LinkedIn is the best platform for networking, lead generation, and business growth. However, leveraging LinkedIn to its full potential requires significant time and effort. This is where LinkedIn automation tools come in handy.
Let’s understand what it is all about LinkedIn automation and the best tools that can help you automate your LinkedIn activities:
What Is LinkedIn Automation?
LinkedIn automation refers to automating manual, repetitive tasks such as sending connection requests and follow-up messages, accepting submissions, creating lead lists, and publishing posts. This helps you save time and build your LinkedIn network with less effort. Moreover, automation empowers you to improve the lead generation process and increase sales.
Want to dive deep into LinkedIn Benefits, Best Practices, and Limitations? Read our exclusive blog here!
What are LinkedIn Automation Tools?
LinkedIn automation tools are software tools designed to replicate human behavior and carry out activities on our behalf. Besides saving time, LinkedIn automation tools offer other benefits, such as running personalized campaigns at scale. These tools send customized messages to specific audiences, making them more effective in driving conversions and generating leads. LinkedIn automation tools can collect data and insights from your campaigns, allowing you to improve your outreach.
You can also integrate these automation tools with other marketing tools to create effective omnichannel campaigns. You can deliver a seamless and consistent experience for your prospects across different touchpoints.
Types of LinkedIn Automation Tools
Though automation is a great way to streamline your LinkedIn efforts, a slight misstep can result in temporary account restrictions or even permanent bans. That’s why it is crucial to make an informed decision when choosing a LinkedIn automation tool. To do so, you need to understand the various automation tools available.
LinkedIn Automation Tools – Based on Automation Type
1. Browser-based LinkedIn Automation Tools
Browser-based automation tools run as browser extensions or plugins. They integrate with your web browser, allowing you to perform LinkedIn automation tasks within your browser window. This means you do not have to download or install software on your computer to use these tools.
Browser-based automation tools typically have a user-friendly interface that enables you to automate tasks such as profile viewing, connection requests, messaging, and more. These tools use various techniques to automate tasks, such as scraping data from LinkedIn pages, using APIs to interact with LinkedIn, and using machine learning algorithms to automate tasks based on user behavior.
Pros of Browser-based Automation Tools
- Easy to use
- Less expensive, as no server costs are incurred
- Highly flexible, allowing customization of automation tasks
Cons of Browser-based Automation Tools
- It works only when the browser is opened. It will not run in the background.
- Other browser extensions can impact the automation performance
- These tools depend on browser caching, which makes them easier to detect
- They are more prone to crashes and technical issues as they are hosted on local machines
2. Cloud-based LinkedIn Automation Tools
Cloud-based automation tools operate on cloud servers instead of locally on a user’s computer. Unlike traditional software that must be downloaded and installed on a local machine, cloud-based automation tools are hosted on remote servers and accessed via the Internet. This means users can access their LinkedIn automation tools from any device with an internet connection and a web browser, making it easier to work remotely or on the go. Moreover, as the tool operates on cloud servers, you can quickly scale the usage up or down depending on your requirements. This is especially suitable for organizations that experience regular changes in demand.
Pros of Cloud-based Automation Tools
- The tools can run even when your computer is off
- Leverages a dedicated IP address
- Manages multiple accounts
- Integrated inboxes
- Handles large volumes of data and tasks – suitable for running multiple campaigns simultaneously
- Offers advanced features such as A/B testing, analytics, and lead scoring
- The tools are updated automatically by the provider, which means that you always have access to the latest features and bug fixes
Cons of Cloud-based Automation Tools
- The tool leverages a different IP address than yours
- Uses LinkedIn API a lot
- As users’ data is stored on remote servers, there is a risk of data breaches or cyberattacks.
- Users need a stable internet connection to access and use the tool
- Tools have limited customization options compared to locally installed software
3. Desktop-based LinkedIn Automation Tools
Desktop-based automation tools come in the form of software applications that you must download and install on your local machine. These tools run the automation directly from your desktop. Typically, these desktop-based automation tools have more advanced features than browser-based tools, such as high levels of customization, more extensive targeting options, data analytics, and the ability to run multiple campaigns simultaneously. However, these tools are more expensive and require significant time and resources to set up and configure. Moreover, you need a dedicated computer or virtual machine to run these tools, which can be a drawback if you prefer to work on the go.
Additionally, as desktop-based LinkedIn automation tools rely on a single IP address, they are more susceptible to detection and account restrictions than cloud-based options. Therefore, using these tools cautiously and complying with LinkedIn’s terms of service is crucial.
LinkedIn Automation Tools – Based on Application Type
LinkedIn automation tools are further segregated into four types based on usage. Let’s dig deep:
1. LinkedIn Messaging Automation Tools
LinkedIn messaging automation tools are designed to automate and streamline sending and managing LinkedIn messages and improve their outreach. Typically, these tools have features that enable users to send bulk messages, personalize message templates, schedule message campaigns, and track the performance of their messaging efforts.
