Are you looking to leverage LinkedIn for lead generation? There is absolutely no need to do this manually in 2023. There are now a ton of CRM platforms on the market, specifically designed to automate your LinkedIn messaging outreach. But which tool is best and which will protect your LinkedIn account? In this definitive guide, we'll review 9 of the best CRMs specifically designed for LinkedIn messaging automation breaking down key features, pros and cons, pricing models and more. Read on to find out which LinkedIn automation tool we think ticks all the boxes for 2023.
LinkedIn, being the largest social media platform for enterprises and professionals, is the go-to platform for social selling and generating highly quality B2B leads, but getting the most out of LinkedIn requires time and effort, engaging in activities, posting updates, and ensuring your availability. Most business owners simply don't have time for this. Thankfully most of your daily LinkedIn grind can be automated and there are now a ton of LinkedIn automation tools available for exactly that.
Utilizing a CRM specifically designed for LinkedIn automation can be hugely powerful for generating leads and building your network. For example, I recently used Dripify in combination with Apollo to build an audience of founders that recently raised money and subsequently add them on LinkedIn and pitch my services as a digital marketer to founders. It worked a treat. Just make sure your LinkedIn outreach strategy is watertight. Is this safe you may ask? Well, most of the tools mentioned below offer several features that help you bypass LinkedIn restrictions and automatically message prospects. They also contain safeguards that keep your LinkedIn account from being flagged or suspended.
What are the features to look for in a LinkedIn message automation tool?
Choosing a CRM for LinkedIn automation can be very confusing if you don't know what you're looking for. Each tool discussed in this article advertises tempting offers that seem to meet all your needs. However, you should note that few of these services satisfy the requirements of all your LinkedIn needs. For that concern, here are some of the key features to look out for when choosing a CRM for LinkedIn outreach:
LinkedIn Integration
Undoubtedly, the first feature a CRM for LinkedIn outreach needs is integration with the platform. You should be able to automate the following processes:
- Connection requests, and follow-up messages
- Visiting profiles and endorsing skills
- Engaging with your target audience's posts.
In terms of connect requests, you should expect several options including importing CSV's containing LinkedIn profile URLs, built-in prospecting searches to help you find relevant audiences, sales Navigator Integration and LinkedIn plugins that let you add profiles or LinkedIn searches directly into the CRM as you browse LinkedIn.
Activity Control
Outreach on LinkedIn needs activity control that helps limit excessive engagement on the platform. These security features reduce the risk of your account getting banned by notifying you when you’re close to exceeding LinkedIn's limits.
Ease of Use
Linkedin automation tools are, amongst other things, designed to save time by chasing down prospects and onboarding them. They are designed to save you time, so it's not a good platform if you need to spend hours learning how to use the darn thing! It must be intuitive, requiring little time for users to get up to speed.
Low Cost
One of the hallmarks of a good SaaS tool is affordability and tools for LinkedIn automation are no exception. Any tool you pay for must offer economical subscription plans, and the cost of upgrading shouldn't break the bank. If the tool isn't budget-friendly, it must offer features equivalent to its pricing model. In my experience, LinkedIn outreach often tends to lead to a good ROI, so these tools should easily pay for themselves after a few months of tweaking your campaigns.
Integrations with your main CRM
Many LinkedIn automation tools dedicate their resources to campaigns and lead generation, leaving other aspects of customer management untouched. As a result, the LinkedIn automation tool you choose should make it easy to interface with the major existing CRM platforms to share lead data with them.
So with that out of the way, let's jump right into the reviews...
