LinkedIn Premium is LinkedIn’s paid subscription service that unlocks additional features beyond the free version of LinkedIn. LinkedIn Premium provides users with extra tools and capabilities to grow their network, find jobs, connect with other professionals, and build their brand. However, at $29.99-$59.99 per month depending on the plan, LinkedIn Premium is significantly more expensive than the free version of LinkedIn. This leads many to ask – why is LinkedIn Premium so expensive compared to the free service?
Key Benefits of LinkedIn Premium
LinkedIn Premium offers several benefits over the free version:
Expanded profile views and searches
With a Premium account, you can see everyone who has viewed your profile in the past 90 days. This allows you to identify who is interested in you and your work. Premium also enables unlimited advanced profile searches so you can precisely target the professionals you want to connect with.
InMail messages
Premium members get access to InMail messages which let you directly contact anyone on LinkedIn, even if you’re not connected. This expands your networking reach beyond just your 1st-degree connections.
Job seeking and recruiting tools
Premium has advanced job tools like the ability to apply with 1-click and see how you compare to other applicants. For recruiters and HR professionals, Premium enables targeted searches, InMail messages to candidates, and management of the entire hiring workflow.
Content publishing and analytics
Premium allows you to publish long-form posts and articles that establish your expertise. You also get detailed analytics on content performance so you can optimize engagement.
Learning courses and professional coaching
LinkedIn Learning comes bundled with Premium to provide over 15,000 expert-led courses. You also get access to LinkedIn’s network of career coaches for personalized guidance.
Why the Premium Price is Justified
While the $29.99-$59.99 monthly cost may seem high, there are some valid reasons why LinkedIn charges a premium for its paid services:
LinkedIn has a monopoly
With over 800 million members, LinkedIn is by far the largest and most powerful professional social network. There is no comparable alternative that offers the same breadth of features and user base size. This lack of competition enables LinkedIn to charge higher prices without fear of losing customers.
Premium targets business professionals
LinkedIn Premium is designed for business professionals, job seekers, recruiters, and salespeople who depend on LinkedIn to generate business opportunities. For these users, the premium features create tangible financial value that exceeds the monthly cost.
Developing and maintaining the platform is expensive
With millions of members, LinkedIn requires massive infrastructure and hundreds of engineers to keep the platform running. Premium subscriptions help fund these underlying costs.
Premium features require active development
LinkedIn continuously invests in improving Premium with new capabilities. This ongoing innovation and maintenance requires dedicated teams of product managers, designers, and developers.
Customer support is comprehensive
As a Premium subscriber, you get high-quality customer support via live chat, email, and phone. This dedicated support team exclusively serves paying members.
Breakdown of LinkedIn Premium Plans and Pricing
LinkedIn offers three tiers of Premium subscription with increasing levels of features. Here is a breakdown of each plan and what’s included:
Plan | Monthly Cost | Key Features |
---|---|---|
Premium Career | $29.99 | Profile views, InMail messages, advanced profile searches, interview preparation tools |
Premium Business | $44.99 | All Career benefits plus publishing long-form posts, company research tools, expanded analytics |
Premium Sales | $64.99 | All Business benefits plus sales automation tools, lead recommendations, unlimited InMail messages |
As shown above, the Sales plan is the most expensive since it adds sales-specific capabilities like lead recommendations and automation on top of the other features.
Premium Career
The Premium Career plan at $29.99 per month provides job seekers and individual contributors with tools to find opportunities, build their network, develop skills, and stand out from other candidates. Given high competition for jobs at many companies, professionals often find the career-focused Premium features to be a worthwhile investment.
Premium Business
Stepping up to the Premium Business tier at $44.99 per month makes sense for managers, executives, entrepreneurs, and marketers who want to establish thought leadership and gain data-driven insights. The expanded content publishing and analytics capabilities empower professionals to build their personal brand and shape perception.
Premium Sales
For sales professionals who live and die by LinkedIn for generating leads and closing deals, the Premium Sales tier at $64.99 per month delivers automation to maximize efficiency. The additional investment gives salespeople back more time to actually sell instead of manually prospecting for contacts.
Evaluating the Return on Investment of Premium
With LinkedIn Premium priced at up to $64.99 per month, many prospective members rightly want to analyze the potential return on investment before subscribing. Here are some key questions to ask:
How much could Premium increase your earnings?
If you gain additional clients, land a new job with higher pay, or close more deals as a result of Premium, could the monetary gains exceed the monthly cost? Quantify the earnings upside.
How much time could Premium save you?
Estimate how many additional hours per week or month you could save by using tools like automated sales workflows or 1-click apply instead of manual processes. What is your hourly rate? Multiply the expected time savings by your rate.
What is the value of reaching your target audience?
Access to the full LinkedIn community could help you connect with key decision-makers such as hiring managers, investors, or C-level executives. What is access to those elite connections worth?
Can Premium accelerate your goals?
If Premium enables you to land a promotion one year earlier or generate 10 more leads per month, what is reducing that timeline or increasing volume worth in monetary terms?
Running through questions like these will help you reasonably estimate the potential ROI of upgrading to Premium based on your personal and professional objectives.
Tips for Getting the Most Value from LinkedIn Premium
To maximize your return on investment from LinkedIn Premium, focus on applying the features that offer the most value for your goals:
Leverage profile views data
Analyze who is looking at your profile the most to identify decision-makers and tailor your outreach accordingly.
Proactively use InMail
Be strategic in reaching out to your dream companies or clients via InMail instead of waiting for a response.
Publish regularly
Consistently create high-quality written, video, and audio content to build your audience and demonstrate expertise.
Expand your network wider
Search beyond your existing connections to find relevant contacts using Premium search filters.
Automate outreach campaigns
Use Premium sales automation tools to convert leads faster with less manual effort.
Complete training courses
Proactively develop in-demand skills using LinkedIn Learning courses to advance your career or business.
Applying these tips can help you extract the full capability of LinkedIn Premium to exceed the monetary investment.
Is LinkedIn Premium Worth the Cost?
Ultimately, the value of LinkedIn Premium depends on your individual use case and ability to capitalize on the advanced features.
For job seekers, LinkedIn Premium can provide an edge in discovering opportunities and showcasing your qualifications that might result in higher earning potential over time.
Marketing, sales, and business development professionals may be able to directly attribute incremental leads and revenue to Premium tools like improved company targeting, automation, and expanded relationship-building capabilities.
However, if you are not actively leveraging the Premium features that apply to your goals, you may not find the expensive subscription worthwhile compared to the free version. Evaluating your expected usage and ROI can help guide your decision.
While Premium requires a significant monetary investment, the time-saving productivity benefits, access to exclusive features, and ability to more quickly accomplish your objectives may make the paid membership worthwhile for many business professionals.
Conclusion
LinkedIn Premium offers valuable capabilities beyond the standard free version of LinkedIn. However, the $29.99-$64.99 monthly subscription cost is substantially higher. LinkedIn can charge a premium price because the platform has scarce competition at scale, targets working professionals who depend on LinkedIn for livelihood, and requires extensive resources to develop and maintain.
The Premium plans unlock additional features focused on job seeking, branding, sales, and learning. Analyzing the potential return on investment based on career advancement, revenue generation, time savings, and audience access can illuminate whether the expensive upgrade may be justified. Ultimately, active usage of the Premium tools that map to your goals will maximize the value derived to warrant the spend for many members.