LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 722 million users worldwide. While anyone can create a basic LinkedIn profile for free, LinkedIn Premium offers additional features and perks that can be invaluable for professionals and businesses.
What is LinkedIn Premium?
LinkedIn Premium is LinkedIn’s paid subscription service. There are three tiers of LinkedIn Premium:
- Premium Career – focused on helping individuals in their job search and professional development ($29.99/month)
- Premium Business – focused on helping businesses find and engage with clients ($59.99/month)
- Premium Sales – focused on helping sales professionals find and qualify leads ($64.99/month)
Some of the key benefits of LinkedIn Premium include:
- Unlimited profile views
- InMail messages to contact anyone on LinkedIn
- Advanced search filters and preferences
- Who’s viewed your profile
- Insights on your profile and content performance
- Premium badges to stand out
- Ad-free experience
Is LinkedIn Premium Worth the Cost?
Whether LinkedIn Premium is worth it depends on your specific needs and goals for using LinkedIn. Here are some of the key benefits that can make the paid plans worthwhile:
More Visibility for Your Profile
With LinkedIn Premium, your profile gets up to 30x more views than a basic profile. This increased visibility can help you connect with more professionals, recruiters, and potential business partners.
Unlimited InMail Messages
LinkedIn Premium allows you to send unlimited InMail messages to anyone on LinkedIn, even if you’re not connected. This makes it much easier to directly reach recruiters, hiring managers, potential clients, and other influencers.
Powerful Search and Filtering
Premium search allows you to use advanced filters to target very specific groups of people based on their company, job title, location, skills, and more. This makes finding ideal contacts and leads much faster.
Insights on Your Performance
With Premium, you can see analytics on your profile views, content engagement, and search appearances. These insights can help you optimize your presence to improve engagement.
Premium Badges on Your Profile
Premium badges visually communicate that you have an upgraded LinkedIn membership. This can make your profile stand out and look more influential.
Ad-Free Experience
Premium removes all third-party ads from LinkedIn. This provides a cleaner, less distracting experience that allows you to better focus while networking and searching.
Key Premium Features for Job Seekers
If you’re using LinkedIn to search for a new job opportunity, Premium can be extremely helpful. Here are some of the top Premium features for job seekers:
See Who’s Viewed Your Profile
Premium allows you to see the names and titles of everyone who has viewed your profile recently. This lets you know which recruiters or hiring managers are interested.
Contact Recruiters Directly
With InMail, you can directly contact recruiters at your target companies instead of just applying and hoping they notice. This gives you a much better chance of starting a conversation.
Career Profile Badge
The Career Profile Premium badge on your profile lets recruiters know you’re serious about your job search. This establishes credibility.
Get a Competitive Edge
Given how many people are on LinkedIn, standing out from other job candidates is crucial. Premium features like profile badges and InMail help you look like a top candidate.
See Salary Insights
You can unlock data on average salaries for roles you’re interested in. This helps you negotiate or decide if new opportunities are worth it.
Premium Feature | Benefit for Job Seekers |
---|---|
Who’s Viewed Your Profile | See who’s interested in you as a candidate |
InMail Messages | Directly contact recruiters and hiring managers |
Career Profile Badge | Stand out as a serious candidate |
Advanced Search Filters | Quickly find the right open roles |
Salary Insights | Evaluate new job opportunities |
Key Premium Features for Sales Professionals
For salespeople who rely on LinkedIn for connecting with prospects and generating leads, Premium Sales can deliver a major boost. Here are some of the most valuable features:
See Full Profiles of Prospects
Even without a connection, you can view a prospect’s entire profile with Premium. This helps you understand them before reaching out.
Identify Decision Makers
Premium Sales provides information on seniority levels at target companies. This makes it easy to find the people who can approve purchases.
Find Prospects by Industry
Advanced filters allow you to isolate contacts at companies in your target industries. You get very relevant prospects for your specific offerings.
Improve Response Rates
Sales Navigator badges on your profile establish your credibility. Prospects take you more seriously, improving how they respond to outreach.
Save Leads and Integrate with CRM
Premium Sales makes it easy to save prospect information and integrate it directly with your CRM and other sales tools.
Premium Feature | Benefit for Sales Professionals |
---|---|
Full Profile Access | Research prospects before reaching out |
Seniority Filters | Identify decision makers at companies |
Industry Filters | Find ideal prospects for your offerings |
Sales Navigator Badges | Gain credibility with prospects |
Lead Integration | Easily transfer prospect data to CRM |
Is LinkedIn Premium Worth it for Businesses?
For businesses, investing in Premium can generate a strong ROI by amplifying your marketing, recruitment, and lead generation efforts. Here are some of the potential benefits:
Targeted Advertising
Premium provides robust targeting options for your LinkedIn ads. You can precisely define your ideal customers and increase conversions.
Employee Recruitment
Features like InMail make it easier for your recruiters to connect with candidates. You can build up a strong talent pipeline.
Showcase Products and Services
A Premium Business profile with Showcase Pages allows you to prominently display and promote your offerings.
Thought Leadership Content
Premium posts let you publish long-form content to establish your company as an industry authority.
Grow Your Audience
Premium analytics provide insights to help you create more engaging content. You can grow your LinkedIn audience and reach.
Premium Feature | Business Benefit |
---|---|
Targeted Ads | Increase conversion rates |
InMail | Connect with top talent |
Showcase Pages | Promote products and services |
Premium Content | Establish thought leadership |
Audience Insights | Create highly engaging content |
Premium Also Improves the Overall User Experience
In addition to the direct business and professional benefits outlined above, LinkedIn Premium also delivers a better day-to-day experience in key ways:
- No ads – The ad-free interface looks cleaner and removes distractions.
- Custom branded profiles – Premium profiles stand out and look more professional.
- Larger inboxes – You get more space to manage LinkedIn messages and notifications.
- Premium customer support – Direct access to customer service agents who can quickly assist you.
For frequent LinkedIn users, these quality-of-life improvements add up to a better overall experience each time you visit the platform.
Conclusion
Considering the expanded business opportunities, powerful networking capabilities, and quality user experience it delivers, upgrading to LinkedIn Premium is highly worthwhile for professionals, job seekers, salespeople, recruiters, and companies who want to get the most out of the world’s top professional networking platform.
The investment required for Premium subscriptions is relatively low compared to the significant benefits unlocked with features like profile visibility, InMail, advanced search, data insights, and ad removal. This can ultimately give you a distinct competitive advantage.
With over 740 million members, LinkedIn is simply too important in today’s business world to not take full advantage of. Premium access can elevate your presence, open up new opportunities, and improve your day-to-day LinkedIn experience.