The Top 9 Best CRM Software For LinkedIn Automation Are:
Quick Comparison of The Best LinkedIn Messaging Automation Tools
| Software | Intro Price | Differentiator |
|---|---|---|
| Dripify | $39 | The best all-around CRM to automate LinkedIn lead generation and messages |
| Reply | $60 | Robust LinkedIn engagement tools for social selling |
| LiProspect | $74 | Dedicated 4G proxy for account safety |
| Meet Alfred | $39 | LinkedIn engagements tools and Multi-channel Marketing Automation |
| Waalaxy | €30 | Easy to use Chrome extension for use with LinkedIn in the browser |
| Octopus CRM | $6.99 | Good value for money LinkedIn automation tool |
| Dux-Soup | $11.25 | A Downloadable app that runs outside the browser |
| Salesflow | $74 | Ease of managing multiple LinkedIn profiles |
| Expandi | $99 | Rich Feature set |
1. Dripify
Founded: 2019
HQ: Austin, Texas, United States
| Key info | Price: Basic: $39/user/month, Pro: $59/user/month, Advanced: $79/user/month
Free plan: No Trial length: 7 days Support: 24/7, Email |
|---|---|
| Best for | The best all-round tool for LinkedIn automation and outreach |
| Pros | + Pre-built campaigns + Message Automation tool + Can reply to a LinkedIn message from within the app itself |
| Cons | - The Basic plan has only one campaign - No campaign-level stats - Managing audiences for campaigns is a manual process |
Integrations | Zapier, Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho CRM, and many more |
Dripify’s value proposition is the Drip Campaign builder, which assists you with generating leads and performing other LinkedIn activities on autopilot. This cloud-based automation tool allows you to define an execution workflow based on input data. You can add leads to your campaign by filtering your target audience in the LinkedIn search bar and importing their URLs or simply importing a list of profile URLs as a CSV. Furthermore, you can generate a sequence of triggers and actions that operate on the leads and auto-launch your campaigns.
In addition to this, Dripify also offers LinkedIn Analytics tools that track all your LinkedIn activities and presents them in detailed reports. It also provides timely notifications on unread messages, connection requests, and profile views. Dripify’s LinkedIn integration is so sophisticated as to allow you to control your LinkedIn timeline in-app. Moreover, this tool helps you evaluate your campaign performance using metrics on won leads, accepted connection requests, and other LinkedIn activities.
Dripify offers several safeguards that keep your LinkedIn account secure and safe from suspension. For instance, it assigns an IP from your local region to your Dripify account so that all LinkedIn actions look natural. In addition, the autopilot simulates page views and button clicks to look like human activities. You can also place a limit on autopilot to prevent LinkedIn from suspending your account for spam.
Dripify provides many more LinkedIn marketing tools and functionalities, including a smart inbox, that allows you to reply to your LinkedIn messages within the app, instead of having to navigate back and forth between apps. It also includes handy Integrations with third-party software like the common CRMs, via Zapier and team management. It’s noteworthy, however, that some of these advanced LinkedIn marketing automation tools are locked behind the more expensive subscription plans. Nevertheless, Dripify is one of the best LinkedIn automation tools for 2023 and has earned the top spot on our guide.
Dripify scores 4.6/5 on G2 and 3.8/5 on Capterra
2. Reply.io
Founded: 2014
HQ: San Jose, California, United States
| Key info |
Price: Starts at $60 per user/month Free plan: No; Trial: 14 days Support: Chat |
|---|---|
| Best for | Businesses looking for faster growth through multi-channel cold outreach |
| Pros |
+ Has robust and easy-to-use email marketing tool + Can create multi-step campaigns utilizing calls, email, and LinkedIn messages + Quickly validates and moves prospects from LinkedIn into marketing campaign workflows |
| Cons |
- Contact filtration capabilities are limited - Have to pay additional charges for LinkedIn Automation tools - No conditional steps allowed in LinkedIn Automation Workflows |
| Integration | HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Salesflare, Close |
| Pricing Model |
Starter: $60 per user/month Professional: $90 per user/month Custom: On Quotation |
Reply CRM provides multiple channels to engage your leads and prospects. You can reach out via personal emails, messages on LinkedIn, SMS, and social media, all from one central dashboard.
Reply's LinkedIn automation cycle helps you discover leads, engage prospects, execute tasks, and improve performance. It finds prospects on LinkedIn Recruiter, Sales Navigator, and integrated data providers and also validates email addresses.
What's more, Reply sends automated messages and follow-up messages through multichannel sequences. You can add as many emails as possible to these sequences and use conditional variables for content personalization.
