LinkedIn Recruiter is a powerful talent sourcing and engagement tool used by recruiters and talent acquisition professionals. One of its key features is InMail, which allows recruiters to directly contact qualified candidates who are not already connected to them on LinkedIn.
InMail messages on LinkedIn go directly to a member’s inbox, bypassing the need for a connection request. This allows recruiters to proactively reach out to potential candidates who might be a good fit for an open position.
However, LinkedIn places monthly limits on the number of InMails a recruiter can send in order to prevent recruiter spam and abuse. Exceeding the InMail limit will result in recruiters being unable to send additional InMails until the next month.
So what exactly is the InMail limit on LinkedIn Recruiter? The specifics depend on the type of LinkedIn Recruiter account you have.
InMail Limits for LinkedIn Recruiter Lite
LinkedIn Recruiter Lite is LinkedIn’s entry-level subscription plan for recruiters and sourcers. It offers basic functionality for finding and engaging candidates on LinkedIn.
The InMail limit for LinkedIn Recruiter Lite is 50 InMails per month.
This allows recruiters to directly contact up to 50 qualified prospects per month that they are not already connected to on LinkedIn.
While 50 InMails per month may be sufficient for smaller companies and teams, larger recruiting organizations often find this limit restrictive. 50 messages often gets used up very quickly when recruiting for multiple openings simultaneously.
Strategies for LinkedIn Recruiter Lite
Here are some tips for working with the 50 InMail monthly limit on LinkedIn Recruiter Lite:
– Prioritize InMail outreach only to your top candidates who are a strong match for the role. Avoid spraying out InMails randomly.
– Use InMail sparingly and stagger sending them over the course of the month. Don’t use up all 50 in the first few days.
– Monitor your monthly InMail usage under the ‘Activity’ tab so you know how many you have left.
– If you go over 50, you’ll have to wait until the 1st of the next month to send more messages. Plan ahead to avoid delays.
– Supplement InMails with LinkedIn connection requests to expand your network over time.
– Use advanced searches and filtering criteria to identify prospects who share a LinkedIn Group or past company with you. You are more likely to share a connection through which you can send an introduction request instead of using your limited InMails.
While 50 InMails per month is not ideal for large-scale talent sourcing, for freelance recruiters and small teams it can get the job done with careful planning and prioritization.
InMail Limits for LinkedIn Recruiter Professional
Recruiter Professional is LinkedIn’s mid-tier subscription package. It offers enhanced functionality beyond LinkedIn Recruiter Lite.
The key advantage of Recruiter Professional in terms of InMail is that it offers 300 InMails per month.
This is a major increase over the Recruiter Lite plan, enabling professional recruiters to send six times as many InMail messages to prospects.
300 InMails per month provides much more flexibility for recruiters to source candidates, especially if hiring for multiple positions or locations.
Strategies for LinkedIn Recruiter Professional
Here are some best practices for making the most of the 300 InMail monthly limit on LinkedIn Recruiter Professional:
– Set aside a portion of InMails for spontaneous outreach when you discover an interesting new target. Don’t pre-allocate all 300.
– Create an InMail tracking spreadsheet to monitor usage and results by candidate. Identify trends and successful messaging strategies.
– Test sending InMails on different days of the week and times to determine if response rates vary. Weekday mornings often perform best.
– Personalize each InMail by highlighting the candidate’s impressive experience, achievements, or background. Avoid copy/paste messages.
– Follow up any promising InMail conversations by sending across a LinkedIn connection request. Don’t let the conversation stall.
– If you go over 300 InMails, again you’ll need to wait until next month. Build in buffer room in your planning.
With careful InMail management, 300 messages per month provides professional recruiters the volume they need to execute successful LinkedIn sourcing campaigns.
InMail Limits for LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate
LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate is LinkedIn’s premium subscription package designed for enterprise teams. It offers numerous advanced capabilities.
One of the biggest advantages of Recruiter Corporate is a whopping 1,500 InMails per seat, per month.
For large talent acquisition teams, this massive volume of InMail enables extensive direct outreach to engage with passive candidates open to new roles.
1,500 monthly InMails also provides tremendous flexibility. Recruiters can take more risks sending speculative InMails and experiment with different messaging strategies.
Strategies for LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate
Here are some tips for maximizing the 1,500 InMail per month allowance with LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate:
– Conduct A/B testing of different subject lines, personalized messages, call-to-action types, etc. Identify optimals.
– Build templates and automation for sending batch InMails to save time while still personalizing content.
– Segment your talent pools and customize nurturing InMail campaigns for technology, finance, engineering prospects etc.
– Report on InMail metrics such as replies, connection requests, and conversions to quantify effectiveness.
