As digital communication continues to evolve, B2B sales teams are constantly adapting to new tools and strategies.
For years, email was the go-to platform for business outreach. However, a new contender has entered the ring: LinkedIn InMail. While both platforms have their strengths, the question remains—which one truly rules B2B communication?
In this post, we’ll dive into the LinkedIn InMail vs. Email debate and explore the strengths and weaknesses of each platform.
We’ll break down the core differences, evaluate their effectiveness in B2B outreach, and help you decide which one should take center stage in your communication strategy.
What is LinkedIn InMail?
LinkedIn InMail allows you to send direct messages to people outside your immediate network on LinkedIn.
If you’re familiar with LinkedIn’s messaging restrictions, you’ll know that sending messages to 2nd and 3rd-degree connections is usually limited unless they accept your connection request.
InMail bypasses this limitation, allowing you to connect with anyone—without waiting for a connection request to be accepted.
That said, InMail isn't free.
To access this feature, you need a Premium LinkedIn account, with the most affordable option being Sales Navigator at $79.99/month, which gives you 50 InMail credits.
You can also earn back credits for each positive or negative response, potentially giving you better ROI if you maintain a high response rate (over 40%).
Email vs. InMail: Which is More Effective for B2B Outreach?
Now that we understand the basics of both platforms, let’s dive deeper into how email and InMail stack up against each other in key areas such as cost, ROI, performance tracking, resources required, and prospect segmentation.
1. Cost & ROI: Which One Delivers More Value?
Email: Email is essentially free. The primary cost associated with email campaigns is time and resources—specifically the effort needed to create compelling content, manage your list, and implement automation. Despite these costs, email delivers an impressive ROI. On average, businesses can expect a $40 return for every $1 spent on email marketing.
LinkedIn InMail: On the other hand, InMail is a paid service. At $79.99/month for 50 credits, it works out to $1.60 per message. To make that cost worthwhile, you'd need to maintain a 40% response rate, which is challenging to achieve consistently. While email offers a higher ROI, InMail can quickly become expensive unless it’s executed properly.
2. Data-Driven Performance Tracking
Email: One of the standout advantages of email marketing is its ability to provide data-driven insights. With platforms like Smartlead, you can easily track open rates, click-through rates, and reply rates. These metrics help you evaluate the effectiveness of your campaigns and make adjustments to improve results over time.
LinkedIn InMail: LinkedIn offers basic tracking for InMail messages, such as response rates, but lacks deeper engagement insights like open rates. This makes it harder to optimize your InMail strategy based on concrete data. If your business thrives on performance analytics, email is the more reliable choice.
3. Resources Required: Which Platform Needs More Effort?
Email: Crafting a successful email campaign requires time and expertise, as well as potentially investing in tools such as cold email software, CRM systems, or email automation tools.
However, once your system is in place, email marketing becomes relatively low-maintenance and highly scalable. You can manage multiple campaigns with minimal effort, especially if you implement follow-up sequences.
LinkedIn InMail: InMail requires not just a financial investment for the Premium account but also time spent crafting personalized messages.
Given the platform's reliance on human engagement, you'll need to invest in maintaining a high response rate and personalizing each outreach message. In addition, staying up-to-date with LinkedIn’s ever-evolving features can take time and effort.
4. Follow-Up Capabilities: Which Platform Nurtures Leads Better?
Email: Email marketing shines when it comes to follow-ups. Platforms like Smartlead allow you to set up automated follow-up sequences, ensuring that prospects are nurtured consistently over time. This can be critical, as it often takes multiple touchpoints to convert a lead into a customer. Automated follow-ups also help maintain engagement without requiring you to manually check in on every lead.
LinkedIn InMail: Unfortunately, InMail doesn’t offer the same level of automated follow-up capabilities. Typically, each InMail is a one-off message. If you don’t get a response, you’ll need to manually follow up. This process can be cumbersome, especially if you’re managing a large-scale outreach campaign. It’s harder to scale effectively with InMail unless you hire a team to handle follow-ups manually.
5. Prospect Segmentation: Which One Helps You Target the Right Audience?
Email: One of the greatest strengths of email marketing is its advanced segmentation capabilities. You can organize your contacts into targeted segments based on detailed criteria such as behavior, demographics, or past interactions. This allows you to send hyper-relevant messages to the right audience, increasing your chances of conversion.
LinkedIn InMail: While LinkedIn offers segmentation based on professional profiles, the level of granularity isn’t as robust as email. InMail relies largely on LinkedIn’s pre-existing filters (such as industry or job title), which can be useful but aren’t as advanced as the custom segmentation you can implement with email platforms. If personalization and targeting are key to your outreach strategy, email might be a better option.