Reply runs as a browser extension, automating email searches and performing sales outreach without obstructing your daily business activities.
Their Google Calendar integration allows you to schedule bookings and appointments directly from Reply sequences. You can sync all your meetings with a single click and even include links for Google Meet virtual meetings.
Further, Reply offers VoIP calling with support for international calls and numbers. These calls can be recorded and shared through the browser extension.
All these features, and more, have earned Reply high ratings on G2 and Capterra. It has over 1000 reviews, with most praising the ease of use and customer support. Several sales teams have also commended its marketing capabilities.
3. LiProspect
Founded: 2020
HQ: Newark, New Jersey, United States
| Key info |
Price: Starts at $74 per month Free plan: No; Trial: 15 days Support: chat, email |
|---|---|
| Best for | Data-driven businesses that want Advanced analytics and reports |
| Pros |
+ Has a Dedicated 4G Mobile Proxy for account safety + LiProspect does not require you to install any browser extension or PC software to run + There are multiple types of campaigns that you can run |
| Cons | - A relatively new software that tends to have some bugs which are quickly resolved. |
| Integration | Zapier |
| Pricing Model |
Professional: $74 per month Professional SalesNav: $90.5 per month |
LiProspect is a LinkedIn automation software designed to quickly, safely, and efficiently find targeted contacts on LinkedIn and promises to help multiply your conversion rates by up to 15 times.
To achieve this goal, LiProspect's automation tool visits LinkedIn profiles, increasing your LinkedIn network and expanding your sphere of influence. As a result, it will increase your chances of converting a given lead. This tool also allows you to send personalized LinkedIn messages based on the information retrieved from these profiles.
It guarantees account safety using an automation algorithm that mimics human behavior and activities. Additionally, each demi account runs on a dedicated 4G mobile proxy, keeping your main LinkedIn account safe.
LiProspect doesn't just focus on LinkedIn automation. It uses email automation to send follow-up messages too. For instance, you can send unlimited emails using LiProspect's Gmail and Microsoft 365 integrations. Moreover, you can increase engagement rates through email personalization.
We found it super easy to use, and creating and deploying LinkedIn automations with this software can take as little as five minutes. You can run unlimited LinkedIn campaigns and import contact lists with no training whatsoever.
What's more, you can use the powerful LinkedIn Sales Navigator integration or the simpler basic search to create filters that target specific audiences.
In addition to all of this, LiProspect provides insights and metrics on all your campaigns, allowing you to run A/B testing and make optimizations as you build and optimize your LinkedIn message automations.
4. Meet Alfred
Founded: 2018
HQ: Sydney, Australia
| Key info | Price: Personal: $39/month, Business: $69/month, Enterprise: $499/month
Free plan: No Trial length: 7 days Support: 24/7 (Chat) |
|---|---|
| Best for | Businesses that want to do email and LinkedIn outreach from one app |
| Pros | + Detects and notifies users of response messages + It’s cloud-based + Offers multi-channel campaigns |
| Cons | - No country-wise filters - Email feature lacks preview and signature - Difficult to upload contacts |
Integrations | Zapier, Outlook, Twitter, Hyperise |
Meet Alfred is a sales-boosting CRM used by more than 89,000 users around the world, including Amazon and Airbus. It’s a multi-channel sales pipeline that allows you to automate LinkedIn prospecting and nurtures leads through email or Twitter messages.
Meet Alfred's personalization tool ensures that your emails stand out from the numerous emails prospects receive daily. It provides a template library that you can use to tailor messages to match a lead's industry, location, or job title. Moreover, Meet Alfred allows you to attach documents and media files to your messages, creating a positive first impression on your leads.
Meet Alfred is so effective in LinkedIn lead generation that you can quickly become overwhelmed by many contacts and connections. Luckily, Meet Alfred's LinkedIn scraper software helps you organize and manage all your contacts in one location. This built-in CRM tool uses search filtering to organize prospects based on common features. The Starter plan does not support the LinkedIn sales navigator.
