What is a LinkedIn Automation Tool
LinkedIn automation tools let you automate the manual tasks you’re already doing on LinkedIn. With a good LinkedIn automation tool, you’ll be able to automatically search for new contacts, send connection requests, and automate follow up messages. And the best LinkedIn automation platforms provide functionality around visiting LinkedIn profiles, liking posts, and endorsing skills, so you can easily boost your LinkedIn presence.
Why Use a LinkedIn Automation Tool
LinkedIn automation lets you scale yourself. Typically, you can only be in one place at one time… But the best LinkedIn automation tools act as a second pair of hands running actions on LinkedIn for you. This frees you up to focus on other priorities. With a great LinkedIn automation tool, you can literally do two things at the same time.
Risks of Using LinkedIn Automation Tools
Please proceed with caution. There are several risks of using LinkedIn automation:
- You could get yourself banned from LinkedIn
- You could blast through your limits
- You could accidentally spam your community
However, it is certainly possible to use LinkedIn automation well, and avoid these potholes!
My recommendation to start by writing all of your connection requests, introductions, and follow up messages personally. And then, only when you find yourself repeating yourself, start automating!
This helps you come across naturally – because you’re just automating what you would have said one-on-one.
Choosing the best LinkedIn Automation platform for Sales Prospecting
We evaluated several platforms to find the best LinkedIn automation tools for sales prospecting. This is the main criteria we took into consideration:
- Feature breadth
- Ease of use
- Pricing
- Customer rating
Our top LinkedIn automation platform choices are below. Let us know if there are any you love that we should add to the list!
Best LinkedIn Automation Tools:
Pros and Cons of Each LinkedIn Automation Tool
LinkedIn Automation Tool #1: Expandi
Expandi lets you reach out to prospects on LinkedIn and email with automated sequences.
Source: Exandi.io
Key Features
- Expandi lets you search for contacts and automate actions on LinkedIn.
- The LinkedIn automation actions include visiting profiles, following profiles, following companies, making skill endorsements, liking posts, and sending connection requests, follow up messages, and InMails.
- There is an Analytics Dashboard to help you optimize performance.
Customer Reviews
- G2 Rating: 3.7/5
Pros
- Customers tout how simple and intuitive Exandi is for automating actions on LinkedIn.
- Users report great results, sometimes seeing 10x higher replies on LinkedIn.
Cons
- At $99 / seat per month, Expandi is more expensive than alternative LinkedIn automation tools.
- While customers love the simplicity of the platform, Expandi has fewer features than competitive LinkedIn automation platforms.
Pricing
Expandi has a flat rate cost of $99 / seat per month.
Source: expandi.io/pricing
LinkedIn Automation Tool #2: Phantombuster
Phantombuster lets you scrape useful data from LinkedIn, automate actions to interact with prospects, and enrich your CRM.
Source: phantombuster.com
Key Features
- Phantombuster lets you extract data from LinkedIn contact profiles and company profiles (and import it into your CRM!)
- You can automate actions, such as auto-following profiles, auto-liking posts, sending customized messages, accepting requests, and more.
- Phantombuster has ready-made automations on all major social networks and websites (including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., not just LinkedIn).
Customer Reviews
- G2 Rating: 4.1 / 5.0
Pros
- Phantombuster is fully-featured when it comes to gathering leads, contacting the leads, tracking activities and extracting followers and prospects from different social media platforms.
- While the platform is complicated to use, Phantombuster provides excellent YouTube tutorials and customer support
- Phantombuster offers a 2 week trial and free tier, which is fantastic for testing it out or using it lightly
Cons
- Phantombuster is incredibly feature-rich, which can make it challenging to understand at first.
Pricing
With five different plan options, Phantombuster is flexible for your needs.
LinkedIn Automation Tool #3: Octopus CRM
Octopus CRM helps you automate prospecting and lead generation on LinkedIn.
Source: octopuscrm.io/blog/octopus-for-linkedin-how-it-works
Key Features
- Octopus CRM lets you send automated connection requests on LinkedIn and more via email to bypass the weekly invite limit on LinkedIn
- You can visit profiles automatically, automatically endorse up skills, and message connections in bulk
- Octopus CRM has safety measures to avoid being banned from LinkedIn
- And, of course, a dashboard to watch stats and evaluate performance
Customer Reviews
- G2 Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Pros
- Customers tout that Octopus CRM is more intuitive than competitive LinkedIn automation tools
- Users see results quickly… In the blink of an eye, Octopus CRM can get you 100+ potential leads.