These tools benefit users who want to send messages to hundreds or thousands of people quickly. You can save the time and effort needed to draft each message manually. You can also pre-program follow-ups, like when to send the follow-up and which message to send. Moreover, you can personalize your messages at scale by integrating custom variables like names, designations, and companies into your messages.
However, there are some challenges to using LinkedIn messaging automation tools. For one, there is a risk of sending spam or irrelevant messages if users do not carefully target their message campaigns. Additionally, LinkedIn has strict limits on the number of messages users can send daily, and excessive messaging can lead to account restrictions or bans.
2. LinkedIn Scraping Tools
LinkedIn scraping tools automatically extract names, job titles, email addresses, phone numbers, and other contact details from LinkedIn profiles and company pages. The collection can be used for lead generation, market research, and competitor analysis, among other purposes.
These scraping tools leverage web scraping techniques to extract data. This involves sending automated requests to LinkedIn servers to retrieve web pages and then analyzing the HTML code to glean relevant data. Some tools may also use APIs provided by LinkedIn to collect data in a more structured and reliable way. The most common use of the scraping tool is to extract leads into a CSV. Then you can upload these files into LinkedIn automation tools.
3. Multichannel Outreach Tools
Multichannel outreach tools are designed to enable businesses to reach their connections through multiple communication channels simultaneously. You can send messages, emails, and social media posts to your leads, contacts, and prospects through various channels like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, email, and SMS. This significantly increases your reach, engagement, response rates, conversions, and sales. These tools are a one-stop shop for LinkedIn scraping, cold emails, and message automation.
Moreover, multichannel outreach tools offer advanced features like automation, personalization, and tracking, which help save time and increase the effectiveness of outreach efforts. With automation, you can schedule messages to be sent at specific times, while personalization enables you to tailor messages to the individual recipient. At the same time, tracking features allow monitoring the effectiveness of the outreach efforts and tracking open rates, click rates, and other metrics.
4. LinkedIn Marketing Automation Tools
LinkedIn marketing automation tools are designed to automate marketing tasks such as publishing posts, sending connection requests, messaging, commenting, and liking posts. These tools also enable you to create targeted ad campaigns targeting specific LinkedIn users based on their job titles, company sizes, locations, and other demographic criteria.
The Top 10 LinkedIn Automation Tools
Many different LinkedIn automation tools are available in the market, each with unique features and benefits. With so many options available, choosing the tools that best suit your needs is crucial. Here, we have listed the ten best LinkedIn automation tools to help you decide which one is right for you:
| Best LinkedIn Automation Tool | Automation Type | Tool Type |
| Expandi | Cloud-based tool | Multi-channel outreach tool |
| Zopto | Cloud-based tool | Multi-channel outreach tool |
| Skylead | Cloud-based tool | Multi-channel outreach tool |
| We-Connect | Cloud-based tool | Messaging tool |
| Dux-Soup | Browser-based tool | Messaging tool |
| MeetAlfred | Cloud-based tool | Multi-channel outreach tool |
| LIA | Cloud-based tool | Multi-channel outreach tool |
| Salesflow | Cloud-based tool | Multi-channel outreach tool |
| LInkedHelper | Desktop-based tool | Messaging tool |
| Phantombuster | Cloud-based tool | Messaging & Scraping tool |
1. Expandi.io
Expandi is a cloud-based multi-channel outreach tool. It’s handy for growth hackers, agency owners, and businesses managing multiple LinkedIn accounts. The easy-to-use dashboard makes managing LinkedIn accounts efficient.
Expandi randomly delays the activities to mimic human behavior and helps you comply with LinkedIn terms. Moreover, the advanced dynamic personalization feature enables you to extract images from your prospect’s profile and include them in your messages.
Pros of Expandi:
- Integrates with other marketing tools to create a powerful omnichannel growth hack
- The Smart Inbox feature enables you to manage your inbox messages easily and boost customer engagement without missing a chat conversion.
- The tool comes with a dedicated and local IP address, ensuring safety
- An auto warm-up increases daily limits gradually
- Keeps a check on daily LinkedIn message automation and connection request to ensure compliance with LinkedIn conditions
- The tool sends connection requests, messages, InMails, and emails
- Smart sequencing
- Offers other options like skill endorsement and following companies
- A/B testing allows users to evaluate campaign strategies
- Highly customizable
Cons of Expandi:
- No API
- No automation support for Twitter
- Complex UX design
- A bit more expensive than other tools
Pricing
Expandi is available for $99/month. You can also try the tool for free with its 7-day free trial.