Unique Selling Points of LinkedIn InMail
While email has its advantages, LinkedIn InMail offers several unique benefits that make it a valuable tool in certain B2B outreach scenarios:
- Active Status: LinkedIn lets you see when a prospect is online or active, so you can time your messages more effectively to increase the chances of a response.
- InMail Visibility: Unlike email, which can get buried in crowded inboxes, InMails often stand out in LinkedIn’s messaging system, making it easier to catch the recipient’s eye.
- Mobile Optimized: InMail is fully optimized for mobile devices, which makes it easy for recipients to engage while on the go.
- Sponsored InMail: Sponsored InMails can help you reach a larger audience. These messages often have a 20% open rate, comparable to email, making them a potentially effective paid strategy for outreach.
Best Practices for LinkedIn InMail
To maximize the effectiveness of your LinkedIn InMail outreach, follow these best practices:
- Keep it Short: InMails that are short and to the point tend to get higher response rates. Aim to grab attention quickly and avoid long, verbose messages.
- Personalize Your Message: Tailor your InMail to each recipient by referencing something specific about their profile or company. Personalization increases the likelihood of a response.
- Craft a Catchy Subject Line: The subject line is the first thing your prospect sees. Make it relevant, personal, and attention-grabbing.
- Avoid Weekends: Send InMails during business hours, ideally on weekdays. Weekend messages tend to get lower engagement rates since many professionals are less active on LinkedIn during their off days.
Best Practices for Cold Emailing
Effective cold emailing requires finesse. Here are some tips to help you craft better emails:
Short Subject Lines: Keep your subject line concise and personalized to increase the chances of your email being opened.
Keep the Body Slim: Attention spans are short, so be brief. Focus on a clear introduction, a quick explanation of why you’re reaching out, and a polite closing.
Personalize Your Emails: Tailored emails feel more personal and build trust with your prospects. Use their name and reference their business or needs to increase engagement.
Follow-Up: Studies show it often takes multiple touchpoints to convert a lead into a customer, so don’t forget to follow up!
Conclusion: Is Email Still King?
While LinkedIn InMail offers several advantages, especially for reaching out to prospects outside your network, email continues to dominate the B2B communication landscape. It’s affordable, data-driven, and highly scalable.
That said, LinkedIn InMail can be an effective complement to your email outreach strategy, particularly if you’re targeting professionals who may be harder to reach via traditional email channels.
However, it’s essential to weigh the cost against the potential return, as LinkedIn InMail’s response rates are generally lower than email, and its tracking and automation features aren’t as robust.
Email is here to stay, with professionals increasingly incorporating email checking into their daily routines.
However, as LinkedIn continues to innovate, InMail may evolve and become a more effective tool in B2B outreach. For now, email remains the go-to solution for most businesses, but a balanced approach using both platforms could yield optimal results.
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Rajashree
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Frequently asked questions
What is Smartlead's cold email outreach software?
Smartlead's cold email outreach tool helps businesses scale their outreach efforts seamlessly. With unlimited mailboxes, fully automated email warmup functionality, a multi-channel infrastructure, and a user-friendly unibox, it empowers users to manage their entire revenue cycle in one place. Whether you're looking to streamline cold email campaigns with automated email warmups, personalization fields, automated mailbox rotation, easy integrations, and spintax, improve productivity, or enhance scalability with subsequences based on lead’s intentions, automated replies, and full white-label experience, our cold email tool implifies it in a single solution.
What is Smartlead, and how can it enhance my cold email campaigns?
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How does the "unlimited mailboxes" feature benefit me?
Our "unlimited mailboxes" feature allows you to expand your email communications without restrictions imposed by a mailbox limit. This means you won't be constrained by artificial caps on the number of mailboxes you can connect and use. This feature makes Smartlead the best cold email software and empowers you to reach a wider audience, engage with more potential customers, and manage diverse email campaigns effectively.
How does Smartlead as a cold emailing tool can automate the cold email process?
Smartlead’s robust cold email API and automation infrastructure streamline outbound communication by transforming the campaign creation and management processes. It seamlessly integrates data across software systems using APIs and webhooks, adjusts settings, and leverages AI for personalised content.
The cold emailing tool categorises lead intent, offers comprehensive email management with automated notifications, and integrates smoothly with CRMs like Zapier, Make, N8N, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive. Smartlead supports scalable outreach by rapidly adding mailboxes and drip-feeding leads into active campaigns Sign Up Now!
