Is LinkedIn Premium Worth It? – CV Nation

Is LinkedIn Premium Worth It?

Posted by Neil Faragher on

LinkedIn is one of the best social media platforms for building professional connections and acquiring new career opportunities. But does upgrading to LinkedIn Premium give you a better chance of getting the most out of the platform. Is LinkedIn Premium useful? Or is LinkedIn’s basic offering just as effective?

LinkedIn Premium is worth the cost if you invest time to utilise it fully and get the most out of the platform. LinkedIn Premium enables users to take more control of their networking and achieve better results. This is largely because users can build more connections by utilising the InMail feature, gain valuable insights into their LinkedIn profile and see all the people who have viewed their profile. These features help jobseekers to maximise LinkedIn and optimise their chances of achieving their goals. However, those who are not actively seeking new employment may not benefit a great deal from LinkedIn Premium.


What is LinkedIn Premium?

LinkedIn Premium is offered to LinkedIn users as an upgrade option. It costs between $29.99 and $99.95 per month, depending on whether you’re a jobseeker, recruiter, salesperson or business professional.

LinkedIn Premium aims to help its users network more effectively by providing more features than the platform’s free offering.

What are the benefits of LinkedIn Premium?

LinkedIn Premium offers four key benefits to users: InMail credits, access to LinkedIn Learning, the ability to find out who has viewed your profile and Applicant Insights.

LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Premium users have access to on-demand learning. This includes over 15,000 online courses to support your professional development and help you gain new skills. Many of these courses are led by experts in their field.

Examples of current LinkedIn Learning courses include:

- Excel Essential Training

- Developing Your Emotional Intelligence

- Programming Foundations: Fundamentals

- Leading Without Formal Authority

As you can see, LinkedIn Learning offers a wide variety of courses, with something for everyone.

LinkedIn Learning courses look great on your CV, demonstrating your passion for professional development and showcasing your new skills.

InMail

InMail is a highly beneficial feature for LinkedIn users as it enables them to directly contact people who they are not connected with on the platform. Imagine finding the perfect company to work for and being able to instantly get in touch with the company's key decision-makers. InMail enables you to do just that.

Of course, there is much more to networking then sending off messages to potential employers, but LinkedIn’s InMail feature is an invaluable tool when it comes to building new relationships.

Depending on your LinkedIn Premium plan, you will receive a certain number of InMail credits every month. The LinkedIn Premium Career plan for jobseekers offers three InMail credits per month.

Who’s Viewed Your Profile

Another key benefit of LinkedIn Premium is the ‘Who’s Viewed Your Profile’ feature. This lets you see the names and profiles of those who have viewed your LinkedIn profile within the previous 90 days. With LinkedIn’s basic offering, you can only see the five most recent profile viewers within the previous 90 days.

Why is the ‘Who’s Viewed Your Profile’ feature important? Does it really matter who has been viewing your LinkedIn profile?

Well, this feature provides you with valuable insight into the progress of your job search and networking activities. It enables you to find out if recruiters or hiring managers are interested in you. Potentially, this can also open the door for you to start networking with them.

Alongside this, you can also browse other people’s LinkedIn profiles in invisible mode with LinkedIn Premium.

Applicant Insights

LinkedIn’s Applicant Insights feature uses the skills and information on your LinkedIn profile to link you with relevant job openings.

When presented with a job opening, you will receive a job match rating. On a scale of one to five, you’ll be informed how well you match the role based on your past experience, skills and your current role.

The Applicant Insights feature also tells you how many of your skills match the key skills required for the position.

Benefits of LinkedIn Premium

LinkedIn Premium for business, sales and recruitment

LinkedIn also offers premium packages for those who use the platform for sales, business or recruitment purposes. These packages are called Sales Navigator, Premium Business and Recruiter Lite/Recruiter. All three include different features with varying pricing structures.

LinkedIn Premium Business

Premium Business is designed for business development professionals and business owners. It helps them build connections with potential clients and generate new business.

Like Premium Career, Premium Business offers InMail credits, although with Premium Business users get 15 monthly credits rather than 3. Premium Business users also have access to LinkedIn Learning, Applicant Insights and the Who's Viewed Your Profile feature. Alongside this, Premium Business users get insight into their company’s page.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

This premium version of LinkedIn is for salespeople, enabling them to maximise their sales performance by making use of LinkedIn’s data on over 660 million members. It also helps salespeople to improve client relationships and increase the size of deals.

On average, according to LinkedIn, using Sales Navigator leads to users making 50% more connections and achieving 7% higher win rates.

The Sales Navigator package comes with 20 monthly InMail credits, as well as the ability to efficiently organise lists of leads.

LinkedIn Recruiter Lite/LinkedIn Recruiter

LinkedIn Recruiter Lite and LinkedIn Recruiter enable recruiters and head-hunters to streamline their recruitment process and efficiently source high-quality talent.

Recruiters and head-hunters using LinkedIn Recruiter Lite or LinkedIn Recruiter can make use of 30 monthly InMail credits and complex search filters to find the best candidates. Alongside this, Recruiter Lite and Recruiter allow users to build and save templates to speed up the recruitment process.

How much does LinkedIn Premium cost?

LinkedIn offers multiple premium platforms: Premium Career, Premium Business, Sales Navigator and Recruiter Lite/Recruiter. But how much do they cost? And how much will it be for you?

LinkedIn Premium Career - LinkedIn Premium Career, the premium version of LinkedIn for jobseekers, is priced at $29.99 per month.

LinkedIn Premium Business - The package for business development professionals and business owners is priced at $47.99.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator - LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator package is priced at $64.99 per month.

LinkedIn Recruiter Lite and LinkedIn Recruiter – LinkedIn offers two premium recruitment packages: Recruiter Lite and Recruiter. Recruiter Lite, the starting package, is priced at $99.95 per month when billed annually.

Optimise your profile before upgrading to LinkedIn Premium

Before investing money in LinkedIn Premium, make sure your LinkedIn profile is fully optimised and effectively selling you. You don’t want to start sending off InMail’s if your LinkedIn profile is not up to scratch as this may result in you generating a lower response rate.

How to optimise your LinkedIn profile

- Add a professional profile photo of yourself wearing appropriate attire and smiling confidently

- Include a powerful headline that makes you stand out

- Prepare a compelling LinkedIn summary to convey your unique value proposition and demonstrate why you would make a great employee

- If possible, add any relevant media, images or documentation to bolster your profile

- Avoid spelling and grammar mistakes to ensure you come across as a professional candidate

Conclusion

LinkedIn Premium is worth the cost for jobseekers if they are prepared to invest time in utilising its additional features. Networking on LinkedIn is a long-term process, so it’s important to spend time building your professional brand. If used effectively, LinkedIn Premium will help you build more connections and open the door to more career opportunities. However, for those who do not intend to spend a great deal of time on LinkedIn may find more value in using the free offering.

The ability to contact key decision-makers of companies is an invaluable tool that is absolutely worth the cost of LinkedIn Premium, in our opinion. With this feature, you can find the key decision-makers of companies you want to work for and get in touch with them directly. We believe this alone justifies the cost of LinkedIn Premium.

Those who spend time developing their capabilities with LinkedIn Learning will surely find the Premium package worth the cost. These courses look great on your CV and demonstrate your passion for professional development.

For recruiters, salespeople and business professionals, LinkedIn Premium can play a key role in optimising the efficiency of daily tasks and achieving performance goals.


We hope you have found this guide helpful in assessing the cost-effectiveness of LinkedIn Premium. Do you need further help with your LinkedIn profile? Feel free to get in touch with us here at CV Nation.


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