LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a sales tool designed by LinkedIn to help sales professionals find and connect with prospects on LinkedIn. One of the key features of Sales Navigator is InMail messages, which allow users to directly contact anyone on LinkedIn, even if they’re not connected.
InMails are an important tool for sales reps because LinkedIn estimates that only 1% of your network is even open to receiving your emails if you’re not connected. With InMail, you can reach the other 99% that previously would have been inaccessible.
But how many InMails do you actually get with each Sales Navigator subscription plan? The number of InMails varies based on which plan you choose. In this article, we’ll compare the InMail allowances for each LinkedIn Sales Navigator plan to help you determine how many you need.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator InMail Allowances
There are currently four LinkedIn Sales Navigator subscription plans:
– Sales Navigator Professional
– Sales Navigator Team
– Sales Navigator Enterprise
– Sales Navigator Enterprise Plus
Each plan includes a certain number of InMails per month. Here’s an overview:
Sales Navigator Professional
The Sales Navigator Professional plan includes 15 InMails per month.
This plan is designed for individual sales reps who want to find and build relationships with prospects on LinkedIn. The 15 included InMails provide a way to directly contact prospects each month.
Sales Navigator Team
The Sales Navigator Team plan includes 30 InMails per seat per month.
This plan is designed for small to medium-sized sales teams. Each rep on the plan gets 30 InMails monthly to contact prospects.
For example, if you purchase a 10 seat Team plan, you would get 300 InMails per month to distribute across your team as needed.
Sales Navigator Enterprise
The Sales Navigator Enterprise plan includes 50 InMails per seat per month.
This sales tool is designed for larger sales organizations who want to empower their reps with LinkedIn data and insights. Each rep gets 50 InMails monthly to contact prospects and accounts.
So if you purchase Enterprise for a 25 person sales team, you would get 1,250 InMails per month for the entire team.
Sales Navigator Enterprise Plus
The Sales Navigator Enterprise Plus plan includes the most InMails at 75 per seat per month.
This is LinkedIn’s most advanced sales tool, optimized for large global sales teams. Reps on this plan get 75 InMails monthly to engage prospects on LinkedIn.
For a 50 person sales team, the Enterprise Plus plan would come with 3,750 InMails per month to distribute.
InMail Allowance Comparison
To summarize, here’s an at-a-glance comparison of the InMail allowances for each LinkedIn Sales Navigator plan:
| Plan | InMails per Month |
| Professional | 15 |
| Team | 30 per seat |
| Enterprise | 50 per seat |
| Enterprise Plus | 75 per seat |
As you can see, the number of included InMails scales up significantly as you move up through the product lineup from the Professional to Enterprise Plus plans.
Enterprise Plus provides the most InMail messages per rep, enabling large sales teams to connect with a high volume of prospects directly on the LinkedIn platform each month.
Factors That Determine How Many InMails You Need
When trying to determine how many InMails your sales team needs, here are some important factors to consider:
Your sales process
How heavily do you rely on LinkedIn outreach as part of your overall sales process? If it’s a critical component, you’ll likely need a higher InMail allowance. If you use other prospecting channels more often, you may need fewer InMails.
Your prospecting goals
Consider volume goals like how many prospects you want reps to connect with per month. The more outbound you expect, the higher your ideal InMail allowance will likely be.
Your prospecting cadence
Do you take more of a high-volume approach or only contact very targeted, warmed up prospects? Frequent prospecting takes more InMails versus very targeted outreach.
Your prospect’s responsiveness
Some prospects respond after an initial InMail while others may require more follow-up touchpoints. Think about how receptive your ideal prospects typically are.
Your team size
The number of reps you need to empower with InMails is a major determining factor. More reps equals more InMails used.
Your budget
Your budget often decides which Sales Navigator plan and InMail allowance is feasible. But it’s still helpful to estimate your ideal InMail volume.
Estimating Your Ideal InMail Allowance
The best way to estimate your ideal monthly InMail allowance is to run through some quick calculations:
First, determine your prospecting cadence. As an example:
– Each rep reaches out to 50 new prospects per week
– Reps follow up twice with prospects who don’t respond before moving on
Then factor in the number of reps:
– Ten person sales team
Finally, make an assumption on prospect responsiveness:
– Estimate that each prospect takes 1.5 InMails on average before getting a response
Now run the numbers:
- 50 prospects contacted per rep per week x 4 weeks per month = 200 prospects contacted per rep per month
- 200 prospects x 1.5 InMails per prospect = 300 InMails needed per rep
- 300 InMails x 10 reps = 3,000 InMails needed for the team per month
Based on the estimates above, this hypothetical 10 person sales team would likely need a Sales Navigator Enterprise plan with 50 InMails per rep to get 3,000 total InMails per month.
