LinkedIn Premium 2024: Is It Worth the Upgrade?
If you’re an avid LinkedIn user, you might be considering whether upgrading to LinkedIn Premium is a good idea.
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Using a free LinkedIn account has limitations that can restrict your networking capabilities and access to full profile analytics.
The answer, of course, depends on your goals and needs. Still, a LinkedIn Premium account can significantly enhance your experience by providing features such as LinkedIn Learning, advanced job insights, and improved networking opportunities.
Let’s explore the different types of LinkedIn Premium, their costs, and what each type offers to help you decide.
Key Points:
- Upgrading to any LinkedIn Premium subscription can be worthwhile depending on your goals, offering access to competitive intelligence, insight into profile views, job insights, advanced search filters, and the ability to build meaningful connections.
- LinkedIn offers four Premium plans: Career, Business, Sales Navigator, and Recruiter Lite.
- Each plan has unique features tailored to specific audiences.
LinkedIn offers a free trial (30 days) for each plan, allowing you to try before you buy.
LinkedIn Premium Types and Associated Costs:
LinkedIn offers four Premium plans, each with its own set of LinkedIn premium costs tailored to different professional needs:
- LinkedIn Premium Career: Designed for job seekers, this plan costs $29.99 per month or $239.88 per year. It includes profile insights, the ability to see who viewed your profile, and LinkedIn Learning courses.
- LinkedIn Premium Business: Aimed at small and medium-sized businesses, the LinkedIn Premium Business plan costs $47.99 per month or $575.88 per year. It offers all Career features plus additional business insights, including pricing, InMail credits, and the ability to contact others outside your network. This plan provides a significant advantage by comparing the InMail credits available in the Premium Career and the Premium Business plans, highlighting its benefits for business growth and networking.
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator: For sales professionals, this plan starts at $79.99 per month or $779.88 per year. It includes lead recommendations, advanced search tools, and the ability to save leads and accounts.
- LinkedIn Recruiter Lite: Tailored for recruiters, this plan starts at $119.95 per month or $1,199.40 per year. It offers advanced search filters, 30 InMails per month, and candidate tracking.
Understanding the LinkedIn premium cost and LinkedIn premium pricing is crucial when choosing the right plan for your professional needs.
Each plan is designed to cater to specific goals, from job seeking to business development, sales strategies, and recruitment efforts.
What Each Plan Offers:
LinkedIn Premium Career:
Elevate your professional journey with LinkedIn's premium service, tailored to meet the needs of ambitious job seekers and business professionals. This plan unlocks exclusive premium services, including the ability to view who has checked your profile, insights to optimize it, and the power to message anyone on LinkedIn with InMail messages. Additionally, you gain access to advanced search tools and 16,000+ LinkedIn Learning courses to enhance your skills, ensuring long-term professional growth and a significant impact on your career trajectory.
LinkedIn Premium Business:
All the benefits of the Career plan, plus additional insights into business trends, and the ability to see who’s visited your company page, make it easier to connect with potential business contacts and expand your professional network.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator:
Builds on the Business plan by adding lead recommendations, advanced search tools, and the capability to save leads and accounts, offering a comprehensive toolset for sales professionals looking to target and engage with potential clients more effectively.
LinkedIn Recruiter Lite:
The ultimate tool for recruiters, incorporating all Sales Navigator features plus 30 InMails per month, advanced search filters, and candidate management tools, enabling a more efficient search across LinkedIn's entire database for the perfect job candidates.
Is LinkedIn Premium Worth the Cost?
Deciding whether LinkedIn Premium is worth the cost depends on your goals.
Unlike the free version of LinkedIn, which limits your ability to send messages to people not in your network, view full profiles, and conduct unrestricted searches, premium plans offer extensive features.
For job seekers, Career can give an edge in optimizing profiles and reaching out directly to hiring managers and potential employers. Sales Navigator is valuable for sales professionals to generate leads and build relationships. Recruiter Lite is essential for recruiters to find and manage talent.
A free 30-day trial for each plan is available, so you can test it out to see if it’s right for you.
Immediate ROI: When a LinkedIn Premium Subscription Pays Off (or Doesn't)
LinkedIn Premium can offer substantial and immediate returns on investment, particularly for job seekers and sales professionals. Let's break it down:
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- Job Seekers: Imagine you're on the hunt for a new role, applying to multiple jobs per week. LinkedIn Premium Career grants you direct messaging access to hiring managers, optimizes your profile for recruiters, and provides learning resources to refine your skills. This can significantly speed up your job search process. If you land a position within just one month of using LinkedIn Premium, with an average salary increase of $10,000 annually, that’s approximately $833 more per month, a massive return compared to the $29.99 monthly subscription fee.
- Sales Professionals: Sales Navigator can pay off rapidly for those in sales. For example, gaining access to leads and utilizing advanced search features can result in closing a single deal worth $5,000 within the first month of using the service. This deal alone more than covers the $79.99 monthly subscription cost and can lead to further opportunities, significantly multiplying your ROI.
- Students: On the flip side, students and individuals not currently in the job market might find LinkedIn Premium cost to be less valuable. The advanced features may offer little immediate benefit, and the monthly cost could outweigh the potential returns. For a student not actively seeking a job or working in sales, the immediate payoff from a Premium plan may not justify the subscription cost, making the free LinkedIn account a better option until career objectives become more pressing.
Conclusion:
LinkedIn Premium can be a worthwhile investment if it aligns with your goals.
Ultimately, the benefits of LinkedIn Premium depend on your professional objectives. For active job seekers and sales professionals, it can provide immediate and tangible financial gains, making it a smart investment.
For others, its value may emerge more slowly over time, making it essential to weigh the costs against potential returns before committing to a subscription.
Enhancing your LinkedIn profile with courses and certificates from LinkedIn Learning, and utilizing LinkedIn Premium features can significantly boost your personal brand, professional credibility, and visibility in LinkedIn search results, increasing your job prospects.
Next Steps: How to Build Your Authority on Linkedin
That's great! We've talked about whether LinkedIn Premium is worth it and how it affects your visibility. Now, let's move on to the next steps and see how you can build authority on LinkedIn.
Building authority is crucial for making connections, attracting opportunities, and expanding your professional reach. By establishing yourself as a credible voice in your field, you can draw in recruiters, clients, and potential employers.
One of the most effective ways to build authority on LinkedIn is to share content and get engagement. If you publish relevant posts with a large number of likes and comments, it can get your visitor's attention.
Moreover, distributing meaningful and valuable content—be it in the form of insights or opinions—to your specific niche audience is another powerful approach to establishing and reinforcing your professional authority.
This will help you connect and grow a solid following of potential customers interested in what you offer them.
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