2. Zopto
Zopto is a cloud-based multi-channel outreach tool. It enables you to automate your lead generation while customizing the prospects by title, company size, seniority level, location, industry, and more. You can also match the required level of engagement with different prospects, like connection invites, message sequences, and free InMails. Moreover, Zopto works with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Recruiter, and LinkedIn Premium. The tool also integrates with GPT-3, enabling you to leverage AI to draft personalized messages.
Pros of Zopto:
- Allows A/B testing
- Automatically detects replies
- Allows unlimited campaigns
- Posts scheduling feature
- Price is charged based on usage
- Integrates with CRM tools and other marketing automation tools
- The data cleanse feature removes emojis and symbols from the extracted data
- The InMail feature allows you to send InMails to premium users with an open profile
Cons of Zopto:
- Importing data from LinkedIn is complex
- Initial setup is difficult
- No free trial
Pricing
Zopto comes in three pricing plans:
- Personal plan at $215/month
- Grow plan at $395/month
- Agency plan at $895/month
3. Skylead
Skylead is a cloud-based multichannel outreach tool. It is one of the safest LinkedIn automation tools as it imitates human-like behavior. Skylead is the first tool to use smart sequences, an algorithm that executes steps in the order you define, depending on your leads’ behavior. It has an integrated Smart Inbox to track leads’ responses to your outreach easily. Moreover, Skylead is the only automation tool that offers limitless Email Discovery & Verification features to help identify your leads’ email addresses and reach out to them over email.
Pros of Skylead:
- In-built image and GIF hyper-personalization
- Smart reply detection
- Integrates with CRM tools via webhooks using Zapier
- Allows A/B testing
- Works with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Premium, and Recruiter
- Supports CSV-imported campaigns
- Unlimited campaigns
- Warm-up mode
Cons of Skylead:
- Limited customization options
- Expensive
Pricing:
Skylead is available for $100 per account/month. A free trial option is available.
4. We-Connect
We-Connect is a cloud-based LinkedIn messaging tool. It offers a range of features, such as automated messaging, connection requests, follow-ups, and advanced search filters. You can personalize messages using variables such as name, company, and job title to make your messages more targeted and engaging. Moreover, intelligent reply management allows you to send replies automatically. The tool also offers randomized delays between actions to help you look natural to LinkedIn algorithms.
Pros of We-Connect:
- Free InMails enable you to message open profiles
- Features advanced reporting tool
- Includes a campaign manager
- Removes pending invitations
- Facilitates A/B testing
- Contacts segmentation
- 14-day free trial
Cons of We-Connect:
- No proxies
- A bit complex to understand
- Poor customer support
Pricing:
We-Connect is available for $49/month
5. Dux-Soup
Dux-Soup is a browser-based LinkedIn automation tool. This messaging tool enables users to automatically connect, message, or InMail prospects after generating the lead list. Dux-Soup automatically views prospect profiles, endorses their skillset, analyzes their behavior, and sends personalized connection requests and follow-up messages. You can also track the prospects by adding comments and tags to their profiles, which can later be exported to your CRM.
Pros of Dux-Soup:
- Allows LinkedIn drip campaigns
- Effective prospects management
- Simple to use
- Available in 9 languages
- Good customer support
- Inexpensive
Cons of Dux-Soup:
- Not a cloud-based tool, so you need your browser on to run the tool
- Limited functionality
Pricing:
Dux-Soup is available in three pricing plans:
- Starter Dux for free
- Pro Dux for $11.25/month
- Turbo Dux for $41.25/month
6. MeetAlfred
MeetAlfred is a cloud-based LinkedIn automation tool designed for multi-channel outreach. It provides numerous customizable templates to personalize the campaign based on the prospect’s preferences. MeetAlfred creates a truly multi-channel outreach by allowing you to interact with your prospects naturally wherever they are, either on Linkedin, Email, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
Pros of MeetAlfred:
- In-built CRM
- Powerful analytics dashboard
- Built-in safety limits
- Post scheduling
- Integrates with 300+ tools & applications
Cons of MeetAlfred:
The tool works only with Gmail or Microsoft account
Pricing:
MeetAlfred is available in three pricing plans:
- Personal plan at $29/month
- Business plan at $79/month
- Enterprise Plan at $599/month
7. LIA
LIA is a cloud-based LinkedIn automation tool designed for automating multi-channel outreach campaigns. The built-in integrations enable users to filter leads by job title, company size, location, and industry. You can now engage your prospects with profile views, connection requests, endorsements, messages, Emails, InMails, and Twitter DMs. Moreover, the tool adds a hyper-personalized and humanized approach to your outreach campaigns, doubling or tripling your reply rates.
