17 Top LinkedIn Automation Tools for Business Marketing in 2023
Last update: 31 May 2023 at 02:41 pm
Considering that LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network, it’s the perfect environment for digital marketers to promote their campaigns using automation tools. According to the website, LinkedIn has more than 660 million professionals registered on the app.
With its extensive networking functionalities, LinkedIn serves as a platform for job seekers and a portal for organisations searching for new customers. LinkedIn provides immense opportunities to spread brand awareness, bolster business development, and establish beneficial partnerships.
What are Sales Automation Tools?
Sales automation tools enable the sales process to be heavily automated and standardised, from targeting prospects to closing on a sale. In the list below, LeadFuze and SalesLoft Prospect contain the most inclusive sales and marketing features.
Nearly all of the tools we will list, automate email campaigns to an extent. They also offer free trials so that you can test how much authority you need to boost conversion rates.
LinkedIn automation tools are intelligent engines that make connecting with various people and companies faster and more convenient. For digital marketers who want to conduct social selling campaigns and end-to-end social media marketing, installing one of these automation tools can enhance your commerce strategy.
Before we list the top LinkedIn automation tools, there are a few important factors about these tools you should consider first:
- Automation tools help you achieve the upper hand in your market by publishing content for appropriate audiences at the perfect time.
- User interactions are personalised because they are intelligent enough to respond in context. Connections prefer to engage on LinkedIn rather than via email, and you can’t guarantee a 24-hour human response in an email chain. Therefore, companies design automation tools to communicate for you.
- These tools are designed to be extremely intelligent, and as such, they can automate tasks that become monotonous and unnecessary. The tools offer features that make following up a breeze and generate suitable leads.
Let’s take a look at a few of the best LinkedIn automation tools for you and your business.
LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms
This app is by far one of the best automation tools on Linkedin right now. LinkedIn launched this engine in 2017 as part of its aim to improve leads for marketers. This tool utilises pre-filled forms to gather the best quality leads from LinkedIn campaigns and reduce the average cost per lead. Sponsored Content and Sponsored inMail campaigns integrate with the Lead Gen Forms. All this allows you to retrieve data from LinkedIn profiles such as names, email addresses, job titles, professions, employer, qualifications, and experience.
Lead Gen Forms has some of the best tracking technology, too. You can track form submission rates, the cost per lead, and the number of leads it collects per campaign. Lead Gen Forms is native to LinkedIn and has access to every account holder’s CV. This is advantageous since the tool can target specific criteria about a person’s work and personal life.
One drawback is that Facebook may have better reach when looking for specific careers with your target audience in mind. Studies have shown that people spend an average of 45 minutes a day on Facebook, whereas they only log onto LinkedIn every two days. This means you have less time to engage with paid campaigns. Facebook also allows you to test various ad types, so you can A/B test which one has the best functionality.
The advantage of LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms is that it’s pre-populated, all you have to do is press Submit. It is a fully integrated social media tool, and it’s Native to LinkedIn. The disadvantage of LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms is that it’s relatively expensive. It also has less possible engagement time than Facebook.
LinkedIn Helper
As you can probably guess by the name, these LinkedIn automation toolsets out to aid you with social media marketing and augment your brand visibility on the app. With LinkedIn Helper, you can promote your contacts, and in turn, they will promote you and your brand. This will boost your company’s visibility in no time. LinkedIn Helper has an auto mailing feature that also provides you with access to 24-hour communication with business contacts. This feature is exceptionally convenient in that it personalises all professional interactions without human interference.
A great convenience factor about this tool is that it automates repetitive tasks like connecting, messaging, and sending invites. The tool functions as a desktop app and as a Chrome extension, and you can invite a maximum of 300 connections according to segments. Segments are allotted as specific automations per target list. For example, connecting with a graphic designer or managing any of your campaigns. You can also send welcome messages to everyone you connect to with just one click.
We have to highlight that the LinkedIn Helper does not work when you minimize it. If you’re someone who always has multiple windows open in your browser, this wouldn’t be ideal because the software will stop running.
