So you want to reach B2B leads on both email and LinkedIn—without spending your life copying and pasting or accidentally annoying everyone. Multichannel outreach sounds great, but let’s be real: it gets messy fast. This guide is for marketers, founders, and sales folks who want to actually get replies, not just tick boxes.
We’ll walk through setting up Inboxautomate to handle your outreach across both email and LinkedIn. I’ll call out what works, what’s a waste of time, and how to avoid rookie mistakes.
Why Multichannel Outreach (Usually) Beats Spray-and-Pray
If you’re reading this, you already know that a single email rarely does the trick. People split their attention between inboxes, DMs, and notifications. By hitting both email and LinkedIn, you:
- Double your chances of getting seen.
- Seem more “real” (if you don’t sound like a robot).
- Can tailor your message to the channel.
But here’s the thing: If you run the same spammy message across both, it backfires. People notice—and not in a good way. The trick is to coordinate your outreach, not just blast the same stuff everywhere.
Step 1: Prep Your Lead List (Don’t Skip This)
Before you even log into Inboxautomate, get your lead list together. This is boring, but it matters. The best automation tool can’t save a garbage list.
What you need: - Name - Email address - LinkedIn profile URL
Pro tips: - Don’t trust scraped LinkedIn URLs blindly—double-check for duplicates or bad data. - If you’re buying or scraping lists, expect a chunk of junk. Clean it up before you upload. - If you don’t have LinkedIn URLs, services like Apollo, Lusha, or even manual lookup can help (but don’t overpay).
Ignore: Fancy “enrichment” tools promising perfect data. They almost never are.
Step 2: Set Up Inboxautomate
Log in to Inboxautomate. You’ll need to connect both your email account (Gmail, Outlook, whatever) and your LinkedIn account.
Connecting Email
- Use a dedicated outreach email if you can. Your main work email is precious—don’t risk deliverability.
- Inboxautomate will walk you through OAuth or SMTP. The setup’s pretty standard.
Connecting LinkedIn
- You’ll need to connect your LinkedIn account. This sometimes involves a browser extension or entering cookies (LinkedIn doesn’t make this easy for any tool).
- If you’re worried about LinkedIn’s rules: Don’t go crazy with volume, and don’t send obviously automated junk. Stay human.
Watch out: If you blast hundreds of messages a day, LinkedIn will notice. Keep it to a couple dozen at a time, especially at first.
Step 3: Map Out Your Sequence
Here’s where most people mess up. Don’t just write a single generic message and spray it everywhere. Instead, sketch out a sequence—what gets sent, when, and on which channel.
A simple, effective sequence: 1. Day 1: LinkedIn connection request with a short note (no pitch!) 2. Day 3: Email follow-up if they connect (or even if they don’t) 3. Day 7: LinkedIn message. Reference your email so it feels connected. 4. Day 10: One last email (short, polite, clear call to action)
Why this works: - Starts with a soft touch, not a hard sell. - Uses each channel for what it’s good at. LinkedIn is for introductions; email is for detail. - You’re not pestering people every day.
Don’t:
- Send the same message on both channels.
- Use “Just bumping this up in your inbox!” unless you want to sound like everyone else.
- Go beyond 3-4 total touches unless you have a really good reason.
Step 4: Build Your Messages (Keep Them Short)
Inboxautomate lets you set up templates with variables, so you can personalize at scale. Use it, but don’t get lazy.
What actually works: - First lines that prove you’re not a bot (“Saw you wrote about X last month.”) - Short, clear requests (“Would you be open to a quick call next week?”) - No jargon or filler—ditch the “I hope this finds you well.”
Personalization tips: - Use their name, company, or something recent from their LinkedIn. - Don’t overdo it: one genuine detail is plenty.
Ignore:
- Overly complex “spintax” or randomization tricks. Just sound like a person.
Step 5: Schedule and Launch
Once your sequence and messages are set up, schedule the campaign.
- Spread sends out over days. Don’t blast 100 messages at once—Inboxautomate can drip them out to mimic real activity.
- Randomize send times within a window (e.g., 9am–4pm) to avoid patterns.
- Monitor limits: Inboxautomate helps you stay under LinkedIn’s daily message caps.
Pro tip:
Start with a small test—maybe 20–30 leads. See what lands in spam, what triggers LinkedIn warnings, and which messages get replies. Then scale up.
Step 6: Track Replies and Handle Responses
Automation gets you to “first reply.” After that, you need to be human.
- Set up notifications in Inboxautomate so you don’t miss responses.
- Replies on LinkedIn often come as DMs; email replies show up in your inbox.
- When someone replies, stop the automation for that lead. No one likes getting a follow-up after they’ve already answered.
What to ignore:
- Tools that promise “AI-powered auto-responses.” Nothing replaces real back-and-forth.
Step 7: Keep It Clean—Avoid Getting Flagged
Both email and LinkedIn are cracking down on mass outreach. Here’s how to stay out of trouble:
- Warm up new email accounts before going full speed. Send real, manual emails for a week or two.
- Don’t send more than 20–40 LinkedIn messages a day from a new account.
- Avoid spammy language: Words like “guaranteed,” “free,” and “limited offer” can trip filters.
- Rotate templates every so often to avoid detection.
If you get warnings or see your deliverability drop, pause and reassess. Burned domains and banned LinkedIn accounts are a pain to fix.
What Actually Matters (and What Doesn't)
Here’s the honest rundown of what’s worth your attention:
-
Worth it:
- Clean, verified data
- Short, personal messages
- Testing sequences on small batches
- Following up, but not overdoing it
-
Not worth it:
- Over-engineering personalization (nobody cares about their favorite sports team from college)
- Buying lists without checking them
- Relying on “AI copy” for outreach (it’s still pretty generic)
- Chasing the newest hack or loophole—LinkedIn will close it soon anyway
Wrapping Up: Start Simple, Iterate Fast
Inboxautomate can handle the busywork, but it won’t fix a bad message or a bad list. Start with a handful of leads, see what works, and tweak as you go. If you’re not getting replies, change your approach before you scale. Keep it human, keep it personal, and don’t let “automation” turn you into a spammer.
Spending a little extra time on your setup pays off. The rest? Just noise.