Pros of LIA:
- Allows multiple campaigns
- Unlimited message scheduling
- Auto warm-up
- Dedicated IP-address
- Smart activity mode
- Auto deletion of pending invites
- Multi-step campaign management
- High converting templates
- Insights dashboard
- Advanced LinkedIn CRM
- Third-party automation
- InMail automation
- Multiple account management
Cons of LIA:
- No free trial is available
Pricing:
LIA is available at $97/month/account
8. Salesflow
Salesflow is a relatively new entrant to the LinkedIn automation ecosystem. Yet, its enticing features have garnered massive popularity in a short period. Designed for sales teams, agencies, and SMBs, Salesflow helps businesses accelerate their lead generation and outbound sales. You can automatically run multiple outreach campaigns simultaneously for different market segments with hyper-personalized campaign messages. Moreover, advanced reporting and statistics help you fine-tune your lead-generation efforts.
Pros of Salesflow:
- Unlimited follow-up messages
- Smart & customisable inbox & chat
- Send 400 invites per month
- Send up to 800 open InMails
- Real-time AI-driven Lead management Inbox
- Integrates with CRM and Zapier
- API Access
- Compatible with LinkedIn Basic and Sales Navigator
- Import CSV for hyper-personalized targeting
Cons of Salesflow:
- Limited integrations
- New entrant
Pricing:
Salesflow is available in three pricing plans:
- Business plan at $99/month
- Done for your plan (Managed Campaign) at $499/ month
- Agency plan – Price on request
9. LinkedHelper
LinkedHelper is a desktop-based LinkedIn automation tool. It offers many advanced features to streamline lead generation and sales outreach. The tool helps you scrape data of prospects or profiles from LinkedIn or the Sales Navigator inbox and export it to CSV. You can create automated personalized messages with custom images and send them to your 1st connections. LinkedHelper automates everything, from inviting people, following profiles, and endorsing skills to withdrawing pending invites, liking, commenting on posts, and removing connections.
Pros of LinkedHelper:
- Supports drip campaigns
- Smart detection of replies
- In-built CRM
- 30+ features
- Hyper personalization
- Multi-source targeting
- Bulk messaging
- User-friendly
- Works with all the LinkedIn platforms
- 14-day free trial
Cons of LinkedHelper:
- No inbuilt email function
- No support for using emojis in messages
- It runs only when the PC is ON
Pricing:
LinkedHelper is available in two pricing plans:
- Standard plan at $15/month
- Pro plan at $45/month
10. Phantombuster
Phantombuster is an all-in-one automation tool that helps you extract leads lists, enrich data and emails, and send highly personalized outreach campaigns at scale, among other things. You can source qualified leads from all major platforms, including LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Recruiter, Instagram, and Twitter. Moreover, Phantombuster features 100+ no-code automation tools that anyone can use.
Pros of Phantombuster:
- Seamlessly import data to any CRM
- Scrapes data from LinkedIn profiles, including emails
- Automatically connects with users by sending personalized invitations
- In-built email finder
- 14-day free trial
Cons of Phantombuster:
- Complex APIs
- Difficult to use
Pricing:
Phantombuster is available in three pricing plans:
- Starter plan at $59/month
- Pro plan at $139/month
- Team plan at $399/month
Some other popular LinkedIn automation tools are:
- Zoominfo
- Waalaxy
- LeadFuze
- Octopus CRM
- Dripify
- UpLead
- Lempod
- TexAu
- Reply.io
What Factors to Keep in Mind When Selecting a LinkedIn Automation Tool
With many LinkedIn automation tools available in the market, choosing the best breeds can be challenging. Here are some factors you need to consider when selecting an automation tool:
- Features: Select the tool that offers the specific features you need to achieve your goals.
- Integration: If you already use other marketing tools, consider a tool that can integrate seamlessly.
- User interface: Choose a tool that has a user-friendly interface. This makes it easier for you to manage your campaigns.
- Safety: As LinkedIn has strict rules on the use of automation, using the wrong tool can get your account suspended. Look for tools with safety features like randomization and delay settings to avoid getting detected.
- Pricing: Tools come with different pricing models. Select the tool that fits your budget and requirements.
- Support: Consider a tool that offers excellent customer support to help you with any issues. Good support can save you time and help you maximize your investment in the tool.
Conclusion
While using LinkedIn automation tools is vital to create and manage outreach campaigns at scale effectively, you are always at risk of your account getting suspended if you are not cautious. This is where AI Avatars (AIAs) help you.
AI Avatars are the safest way to take your outreach efforts to the next level using LinkedIn automation. These Avatars act as an extension of your team. Plugin AIA into your favorite LinkedIn automation tools, including but not limited to Expandi, Skylead, Zopto, Salesflow, We-Connect, Buzz, and LIA, to get started.
Get AI Avatars Now & Scale Your LinkedIn Outreach Safely!