Pros of LinkedIn Helper are that it requires minimal effort from users, and you’ll gain mutual endorsements fast. The tool operates 24 hours, 365 days a year. Cons of LinkedIn Helper include no emoji support and that it’s not optimized for multitasking.
Expandi
Expandi is a relatively new automation platform, but LinkedIn users consider it to be one of the safest for automated messaging. It is a cloud-based tool that aids in boosting your profile by personalizing your messages, utilizing innovative targeting options, and creating connecter campaigns for your business. The simple interface and intuitive design make it convenient for you to set it up on your own.
Because Expandi complies with LinkedIn’s safety regulations, it caps the number of connections you can send out each day. However, as you start to use your account more and more, you will get better results. When one of your prospects responds to one of your messages, it will trigger follow-ups in your drip campaigns.
Advantages of Expandi include its advanced targeting features, and its ability to create multiple outreach campaigns in one account. The tool also transmits connection requests on autopilot to your target audience. The disadvantages of the tool are that it’s quite expensive at $99 per month, and you need other tools to activate certain targeting features.
MeetAlfred
Formerly known as Leonard, MeetAlfred is a premium LinkedIn automation tool specializing in end-to-end social marketing campaigns. Social media marketing requires you to promote and broadcast your message at the appropriate time to the right audience, and you need a tool that pushes personalized transmission on an application like LinkedIn. MeetAlfred allows you to easily send multiple connection requests to your contacts. You can also send messages abundantly if you install MeetAlfred in Google Chrome.
You can use MeetAlfred to maximize interactions and modifications from connections made on LinkedIn by using its CRM functions. This way, you can conduct different campaigns for your audience base to stay connected with your brand/company.
A Smart Reply Detection feature allows you to set actions depending on behaviours; Alfred will stop any campaign sequence if he detects that you have already started a conversation with one of your connections. This way, you’ll avoid delivering any unnecessary or embarrassing duplicate messages. Replies and the conversation record will be visible on the dashboard. A huge plus is that you can create a schedule for when you want the tool to operate. The seller hotspots are from Monday through Thursday, from 8 am – 9 pm.
Pros of MeetAlfred include its “one features all” plan and its extensive knowledge base. MeetAlfred also has comprehensible insights into your LinkedIn profile’s real-time performance. Cons of MeetAlfred is that its educational LinkedIn strategy videos are no longer available, and it only manages one profile. Unfortunately, it only accepts MasterCard and American Express.
Crystal
Crystal is classified as the number one “personality platform” and is optimized to accurately anticipate anyone’s personality, based on their LinkedIn profile. There’s less opportunity for communication to go awry if you know your customers thoroughly and forecast their expectations. With this tool, you can do just that, and it improves your chances of selling your wares. The automation tool uses Personality AI to retrieve target audiences based on assessment reports, text analyses, behavioural patterns and resume matching.
You can use the tool to build healthy relationships while also performing improved decision making because Crystal uses personality insights based on the DISC (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Conscientiousness) personality model to guide your approach. You can view profile assessments by clicking on the profile. Additionally, you can use the tool to invite others to take a personality assessment.
Crystal bases its personality advice on your situation and focuses on providing you with persuasive copywriting. Crystal’s personality AI feature allows you to see what the tool has discovered in terms of personality types. You’ll see Crystal’s preferred candidates and refrains, and it’ll place them somewhere between conscientious, steady, influential, or dominant.
Please consider that people don’t always tell the truth on their profiles, and that can lead Crystal to draw inaccurate profile results. For the free version of the tool, you can only use ten prospects per month. If you need more, you’ll need to pay for the premium version.
Pros of Crystal include its premium Personality AI, which means the AI allows for accurate profiling. It also performs automatic analyses, and no questionnaire is required. Disadvantages of Crystal include its free ten profile rule and DISC statistics might be biased with false information.
Dux-Soup
Dux-Soup is a famous automation tool used for LinkedIn lead generation. The tool identifies leads, cultivates them while also inching them close to conversion. Communicating with prospects becomes more systematic and free of discord when using Dux-Soup. You can customize your messages and include interesting components to your automated responses, such as images. This customization makes the connection more human.
