WHICH LINKEDIN ACCOUNT DO I NEED TO GROW MY BUSINESS?

This article specifically compares the benefits of the free account, Business Premium and Sales Navigator. It does NOT cover the Career (Jobseeker) and Recruiter products.

Let me start by saying that most business professionals do not need a paid account. You should use the free account until you regularly find there are things you can't do that are important.

For some roles and businesses a paid LinkedIn account can be invaluable, even essential- read on.

Here is a useful table which summarises the main differences:

Fig 1: Comparison of account features

Business Premium (previously Business Plus)

The big advantages of this account are the removal of the free account search limit, the ability to send InMails (direct messages) to people whom you are not connected to, and visibility of the last 90 days' worth of your profile viewers.

Search Limit

LinkedIn don't specify what the search limit is on free accounts, experience suggests it is somewhere in the range 60-100 and may vary by individual.

If you regularly hit the search limit you should consider upgrading. If you only occasionally hit the search limit you should probably stick to the free account. Bear in mind that these activities do not count toward the limit:

• Searching profiles by name using the search box located at the top of every page on LinkedIn.com
• Browsing your 1st-degree connections from the connections page.
• Searching on the Alumni pages
• Searching for jobs on the jobs page.

The business premium account costs ￡53 per month or ￡479.88 for an annual subscription including 25% discount

TIP: The search limit does not apply to searches on the LinkedIn app.

InMails

On the face of it the InMail allowance is pretty miserly, however the feature is designed to reward good practice and punish people who abuse it. If someone replies to one of your InMails then you receive a credit even if that response is "not interested". In this way, you can in theory build up a never-ending supply since every month you get a fresh allowance. In this way, LinkedIn puts the onus on us to craft well designed, non-spammy, messages that people will respond to.

Clearly, InMails are potentially a very valuable tool especially for contacting hard to reach contacts and get a much higher response rate than a cold email but need to be used with care.

Are there alternatives? Well, yes, you could incorporate your message in a connection request and this can also work well. However, a connection request has a maximum of only 300 characters compared to 2,000 for an InMail.

There is another option that is often overlooked, which is almost as good as InMails, and it's free. You can direct message anyone in a shared same group - up to a total of 15 messages per month. So, if there is someone important that you want to contact, check out on their profile which groups they are in (under interests), join one and when accepted hey presto you can message them - no limit on the number of characters..

Visibility of who viewed your profile

Who viewed your profile is the single most used feature on LinkedIn. We like to know who is showing interest in us. From a business point of view that makes a lot of sense. Yes, it's true some people choose to view profiles anonymously but the vast majority don't. A quick check through my last 100 profile views showed just 9 were anonymous views - 91% were not!

An increase in views shows your influence and visibility is growing and every picture tells a story - in this case, profile pictures. Something has prompted that person to look at your profile. Perhaps it's an existing connection who visited your page to send you a message, or someone who had read one of your posts and wanted to know more, or even a competitor checking you out. Profile views can be a treasure trove of opportunity for those who are prepared to dig a little.

A premium account allows you to review the last 90 days of viewers and gives you the option of messaging second and third-degree viewers to find out more. Of course, you need to be selective, InMails are precious and need to be used carefully. (There is also the option to send profile viewers a connection request or a group message as mentioned above).

SALES NAVIGATOR

The first thing that strikes you when logging in to Sales Navigator is the lack of noise. It's like being at a crowded party then slipping into a side room where only the people you wanted to meet can be found. This is because YOU determine what appears in your feed not the LinkedIn algorithm.

Sales Navigator was originally designed for organisations with 25+ salespeople who were selling to other big organisations. It looks completely different from the standard LinkedIn product and was developed originally from LinkedIn's recruitment stable of products. The key benefits that Sales Navigator provides are:

• the ability to organise contacts individually or by account
• user control over the feed
• powerful extra search filters

Team and Enterprise versions of Sales Navigator add extra functionality such as CRM integration and management dashboards which can be compelling benefits for larger organisations. The professional version which I am focusing on here has 90% of the functionality of the more expensive versions.

It's important to realise that Sales Navigator is not a stand-alone product it works alongside the standard LinkedIn.com. For example, you can not edit your profile, or access your groups, and clicking on a prospect's post will take you back to the main LinkedIn screen. It's this lack of integration that is the biggest drawback of Sales Navigator.

If you can find a way to work Sales Navigator into your work pattern then it can be a very effective tool. It's particularly powerful for businesses and salespeople who are targeting a small number (30-150) of accounts, as Sales Navigator enables you to focus in on specific decision-makers in those organisations. This is often called account-based marketing.

For many people, the deal clincher with Sales Navigator is its search power. There are no less than 23 people search filters including company size, years in post, and keyword content; in addition, account search filters include company headcount growth, department headcount, annual revenue. One of my clients, an HR consultancy, was able to identify companies in a specific turnover range who had one or no people in the HR department. Gold dust.

In my opinion one of the single most valuable but overlooked features of Sales Navigator is the ability to search within groups - even groups you are not a member of.

Sales Navigator Professional costs ￡69.98 per month or ￡599.88 if purchased annually (25% discount)

Extra Premium Features

In addition to the benefits already mentioned, there are three further features to mention, these are not usually in themselves a sufficient reason to upgrade but are certainly very useful.

1. By default, your profile will be made "open". An open profile means anyone can message you for free even if they are not connected to you
2. Free access to LinkedIn's library of on-demand business courses.
3. Company insights e.g. employee headcount growth, departmental breakdown, information on job openings and recent senior management hires.

Conclusion

Which is the right account for you will come down to individual circumstances and particularly your target audience. If you are selling high-value products or services to larger organisations then Sales Navigator would in most cases be the best investment. Similarly where company size is an important criterion for you then Sales Navigator may be your best route but not always. Consider a company which sells to Facilities Managers or IT Directors, the titles alone will qualify the business as a prospect.

If Sales Navigator is overkill but you find you are regularly breaching your search limit, then Business Premium account is the best solution.

Still not sure which is the best option for your circumstances? Take out a 30-day trial either to Business Plus OR Sales Navigator (only one premium account trial is allowed). After that, you have the option of continuing to pay monthly or taking advantage of the 25% discount offered for a 12-month subscription.

Finally, it's worth remembering a monthly subscription, in particular, is easy to cancel, so you could upgrade for two months to take advantage of the extra paid features e.g. to build your target lists and then go back to the free account.

Have you got or have you had a paid account? Did it meet your expectations? I would love to hear your experience in the comments.

More about Greg

Greg Cooper is an independent LinkedIn consultant and trainer based in Bristol, UK. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing. For over twenty years Greg ran an award-winning direct marketing agency working with leading technology companies like IBM, SAP, and Siemens. 

Today he helps SMEs to use LinkedIn more effectively to find, win and keep customers. He runs public and in-house courses including the LinkedIn Essentials Master Class, Sales Navigator, and Social Selling workshops, and Employee Advocacy training. 

Greg is also the host for the Bristol LinkedIn Local – a pitch-free networking event which focuses on building relationships with other LinkedIn members.

Useful Links

Two recent posts from my friends and fellow LinkedIn Trainers:

Steve Phillip's 5 minute video about the pro and cons of Business Premium

Mark William's podcast "Should you be paying for LinkedIn?" The podcast also covers Career and Recruiter accounts.