From ActiveNetworkersGuide and InvitationManagement

Using email when you're out of LinkedIn invitations.

Using email when you're out of LinkedIn invitations. A. You use emails to invite people to send you an invitation. B. You don't use emails Result and Lesson

It's advisable to send email to your contacts, asking them to send LinkedIn invitations. Indeed it's the only choice if you don't have any invitations left.

 

But if you can request more invitations, which typically requires a business account, don't automatically think that email is the best strategy!

 

The following example shows why. It's due to your invitation grant being based on acceptance rate.

 

Now your mileage may vary. There are a lot of assumptions here. So test it out first!

 

Assumptions:

• Your average acceptance rate is 80% for random contacts that you would invite
• If you email people to send you an invitation, you'll receive invitations from 40% of them.
• You have 500 contacts a month that you could invite if possible.
• You are granted 300 invitations initially to send out.

 

A. You use emails to invite people to send you an invitation.

 

You email 500 contacts. 200 send you invitations that you accept. You send invitations to the 300 who didn't accept.

 

The acceptance rate is lower than your average acceptance rate because the people who went to the effort to send you emails would have accepted one from you 100% of the time. 200 of this leftover group of 300 accept for an acceptance rate of 65%.

 

TOTAL NEW CONNECTIONS FOR MONTH 1 - 200 send you invites + 200 accepted = 400.

 

Next month you get a grant of only 200 invitations due to your lower than average acceptance rate. You email 500 contacts. 200 send you invitations that you accept. You send invitations to 200 who didn't invite you. 65% or 130 accept.

 

TOTAL NEW CONNECTIONS FOR MONTH 2 and successive months - 200 send you invites + 130 accepted = 330.

 

B. You don't use emails

 

You invite 300 people. 80% or 240 accept.

 

TOTAL NEW CONNECTIONS FOR MONTH 1 = 240.

 

Next month you get a grant of 500 invitations for an average acceptance rate. You invite 500. 80% of 400 accept.

 

TOTAL NEW CONNECTIONS FOR MONTH 2 and successive months = 400.

 

Result and Lesson

 

Using email can be counterproductive. Initially it results in much higher new connections. But it also picks off your best connections. As a group, the people who are left for you to invite are less likely to accept. It's reverse cherry picking. See Email. The people who send you invites would be slam dunks if you invite them. But because you encourage people to invite you first, when you finally do invite others, these surefire LI members are no longer available. So the people you do invite result in a lower invitation acceptance rate and higher IDK rate

 

As in the example above, this can lead to FEWER new connections in the long run if you use email.

 

 

MarcFreedman