Automated and manual LinkedIn outreach have their place in sales, which one is best for your organization depends on multiple factors, including your risk tolerance, target audience, sales strategy, and the amount of time you can spend on outreach.
Find the difference between automated and manual LinkedIn outreach and help you choose the right method.
The Difference: Manual Outreach and Automated Outreach on LinkedIn
Manual LinkedIn outreach and automated LinkedIn outreach differ mainly in terms of execution, control, and scale. In manual outreach, you personally find, connect with, and reach out to prospects on LinkedIn. Automated outreach involves using a LinkedIn automation tool to perform these repetitive actions on your behalf.
Whether you choose a manual or automated approach can affect the results of your campaign. We’ll break down the differences between manual vs. automated LinkedIn outreach further so you can make an informed choice.
What Is a Manual LinkedIn Outreach?
Manual LinkedIn outreach is a conventional method where you personally handle every step of reaching out to leads on LinkedIn. You log in to your LinkedIn account, search for leads, send connection requests, and follow up. Everything is hands-on.
This approach gives you control over tone, timing, and content. There is no automation software involved, no scheduling, and no bulk actions. But it’s very slow. If you want to target 40 prospects, it will take several days to do outreach.
While most businesses have transitioned to automated outreach, some still prefer the manual approach. These include companies that sell high-ticket services, run small teams, or prefer to build trust from the very first touchpoint.
Manual LinkedIn outreach requires discipline and persistence. You have to be careful not to lose track of follow-ups, research properly without spending hours, and endure in the face of possible burnout. For these reasons, many companies and professionals later switch to automation.
How Does Manual LinkedIn Outreach Work?
The manual method is often slow since you have to look up leads using LinkedIn’s search function, review their profiles, and then create a list of people you want to target.
Once your list is ready, you have to send connection requests to each prospect, one by one. This also involves personally writing and personalizing connection request notes, which can be draining.
For the prospects who accept your requests, you manually write follow-up messages until they’re warm enough to move to the next stage of the sales process.
In this entire cycle, you personally control everything with no preset sequences or timing delays.
What Is Automated LinkedIn Outreach?
Automated LinkedIn outreach involves the use of an automation tool to find profiles, send personalized connection requests, and follow up with leads on your behalf. You don’t personally perform these repetitive activities. Instead, your software does it for you.
In this outreach method, you configure the automation tool, set parameters and rules, and let the software perform the execution.
A good automation software will allow you to automate LinkedIn messages and send personalized connection requests at scale.
How Does Automated LinkedIn Outreach Work?
Automated outreach requires you to first choose Octopus CRM LinkedIn automation software and connect it with your LinkedIn account.
Once your tool is ready, you can search for your leads on LinkedIn using search criteria, such as job title, industry, and company size, and then add them to the automation software. Alternatively, you can upload a CSV file with the LinkedIn profiles you want to target.
Now, add these profiles to your “visiting,” “connecting,” and “messaging” campaigns inside your automation software and launch your campaign.
The software will automatically send personalized connection requests to your target profiles. When a lead accepts your requests, the tool will engage them with customized follow-up messages. The cycle continues for each lead until they’re warm enough for you to engage with personally, inside or outside LinkedIn.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Manual LinkedIn Outreach
Manual LinkedIn outreach comes with many benefits and drawbacks.
Advantages
- Your message is 100% unique with a personal touch, which can lead to higher connection and reply rates;
- You develop a deep understanding of your prospect’s role, company, challenges, and pain points by manually reviewing their profile;
- There is virtually no risk of account restrictions from LinkedIn. You are operating within the platform’s intended human-use patterns.
Disadvantages
- Manual outreach is time-consuming. Sending 20-30 personalized connection requests can take several hours;
- There is no room for scaling your outreach, except for the costly choice of hiring more people to perform manual outreach;
- It is often challenging to maintain consistency. If you have a busy week with meetings, your outreach can grind to a complete halt;
- Tracking and follow-up become a manual administrative burden, leading to dropped leads;
- Doing the same repetitive activities can be mentally draining, causing burnout for your sales team.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Automated LinkedIn Outreach
Advantages
- You can perform en masse outreach, reaching hundreds of prospects per week;
- Automation saves you a lot of time. You can spend the time saved on actual sales calls;
- This method systemizes your follow-up and improves your workflow. This means no lead will get forgotten in the sequence;
- Provides analytics on campaign performance. You can see what messaging works and what doesn’t, allowing for optimization;
- Automated outreach is very cheap. Compare paying someone $35/hour for manual outreach to an automation tool that costs only $10 per month.
Disadvantages
- It may feel impersonal when you’re using a tool that doesn’t allow personalization;
- There is a learning curve to using the tool correctly and safely to avoid account limitations;
- You lose the nuanced learning that comes from manually researching each profile.
Automated vs Manual LinkedIn Outreach Examples
Take inspiration from the following examples of manual LinkedIn outreach vs automated LinkedIn outreach:
Manual Outreach Example
A sales rep searches for “Marketing Directors in SaaS companies” using LinkedIn’s search filter. The rep personally visits each profile, reviews their posts, and then sends personalized connection requests, one by one. For the people who accept the request, the sales rep personally writes follow-up messages.
Automated Outreach Example
You upload 500 target profiles of “Marketing Managers at SaaS companies” into Octopus CRM. Then you add these profiles to the “Visiting”, “Connecting,” and “Messaging” campaigns. Next, you launch the campaign, and Octopus CRM automatically sends connection requests and messages at the pre-set intervals without your manual input.
Octopus CRM LinkedIn Outreach Automation Tool
Octopus CRM is a LinkedIn automation tool that allows you to automate and personalize various repetitive activities involved in your outreach. You can use it to automatically visit LinkedIn profiles, send personalized connection requests and follow-up messages, endorse skills to warm up your target audience, and track responses all in one dashboard.
Moreover, Octopus CRM allows you to visit hundreds of profiles and perform mass messaging on LinkedIn without exposing your account to any risk.
Other great features include tracking key metrics such as profile views, search appearances, and your Social Selling Index. This helps you analyze and measure the overall performance of your outreach campaigns.
Automated Outreach vs Manual Outreach on LinkedIn: Which Is the Best?
Manual outreach gives you precision and a personal touch, while automation gives you reach and efficiency. Many sales teams use a combination of both approaches.
However, Octopus CRM automation tool allows you to personalize your outreach just as you’d do manually, but it does this more efficiently and at a fraction of the cost.
Automated outreach has a higher response rate. You’re reaching out to hundreds or thousands of leads, and even if a small percentage of them respond, it means you’re likely to close more deals.It is better to adopt automated outreach on LinkedIn and spend the time saved on strategizing, analyzing data, and closing deals.