LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform, with over 800 million members globally. While the free version offers solid features, upgrading to LinkedIn Premium unlocks additional benefits that can take your LinkedIn presence to the next level.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the critical advantages of LinkedIn Premium and how to maximize this service for professional branding, networking, and job searching.
An Overview of LinkedIn Premium
LinkedIn Premium comes with two pricing options:
- LinkedIn Premium Career
- LinkedIn Premium Business
The Career package focuses on job-seeking and professional branding tools, while the Business package adds more features for sales and recruiting. We’ll focus on the Career version in this post.
Some of the key features included with Premium Career are:
- Seeing who viewed your profile
- Unlimited InMail messages
- Advanced profile filtering
- Professional learning courses
- Interview preparation tools
Let’s look at the most useful Premium benefits for individuals and how they can help advance your career.
Benefit 1: See Who Viewed Your Profile
One of the most popular LinkedIn Premium features is seeing who has viewed your profile. You can only see the last five profile views with the free version.
With Premium, you get insights into who is looking at your profile and how they landed on your page. This allows you to identify interested employers, networking contacts, or new connections.
You can access this feature under your LinkedIn homepage’s “Who’s viewed your profile” section. Premium members will see a list of the last 90 days of profile views, with photos and additional details.
This information allows you to focus on your outreach and networking efforts with interested People who are already engaged with your profile.
You may discover recurring profile views from a hiring manager at a company you want to work for. Or find that several new contacts at your target employers have clicked through.
These insights give you an advantage in reaching out and advancing conversations with the right people.
Benefit 2: Send Unlimited InMail Messages
LinkedIn InMail is a powerful messaging tool that lets you contact any LinkedIn member directly, even if they are not in your network. However, free members are very limited in how many messages they can send. With Premium, those limits disappear.
Unlimited InMails allows you to cold email connections at companies you target for jobs or business opportunities. You can contact the relevant members directly rather than waiting for 2nd or 3rd-degree connections.
To get the most from Unlimited InMail:
- Personalize each message – Avoid generic outreach and customize your InMail with specifics about why you are reaching out.
- Follow up strategically – If you don’t get a response the first time, follow up in 7-10 days using a fresh approach.
- Use sparingly – Don’t overdo it. InMail works best when you selectively target those most aligned with your goals.
With the expanded InMail capacity, Premium boosts and accelerates your ability to build relationships and get your foot in the door.
Benefit 3: Advanced Profile Search
Finding the right people to network with or identifying hiring managers to connect to your dream companies can be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
LinkedIn Premium offers advanced profile search filters that make finding your target contacts much easier. For example, you can search for profiles within a specific company with certain keywords, job titles, locations, interests, skills, and more.
The filters let you narrow your search results to a highly targeted list of people matching particular criteria. You can then use your Unlimited InMail to reach out directly to these targeted profiles and increase your chances of a response.
Some examples of effective searches for job seekers include:
- Profiles with hiring manager titles at your dream company
- Finding alumni at your target company who graduated the same year as you
- Recruiters or talent acquisition contacts at relevant organizations
For sales professionals, useful searches include:
- Finding marketing contacts at companies in your domain
- Connecting with small business owners in your local area
- Identifying contacts at organizations that use tools related to your product
Identifying and connecting with such targeted prospects is an invaluable benefit of upgrading to Premium.
Benefit 4: Take Free Professional Learning Courses
Learning and skill development are essential for career advancement and opening new opportunities.LinkedIn Premium includes its full library of professional learning courses for free with your membership. Industry experts create these courses and cover various in-demand business, technology, and creative skills.
https://www.linkedin.com/learning/
Here are some of the things you can learn for free with a Premium account:
- Leadership and management
- Data science and analytics
- Graphic design
- Cloud computing skills like AWS and Azure
- Digital marketing tactics like SEO and social media
- Job interview preparation
- Personal branding
Having unlimited access to quality learning content lets you stay at the cutting edge of your industry. You can learn the skills needed for that next job or promotion. Or branch out into something new.