With Dux-Soup, you can browse profiles that interest you, and it assembles them into a CSV file, listing their names, digits, organizations, professions, locations, etc. You can easily download a Google Chrome extension with a fair use limiter that prevents users from exploiting LinkedIn
Dux-Soup also has a fantastic support team. They offer live chat support during US and EU working hours, which means better, faster query resolutions for customers. Over 50,000 people use Dux-Soup, and they can automatically promote new skills, view new prospects and follow specific LinkedIn strategies. The tool also functions as a lead-management system.
It has a premium-tier membership. Several tools are unavailable on the first level, including halting sequences, automated follow-ups, long drip delays, seeing who viewed profiles, and basic tracking systems. If you want access to these key features, it’ll cost you an extra $30 monthly, propelling Dux-Soup into the high-price league.
Dux-Soup advantages are that it’s simple to use for beginners, and the support team is great because they offer speedy customer queries. The tool also has a free forever plan for those not interested in committing financially. Drawbacks include its counterintuitive user interface, and the Chrome extension lags when you’re browsing.
Prospect.io
Prospect.io is a leading sales automation platform that increases your outbound sales team productivity with its multichannel engine. Select your search benchmark and the tool will direct you to premium leads with specific details like name, contact, profession, LinkedIn ID, email, and more. You can also sort leads to various custom criteria.
Prospect.io integrates with PipeDrive, HubSpot, Salesforce, Gmail, and Outlook. You can export the data to an XLS file. It has an Email Finder that uses algorithms to locate any email swiftly. The interface enables you to automate repetitive activities so that you can focus on high-priority tasks.
On occasion, the quality of leads is suspicious, but no lead gen tool is completely accurate. When you add a contact to a list, you cannot make the campaign run instantly, and the drip campaign design can be tricky to follow. Furthermore, you can’t quickly change variables; you have to replicate the whole campaign to conduct an A/B test.
Prospect.io advantages include its “One-click Prospect!” button, making finding prospects easier. Its integration with LinkedIn is simple, and it integrates with many different tools. The disadvantages are that it’s a bit pricey, and it doesn’t integrate automatically.
LeadFuze
With LeadFuze, marketers can run targeted advertisements, give sellers fresh leads, and bring recruiters new talent. The LeadFuze interface is user-friendly, enabling business-to-business targeting using Google Ads. You could target groups who invest a certain amount on paid ads and have a good idea of their spending budgets before connection.
LeadFuze also has a quarantine feature or semi-automation to target 100 leads based on your set categories. If you operate the central outreach, you can skim the list and ascertain that it’s alright before moving it to your fully automated campaign list.
In some instances, the LinkedIn automation tool may have glitches when results don’t appear in the industry or location you filtered for and you should use the semi-automation feature during this time. Searching can also be a little slow, and you’ll want to test this in the trial version before committing to a purchase.
Pros of Leadfuze include its “same features for all” plans. It has a comprehensive knowledge base and increases prospective new leads. The drawbacks of the tool are that its informational videos are no longer available and the filtering system is moderately specific.
Phantom Buster
Phantom Buster is a cloud-based API and data extraction service that promotes business growth by generating leads and accumulating appropriate audiences. The tool can automate most of your web activities, such as scheduled to-dos and automated responses. Key features the tool brings to LinkedIn include:
- LinkedIn Network Booster – instantly send invitations and connect to multiple LinkedIn users
- LinkedIn Profile Scraper – collects a range of data from LinkedIn profiles. Names, position, company, etc.
- LinkedIn Message Sender – sends personalized messages to your LinkedIn contacts
Phantom Buster has many features and shortcuts, but it works better when integrated with other LinkedIn automation tools. If you’re keen on development shortcuts and want to save time, you can extract a target audience with Phantom Buster and pair it with a different LinkedIn tool to expand your reach.
Currently, Phantom Buster only works with LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Google, and Sales Navigator. It helps to find company information using profiles and company URLs and enhances communication by focusing on follower insights.
Advantages of Phantom Buster are that it will export searches for LinkedIn and Sales Navigator. It retrieves data on those who’ve liked and commented on posts, and it can convert Sales Navigator URLs to LinkedIn URLs. The disadvantages of the tool are that it must be used in conjunction with another automation tool, and it’s only usable with five applications.
