Automation is a natural progress feature, especially when it comes to digital marketing. It is a great way to optimize your time expenses. You just leave all the mechanical work to the bot, while focusing on strategic processes. Sounds tempting, right?
Well, you have to know the price for it. Obviously, there is a great risk of having your account banned for using fraudulent software. By "fraudulent" they mean not only hacking or phishing software, but also those tools that seem to be harmless and even helpful.
Ok, but is ban this much of a problem? Yes, it is. Especially considering how important LinkedIn profile is now (and how important it will be in a couple of years). Nowadays, if someone wants to reach you - they use social networks, not your website or physical address. There is no as business-focused platform as LinkedIn, so your presence there is a real value. If your self-brand matters to you - this might be a great thing to risk.
Besides this obvious risk of ban, there is one more significant danger of using automation tools. LinkedIn is constantly changing small aspects of its work. Why? To make it more difficult for bots to function properly.
Basically, that creates a high risk of addressing the wrong person with the wrong message. Once this happened - it is very difficult to restore prospect's trust and start a conversation from scratch. Some campaigns can last for a couple of months, even years. Moreover, companies usually use the C-level accounts for lead generation. That is why losing everything because of a bot is a very unpleasant experience.
Why talk about it now? Recent LinkedIn update widened the range of forbidden tools. Even harmless ones (like LinkedHelper) is now considered to be fraudulent. Every user of these software were warned about these changes. If they continue using automation tools - their profile will have a great risk of ban.
Considering these two facts, our studio has decided to implement our strategies manually (at least those that involve social media). This decision led us to hiring more professionals, thus building a more diverse team. As a result - our strategies are much more versatile and adjustable.
When it comes to our LinkedIn Campaign - the client receives a personal account manager, responsible for all the processes. The manager collects all the information about a client's desires, defines the target audience and determines working strategies.
It allows our clients to save their time while having their promotion running perfectly. We provide a detailed monthly report, so a client is able to adjust the campaign if needed. This approach enables us to achieve the same (or even better) results with no risks for our clients.
Do you want to know how to run a successful LinkedIn Lead Generation campaign without any automation tools? Check out this case study.
To sum it up, you should remember one thing: "use robots when you are working with robots, be human when you are reaching humans". It is absolutely ok to automize your reports creation, logistics or so on. But since you are building a dialogue - make sure it is a real person who is in charge.