The courses also often provide certificates of completion. These look great on your profile and demonstrate continuous professional development to employers. So, if you want to sharpen your skills or pivot into a new field, take full advantage of Premium’s powerful (and free!) learning opportunities.
Benefit 5: Get Advice on Your Resume, Profile, and Interview Skills
The perfect job requires a stellar resume, professional profile, and interview chops. Luckily, LinkedIn Premium provides tools and coaching for improvement in each of these crucial areas.
The Res Assistant gives tips and feedback on making your resume more impactful. Just upload your document, and you’ll get advice on the following:
- Formatting and overall presentation
- Using optimal keywords and phrases
- Customizing your resume for specific roles
- Ensuring your resume is ATS-friendly
The Profile Review helps level up your LinkedIn presence. It analyzes things like your profile completeness, headline, and media usage. You get specific tips for additions and improvements to make your profile stand out.
Finally, Interview Prep offers videos and tutorials to practice and perfect your video, phone, and in-person interview skills. You’ll gain confidence in how to ace every type of interview situation.
Between your resume, online profile, and interview skills, Premium has you covered for presenting your best self to land the perfect job.
LinkedIn Inmail: Boost Your LinkedIn Outreach with the Power of InMail
What Does LinkedIn Premium Cost?
We’ve covered the many unlocked features and benefits with a Premium upgrade. But what does it cost to access this premium experience?
The current monthly price for the Career-focused Premium package is $29.99.You are billed monthly and can cancel anytime. So, it is a relatively low-risk way to try it out.
Annual billing is also available at a discount. The current yearly price is $239.88, billed as a lump sum upfront.LinkedIn offers students an even cheaper rate of $14.99 per month. This requires verifying current student enrollment status.
Many people find the monthly price worthwhile for Premium’s networking superpowers. But of course, the value depends on how extensively you use its tools. Try it for 2-3 months to see if the features align with your career or business goals. You can always cancel penalty-free if it’s not the right fit.
Is LinkedIn Premium Worth It?
Determining if LinkedIn Premium is worth it depends on your needs and career objectives. The networking and messaging capabilities make Premium a potential game-changer for job seekers and freelancers actively pitching business. The ability to see who is looking at your profile and reach out to them directly with InMail is extremely powerful.
Premium can accelerate your ability to connect with the right people at your target companies. Activating conversations would be impossible for a free user. Professionals who want to pivot into a new career path or industry can also gain a leg up from Premium’s advanced profile search and free learning courses.
The additional insights, unlocked messages, and skill development provide the tools to transition between careers successfully. However, more passive users who only occasionally update their profile may find Premium offers limited value for the monthly price.
The key is regular, active usage of Premium’s capabilities for expanded networking, discovery, and visibility. When leveraged fully, Premium can fast-track your professional and career goals.
How to Cancel LinkedIn Premium
One advantage of Premium is the flexibility to turn the subscription off anytime if you decide it’s not delivering enough value.
Here are the steps to cancel your LinkedIn Premium subscription:
On Desktop
- Click on your profile image in the top right and select Settings & Privacy from the dropdown menu.
- On the left sidebar, click on the Account tab.
- Under the Premium Subscriptions section, click on Manage.
- On the next page, click on Cancel subscription below your Premium plan.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to confirm cancellation.
On Mobile
- Tap on your profile image in the top right and select Settings from the menu.
- Scroll down and tap on Account.
- Tap on Manage Premium settings.
- On the next page, tap on Cancel subscription below your Premium plan.
- Confirm cancellation on the popup message.
Once you complete cancellation, your Premium access will remain active until the end of the current billing cycle. You will revert to a free account after that period.
LinkedIn makes it relatively quick and straightforward to cancel Premium if you decide it is no longer worthwhile. Access the subscription management settings and select cancel.
