Hiring is exciting – and time-consuming. It’s a three-part process involving:
- Making a selection of candidates.
- Finding their contact info.
- Getting in touch to offer your job opportunity.
LinkedIn is one of the most trustworthy sources of candidate data, but it can take a lot of time and effort to find and verify contact info manually. You can automate the hiring outreach process on LinkedIn following one of two routes: using LinkedIn Recruiter or utilizing your existing sales outreach tools.
Let’s look at the pros and cons of each approach and how to find accurate candidate data on LinkedIn.
Using LinkedIn Recruiter
We have an unpopular opinion about a popular choice for automated recruitment. We don’t actually think you should use LinkedIn Recruiter for automated outreach, and here’s why.
LinkedIn Recruiter Lite will cost you between $170/month (single license) and $270/month per license (2–5 licenses) and only allows you to search up to your 3rd-degree connection level. The higher tier packages will be much higher in cost, as they require you to contact sales to get a quote (we love that, don’t we?).
In other words, you can only do talent search within your own network (1st-degree connections of your connections’ connections). OK, that’s a bit confusing. Let’s break it down:
- 1st degree connection: Cayenne is your connection.
- 2nd degree connection: Sally is Cayenne’s 1st-degree connection, and your 2nd-degree connection.
- 3rd-degree connection: Raj is Sally’s connection and Cayenne’s 2nd-degree connection. That makes him your 3rd-degree connection.
This might create the impression of a more personalized approach to talent outreach, but it’s extremely limited based on your own network. This doesn’t make any sense if you’re hiring for your or someone else’s company.
Now you know why you get so many connection invites from random recruiters and hiring managers – they’re probably Recruiter Lite users trying to increase their network reach!
On the other hand, LinkedIn Recruiter enables you to filter by “Open to work” status, which is really helpful for narrowing your search to candidates looking for their next career move. It also offers AI candidate search, which saves you the trouble of filtering through your lists to find particular job fits.
So, if you decide to use LinkedIn Recruiter, you can follow these steps to automate your hiring outreach:
Step 1: Use filters to source candidates
Filter by “Open to work” status, job title, education, and more to drill down on the types of candidates you’re looking for.
Step 2: Create a list
Make a selection of your best-fit candidates and save them to a list. LinkedIn Recruiter allows you to create Recruiter landing pages to manage hiring campaigns.
Step 3: Start an outreach campaign
You can compose and send LinkedIn InMail messages to your candidate selection. You can also create follow-up messages to keep them engaged and increase your reply rate.
LinkedIn Recruiter is very effective for finding and contacting people. It’s a great way to understand the people in a company and who to contact for various reasons. LinkedIn was easy to set up and also integrated well with our other software. The mobile app has greatly improved. – Verified LinkedIn User on Capterra
Using your sales automation tool
Here’s the game-changer we’re suggesting for you instead of relying on LinkedIn Recruiter for automated talent outreach. Use a sales automation tool or CRM with prospecting capabilities.
This approach will save you time and costs if you’re already using a sales automation tool. If you aren’t, the costs can be much lower than LinkedIn Recruiter. For example, if you opt for a LinkedIn-based outreach tool like Wiza, you’ll pay less than half of LinkedIn Recruiter’s cost for unlimited email lists.
While Wiza and other list-builder tools don’t necessarily have messaging features, they’re not barricaded by LinkedIn Recruiter’s 3rd-degree network limitation. This widens your net substantially and helps you find more qualified candidates.
Same workflow, but better results (in our opinion):
Step 1: Use filters to source candidates
Most sales automation tools include career-based filters like job title, education, and role, which is why they can also work for recruitment outreach.
Filter by the most important job-related factors to start building your candidate list.
Step 2: Create a list
Check the selection box next to all the candidates you want to reach out to, or select all of them. You usually have one or all of three options:
- Save your selection as a list.
- Export your selection as a CSV file.
- Export via integration with your CRM or messaging tool.
What’s really cool about a LinkedIn-based tool like Wiza is that it first performs a live check on LinkedIn to ensure all the candidate info is updated. It then scores the accuracy of the contact info and segments your lists by “valid” and “risky.”
Step 3: Start an outreach campaign
You’ve already automated much of the heavy lifting of talent outreach (finding candidates, their credentials, and their contact details), but you still need to send messages and follow-ups to your prospects. If your sales automation or list-builder tool doesn’t have built-in messaging capabilities, you should be able to integrate it with a CRM or messaging tool like Pipedrive or HubSpot.
If not, simply use Zapier to automate sending emails and LinkedIn messages to your candidates. Zapier is actually one of LinkedIn’s official partners and allows you to connect to almost any app you can think of.
Learn more about how to build your talent pipeline. We take you through the steps to define your talent needs, source verified contact information, and send personalized messages.
Reach out
If you’ve been doing LinkedIn outreach manually until now, we believe we’ve convinced you there’s a better way.
With the built-in LinkedIn Recruiter (at an extra cost), you can use sophisticated filters and dynamic lists to automate your candidate search and messaging. If the cost and 3rd-degree connection limitation are too much for you, then there’s another option.
Our preferred option is to use the sales automation tools you already have to source the right candidates for the job. A LinkedIn-based tool like Wiza combined with an integrated messaging tool or LinkedIn + Zapier automation will help you automate hiring outreach at a lower cost.
Which outreach automation method will you try at your company? Let us know in the comments section below (we promise to respond to you personally!).
Commonly asked questions and answers
What are the main drawbacks of using LinkedIn Recruiter for automated hiring outreach?
LinkedIn Recruiter is widely used, but it has significant limitations that can hinder hiring outreach efforts. Its cost, ranging from $170 to $270 per license per month, can be prohibitively expensive, especially for smaller businesses. Additionally, its search capability is restricted to your 3rd-degree connections, significantly limiting access to a broader talent pool. While the tool offers features like InMail messaging and dynamic lists, these options may lack the flexibility of external CRM integrations.
How do sales automation tools like Wiza offer an advantage over LinkedIn Recruiter for hiring outreach?
Sales automation tools like Wiza present a compelling alternative to LinkedIn Recruiter by providing greater affordability and flexibility. They are significantly more cost-effective, with pricing that’s less than half of LinkedIn Recruiter’s cost, making them accessible to companies with tighter budgets. Unlike LinkedIn Recruiter’s network limitations, tools like Wiza offer a much broader reach by bypassing the 3rd-degree connection barrier. Additionally, Wiza includes real-time data verification, ensuring that contact information is accurate and up-to-date, which reduces the time spent on manual checks.
What are the key steps to automate hiring outreach using a LinkedIn-based tool like Wiza?
Automating hiring outreach with tools like Wiza involves a straightforward and efficient process. First, you use the tool’s filters, such as job title, skills, and education, to identify and verify candidates who match your hiring criteria. Next, you build a candidate list by saving it within the tool, exporting it as a CSV file, or integrating it with your CRM or messaging software. Finally, you launch an outreach campaign by sending personalized messages via email or LinkedIn and scheduling follow-ups to maximize response rates.