- Octopus CRM’s pricing is very affordable compared to other LinkedIn automation tools.
- Octopus CRM has quick video tutorials to explain every feature.
Cons
- Octopus CRM is not really a “CRM” (it’s a LinkedIn connection tool), so its name is misleading. (But that’s also why it belongs on this list!)
- Not everything is automated. You need to go in daily, perhaps multiple times per day, to transfer and launch each step of the campaign.
- You need to keep an eye on LinkedIn limitations to make sure you don’t hit your cap ahead of schedule.
Pricing
Octopus’ paid tiers start at just $6.99, and even their unlimited plan is quite affordable at $24.99 / mo.
LinkedIn Automation Tool #4: Dux-Soup
Dux-Soup automatically engages with the prospects you select on LinkedIn. It endorses their skills, sends them personalized connection requests and multiple, delayed, personalized direct messages.
Source: Dux-Soup.com
Key Features:
- Dux-Soup lets you send automated and personalized LinkedIn connection requests and follow up messages
- You can delay responses so your LinkedIn account doesn’t get blocked in automation
- These LinkedIn automation workflows can be managed from your CRM
Customer Reviews
G2 Rating: 4.2 / 5
Pros
- Dux-Soup is very efficient — like with other LinkedIn automation platforms, you can automate manual LinkedIn tasks to increase connections and followers
- Dux-Soup’s pricing is very friendly for individual entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Cons
- Dux-soup can slow down LinkedIn. When you open a new page or list there might be 5 to 10 second delay because Dux-Soup is loading information
- Sometimes it gets complicated to set up a campaign or outreach with integrations of different platforms.
Pricing
Dux-Soup has different pricing plans for individuals, teams, and agencies. You can start for free, and get a lot of functionality for just $14.99 / mo.
Source: dux-soup.com/pricing/individual
LinkedIn Automation Tool #5: TexAu
TexAu automates manual work on social media platforms to help you generate leads faster.
Source: g2.com/products/texau/reviews
Key Features
- TexAu lets you extra and enrich data from LinkedIn
- It has workflow automation on LinkedIn and 10+ websites, including Facebook, Twitter, and Quora
- You can use over 1,000 integrations via Zapier and in-built integrations to connect or pass between tools
Customer Reviews
G2 Rating: 4.3 / 5.0
Pros
- TexAu is super feature rich. You’re able to build complex workflows and integrations across 1,000+ tools for multi-channel outreach.
Cons
- TexAu has a steep learning curve. There isn’t a ton of use case documentation, so it’s up to you to figure out how you can best leverage the seemingly infinite integrations and workflow automation.
Pricing
Source: texau.app/pricing
LinkedIn Automation Tool #6: Closely
Closely is a Linkedin automation tool with a built-in unified inbox and email finder features.
Source: Closelyhq.com
Key Features
- Closely allows you to import target audience by just copy-pasting your Linkedin search URL.
- Each Linkedin account gets a dedicated residential proxy for free.
- Closely includes an Explorer database of business contact emails.
- Unified inbox displays conversations from all connected Linkedin accounts for easy replies and tagging.
Customer Reviews
G2 Rating: 4.8/5
Capterra Rating: 4.5/5
Pros
- Quick campaign creation process
- Active Facebook community
- Supports uploading email list for more connection requests
Cons
- Lack of webhooks
- Less customizable sequences than competition
Pricing
Closely has a flat rate cost of $50 per seat per month.
Add a Personal Touch to Your LinkedIn Automation with Video
At Sendspark, our motto is automate what you can automate, but personalize what needs be personalized.
Amid your automated outreach and follow up messages, add a human touch with personalized video sales outreach.
You can use the Sendspark LinkedIn integration to easily create LinkedIn videos. Sendspark lets you send video messages on LinkedIn to stand out and connect more personally with prospective customers.
Just record your video with Sendspark, and add the video link either directly to your LinkedIn messages, or in messages on any of the platforms above.
Get started with Sendspark for free here. Happy connecting!
