How to Send Mass Messages on LinkedIn Recruiter

To hire the critical people you need for your company, you are probably using one of the most popular tools for talent acquisition: either LinkedIn Recruiter Lite, or LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate (for larger organizations). Logically, the next step, after figuring out which of LinkedIn’s solutions fits their needs and means best, is understanding how to make full use of their solution’s potential to save up even more time and money.

As a matter of fact, while Recruiter is a good way to get in touch with candidates, you may also want to send bulk InMails (direct messages to another LinkedIn member that you are not connected to, something you cannot do on a free account) or mass messages in an instant, something you would have to do manually on LinkedIn’s website alone. You may even want to automate some of these processes.

The practical answer is to combine LinkedIn Recruiter with a careful outreach workflow. You want faster sending, but you also need clean targeting, useful messages and response-rate protection.

How to send automated mass messages

Sending mass messages to your network

Normally, you would be sending mass messages to your network by opening your LinkedIn account and manually typing in all your connections’ names one by one.

But doing so has two, very clear drawbacks:

• First, this will quickly turn into an extremely tedious task if you intend to reach hundreds of people or more…
• Second, you will need to carefully pick who you send that mass message to. Because if your audience is too broad – or your message is not relevant or valuable enough to your recipients – the platform may even flag you as a spammer and restrict your ability to communicate. This will not only hinder you in the short term, but even lock you out of reach of certain candidates in the future…

That is where a structured sequence helps more than manual sending.

Sending mass messages to any candidates on LinkedIn with a sequence

To do so, you will need to set up a LinkedIn sequence. This is how we call the automation of your channel outreach: it is a multi-step automated process to reach potential candidates. In other words, you set up your profile to automatically connect with people by first messaging them, then sending a connection request, then InMailing them, then processing their profile data, etc.

One way to set this up is with Leonar, which can help recruiters extract, clean, enrich and organize candidate data across channels. In concrete terms, you can use it to prepare messaging sequences, define who should receive them and automate the repetitive sending steps.

Those pre-written message sequences have custom triggers, so they are not sent at random but according to a defined set of rules (like when candidates possess certain certifications, experience or skills).

Once the rules are defined, write the message before launch and review the sequence as a recruiter would. Automation should handle timing and execution, not replace judgment.

How to send bulk inmails on Linkedin Recruiter

How to send bulk inmails on LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate

LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate already allows you to automate up to 25 InMails at a time directly within the platform. But a powerful third-party recruitment CRM like Leonar can help you speed that up even more, by centralizing all your processes and setting up common filters for them. You also won’t have to re-set everything up next month when you recover your InMail credits.

Also, keep in mind that you recover InMail credits when people reply, even if the answer is negative. Focus on response rate and send relevant messages with clear CTAs, because better replies let you reach more people during the month.

You can thus centralize all your templates, finely customize all your criteria and set it up so that certain message models reach certain profiles. You can also plan one follow up on each person.

Note that you will be restricted from using bulk messages features on Linkedin if your response rate from candidates is below 13%. This response rate limit has been defined by Linkedin to ensure members receive high-quality InMail from recruiters

👉 Discover great tips and the best template to know how to message a candidate on LinkedIn using an inmail

How to send bulk inmails on Linkedin Recruiter Lite

Sadly, this feature is not available on Recruiter Lite. So, if you wish to harness its power for your organization, you will need to upgrade your licence to either Recruiter Professional Services (a licence catering to staffing firms) or Recruiter Corporate (one geared toward corporate companies).

How a recruiting CRM can help with bulk InMails

A recruiting CRM can support this workflow whether you use Recruiter Lite or Corporate. The limits are still set by LinkedIn, but the tool can help you plan sequences, segment audiences and avoid rebuilding the same campaign every month.

You will not exceed your plan’s monthly limits, but you can rotate audiences month after month and keep follow-ups planned. As replies restore credits, the sequence can continue within the boundaries of your subscription.

Recruiter Lite gives up to 30 InMail credits, with higher allowances on Professional Services and Corporate plans. A tool like Leonar can help you use those manual credits in a more organized bulk workflow, while still respecting LinkedIn limits.

What limits apply to LinkedIn mass messaging?

Please note however that LinkedIn cracks down harshly on accounts that abuse the messaging feature. So, on top of crafting interesting messages that will generate engagement, note that you cannot send more than 200 requests for connection per week.

There are also limits to the number of Inmails you can send depending on premium accounts, as we have seen before. You can also purchase extra InMail credits from the platform. The extra purchasable InMails are limited for the Lite plan: up to 70 extra credits per month, per seat (with an upper limit of up to 120 credits banked per month and per seat).

Note that inmails are free for recruiters if they are sent to candidates within your own network, or if they have set the “Open To Work” tag up in their profiles settings.

How to make LinkedIn recruitment more effective

The strongest setup is not just faster sending. It combines clear candidate criteria, careful message writing and consistent follow-up so recruiters can spend more time on real conversations.

Leonar can also help you connect LinkedIn outreach with other channels like email. For instance, when a candidate accepts a connection request, you can continue the conversation with automated LinkedIn messaging or add email follow-up when appropriate. You can even add WhatsApp to your outreach sequences for candidates who respond better there. This is the idea behind multichannel recruitment outreach: one coordinated sequence that adapts to the channel each candidate actually uses.

Why is Linkedin not allowing me to send bulk messages anymore

Restriction limits for Linkedin Bulk Messaging

As we said earlier, to ensure candidates receive quality messages from Recruiters, Linkedin has set a limit for bulk inmail messaging.

As a recruiter, you will have to keep your response rate above 13% if you send at least 100 inmails during 14 days.

If you send more than 100 inmails during a 14 days-assessment period with a low response rate, you will see a banner saying that you need to improve this KPI. You will have two weeks to improve your response rate above 13%, or the bulk messaging feature will be disabled.

If you don’t succeed in improving your response rate, this feature will be disabled for two weeks. After this two weeks, you can have this feature back is you have enough answers from candidates to exceed the 13% response rate target.

👉 Please find more specific information about the Inmail improvement period in Linkedin Recruiter on this link: InMail improvement period in LinkedIn Recruiter

What can I do if LinkedIn restricts bulk messaging?

If you are under the restriction period, you have two options:

• Send Linkedin inmails one-by-one
• Use a recruiting CRM to build safer sequences that include InMail messaging

Interested in knowing more about this specific topic? You can find more information on Linkedin’s inmail limit on this link regarding inmail sending limits in Recruiter and Recruiter Lite: InMail sending limits in Recruiter and Recruiter Lite

If you also want to automate connection requests, read our guide on how to automate LinkedIn connection requests. For InMail-specific workflows, continue with our guide on how to automate LinkedIn InMails.