Your inbox is pinging with emails from LinkedIn that tell you that Premium will drastically help your profile. You ignored the emails and now the LinkedIn Sales Team are bombarding you with direct messages to an ‘exclusive’ 30 day free trial with Sales Navigator.
As a company, we train and support businesses who want to build their revenue from LinkedIn, so you can imagine how many times we are asked whether LinkedIn Premium is worth it.
So, what’s our verdict?
The Basic LinkedIn Account
Firstly, the basic version of LinkedIn is a great tool for building a professional online profile. Like Facebook and Twitter, you are able to reconnect with friends, colleagues and classmates and build your network. But, unlike other social media accounts, LinkedIn enables you to connect with like-minded professionals in your industry. It also gives you other features such as LinkedIn Publisher, which you can use to post content to a wider audience. There are a lot of benefits of using the free version. You can search for other members and receive unlimited InMail messages to connect with people. You can write recommendations and request them from your connections. All of these features are beneficial to building your professional identity and company.
Now what does Premium offer to your LinkedIn strategy?
The Premium LinkedIn Subscription
LinkedIn offers four different subscription plans. You can find and hire talent, get hired and get ahead, and/or unlock sales opportunities to grow and nurture your business. A crucial ally for your business development is Sales Navigator. Sales Navigator is helpful because you are able to search and save potential leads. The free version by comparison only gives you 3 saved searches. These features can help you research prospects, manage your sales messages and keep on top of what your prospect list contacts are doing.
So, is Premium worth it?
Yes, but only if you know how LinkedIn works.
There is no point spending money on an upgrade until you have learned how to regularly use LinkedIn’s free version to its full potential. You need to get into a routine with the platform to get the results you want. If you don’t have a strategy, you’ll waste a lot of time and see little return from it. Thankfully, you can cancel at any time.
The subscription is a tiny cost in relation to the real revenue you can gain on the platform every month. If you have a methodology for your business and know how to regularly use LinkedIn, the answer to LinkedIn Premium is a big fat YES!
But what if you don’t know how to unlock the full potential of the free version first?
