LinkedIn InMail credits allow you to directly contact other members on LinkedIn that you are not connected to. Having the ability to send InMails can be very useful for making important business connections or reaching out to potential clients and customers. However, LinkedIn limits the number of InMail credits available to free account holders and lower-tier premium account holders. So what happens when you use up all of your allotted InMail credits?
Getting More InMail Credits
If you run out of your allotted InMail credits, you have a few options for getting more credits:
Upgrade Your LinkedIn Account
The easiest way to get more InMail credits is to upgrade to a premium LinkedIn account. LinkedIn offers several tiers of premium accounts, with more expensive plans including more InMail credits per month. For example, LinkedIn Premium Career accounts get 30 InMails per month, while Sales Navigator accounts get up to 100 InMails per month depending on the plan. Upgrading your account is the simplest way to continually have access to InMails.
Purchase Additional InMail Credits
In addition to upgrading your account, you can also purchase extra InMail credits directly through LinkedIn. The cost is $10 for a bundle of 10 InMail credits. This can be a good option if you just need a handful of additional InMails for a specific outreach campaign. Purchased InMail credits will be added to your account immediately after checkout.
Wait for Credits to Replenish
If you have a free LinkedIn account, your monthly allotment of InMail credits will replenish at the start of each new month. For example, free accounts get 5 InMails per month, so your credits will restore back to 5 at the beginning of each month. Depending on your usage, it may make sense to simply wait until the monthly refresh to send additional InMails.
Use Connection Recommendations
LinkedIn’s connection recommendations tool will sometimes prompt you to send an InMail to someone you may know. If you use the “Send Now” button on these recommendations, it will not count against your regular InMail credits. So checking for recommendations can provide a way to send a limited number of “free” InMails each month.
What Happens When You Try to Send an InMail Without Credits
If you try to send an InMail on LinkedIn without having any credits available, here is what will happen:
InMail Sending Blocked
Without the required InMail credit, LinkedIn will not allow you to send the InMail message. When you try to complete sending the message, you will get an on-screen notification that you do not have any InMail credits. The message will not be delivered.
Prompt to Purchase More Credits
After blocking the message from being sent, LinkedIn will prompt you to purchase more InMail credits. This makes it easy to quickly add more credits to your account as needed.
Option to Downgrade Message
In some cases, LinkedIn may give you the option to downgrade your InMail into a regular 1st-degree connection request. This means the recipient would have to approve connecting with you before they could see the message.
Message Is Lost
If you aren’t able to purchase more credits or downgrade the message type, the InMail content will be lost. Your message will not be sent or saved anywhere. The only option at that point is to rewrite the InMail when you have more credits.
Strategies for Avoiding Running Out of InMails
Here are some tips to help make sure you don’t use up all of your InMail credits:
Track Your Usage
Keep an eye on how many credits you have used and how many are left each month. That way you’ll have advance notice before running out.
Limit InMail Length
Try to keep your InMail messages concise. The longer the message, the more credits used.
Focus on Quality Over Quantity
Carefully target who you are sending InMails to rather than blasting out mass messages. Higher relevance means better results.
Use Sparingly
InMail is intended primarily for initial outreach. Try connecting through content before resorting to using an InMail.
Check for Recommendations First
See if the person appears in your connection recommendations before using an InMail, since those are free.
LinkedIn Account Type | Monthly InMail Credits |
---|---|
Free Account | 5 |
Premium Career Account | 30 |
Sales Navigator Pro Account | 50 |
Sales Navigator Team Account | 75 |
Sales Navigator Enterprise Account | 100 |
Conclusion
Having access to InMail credits is important on LinkedIn for making meaningful connections. If you run out of credits, upgrade your account, purchase more, or be more selective about who you message until your credits replenish. With some strategizing, you can avoid the roadblock of running out of InMails. Utilize all of LinkedIn’s communication tools like connection requests, content sharing, and recommendations to supplement direct InMailing when possible.