The best LinkedIn growth hack – for passive lead generation – has got to be LinkedIn away messages.
Imagine being able to screen, nurture, and nudge leads, without even having to open a message in your inbox.
You can be asleep and still push leads.
This is such a huge gamechanger that our clients, team, and myself, use it to make sure we’re on top of our game.
It’s also allowed me to take care of international clients even when I’m asleep and they’re growth hacking in their respective timezone.
Are you ready to turn passive into massive?
Let’s do this!
LinkedIn Away Messages: A Primer
LinkedIn away messages were primarily built to give your connections a quick message if you’re away from the platform. Say you’re on holiday, busy with some other project, or just don’t have time to go through messages.
Here’s the thing.
These autoresponder messages aren’t new.
We’ve seen them on Facebook, websites with chatbots, etc. with a little call-to-action for people to have an alternate number to call.
But, most of the time they aren’t used well.
And, as such, they don’t make a difference.
That’s why the moment this feature came out, we knew what we had to do. We needed to make it engaging, personalized, and capable of pushing people through our funnel.
When you’re busy scaling your business, you won’t be able to respond to your LinkedIn messages as fast as you would want to. You know the rule of lead generation, the longer you make the lead wait, the more the warm lead goes cold.
LinkedIn away messages fix this problem by replying to prospects on the spot so that they have something to work with even if you’re not around to talk to them yet.
This in a way, saves you a lot of time because you don’t have to be anxiously checking your messages several times a day rushing to respond to queries about your services.
You can respond at your own pace knowing that the LinkedIn away message is doing its job for you in your absence.
However, not everyone gets access to LinkedIn away messages, you need to be subscribed to a form of LinkedIn Premium to get access to it.
Now, if you’re reading this guide, you probably already have Premium or are considering getting it. At some point, if you’re growing on LinkedIn, it really does make sense to get it, and having this feature makes the pricing pretty justifiable.
How to Turn on LinkedIn Away Messages
Click on “Set away message”.
Now a window should pop where there’s a toggle to turn your away message on and off, you want to switch it to the “on” position.
Once you’re done with that, add in your start and end date, along with your message and click “Save”
And, that’s it.
That literally is it.
You now have your very own LinkedIn chatbot that answers prospect queries for you and helps qualify leads for you.
How Do I Start My LinkedIn Away Message?
Say, “Hi”.
They already know that it’s an autoresponder message.
But, that doesn’t mean it can’t feel genuine.
As you can break down from my message, I still treat the people who are reading the autoresponder messages the same way I would treat them when I’m organically replying to messages.
Seem friendly from the get-go and you’ll be able to build rapport.
Make It Feel Exclusive – Lead Qualification
Next, you want it to feel exclusive.
Tell people who are getting your away message that you can only entertain a few people because you have limited time and you don’t have the bandwidth to speak to everybody.
This allows you to weed out prospects who won’t be able to make the cut right away.
Prospects who really want to work with you will tell you why you should pick them and this saves you a lot of time in sales discovery calls in the future.
Plus, who doesn’t like feeling like they’re getting an exclusive offer?
Insert a Meeting Link
The most critical part of your LinkedIn autoresponder message is a meeting link.
This is what allows you to book meetings with prospects automatically even when you’re not around.
I usually put out an appointment link to this website because it also allows the prospect to look around and check out what we’ve done so far.
This goes beyond just securing the appointment because it also nurtures them while they’re on your site.
Insert a Resource Link
What do we always talk about at BAMF?
Value.
Don’t make the mistake of only putting in a booking link because it makes you seem too eager to get on a call with a prospect to sell to them.
You don’t want to do that.
You want to give them value if they haven’t made their minds up yet.
In my personal message, I put in a link to one of my books.
This will allow people who are still on the fence to take something home with them to read, give them value and then reach back to the organization when they’re ready to make a purchase decision.
More importantly, part of our mandate at BAMF is to give back to the community and that’s why I made sure there was a resource link.
Add Traditional Contact Information
Just add your email or maybe even your phone number.
Give them a chance to just reach out to you without having to book a “sales discovery call” or avail of one of your services.
This is the ultimate personal touch if you ask me.
Keep It Short
There’s a 300-character limit on LinkedIn away messages to make sure you don’t write a marketing manifesto.
And, we think that’s a good thing.
By being able to take advantage of that limit of 300 characters, you’re able to create messages that are short and snappy.
You can read more about how to do LinkedIn formatting in our guide here.
Takeaways
LinkedIn away messages are a must if you want to scale your business without having to spend so much time in your LinkedIn Inbox.
They help you qualify prospects, nurture them, and allow you to respond right away even when you’re not around.
If you leverage them correctly.
You’ve got a 300-character auto-responder that can bring massive revenue to your business.