– Stay organized using tags, saved searches, project lists, and follow-up reminders for your high volume of outreach.
– Monitor usage to avoid crossing the 1,500 InMail threshold which will cut off sending abilities mid-month.
With Recruiter Corporate, talent teams finally have the InMail volume for executing sophisticated, large-scale sourcing campaigns on LinkedIn.
InMail Limits Comparison
LinkedIn Recruiter Plan | Monthly InMail Limit |
---|---|
Recruiter Lite | 50 |
Recruiter Professional | 300 |
Recruiter Corporate | 1,500 |
To summarize the key differences:
– Recruiter Lite has 50 InMails per month, best for individuals and small teams.
– Recruiter Professional has 300 InMails per month, ideal for professional recruiters.
– Recruiter Corporate has a whopping 1,500 InMails per month, tailored for enterprise recruiting teams.
The InMail limit often becomes a major factor when deciding which LinkedIn Recruiter plan makes the most sense for an organization based on their hiring volume and budget. Maximizing the number of InMails available helps recruiters scale their sourcing efforts.
InMail Purchase Add-Ons
Beyond the core InMail monthly limits, LinkedIn does offer ways to purchase additional blocks of InMails as needed:
– InMail Credits – For all account types, recruiters can purchase credits in packs of 50, 100, or 300 InMails. These do not renew monthly but provide one-time additional capacity.
– Extra InMail Seats – For Recruiter Corporate, additional InMail seats can be added to an account above the base number, starting at 750 InMails per additional seat. This expands the team’s overall monthly InMail limit.
The ability to buy extra InMail Credits or Corporate Seats prevents recruiting efforts from stalling if the base limits are exceeded. Budgets should account for these potential add-on costs.
For the majority of recruiters, the base InMail limits suffice most months. But the option to purchase more provides helpful flexibility in peak hiring periods or when sourcing for hard-to-fill roles.
InMail Limits for Job Postings
In addition to the InMail limits based on LinkedIn Recruiter account type, there are also InMail allotments associated with LinkedIn job postings.
Whenever a new job is posted on LinkedIn, the posting account receives a one-time bundle of InMails specifically to target candidates for that open position. The amounts are:
– LinkedIn Easy Apply postings – 12 InMails
– LinkedIn regular job postings – 25 InMails
– LinkedIn Partner postings (via 3rd party job board integration) – No InMails provided
These InMails received for new job postings do not count against the normal monthly limits. They serve as an added bonus for recruiters to strategically tap into candidates soon after publishing a new opening.
Some tips for maximizing this influx of InMails when sharing jobs:
– Save InMails until you have posting language finalized so targeting is on point.
– Spread out InMail sends over the first weeks after posting rather than all at once.
– Focus on niche skills, qualifications, or passive prospects beyond applicants.
– Customize each message to match candidate backgrounds rather than batch sending.
With careful coordination, companies can effectively layer general postings InMails on top of a recruiter’s usual monthly allowance to increase engagement.
InMail Limits for Recruiter Seats
One final aspect of InMail limits – for LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate accounts, the 1,500 monthly InMail allocation applies per seat or user license.
For example, a company with 5 Recruiter Corporate seats would have:
– 5 x 1,500 = 7,500 available InMails each month collectively across the talent acquisition team.
This enables larger teams with multiple recruiters, sourcers, talent advisors etc to leverage pooled InMail capacity.
Members of the team can coordinate:
– Who focuses efforts on which talent segments or roles
– When peak hiring times are for different positions so InMail volume can be allocated accordingly
– How to ensure teamwide InMail usage stays below 7,500 to avoid month-end cutoffs
The ability to distribute a large InMail allowance across an entire recruiting team helps drive more strategic and unified talent sourcing.
InMail limits per seat also enables internal management where certain users like senior recruiters may have higher InMail assignments, while junior team members work with smaller allotments.
Self-imposed teamwide InMail limits can prevent abuse while still taking advantage of the business account allowances.
Conclusion
To maximize your talent sourcing efforts on LinkedIn, it’s important to understand and optimize the InMail limits associated with your specific Recruiter account.
Here are some key takeaways:
– InMail allowances range from 50/month (Recruiter Lite) up to 1,500/month (Recruiter Corporate)
– Purchase extras through InMail Credits or additional Corporate seats if needed
– Leverage bonus InMails when posting new jobs
– For Corporate teams, distribute InMails strategically across recruiters
– Monitor usage regularly – don’t let limits cutoff outreach prematurely
While InMail caps force discipline, using your account’s monthly volume strategically provides tremendous power for engaging and recruiting qualified candidates on LinkedIn.