Everything You Need To Know About LinkedIn Sponsored InMails

December 22, 2016 - By Aaron Hockel

For years, LinkedIn members have used InMail to send messages to any user with a guaranteed delivery of the message. InMails are one of LinkedIn's most successful features and a huge reason many users pay for premium accounts. While InMails are an incredibly useful tool, they have always been limited in terms of use at scale. This all changed when LinkedIn announced in a November blog post that Sponsored Inmails were now accessible to advertisers in their self-serve advertising suite.

What are LinkedIn Sponsored InMails?

LinkedIn sponsored InMails are messages that get sent directly to the inboxes of targeted LinkedIn users based on demographics. This 2 minute video from LinkedIn offers a great summary of sponsored InMails:    

How are LinkedIn sponsored InMails different from traditional InMail?

First, it is important to remember that traditional InMail is a one to one message sent by an individual user while sponsored InMail is an automated advertising function. Based on this key distinction, here are 2 major differences:

1. Recipients cannot reply to sponsored InMails the same way they would a normal message. Their only options are to click on a hyperlink in the text or the call to action button. Driving conversions from sponsored InMail requires an optimized landing page. Users cannot reply to the message the way they would with a traditional InMail.
 
2. Recipients only receive sponsored InMail messages while they are active on LinkedIn. This is a key feature that helps drive significantly higher open rates than traditional cold email marketing. Our current open rate on an existing sponsored InMail campaign is 44%!.

Sponsored InMail is not designed to replace traditional InMail in the LinkedIn ecosystem. It is simply an additional advertising channel that can reach large targeted audiences with a branded message featuring a call to action.

How much do LinkedIn sponsored InMails cost?

Before they were added to the self serve advertising suite, LinkedIn sponsored InMails were extremely expensive. They could only be executed by working through LinkedIn sales and the minimum required budget was over $10,000. Thankfully, this is no longer the case and LinkedIn sponsored InMails are now very affordable. Here are 3 quick stats:

1. The minimum total campaign budget is $25.00
2. Expect to pay around $0.75 to $0.80 per send
3. Our current cost per open is $1.70

Before sponsored InMail was added to the self service advertising suite, they were not a viable form of advertising for the majority of small to medium sized businesses. Now that they have been added to the self serve suite and can be executed at a starting price point of $25.00, LinkedIn sponsored InMails are an affordable user friendly

How can my business launch a sponsored InMail campaign?

Anyone with a LinkedIn account can set up an advertising account and launch a sponsored InMail campaign. To begin setting up a campaign, start by visiting the LinkedIn marketing solutions page by clicking here. If you are new to LinkedIn advertising, the team at AltaVista Strategic Partners is available to answer any questions you might have about the process. To schedule a free no obligation consultation simply fill out the contact form on this page, call us at 800-313-2168 or send an email to [email protected].