Zopto
This automation tool allows teams to enhance their lead generation. It’s a cloud-based platform that takes minimal effort to set up. You only need a LinkedIn Premium or Sales Navigator account to use it, and then you can immediately begin filtering for your ideal customers. On your Zopto dashboard, you’ll see collections and data about the campaigns you’re running on LinkedIn for lead gens.
Zopto is primarily for startups and those looking to improve outreach efforts. To effectively use the tool, you need to have a comprehensive understanding of Linked automation and sales. Zopto aids users in finding their customers through:
- Customer filtering – you can filter by industry, company, position, and so forth
- Levels of engagement – after selecting your filter, you can match the appropriate level of engagement and switch on convenient features like message sequences, connection invite, and free inMails.
- Managing your leads – track your leads on your active dashboard, which will keep you updated with the data you require for your lead campaigns
Zopto’s payment procedures are unclear. They don’t inform customers when their free trials end, which turns them into billable users without their immediate consent. There’s not much transparency here.
Pros of Zopto automation are that it uses advanced filters to target ideal customers, and it lets you select your desired engagement level. Negatives are that the billing procedures are not transparent as customers don’t know when their free trial ends. You also can’t automatically cancel a campaign if you accidentally connect with the wrong people.
SocialPilot
SocialPilot is a convenient social media marketing and management channel that helps you develop your social media performance from the start. It aids in creating content, evaluating post functions, scheduling and automating your posts, and managing your brand’s online stature. This forms part of a successful LinkedIn strategy to provide you with features and tools to stay ahead of the game.
With SocialPilot, you get a comprehensive overview of your LinkedIn brand page, which helps to set up performance criteria. The metrics you can view are based on your number of followers, the number of updates you make, engagement development, engagement, and clicks, etc.
After tracking your performance, you can now optimize the posts you share to generate even more engagement. With SocialPilot, you can create more channel-specific posts, and with its LinkedIn publishing features, you can post images or upload directly from the page URL you’re posting. It also allows you to upload videos, gifs, carousel posts, and infographics to boost your interaction value.
Pros of SocialPilot are that it creates and shares interactive posts with connections. It provides an in-depth evaluation of content performance, and it offers intelligent reporting capabilities. Disadvantages of the tool include its clunky user interface and the website lags sometimes.
Attach
Attach is a “powerful yet simple tool” with a precise objective. It allows you to gain insight into a connection’s activity after viewing content you have shared through LinkedIn. LinkedIn’s inMail feature only lets you connect with people through attachments in your messages, such as documents and links. The question is, how do you know that after sharing all that info, anyone has actually viewed or read it?
With Attach, you can link any document to a message and track its engagement afterward. For instance, the tool records when someone opens the document, which pages they read, and even how much time they spent reading the document.
These insights enable you to perceive which of your connections are still interested in your shared content and those whose engagement is dwindling. The pointers also help you create an improved follow-up procedure for various prospects, including actively engaged and dormant.
Pros of Attach is that it has an easily downloadable Chrome extension. It integrates easily with Dropbox, Google Docs, etc., so you’ll have several file formats available in your LinkedIn messenger. Negatives of Attach are that it cannot perform certain functions, so you’ll need to switch between two different apps. The tool also doesn’t come with on-phone and integration support.
Salesloft Prospector
Salesloft Prospector aims to revolutionize the sales field and encourage clients to use LinkedIn to empower their businesses with superior results. You can integrate Salesloft with Sales Navigator and use the combo’s strength to enhance LinkedIn connections and conversations.
The integration also provides you with real-time insights on what’s currently happening with your contacts and the company that employs them. Effectively, this aids in creating a user personality that you can leverage to design an ideal marketing scheme.
Salesloft makes your workload easier and 10 times more efficient. You’ll have access to insights by using your sales engagement platform, so you won’t need to complete intricate steps that make other tools so perplexing.
