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The art and science of sending LinkedIn invitations that convert

One of the most effective ways to leverage LinkedIn's potential is by sending targeted invitations to connect with relevant people. However, many LinkedIn users are unaware of the hidden "quota" for invitations and the potential impact of consistently utilizing this feature.

Every LinkedIn user has a "quota" of approximately 50 invites per week for free users, or around 150-200 invites per week for paid users. This number is approximate because LinkedIn doesn't publicly advertise these limits. What's crucial to understand is that if you don't use your weekly "quota," it's wasted – there's no way to get it back or roll it over to the next week.

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Imagine two possible paths your life could take from here:

Path A: You close out of this article, go back to your regular routine, and never get into the habit of consistently sending out LinkedIn connection invites each week.

Path B: You take the advice in this article to heart. You start developing a system for sending out your maximum allowed connection invitations on LinkedIn every single week without fail (maybe using Botdog). If you have a paid account, that's around 200 invites per week or 10,000 per year. Even with just a 50% acceptance rate, that puts about 5,000 new people in your professional network annually - 5,000 more potential customers, partners, clients, and connections who are way more likely to engage with your posts, refer
you new business, and drive your career forward!

Which future do you want for yourself - Path A or Path B?
Everybody has a weekly invitation limit - though it can change based on your activity, or whether you pay for LinkedIn or not

Okay, now you understand just how important it is to consistently send out LinkedIn connection invitations up to your maximum limit. But that's only half the battle - you also need to ensure those invitations are actually getting accepted at a high rate. Otherwise, you're just spinning your wheels.

That's why mastering the art and science of crafting compelling LinkedIn invitation messages is so crucial. With the right strategies in place, you can massively increase your invite acceptance rates and start growing an engaged network of valuable connections exponentially faster.

7 principles to keep in mind:

  1. Invitations with no notes perform better.
    Our data shows (very coutner-intuitively) that invitations without notes are 80% more likely to be accepted. That's probably because people tend to deny generic notes that have been over used by salespeople like "Hey David, I see we're in the same industry - let's connect". It doesn't mean that you should use notes - just that if you do you'd better make them count!
  2. The power of the Mere-Exposure Effect
    The mere-exposure effect suggests people tend to develop a preference for things they're familiar with. By engaging with your target connections before sending an invite through likes, comments, and shares, you can increase their likelihood of accepting.
  3. If you want to send notes, use Personalization at Scale.
    Truly personalized notes work great - but if you do want to max out your 150 invites per week, it would be a herculean task to craft a truly personalized note for each one. Instead, focus on "personalization at scale" by using messages tailored to specific groups or contexts. Some examples:
    1. Connect before or after an event, and mention it: Mention an upcoming or past shared event to find common ground.
    2. Share a valuable resource: Provide an upfront resource or insight to demonstrate your expertise, like a podcast episode, a blog article etc.
    3. Mention a shared interest or group: Find niche common interests from their profile to build rapport. Easy to do when you're connecting with people with the same title as you "I'm trying to connect with fellow Heads of Talent".
  4. A great profile will double your connection rate. Having a complete, professional, and compelling LinkedIn profile increases the chances that recipients will view you as a credible and valuable connection worth adding to their network. Don't be too "salesy" or they will tend to deny your invitations.
  5. Invest in a Paid LinkedIn Account
    Free accounts get restricted to around 50 invitations per week. Upgrade to a Premium, Sales Navigator, or Recruiter account to unlock more generous weekly invitation limits. It's maddening, but LinkedIn is a "pay to win"- you'll see 3-4X more results if you pay.
  6. Spread Out Your Activity
    Distribute your automated actions throughout the day and week. Avoid bombing people with a flurry of invites or engagement in short bursts, or LinkedIn could interpret this as spam (Botdog can help you spread actions during the day!)
  7. Automate for Scale with Botdog
    Manually sending hundreds of invitations every week is incredibly time-consuming, exhausting, and frankly - not a good use of your time. Use Botdog's intelligent automation to:
    1. Automatically send invitations (with or without notes) to targeted lists
    2. Monitor limits to ensure you stay within LinkedIn's best practices
    3. Track your results, measure, improve

Bottom Line

By combining the right strategies for personalized invitation notes with intelligent automation tools like Botdog, you can put your LinkedIn networking efforts on overdrive. Consistently push towards your maximum allowed invitations each week while maintaining high acceptance rates. In a year's time, you could have thousands of new engaged connections driving your success.

So which path will you choose - Path A where you stay stagnant? Or Path B, where you fully leverage your LinkedIn potential to open up a world of new relationships and opportunities? The choice is yours, but I know which one I'd pick.