is designed specifically for recruiters. With less InMail credits than the Sales Navigator plan at a $50 premium (no pun intended) I do not recommend this plan for job seekers.
The Gold Badge
The gold “In” badge is displayed on your profile when you have a premium plan. On LinkedIn’s website, it is marketed as a symbol of being serious about networking. I guess so. I think it’s just a draw because it looks cool and makes the profile owner feel important, a lot like blue checkmarks on Twitter and Instagram. This feature isn’t all that important, in my opinion.
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Is it Worth it?
As is normally the case, it depends upon your goals. If you are a job seeker, I think the career plan is helpful and affordable. The business plan is also in play with more InMail credits. Although it is more expensive, if used properly you could land yourself a wage that provides significant ROI.
Sales Navigator and Recruiter Lite seem like great plans for their respective fields, although I haven’t used either. These plans may be cheaper compared to alternative options, but for job seekers they cost more than they are worth just to get hired.
I’d recommend trying a plan on a free trial to get familiar with the features and then decide if you want to commit to a paid subscription. I also think it’s not only possible but possibly even likely to hired without any premium plans, given that you’re using LinkedIn’s free features effectively (See Edition 1 for more on using free LinkedIn). So I’d only recommend a premium plan if you’ve been trying really hard to network to get hired for a while without success. It doesn’t have to be your go-to strategy.
Thanks for reading.
Great article Collin. My coworkers and I are constantly debating the cost/reward alternatives of Linkedin. Nice job laying it all out!
Teacher at Medway High School
2 年Love you C Buck. Happy for you. ??????