One of Meet Alfred's stand-out features is the LinkedIn account management and team collaboration tool. This feature allows you to onboard multiple members, efficiently assigning permissions, roles, and responsibilities. Furthermore, it provides performance metrics for each team member from a single dashboard. Each team member is granted the ability to conduct independent campaigns, schedule social media posts, and check inboxes.
Customers have contrasting opinions about this LinkedIn automation tool. Many have complained about the poor customer support and lack of country-wise filters. However, other customers have praised its flexibility and multi-channel campaigns so you should definitely give it a go as per your preferences.
Meet Alfred scores 2.8/5 on G2 and 2.5/5 on Capterra
5. Waalaxy
Founded: 2018
HQ: Montpellier, Herault, France
| Key info | Price: Pro: €30/month, Advanced: €40/month, Business: €60/month
Free plan: Yes Support: 24/7 (Chat) |
|---|---|
| Best for | Easy to use Chrome extension for use with LinkedIn in the browser |
| Pros | + Visual scenario management is intuitive + GDPR Compliant + Pre-defined Campaigns |
| Cons | - Cannot manage multiple LinkedIn accounts - Its paid subscriptions are a bit expensive - Emails aren’t personalized |
Integrations | Zapier, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Abyssale |
Waalaxy is a full-featured cloud-based LinkedIn prospecting tool that promises to save up to 70% of the time spent generating and converting leads. Waalaxy's features, wrapped up in an affordable and easy-to-use software package, help you automate LinkedIn engagement. You can contact up to 100 leads per week. What's more, Waalaxy serves more than 50,000 customers, including Yahoo and Thales.
Waalaxy lets you access LinkedIn’s B2B database containing more than 700 million profiles. You can contact thousands of leads every month and even bypass LinkedIn’s invitation limit without risking your account. Waalaxy achieves this feat using an automated multi-channel campaign system that sends invitations through LinkedIn and emails. This tool also conducts automated follow-ups when a LinkedIn connection visits your profile or comments on your LinkedIn posts.
With little to no technical skills, you can use Waalaxy’s email finder to contact leads that aren’t responding to your LinkedIn connection requests. It integrates with DropContact to filter spam and unverified emails from the LinkedIn profile database. Many customers praise Waalaxy’s email finder, with one satisfied user stating that:
“I love how easy it was to collect prospect emails, add them to a list, a campaign, and reach out to them. It's made LinkedIn outreach so much easier for my business.”
Waalaxy has excellent reviews on G2 and Trustpilot, scoring highly on ease of use and setup. Many users have reported abandoning other LinkedIn tools in favor of Waalaxy, citing the email finder and clean UI/UX. Waalaxy has a free plan, but it has severe restrictions like the limit of 8 messages per day.
Waalaxy scores 4.8/5 on G2 and 4.5/5 on Capterra
6. Octopus CRM
Founded: 2018
| Key info | Price: Started: $6.99 per month, Pro: $9.99 per month, Advanced: $14.99 per month, Unlimited: $24.99 per month
Free plan: No Trial: 7 days Support: Email |
|---|---|
| Best for | Businesses looking to automate recruitment via LinkedIn |
| Pros | + Automated personalized messaging + Can gather a large number of leads in a short time + In-built CRM |
| Cons | - Funnel is not fully automated - Lacks templates - Targeting features are limited |
Integrations | Zapier, HubSpot, Google Docs |
Octopus CRM offers an all-in-one CRM solution for bulk operations on LinkedIn. It works to improve your relationships with leads by sending automated messages when they interact with your campaigns. Unlike many other LinkedIn automation tools that can only work with a LinkedIn Sales Navigator account, Octopus CRM works with all LinkedIn account types like LinkedIn Premium, LinkedIn Free and Recruiter Lite. Octopus CRM uses filtered profiles from LinkedIn search results or a CSV file with prepared URLs to find your target audience. These leads are then segmented into various categories, including connecting, visiting, and messaging, depending on what action you’d like to perform. Finally, you can review and launch your message campaign to automate activity on LinkedIn.
