5 Ways to Bypass the LinkedIn Connection Limit

LinkedIn connections have been a hot topic among the platform’s active users ever since the major LinkedIn connection limit to 100 invites per week back in 2021.

The fall from over 1000 LinkedIn connections per week to merely 100 struck many users’ businesses, especially those who almost solely rely on the platform for prospecting and LinkedIn lead generation.

LinkedIn didn’t make any public statements regarding the introduction of the LinkedIn connection limit.

However, many users believe they’ve been introduced to provide a satisfying user experience and maintain the quality of the connections made through the platform. 

Despite everyone appreciating LinkedIn’s effort to remain a strictly professional, prime platform, they all want to know how to work around the LinkedIn connection limit and send over 500 LinkedIn connections per week.

5 Ways to Bypass The LinkedIn Connection Limit 

The Boost Mode

Just because LinkedIn discontinued the Invite via email feature, it doesn’t mean that you cannot send 500+ LinkedIn connections per week. 

Outbound Contact’s Boost mode is a unique, one-of-a-kind feature on the market to bypass the LinkedIn connection limit and send over 500 regular LinkedIn invites a week. 

And it is even better than the Invite via email!

Why is that?

It is because the Boost mode sends regular LinkedIn connections without the lead’s email being in the middle. This way, you are skipping several steps necessary for Invite via email to succeed. Also, you are speeding up the process of sending LinkedIn connections overall.

Additionally, with Invite via email, there’s a possibility that the email you found is not linked to your lead’s LinkedIn account. In that case, you would fail to connect with them despite having their email address.  

The Boost mode works in a simple manner. All you need to do is move the toggle button to the right in your Smart Sequence builder. 

As you may see, Outbound Contact will send Invites to connect according to the principle of 3 blank Invites to connect via boost mode and then 1 regular Invite to connect. 

Is the Boost mode safe? 

Our Sales and Marketing teams had been thoroughly testing the Boost Mode for months before the feature’s official release. Furthermore, they are still using the Boost mode in their outreach campaigns to connect with qualified leads and grow Outbound Contact.

During and after the test period, several members of our teams sent 700+ LinkedIn connections per week using the Boost mode. They’ve never received a restriction or a ban.  

However, it is important to stress that you should never engage in excessive and irrational usage of any LinkedIn feature or Outbound Contact limits.

Any usage of those proportions can make your account end up restricted. 

Don’t worry!

All Outbound Contact users have our customer support team at their disposal from day 1.

We are here to answer all questions regarding our LinkedIn automation platform.

Also, the support team will help you set up limits to keep your account safe while watching you scale up your business! 

Import Via Email 

Import via email is not to be confused with Invite via email.

Invite via email used to allow you to type in or import your leads’ emails through a CSV file to invite them to connect directly in the platform.

As mentioned above, LinkedIn discontinued this feature in the summer of 2022 and left its users with a similar feature – Import via email. 

Import via email, on the other hand, allows you to import saved contacts and other contacts from your email or any other email you have access to. 

Saved contacts are the email addresses you manually saved or imported through a CSV or Vcard file to your email. 

Other contacts are the email addresses of all people you engaged with via email, but you haven’t saved them as a contact in your email. 

So, to use Import via email, go to your LinkedIn home page, and click Show less. 

Then, choose More options. 

LinkedIn will then offer you to type in an email address you wish to import contacts from. Then click Continue. 

Once you click Continue, you will be offered to choose the account you wish to import contacts from. This implies that you can actually import contacts from any email address you have access to.

LinkedIn will let you know what contacts it will take into consideration and will ask for permission. 

Once LinkedIn imports contacts, you can check the box in the right corner of each contact you wish to Invite to connect and then click the button Add connection. 

If the emails you have, match the ones your lead’s used to create their LinkedIn profiles, LinkedIn will send them an invite to connect over the email and directly in the platform as well. 

These connection requests don’t count toward your limits, so, in theory, there is a way to use the Import via email to bypass LinkedIn restrictions. 

You could upload a CSV file with your leads’ email addresses to your email and then use the import via email feature to invite them to connect on LinkedIn.