Going through this estimating process with your actual prospecting numbers helps determine which Sales Navigator plan aligns with your outreach volume needs.
InMail Best Practices
To get the most out of your available InMail allowance, make sure your team follows best practices like:
Personalizing each message
Avoid copy/paste templates and tailor each InMail to the specific prospect. Personalized messages see higher response rates.
Connecting the outreach to their profile
Reference something on their LinkedIn profile like current job title or company to show you did your research.
Following up persistently
It often takes 4+ InMail touchpoints for a prospect to engage. Nurture them consistently.
Offering relevant value
Communicate how you can add value for the prospect based on their needs and interests.
Using a clear CTA
Each InMail should have a specific call-to-action, not just an open-ended ask to connect.
A/B testing messages
Try different approaches and analyze response data to continually improve your outreach.
Following best practices allows you to maximize prospect engagement from each InMail sent.
Buying More InMails
If needed, you can purchase additional InMails beyond what’s included in your Sales Navigator plan.
Here are the current options for buying extra InMails:
| Bundle | Price |
| 25 InMails | $125 |
| 100 InMails | $500 |
| 500 InMails | $2,500 |
As you can see, the per InMail price drops significantly as you purchase larger bundles.
Buying extra InMails provides flexibility if your outreach volume exceeds what your plan includes during a particular month.
However, regularly needing to buy extra InMails each month is a sign you may need to upgrade your underlying Sales Navigator plan.
InMail Purchase Insights
LinkedIn provides some useful insights as you purchase additional InMail bundles:
InMail send rate
This shows how quickly your team has been using up InMails based on your sending cadence. It helps predict when you may need to buy more.
Top InMail senders
See which reps are sending the most InMails. This can identify opportunities for additional training if some are inefficient.
InMail open and response rates
Evaluate the performance of your InMails based on open and response rates. Optimize your outreach strategy if needed.
Active InMail limits
Track how many InMails your team has left to send during the current month based on original allowance and any purchases.
Reviewing these insights provides visibility into your InMail usage and patterns.
InMail Alternatives
In addition to InMail, LinkedIn Sales Navigator offers alternatives for contacting prospects:
Open Profile Sharing
You can share a prospect’s profile with a personalized note. This is public, but lets you open communication.
Open Link Sharing
Share relevant content by sending prospects public links to articles, whitepapers, or other assets.
TeamLink
Collaborate with teammates to communicate with prospects who are warm leads.
Lead Recommendations
Get recommendations of new prospects that match your ideal customer profile to expand your pipeline.
Advanced Search
Search based on robust filters to identify prospects that fit your target audiences and verticals.
List Building
Create curated lists of prospects to track in customized views based on smart filters.
Depending on your outreach goals, combining these tactics with InMail allows you to execute a comprehensive nurture strategy.
Key Takeaways
Here are some of the key takeaways on maximizing your LinkedIn Sales Navigator InMails:
– InMail allowances range from 15/month on Professional up to 75/month on Enterprise Plus
– Estimate your volume needs based on prospecting cadence, team size, and responsiveness
– Follow best practices like personalization and persistence to boost InMail performance
– Monitor your usage and purchase more InMails if needed, but upgrading plans is better for long-term needs
– Use a combination of outreach tactics like Open Profile Sharing and Lead Recommendations
With the right InMail approach, LinkedIn Sales Navigator can become an invaluable prospecting channel to drive sales pipeline growth.
Conclusion
InMails are a core component of LinkedIn Sales Navigator for directly connecting with prospects at scale. The number of InMails you get varies based on which plan you choose, with allowances ranging from 15 per month up to 75.
Estimating your volume needs based on sales process, team size, and cadence allows you to select the best plan. Following InMail best practices helps maximize prospect engagement and pipeline generation.
While InMail is critical for outreach, also leverage complementary tactics like Open Profile Sharing, Lead Recommendations, and Advanced Search. Combining multiple techniques provides a full-funnel nurture strategy.
By getting the right InMail allowance and optimizing your outreach strategy, LinkedIn Sales Navigator can elevate your prospecting and accelerate sales growth. Carefully targeting your available InMails allows you to cost-effectively expand your pipeline using LinkedIn as a trusted source of sales-ready leads.
