Does Octopus CRM Really Work for LinkedIn Growth in 2024?

LinkedIn has become the go-to platform for professional networking and lead generation. With over 810 million members, this social media giant provides unparalleled access to a massive, engaged B2B audience.

But how can you make sure your LinkedIn presence stands out and successfully converts connections into customers? This is where tools like Octopus CRM come in.

In this extensive review, we’ll break down if Octopus CRM’s automation features can actually help expand your reach and boost lead gen on LinkedIn in 2024 and beyond.

Let’s dive in!

What is Octopus CRM?

Octopus CRM is an automated software service that aims to enhance your LinkedIn results through features like:

• Automated connection requests
• Bulk messaging
• Auto-endorsing skills
• Auto profile visits
• Building sales funnels
• Integrating with other software

LinkedIn is unique in that it shows users who has viewed their profile – unlike most social networks. Since LinkedIn centers around professional networking and lead generation, profile views indicate meaningful interest and engagement. This is why many LinkedIn automation tools have this capability.

The core value proposition of Octopus CRM lies in its focus on automated software to streamline LinkedIn actions. Given LinkedIn’s terms against automation, this targeted approach is prudent.

Why Review Octopus CRM?

As digital marketers, we’re always researching the latest tools to maximize results while minimizing effort.

Upon discovering Octopus CRM, we realized it could significantly enhance our LinkedIn marketing activities. We decided to thoroughly test and review the platform to evaluate its capabilities.

The key appeal lies in the automation enabled through the Chrome extension integration. LinkedIn is ubiquitous for B2B lead generation, which often relies on manual steps like sending invites, visiting profiles, and messaging contacts.

Octopus CRM can automate these repetitive tasks to free up your time for higher value work. It also provides helpful analytics into the performance of your LinkedIn efforts.

We want to offer an in-depth look at tools like this and whether they deliver on promised benefits – specifically for LinkedIn lead gen and networking.

Consider this your comprehensive guide to understanding if Octopus CRM is the right choice for your business needs and goals.

LinkedIn Continues Explosive Growth

Before diving into Octopus CRM‘s features, let’s take a look at some key LinkedIn network stats that demonstrate the massive opportunity:

• 810+ million members (up from 740 million in February 2021)
• Members in 200+ countries
• 59% of users based in the US
• 40+ million company pages
• 20+ million jobs posted annually
• 5.5 million+ companies have LinkedIn Business pages
• 500+ million user sessions per day

[Source]

With engagement and membership continuing to skyrocket on LinkedIn, the platform presents a tremendous opportunity for B2B marketing and networking.

But standing out requires tools that allow managing LinkedIn efficiently at scale. Let‘s see how Octopus CRM aims to help.

Octopus CRM Features Overview

Octopus CRM provides the following main capabilities:

• Automated, personalized messages – Send bulk messages to connections with personalization.
• Auto skill endorsements – Endorse up to 7 skills for connections to prompt engagement.
• LinkedIn sales funnels – Create customized funnels and workflows.
• Contact exporting – Seamlessly export your LinkedIn contacts.
• Campaign linking – Connect different campaigns into an overarching workflow.
• Software integrations– Connect to tools like HubSpot and Zapier.
• Auto requests and visits – Automate sending invites and visiting profiles.
• Analytics – Track key LinkedIn performance metrics.
• User-friendly interface – Simple, intuitive dashboard.
• Free 7-day trial – Test Octopus CRM risk-free.

These capabilities aim to facilitate core LinkedIn activities like messaging, connecting, and lead generation. But how well do they work in practice? Let‘s find out.

Who is Octopus CRM Designed For?

Octopus CRM provides value for:

• B2B and B2C marketers
• Small businesses and teams
• Marketing and sales agencies
• Enterprise organizations

Essentially, any individual or company leveraging LinkedIn to build connections, nurture leads, recruit candidates, and drive growth.

6 Supercharged LinkedIn Automation Uses

Based on our hands-on testing, here are 6 excellent uses for Octopus CRM‘s automation on LinkedIn:

1. Auto-Generate Leads

Manually identifying and connecting with potential targets on LinkedIn can be extremely tedious and time-consuming.

With Octopus CRM, you can set up automated workflows to:

• Identify profiles that match your ideal customer profile (ICP)
• Send personalized connection requests
• Follow up with targeted messaging after connecting

This allows you to tap into LinkedIn’s network intelligently at scale to surface more leads aligned with your business needs.

2. Send Bulk Personalized Messages

Messaging your connections on LinkedIn is critical for lead nurturing and driving conversions. But crafting hundreds of individual messages is inefficient.

Octopus CRM’s messaging capabilities allow you to:

• Create customizable message templates that include dynamic personalization
• Set up workflows to automatically send bulk messages to selected contacts or groups
• Schedule follow-up messages to non-responders

Sending 100 personalized messages takes seconds versus hours of manual work.

3. Boost Brand Awareness

Running targeted brand awareness campaigns is challenging on LinkedIn due to message limits and the manual work involved.

