It's the big news of October 2023: LinkedIn introduced some new limitations to standard accounts (i.e. people who are not paying a premium LinkedIn or Sales Navigator account).
It used to be that you could send 150-250 connection requests per week. But that has changed!
Fear not, we will tell you everything you need to know - and provide you advice on what you should do next!
Table of Content
What are the new limits for LinkedIn standard accounts?
The party is over for free users on LinkedIn. Up until October 2023, there was no difference in terms of volume/limits between a free account on LinkedIn, and a paid one.
Namely, all accounts had the same quota on connection request
150-250 connection requests are allowed per week.
If you added a note, no impact on the quota
The note was limited to 300 characters
Now, LinkedIn free accounts are subjected to different restrictions :
150-250 connection requests / Week - WITHOUT NOTES
10 Connection Request / MONTH - WITH NOTES.
Yes, you read that right, per month!
Connection requests with notes are limited to 200 characters. Not 300 characters anymore.
As mentioned by Linkedin in the screenshot, this is a restriction to LinkedIn free accounts
We've reached out to LinkedIn which has confirmed the change :
What does this mean for your prospecting strategy? Let's see the implications.
What are my strategic options if I want to remain on the Free LinkedIn?
If you have a tight budget, upgrading might not be an option. You have two options then :
When crafting your sequence, make sure not to include a note anymore.
This way, you will not be affected by the recent change and will still be able to connect with 150-200 new people a week.
If you chose to include a note, you should consider upgrading to a Premium or Sales Navigator
And given that sending a connection request with a note tends to increase conversion rates, you should definitely think about upgrading!
Let's look at the upgrade option together!
Why should I upgrade to a LinkedIn Premium account (35€/month)?
As mentioned earlier, sending a connection request with a note tends to yield a better conversion rate, so you'll probably end up upgrading.
The good news is that it's not very expensive to unlock the old limits of 150-250 connection requests per week with a note.
Considering you can almost double your opportunity rate, it's definitely worth the 35€/months!
But you should even go as far as considering upgrading to the Sales Navigator plan
LGM Best Practice: When should you upgrade to a LinkedIn Sales Navigator Account (75€/month)?
At La Growth Machine, we've always recommended that any of our users upgrade to a Sales Navigator account. And much before the recent changes around the connection request limits.
Upgrading to the Sales Navigator plan will not only :
Allow you to benefit from the higher restriction of 150-250 connection requests with a note per week, as enabled with the Premium Plan
But allow enable to source leads directly from Sales Navigator. And as data shows, segmentation is the key part of any good strategy.
And Sales Navigator is the best tool out there to build a strong segmentation strategy! By using Sales Navigator Right, you can easily generate +30% reply rate sequences.
Dedidacted Sales Navigator Training
It's an advanced platform which requires a bit of training, but of course, we've got you covered.
It’s up to you now!
You'll understand it, we quite agree with LinkedIn's recent change. Even though that means a slight budget increase, it's only 35€/month to get started.
If you're a bit short on money, you can get ahead by removing notes for a few weeks, getting your first few clients, and then upgrading to a paid LinkedIn licence.
But soon enough, you'll experience the need to segment as you better understand your audience, and this is when you'll upgrade to Sales Navigator :)
All, in due time!