Octopus CRM provides a Google Chrome browser extension that simplifies generating leads from LinkedIn and sending them to the CRM. It also works well with LinkedIn recruiter tools and reduces time spent on recruitment processes. The CRM app offers many more tools, including in-app messaging, LinkedIn statistics, and third-party integrations. It also provides activity control that notifies you of excessive activity so that you can prevent account suspension or outright deactivation.
Most LinkedIn automation tools try to automate as many features as possible, but Octopus CRM takes a more conservative approach. It automates activities that wouldn't get your LinkedIn account flagged while helping as much as possible with manual actions. Consequently, very few customers, if any, have complained about account suspension when using Octopus CRM.
Octopus CRM offers some of the cheapest subscription plans of any CRM on this list, with the highest tier just under $25. As such, it's hardly surprising that this software is highly rated on review sites.
Waalaxy scores 4.4/5 on G2 and 4.6/5 on Capterra
7. Dux-Soup
Founded: 2016
HQ: Mountain View, California, United States
| Key info | Price: Individual:
• Pro Dux: $11.25/user/month
• Turbo Dux: $41.25/user/month, Team:
• Pro Edition: $135/year
• Turbo Edition: $495/year, Agency:
• Dux-Soup Pro: $337.50/month
• Dux-Soup Turbo: $412.5/month
Free plan: Yes Support: Support call, email & chat |
|---|---|
| Best for | Businesses that prefer a dedicated LinkedIn Automations app over a cloud-based solution |
| Pros | + X-ray tool that allows you to find ideal LinkedIn profiles on Google
+ Highly specific targeting and segmentation + Unlimited campaigns + Automates LinkedIn basic connection activity |
| Cons | - Steep learning curve - Slows down LinkedIn - UI is clunky |
Integrations | HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zapier, LeadFuze |
Dux-Soup is popular for its lead-generation capabilities that help users to close deals faster. It serves as a virtual assistant on LinkedIn, allowing you to take notes on each profile you visit. Dux-Soup also fosters connections between you and your leads by giving them the option to visit your profile when you visit theirs.
Dux-Soup 's LinkedIn message automation tool engages with LinkedIn connections, sending personalized messages and campaigns. It also halts all messages once a response is received. Dux-Soup can run an unlimited number of these campaigns concurrently with up to 12 messages per campaign. In addition, you can set delays between each message to avoid being flagged as a spam account.
Most LinkedIn automation tools focus on lead generation without giving much thought to managing the acquired leads. Dux-Soup stands out from competitors in this regard, offering advanced lead management tools. This software qualifies leads in and out of the funnel using a funnel flow strategy. It can also reflow lost leads into the funnel for another shot at converting them.
Another important feature Dux-Soup provides is integration with CRM tools like Hubspot and Pipedrive. It allows you to automate drip campaigns with contacts imported from other CRM. You can also export lead data to authorized third-party software. Additionally, Dux-Soup supports all LinkedIn account types, including LinkedIn Recruiter.
Dux-Soup offers three pricing models depending on your business size and team size. Each model is affordable and scales nicely to match your CRM needs. Nevertheless, customers have complained about the unintuitive UI and steep learning curve.
8. Salesflow
Founded: 2015
HQ: London, United Kingdom
| Key info | Price: Starts at $99 per month per user Free plan: No Support: Chat, email |
|---|---|
| Best for | Sales teams looking for a reliable lead generation platform that boosts productivity |
| Pros |
+ Done for you service – manages LinkedIn marketing campaign on clients' behalf + Can easily manage multiple profiles from a single dashboard + Blacklist feature is minimal and restricted to keywords and locations |
| Cons |
- Recommended limits are lower than other LinkedIn automation tools - Does not correctly notify when there are issues in campaigns - Does not send emails |
| Integrations | Zapier, HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive |
| Pricing Model |
Business: $99 per month per user For teams: From $64 per month per user Agency: On quotation |
Salesflow is a reliable software vendor with over a decade of outreach experience.
Unlike most LinkedIn automation tools that focus on maximizing the number of leads, Salesflow is interested in the quality of the leads generated. It doesn't try to bypass LinkedIn's weekly invite limit. Instead, it uses LinkedIn Sales Navigator automation for hyper-targeting, ensuring higher quality leads that close deals.