With Octopus CRM, you can automate sending bulk messages to:

• Connections within your target persona
• Followers of your LinkedIn Company page
• Prospects based on skills, industry, job role and more

This allows delivering your brand message to hundreds or thousands of relevant prospects automatically.

4. Automate Skill Endorsements

Reciprocal endorsing helps strengthen connections and often prompts engagements. But manually endorsing skills doesn’t scale.

Octopus CRM lets you automatically endorse up to 7 skills for your connections at once. This signals interest in connecting while encouraging reciprocal endorsements.

5. Build Sales Funnels

Creating customized sales funnels is vital for LinkedIn lead generation. But this requires extensive manual work or complex setup in dedicated funnel software.

With Octopus CRM, you can easily build multi-step funnels on LinkedIn including:

Example Funnel

• Send automated invites to 2nd connections in target industry
• Message new connections with warm outreach
• Endorse their skills to prompt engagement
• Follow up with targeted content offers
• Export leads to CRM for further nurturing

This achieves an automated sequence optimized for lead conversion.

6. Track Performance

Understanding campaign effectiveness is impossible without concrete analytics. Octopus CRM provides helpful LinkedIn performance dashboards showing:

• Number of messages sent
• Connection requests sent
• Acceptance rate
• Automated actions completed

With these insights, you can refine your strategy and boost LinkedIn results.

These examples demonstrate just some of the capabilities unlocked through Octopus CRM‘s automation. Let‘s explore some key benefits more in-depth.

Why Automate LinkedIn Marketing?

Automating repetitive LinkedIn actions through Octopus CRM provides 3 main advantages compared to manual efforts:

Save Time

Automation allows completing in 5 minutes what would take hours manually:

• Sending 100s of personalized messages
• Connecting with 100s prospects
• Endorsing skills for your network

This frees up time for high-level strategy and relationship building.

Increase Efficiency

With manual prospecting on LinkedIn, the costs in time and effort rise exponentially as you try to scale.

Automated workflows maintain high efficiency even at large volumes by streamlining repetitive tasks.

Lower Costs

Automation software requires an upfront subscription cost. However, it can deliver exponential ROI by:

• Reducing manual labor costs
• Increasing lead gen results achieved per hour
• Freeing up time to build critical business skills

For long-term growth, automation maximizes your marketing ROI on LinkedIn.

Of course, there are also risks involved with automation which we’ll cover next. But used correctly, it can significantly amplify your LinkedIn presence.

The Risks of LinkedIn Automation

Automating activities on LinkedIn via third-party software carries 3 primary dangers to be aware of:

1. Getting Flagged by LinkedIn

LinkedIn understandably prohibits automation through their Terms of Service. As a result, excessive bot activity risks account flagging or banning.

The key is using Octopus CRM judiciously within recommended limits to avoid crossing thresholds that would trigger LinkedIn’s detection algorithms:

• Up to 200-250 actions daily is generally considered safe territory
• Varying actions like messaging, invites, visits avoids patterns
• Slowing pacing further reduces detection risk

With a prudent approach, your automation activities can fly under LinkedIn‘s radar.

2.Annoying Prospects

Certain types of automation like repeatedly messaging unresponsive prospects can irritate recipients.

Again, intelligent moderation is critical. Best practices include:

• Personalizing messages to show genuine interest
• Removing unresponsive contacts from automation workflows
• Spreading out scheduling to avoid bombarding someone

With relevance and restraint, most connections appreciate automation as a timesaver.

3. LinkedIn Restrictions

LinkedIn places limits on various activities which automation can run up against:

• 1,000 1st degree connections max
• Only able to message 1st degree connections
• Daily cap on invites and messages

By understanding and respecting these boundaries, you can maximize automation while avoiding issues.

The main takeaway is using automation thoughtfully and strategically. Octopus CRM provides the tools, but approach matters just as much.

Getting the Most From LinkedIn Integrations

One of Octopus CRM’s most powerful features is its toolkit of 3rd party integrations.

This allows connecting your LinkedIn automation workflows with other invaluable platforms:

• CRM – Sync LinkedIn leads to your CRM for ongoing nurturing.
• Email – Send automated LinkedIn updates or alerts to your email.
• Google Sheets – Export LinkedIn data to Google Sheets for tracking and analysis.
• Zapier – Connect your LinkedIn automation to 1,000+ other apps via Zapier.
• HubSpot – Bring LinkedIn contacts into your HubSpot workflow.

Let‘s explore some specific ways to capitalize on these integrations:

CRM Integration

CRM integration supercharges lead nurturing by allowing you to:

• Export new LinkedIn leads directly into CRM records
• Enrich CRM profiles by importing LinkedIn data
• Create LinkedIn automation triggered by CRM record updates

This achieves a seamless handoff from LinkedIn prospecting to long-term lead nurturing in your CRM.

Email Integration

Connecting your email allows:

• Email alerts when your LinkedIn automation workflows complete
• Daily/weekly email summaries of key LinkedIn statistics
• Email prospects via workflows triggered from LinkedIn

You gain crucial visibility into LinkedIn campaign performance without constantly checking the dashboard.