What do you mean by "unibox to handle your entire revenue cycle"?
The "unibox" is one of the unique features of Smartlead cold email outreach tool, and it's a game-changer when it comes to managing your revenue cycle. The master inbox or the unibox consolidates all your outreach channels, responses, sales follow-ups, and conversions into one centralized, user-friendly mailbox.
With the "unibox," you gain the ability to:
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How does Smartlead ensure my emails don't land in the spam folder?
Smartlead, the best cold email marketing tool, ensures your emails reach the intended recipients' primary inbox rather than the spam folder.
Here's how it works:
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Can Smartlead help improve my email deliverability rates?
Yes, our cold emailing software is designed to significantly improve your email deliverability rates. It enhances email deliverability through AI-powered email warmups across providers, unique IP rotating for each campaign, and dynamic ESP matching.
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What features does Smartlead offer for cold email personalisation?
Smartlead enhances cold email personalisation through advanced AI-driven capabilities and strategic integrations. Partnered with Clay, The cold remaining software facilitates efficient lead list building, enrichment from over 50 data providers, and real-time scraping for precise targeting. Hyper-personalised cold emails crafted in Clay seamlessly integrate with Smartlead campaigns.
Moreover, Smartlead employs humanised, natural email interactions and smart replies to boost engagement and response rates. Additionally, the SmartAI Bot creates persona-specific, high-converting sales copy. Also you can create persona-specific, high-converting sales copy using SmartAI Bot. You can train the AI bot to achieve 100% categorisation accuracy, optimising engagement and conversion rates.
Can I integrate Smartlead with other tools I'm using?
Certainly, Smartlead cold email tool is designed for seamless integration with a wide range of tools and platforms. Smartlead offers integration with HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Clay, Listkit, and more. You can leverage webhooks and APIs to integrate the tools you use. Try Now!
Is Smartlead suitable for both small businesses and large enterprises?
Smartlead accommodates both small businesses and large enterprises with flexible pricing and comprehensive features. The Basic Plan at $39/month suits small businesses and solopreneurs, offering 2000 active leads and 6000 monthly emails, alongside essential tools like unlimited email warm-up and detailed analytics.
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What type of businesses sees the most success with Smartlead?
No, there are no limitations on the number of channels you can utilize with Smartlead. Our cold email tool offers a multi-channel infrastructure designed to be limitless, allowing you to reach potential customers through multiple avenues without constraints.
This flexibility empowers you to diversify your cold email outreach efforts, connect with your audience through various communication channels, and increase your chances of conversion. Whether email, social media, SMS, or other communication methods, Smartlead's multi-channel capabilities ensure you can choose the channels that best align with your outreach strategy and business goals. This way, you can engage with your prospects effectively and maximize the impact of your email outreach.
How can Smartlead integrate with my existing CRM and other tools?
Smartlead is the cold emailing tool that facilitates seamless integration with existing CRM systems and other tools through robust webhook and API infrastructure. This setup ensures real-time data synchronisation and automated processes without manual intervention. Integration platforms like Zapier, Make, and N8N enable effortless data exchange between Smartlead and various applications, supporting tasks such as lead information syncing and campaign status updates. Additionally, it offers native integrations with major CRM platforms like HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive, enhancing overall lead management capabilities and workflow efficiency. Try Now!
Do you provide me with lead sources?
No. Smartlead distinguishes itself from other cold email outreach software by focusing on limitless scalability and seamless integration. While many similar tools restrict your outreach capabilities, Smartlead offers a different approach.
Here's what makes us uniquely the best cold email software:
1. Unlimited Mailboxes: In contrast to platforms that limit mailbox usage, Smartlead provides unlimited mailboxes. This means you can expand your outreach without any arbitrary constraints.
2. Unique IP Servers: Smartlead offers unique IP servers for every campaign it sends out.
3. Sender Reputation Protection: Smartlead protects your sender reputation by auto-moving emails from spam folders to the primary inbox. This tool uses unique identifiers to cloak all warmup emails from being recognized by automation parsers.
4. Automated Warmup: Smartlead’s warmup functionality enhances your sender reputation and improves email deliverability by maintaining humanised email sending patterns and ramping up the sending volume.
How secure is my data with Smartlead?
Ensuring the security of your data is Smartlead's utmost priority. We implement robust encryption methods and stringent security measures to guarantee the continuous protection of your information. Your data's safety is paramount to us, and we are always dedicated to upholding the highest standards of security.
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