However, this way of bypassing LinkedIn limits is a bit of a hassle, and it is not nearly as effective and straightforward as the Boost mode. 

Here’s why.

First, finding someone’s email is a hassle of its own. You need to find a way to get a hold of all those emails – pulling from your CRM or contact list.

Then, you will need to add them to a CSV file manually, upload the CSV file to the contact list on your email account, and hope that the leads you’re trying to reach used those emails in particular to make their LinkedIn profiles. 

Only then will Import via email actually work. 

LinkedIn InMails 

InMails are free or paid direct messages on LinkedIn that you can send to members not part of your network, contrary to a regular LinkedIn message.

By sending InMails, you can actually avoid using your LinkedIn Connection Requests. 

LinkedIn InMails are, for many platform members, a mystery, therefore underused and often wasted.

That’s quite a shame, taking into account that, according to the official LinkedIn learning courses, InMails have an average response rate of between 18 to 25% compared to cold emails’ 3% average response rate. 

Every member on LinkedIn can receive a paid InMail, but only paid LinkedIn subscribers can send them.

LinkedIn’s way to encourage meaningful LinkedIn connections is by giving the paid InMails credits back to the sender each time they get a reply.

Additionally, every paid LinkedIn subscriber gets 800 free InMail credits (but for LinkedIn Recruiter) that only users with open profiles can receive.

If you are unfamiliar with InMail as a LinkedIn feature, check out our complete guide on how to send LinkedIn InMail.

Since, as mentioned above, InMails can be sent to users not part of your network, they can be more effective than LinkedIn Connection Requests themselves.

When should I use LinkedIn InMail?  

InMails can be your last resource to get to the desired lead or a wise hack to reach out to busy decision-makers who get numerous new LinkedIn connections every day.

Let’s say you tried to connect with a specific lead on LinkedIn. You’ve sent several emails, and called them, and you never got an answer. In these cases, sending an InMail turned out to be a practice that brings results for many Outbound Contact users. InMails can also be part of your Smart Sequence. 

Sending an InMail, which, among other things, has all the characteristics of a regular email (subject line, body, and higher character limit), if well-written, is a secure way to stand out in your lead’s Inbox and stay remembered in the long run.

By sending a LinkedIn InMail to a complete stranger on LinkedIn and composing an engaging InMail message with a 25% reply rate formula, you are also diminishing the possibility of your lead clicking I don’t know this person once you send a regular LinkedIn connection invite. 

Outbound Contact allows you to include both free and paid InMails in your outreach.

By moving the toggle button to the right, you are allowing the platform to check if your lead has set their profile to Open profile status, and decide for you whether to reach them out via free or paid InMail. 

Emails

Since we mentioned LinkedIn’s version of emails, we cannot avoid highlighting all the advantages of regular cold emailing too! 

Yes, LinkedIn has over 800 million active users, but that doesn’t mean that the platform is the preferred means of communication for all of them. This is also one of the reasons, as mentioned above, why Smart Sequences come in “handy”.

By combining Email Outreach with LinkedIn Outreach, your sequence will show which channels work best for specific leads or groups of leads. This information can be useful for your future sales and marketing strategies overall.

Here is how you can make the most out of emails.

The role of an email in a multi-channel approach.

Send the same message as on LinkedIn and see where you get the answer faster. If you don’t get a reply whatsoever, follow up with a phone call.

Use email to complement your Connection Message

Elaborate on the LinkedIn Connection Message you’ve already sent on LinkedIn, as email gives you more freedom in terms of character limits;

Subject line: Account Visit - <Company Name>

Hi Tim,

I recently tried connecting with you on LinkedIn <insert profile image>.

I  saw that you’re VP of Sales at <Company Name>. 

I was curious if you are using email and calling outreach to get new clients. 

If the answer is yes, I would love to show you a multichannel solution that can help you scale your sales with minimal effort.

Would you be interested in learning more about our solution?

Best, 
 
Michael

Ask for a Connection Request via email.

Ask someone to send a LinkedIn connection to you by inserting a link to your profile in the email, if you reached the LinkedIn connection limit for the week. 