Salesflow's LinkedIn automation tools allow you to send up to 2000 follow-up messages monthly. So you can keep your conversations engaging while attending to other tasks.
In addition to follow-up emails, this CRM can contact up to 800 connections using LinkedIn's InMail feature. You can even message LinkedIn users who are not your connections.
The AI-powered lead management inbox helps you track all emails and LinkedIn messages, keeping all your conversations in one place. This saves you the trouble of going back and forth between your LinkedIn inbox and Salesflow. Additionally, the AI reply detection tool can determine which messages have positive feedback and which need further attention. It also provides advanced tags and filters to help you organize your inbox.
Salesflow's team management tools can help improve team efficiency. The global dashboard tracks all team activities in a central location. It shows which deals are assigned to each team member and provides insights into their performance.
Other notable Salesflow features include contact blacklists, API access, two-way Zapier integration, and data import/export. This CRM may not be the most popular LinkedIn automation tool, but it is among the highest-rated.
Salesflow's subscription costs get cheaper for additional users, making it one of the best LinkedIn automation tools for growing teams.
9. Expandi.io
Founded: 2019
HQ: Columbus, Ohio, United States
| Key info |
Price: $99 per user/month Free plan: No; Trial: 7 days Support: Chat |
|---|---|
| Best for | A versatile solution with advanced personalization features like image personalization and behavioral targeting |
| Pros |
+ Massive time saver + Rich feature list + Safety and reliability |
| Cons |
- Lacks integrations - Limited reports that can be hard to interpret - Expensive for small businesses |
| Integration | Zapier |
| Pricing Model | $99 per user/month |
Expandi.io boasts one of the most extensive feature lists for any LinkedIn automation tool. It is trusted by over 12,000 customers and has been featured in reputed publications like Forbes and Growth Hackers.
This cloud-based LinkedIn message automation tool allows users to send up to 100 invites and LinkedIn messages daily, exceeding LinkedIn's weekly limit. Expandi avoids detection and account bans by using a dedicated IP address, randomized delays between actions, and Smart Limits to mimic human behavior. For example, it gradually increases daily limits and automatically withdraws pending connection requests on LinkedIn.
You can up your LinkedIn outreach game with its comprehensive toolkit containing advanced personalization, smart inbox, in-app chat, and campaign metrics.
To expand your reach, you can combine LinkedIn outreach with email marketing. Just connect with your favorite email provider, create a contact list, and send personalized mass messages through email.
What's more, you can create email drip campaigns with or without LinkedIn messages. Expandi.io helps you assess your campaign performance by tracking all activities on every email sent.
Its Smart sequences allow you to use omnichannel marketing automation to its full potential. You can create automated messaging workflows and customize their progress with delays, triggers, and other simple conditions. Many customers have stated that this is Expandi.io's best feature, praising it for its flexibility and ease of use.
How to pick the right LinkedIn automation tool: Ultimate Guide
It is crucial you pick the right LinkedIn automation tool so that you can manage your business seamlessly without the hassle of performing manual tasks on LinkedIn.
This comprehensive guide has outlined the top features to consider when making your decision. Nevertheless, we recognize that some LinkedIn automation tools offer similar feature sets and compare competitively with each other. We strongly recommend taking free trials for each of the above software to see which one you’re most comfortable with and which suits your needs best.
Furthermore, SaaS providers are very clever in disguising the true cost of using their software. What appears affordable at face value may contain hidden charges that would break the bank. So, always carefully analyze the cost of each software.
Our Top Pick - Dripify
Dripify offers a cloud-based autopilot, analytics tools, and several safety measures. These features, combined with smart inboxes and extensive integrations, make it Toksta’s top CRM for LinkedIn automation for 2023.
Meet the author
Sam Cassman is a seasoned growth marketer with over 10 years of experience as a growth marketer for startups and small businesses. He is the founder of Toksta, a research technology company that helps businesses find and purchase the best software and SaaS. Sam has also run his own growth marketing consultancy Honest Growth, where he helped numerous clients to grow their businesses, including Eventcube, Baluu, Obby, and NBM Group.
