Linkedin’s Focused Inbox – We Love It, Here’s Why

Last year Linkedin conversations and messaging went up by nearly 20%.

And many users were complaining to the product team that out of all the new feature updates that Linkedin could do, they wanted them to fix Linkedin’s inbox because it was just too cluttered. 

There was no way to see which messages were important and which were spam messages.

It was all kind of mixed together.

Which you can imagine is pretty frustrating. 

So Linkedin (starting December 6th, 2022) rolls out a new update to address that concern. 

And what Linkedin’s focused inbox does is separate what Linkedin thinks is high value, and what Linkedin thinks is low value.

This new feature is basically Linkedin’s answer to a spam filter. 

What does this new inbox feature mean for sales teams?

1. Linkedin will reward outreach that is personalized and relevant, but punish users who send spam-type messages.

2. This messaging feature will get users to use Linkedin more frequently

This is how the Linkedin algorithm works, to get your messages in the focused inbox

Deepan Mehta mentions in his post, which you can see at the outset of the article, is that they want to encourage conversations that are relevant with the right connections. 

So they have shared how the algorithm works. 

See below:

1. It’s going to be behavior-based

This means that if you engage with someone more than others, Linkedin will add them to the focused tab. 

So if users aren’t engaging with your messages they will be sent to the “other” tab. Therefore when messages are spammy or seem to be scam-type messages they will immediately be sent to the other tab. 

2. If a conversation is older than 3 months…

It will be moved to the “other’ tab”. So this cleans up and organizes your Linkedin messaging inbox automatically.

3. Inmails seem to be sent to the “other tab”.

What we have also noticed, which is interesting, is that Inmails seem to be sent to the “other” tab, and new connections are going to the focused tab. 

4. Sponsored & same group messages

Will also be sent to the “other tab”. As we mentioned above, the “other tab” seems to be the equivalent of Gmails promotion tab. 

This is our theory for lead gen agencies that do outreach the right way. 

When your connection request messages are personalized, it will mean that your messaging will be getting a lot more visible because it won’t be flooded in between other less important messages. 

This is our theory anyway. 

So we feel that the new focused inbox is going to be a great feature for us at Salesbread and for Linkedin users who want their inbox organized with their most relevant messages compared to spam. 

At Salesbread we are already getting a 39% positive reply rate from prospects.

We think that Linkedin is going to know that our clients are senders that get high levels of response (remember we send messages on behalf of our clients through their personal Linkedin accounts.).

And therefore, our messages will be added more often to the focused inbox tab, than the “other tab.”

So our messages won’t be buried under other random Inmails or less targeted campaigns from other agencies. 

We think users are going to try much harder to get into the focused tab.

Is the Focused inbox available to everyone?

Not yet, but it will be.

“As Focused Inbox becomes available globally, LinkedIn members can manually opt-in. Once Focused Inbox is available to all members, it will become the default experience, with the option to opt out.”

In conclusion

Since Salesbread doesn’t use Inmail, but rather direct messaging, and only focuses on personalized low-volume super-targeted outreach, this is going to be a great feature for our company.  

We know that with the outreach strategy we use, our messages will be rewarded by being placed in the “focused tab.”

Interested in learning how we run our outreach campaigns to get 1 qualified sales lead per day? Read this article: The “1-Lead-Per-Day” LinkedIn Lead Generation Agency

Or…

Hop on a free 15-minute sales call with us.