Pros of Salesloft Prospector include its perfect match at cadences. You can collect multiple cadences and create rules that will locate leads accordingly. Its decent activity tracking lets you see calls, emails, reminders, and tasks you have completed. It also creates templates and snippets from ordinary objects and can request feedback. Negatives about the tool are that it can’t integrate with premium subscriptions, and it doesn’t detect when connections are unavailable.
IFTTT
This one is not a typical LinkedIn automation tool, but rather If This Then That (IFTTT) is an innovative AI-based platform that aims to construct improved connections in the world. Its competencies do, however, allow you to use it for LinkedIn automation. IFTTT contains several pre-set automation called recipes, which you can apply to lead cultivation or prospect screening.
Certain IFTTT functions include:
- You can automatically post images from Instagram onto LinkedIn
- You can use defined hashtags and automatically share Facebook Page photos to your LinkedIn profile
- Share WordPress posts on your LinkedIn profile or with specific LinkedIn groups as soon as they’re published
IFTTT is highly intuitive and has a snappy interface, and the recipes are simple to arrange. You’re not required to be a coding specialist to run the IFTTT platform in practical scenarios. The application works well with SaaS products, making it suitable for lead generation and social media management.
Pros of IFTTT are that it’s easy to use and understand, and it integrates with many other tools. The disadvantages are that triggers occasionally don’t work, and you can’t tell why. The tool also only sets up in one condition, you cannot set it up using the “if this and this” type of commands.
Is LinkedIn Automation Illegal?
LinkedIn has a delicate relationship with all 3P services, mainly because they fell out with a company called hiQ Labs. The company had created a tool that scraped all LinkedIn’s data, and as a result, LinkedIn filed suit against them. Now, when you log onto the LinkedIn website, you’ll see a page labeled “Prohibited Software and Extensions.” It explains that LinkedIn doesn’t permit any 3P software that automates features of the LinkedIn website.
It may seem as if LinkedIn prohibits automation tools from preventing its competitors from usurping information and using it to start their own SaaS company. Although that might be true, LinkedIn is also exceptionally concerned about its reputation and any damage resulting from spammers. LinkedIn has been accused of harbouring spammers in the past, which propelled them to limit automation tools in an effort to reduce spam.
Whether or not you should use automation tools with LinkedIn may be a difficult question. On one side of the coin, LinkedIn asserts that using these tools is against their terms of service. On the other side, some well-known marketers swear by the tools and endorse them on the platform without facing any hint of retaliation. So what does this mean for the ordinary business owner?
Right off the bat, LinkedIn can block you if it detects that you’re using automation tools. If you can’t afford that risk, it’s better not to do it. Furthermore, spamming doesn’t work, it is a waste of time and energy, and the receiver is not interested.
In the end, it all boils down to being an ethical LinkedIn user. The ability to communicate with people is important. Doing it digitally even more so, and spam is considered poor communication. Bottom line: don’t spam.
Purchasing Guide
Now that we’ve listed all premium LinkedIn automation tools, it’s all up to you. You can sign up for a few free trials and determine which tool is better suited for you. This way, you’ll know which one to invest in to promote your market strategy.
- Using LinkedIn automation tools safely – you’re now aware that LinkedIn may ban your account if you use certain tools, but these tools are used daily with excellent results. You have to take caution and not breach daily limits which are 250 daily actions and 100 daily invitations
- Productive automation tools must imitate user performance – the more intuitive the tool is, the more you’ll be able to set guidelines with behaviours and prevent them from flagging you
- They do not create automation tools equally – some of the tools in this list may be limited to a higher or lower degree. Certain tools may focus on lead gens and target audiences, while others specialize in market strategy and recruitment. It’s up to you to decide which tool works for you.
Final Thoughts on LinkedIn Automation Tools
Because the app generates results, LinkedIn has become a hub for professionals to expand their brand and for recruiters to find the perfect candidate. It is the go-to platform for nearly all companies with effective B2B connections in mind. Using LinkedIn automation tools to enable you to connect to a broad audience is a great advantage.
The tools mentioned above allow you to conduct your company’s business while saving time and increasing productivity. They also empower you to perform revolutionary activities that have never been seen before in marketing. And since marketing is a central element of business, there’s no doubt that we’ll be seeing even more innovations in LinkedIn automation tools in the future.