One of the biggest problems on LinkedIn is the rife spam that affects everyone on the platform. If you're labeled a spammer, not only will your efforts be in vain, but you could have your account revoked by the LinkedIn admins. So how do you send an email to your connections without being a huge spammer?
Creating The Right Message
Assuming you've spent some quality time segmenting your LinkedIn community - what's your next move? You know they're fans, clients and potential clients, and that you'd like them to read your email...but how do you get them to do it? Step 1 is avoiding the most common Inmail mistake.
Dear sir/madam or something similar. You can't call people by their names because it's a bulk email, but you can do something else that works almost as well. Launch immediately into what you want to say to your community. We are subconsciously trained to read messages with no introduction, because this is how friends and family contact us. Use friendly language and be polite.
Keep your call to action near the top, and give them a good reason why they would want to take action just below it. You can only send 50 of these mails at a time, so you might want to sort your wish list into groups, according to market research of analytics you've collected along the way.
Always make your email as personal as possible, and remind them who you are in one quick line. Use a short paragraph or two to get your message across. End with a question to prompt them to answer you, and your name. That's all you need. Keep the email short, direct and to the point. Copy and paste the email into the LinkedIn message box.
Sending The Message
One of the first things your contacts will see when your email flies into their inbox, is the huge amount of other people you've sent it too. Immediately this is identified as bulk spam and deleted. Make sure that before you send your emails, you uncheck the "allow recipients to see each others emails" box at the bottom of the message box.
You can target your emails to a specific location or a specific industry, which should be taken into account when you draft your email. Segmenting your audience like this will result in a higher ROI for your LinkedIn email campaign. Finally, in every email you send - regardless of the fact that it is a marketing mail - you need something of value.
If they can use it, give it to them. Then with each email you send over time, they are more likely to read and act on the information. They might even share your links or free products on groups and add to your viral potential.
Email campaigns on LinkedIn should not be run more often than once a month, and even that can be pushing it a little. Respect your connections, use LinkedIn mail properly and no-one will ever call you spammer!
Have you ever been flagged as a spammer? What happened? We'd love to chat with you!