‘You've reached the weekly invitation limit’ – this disappointing message from LinkedIn might look like a dead end, but don’t worry - all is not lost!
Let’s recap ... the LinkedIn weekly connection limit was introduced by LinkedIn some time ago now to encourage users to think about the quality of our connections rather than quantity, to protect the future of the platform and keep the user experience high.
Can I bypass the connection limits?
Yes, the good news is that we can share a trick that allows you to bypass LinkedIn's weekly connection limit. This can be done by connecting with people who have provided their email addresses to LinkedIn.
Dux-Soup can help you capture email addresses for your 2nd and 3rd-degree connections, allowing you to send connection invitations to them, which fall outside of LinkedIn's weekly limits.
First, install Dux-Soup (hit the free trial link above to get 2 weeks of Turbo for free, and this blog
How to capture an email from a prospect using Dux points
Dux Points is a feature that Dux-Soup offers separately with its Pro, Turbo and Cloud plans. It allows you to scrape LinkedIn for email addresses for your 2nd or 3rd degree connections.
One Dux-Soup point equals one successful email found. This means that if Dux-Soup is not able to find a profile’s email, or if a lookup isn’t required, a point will not be deducted from your account.
Even if you accidentally delete the captured Dux-Soup profile data from your browser, you can still visit the same profiles and get their emails again, 7 days after the initial lookup - and you won’t be charged an additional point.
To purchase Dux-Soup Points, click on the Dux-Soup icon, click on Dux-Dash and go to the Dux-Store.
From the Dux-Dash, head straight to the Dux-Store:
Once you enter the Dux Store, you will find information about our packages and rates.
After you purchase the points, make sure you enable "The Address Finder" in the Dux Store.
You can scrape the email from a prospect on LinkedIn during a profile visit with Dux-Soup. These emails will be listed in the downloaded CSV file.
Profile visits can be executed directly in LinkedIn, using the Dux-Soup Revisit Data tool or Search by Tag tool, scheduled via Dux-Soup Remote Control or Dux-Soup Integrations (Turbo and Cloud users only).
When Dux-Soup successfully finds an email, the grey window in the top-right corner of your browser will notify you:
Read through our LinkedIn Search and Filtering Masterclass to learn how to use LinkedIn filters and Dux-Soup skipping options to make sure that every point brings you real value.
You can also manually open the profiles you like and scrape their emails by enabling “Run automated actions while manually browsing profiles”. Just make sure that you're in 'expert mode' to see this option in your options menu:
From here, you’ll need to create a list of profiles and open them in a new tab. Here’s this process in action:
Uploading the email list to LinkedIn
After you have collected the emails of profiles you wish to connect with, download them in a CSV file.
If you use Excel, these formulas can help you to combine text from two or more cells into one. For Mac Numbers users, please be advised to merge email cells into one.
Now, in order to send a connection request by email, follow these 5 easy steps:
1) Click the My Network icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
2) Click Connections on the left rail.
3) Click More options on the right rail.
4) Click the Invite by email option:
5) Type the email addresses, separated by commas, into the text box and select one of the following default message options to send to your contacts:
- I’d like to add you to my professional network
- LinkedIn can help you build a network, like I’m doing
- Try LinkedIn if you’re looking to find the right job
- Let’s use LinkedIn to keep in touch more often
- LinkedIn keeps me informed, it might give you an edge at work
Note: Invitations sent by email can't be personalized any further than the default message options.
These pending connection requests don’t contain any profile information apart from the email address that was used to send the invitation:
However, if the email matches an actual LinkedIn profile, the receiver will get the usual connection request:
If you choose to upload the file instead of entering the list of emails separated by a comma, you won’t be able to choose a default connection message.
All of these prospects will then be added to the Contacts section on LinkedIn. You can upload a maximum of 10,000 contacts, and you can delete contacts that are no longer relevant to you, so you’re able to continue extending your outreach, whilst keeping your contacts relevant.
You probably know this by now, but Dux-Soup can automate much more than sending connection requests. Learn more about how to scale lead generation with LinkedIn’s ‘100 connection per week limit’ by watching our webinar recording.
Remember ...
If you're not already a Dux user, then give our free Dux-Soup trial a go - you get 14 days absolutely free and we don't even ask for any payment details.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, then we’d love to hear them. Send them over to info@dux-soup.com and we’ll respond straight away!