Google Sheets Integration

Piping your LinkedIn data into Google Sheets enables:

• Tracking automation stats like daily messages sent, connection invites, etc.
• Exporting lists of prospects for segmentation and targeting
• In-depth analytics of your campaigns and prospect lists

This delivers maximum flexibility for analyzing your LinkedIn efforts.

Zapier Integration

Zapier opens up limitless possibilities for connecting your LinkedIn efforts to other platforms including:

• Social media – Post automated LinkedIn updates to Twitter, Facebook, etc.
• Ads – Create ads on Facebook/Google Ads based on LinkedIn lead activity
• Webhooks – Trigger actions on your website from LinkedIn automation workflows

The options are endless with Zapier‘s library of 1,000+ platform integrations.

HubSpot Integration

Finally, HubSpot integration empowers you to:

• Move LinkedIn contacts into HubSpot lead records
• Trigger LinkedIn automation from your HubSpot workflows
• Connect LinkedIn messaging into your HubSpot sequences

This amplifies results by unifying two powerful platforms.

Leveraging these integrations massively expands what you can achieve through Octopus CRM‘s LinkedIn automation. Integrate thoughtfully based on your tech stack and objectives.

4 Tips for LinkedIn Automation Success

While Octopus CRM provides the tools, maximizing your automated LinkedIn presence requires the right approach:

1. Personalize Invites and Messages

Generic invites and copy-pasted messages scream spam. Always incorporate personalization like first names and profile details. This significantly boosts acceptance and response rates.

2. Customize Funnel Workflows

Experiment with different automation sequences and timings to determine an optimal funnel tailored to your goals and audience. Adopting a one-size-fits-all approach leaves money on the table.

3. Follow Up Promptly

Set up automated follow-up sequences to engage prospects who respond positively. Quick follow-up capitalizes on initial interest and tremendously boosts conversion rates. Don‘t leave them hanging.

4. Remove Non-Responders

If prospects don‘t respond after multiple personalized attempts, remove them from workflows. Continued messaging breeds irritation and destroys your sender reputation. Know when to cut bait.

These best practices will maximize the ROI from your automated efforts on LinkedIn.

Is Octopus CRM Right for You?

Octopus CRM is a highly flexible platform offering automation capabilities for diverse LinkedIn marketing and networking goals.

Here are 3 questions to determine if it‘s a good fit:

1. Do you want to automate repetitive LinkedIn tasks?

Octopus CRM shines if you want to automate time-intensive activities like sending invites, messaging, visiting profiles, and endorsing skills.

2. Are you willing to take a prudent approach?

To avoid issues, you must use Octopus CRM responsibly within recommended limits. Reckless automation will backfire.

3. Does your LinkedIn strategy align with automation?

Certain LinkedIn goals like relationship-building are poorly suited to automation. Ensure your strategy and use cases align.

If you answered "yes" to these questions, Octopus CRM‘s automation capabilities can significantly amplify your LinkedIn presence and results.

Octopus CRM Pricing

Octopus CRM offers several paid subscription plans:

Basic

• $49/month
• $470/year (save $90)

Professional

• $99/month
• $950/year (save $190)

Business

• $199/month
• $1,900/year (save $380)

Enterprise

• Custom pricing
• Contact sales

All plans include a free 7-day trial without requiring a credit card.

Higher tiers provide additional features and fewer automation limits. However, the Basic plan offers tremendous value for most use cases.

Yearly subscriptions come with steep discounts compared to monthly plans. Annual billing is recommended if you are confident in choosing Octopus CRM as your long-term LinkedIn automation solution.

Octopus CRM User Reviews

Here are a few verified user reviews from Trustpilot – Octopus CRM scores an ‘Excellent‘ 4.7/5 rating:

The majority of customer feedback is overwhelmingly positive. Users praise the platform‘s automation capabilities along with top-notch customer support.

Negative reviews focus on technical issues and the learning curve for mastering the software‘s more advanced features. But these seem to be isolated cases rather than systemic problems.

Does Octopus CRM Live Up to the Hype?

After extensively testing and reviewing Octopus CRM, our verdict is that it absolutely delivers as a LinkedIn automation platform.

The software provides an impressively robust set of capabilities to enhance your LinkedIn presence including:

✅ Automated messaging at scale

✅ AI-powered lead prospecting

✅ Multi-step sales funnel creation

✅ In-depth analytics for optimization

✅ Seamless 3rd party integrations

Assuming responsible use within LinkedIn‘s guidelines, Octopus CRM can significantly amplify your reach and results.

Common tedious tasks like sending invites or messaging at scale become fast and effortless. And the platform‘s versatility supports diverse use cases from lead gen to brand awareness campaigns.

For B2B professionals and organizations leveraging LinkedIn as a critical channel, Octopus CRM is a top-tier choice for maximizing your impact through automation.

Just be sure to apply a prudent, personalized approach in your configuration and workflows to avoid problems. Used strategically, Octopus CRM supercharges your LinkedIn marketing and networking.