Subject line: Loved your post on demand generation… 

Hi Bill,

Love the post you recently made on LinkedIn about Cold Outreach and totally agree with you on "how SDRs should be more creative".

I am a Sales Development Expert, and I post majorly about prospecting, cold outreach, LinkedIn and email outreach workflows and lead generation. 

I figured my content could benefit you and your team, so I wanted to connect with you on LinkedIn. 

Here’s a link to my profile - linkedin.com/in/<<USER>>

Also, I saw that you’re Head of Sales at <Company Name> and was curious if you are using any solutions to make your sales more efficient.

Best, 

Michael

The Find & verify business emails via LinkedIn and Find & verify business emails by your source (if you are using a CSV file or API) are two of Outbound Contact’s native features that make sure your email arrives at its correct destination. 

The most important segment of these two features is the “verification” part, which safeguards your domain from being blacklisted. Smart Sequences will only send emails to the verified emails and make sure they get delivered to the intended recipient. 

Smart Sequences

Smart Sequences are AI-inspired algorithms that track your leads’ behavior and act accordingly. Yours is to create different paths to your leads (via email, LinkedIn messages, InMail), combine them with if/else conditions, and then click Start Campaign. Outbound Contact will find the fastest and most effective way to your lead. 

Outbound Contact’s Smart Sequences allow you to combine all platform solutions in one campaign. That way, you can take advantage of all possible touch-points with your leads. 

As you may see from the above example, Smart Sequences are perfect for bypassing LinkedIn connection limits.

With Outbound Contact’s

• LinkedIn Outreach (LinkedIn Connections Requests, InMails, LinkedIn Messages) 
• Email Outreach
• Find & Verify business emails via LinkedIn or via CSV/API (whichever works for you and what brings the best result)
• Image & GIF hyper-personalization

you will, for sure, find a way to get in touch with your lead. Also, you will discover what your lead’s preferred channel of communication is, and, therefore, increase your response and engagement rates. 

FAQ About LinkedIn Connections

Let’s go through several most commonly asked questions regarding LinkedIn connections and the LinkedIn connection limit.

How many LinkedIn connections can you have? 

LinkedIn limits the number of 1st-degree connections to up to 30,000. After you’ve reached this number, you will not be able to send or receive Connection Request invites until you resize your network under its limit. 

On the other hand, LinkedIn allows you to follow and be followed by an unlimited number of members. 

LinkedIn Follow VS Connect

When someone is your 1st-degree connection, you can see each other’s content and any update on your feeds. Also, you are allowed to exchange regular LinkedIn messages. You always follow your 1st-degree connections by default, but you can also unfollow them. 

If you turn on the Creator Mode, you can continue growing your network without necessarily adding new connections. 

What Is The LinkedIn Connection Limit? 

The LinkedIn connection limit is the restriction introduced by the platform at the beginning of 2021. It implied that each member could send up to 100 Connection Requests per week. 

In the meanwhile, as of December 2021, LinkedIn raised the connection limit to approximately 200 invites per week. 

We say approximately because the truth is the LinkedIn connections limit depends on many factors.

These factors could be how old your profile is, the number of connections you have, how active you’ve been lately, your acceptance rate, etc. No one knows how many LinkedIn connections exactly you can send per week. Undoubtedly, it is far less than it used to be before the restriction. 

When Does The LinkedIn Connection Limit Reset? 

Your LinkedIn connection limit resets at the beginning of each week – over the weekend or Monday, depending on the user. 

Basically, if you use all your LinkedIn connections for the week on Friday, you won’t wait long to have your connection limit reset. 

However, despite respecting the LinkedIn connection limit, you must be careful to whom you send invitations. LinkedIn members who get turned off many times, left pending, or marked as I don’t know this person are more often subject to additional screening. Consequently, they are more likely to end up with restrictions. 

Summary

As you may see, there’s no reason to panic about the LinkedIn connection limit.

There are legitimate and secure ways to bypass them.

Furthermore, aside from sending 500+ LinkedIn connections per week, Outbound Contact also takes care of all time-consuming sales tasks for you. This way, it allows you to focus on finding qualified leads and closing the deal faster.

Let’s scale up your business!