The LinkedIn bombing culture – Why mass mailings don’t work

In the digital age, where networking and online presence can be crucial to business success, LinkedIn has established itself as THE central platform for professional networking and business development, leaving other providers such as XING behind.
However, with the rise of LinkedIn as the definitive venue for business-related digital interactions, a trend has also emerged that is less well received: We call it “LinkedIn bombing”.
By this we mean the practice of companies, including and often IT outsourcers, sending masses of emails with often “immoral” (in terms of value for money) offers.
In our view, this practice, which is now increasingly coming from our own industry, is questionable and does not promise long-term success.

The problem of mass mailing (on LinkedIn and elsewhere)

The central problem with LinkedIn bombing lies in the nature of the approach: the indiscriminate and mass sending of messages.
The LinkedIn platform directly encourages this, as the same message can be quickly sent to a number of people by copying and pasting.
It’s even easier with special tools, which are also springing up en masse.
Here you can also write cloze texts in which the tool then inserts the first name, for example (or only supposedly, because Dr. XY often becomes “Hello Doctor”, an unmistakable sign that no one has thought about the wording here).
These tools even allow entire contingency trees and trigger various messages, such as follow-up questions and reminders, depending on whether the person contacted has replied or not.
Anyone who – like us – runs an IT company in Germany, regardless of its focus, will be familiar with these messages: Some services, of course significantly cheaper than anywhere else etc. Companies that use this tactic usually offer services at dumping prices.
For example, we have already received advertisements for IT services for €5 per hour or less.

These offers not only sound too good to be true, but are also an indicator of a short-term and often low-quality way of working.
This practice is problematic for several reasons:

• Quality defects: Immorally cheap offers often conceal services that leave a lot to be desired in terms of quality.
  The reality shows that quality has its price and the lowest offers are often associated with hidden costs or inferior results.
  Contractors are often presented with or promised a senior developer and then have all the work done by a junior.
  In particularly blatant cases, orders are even sub-outsourced to other providers, with information often being lost along the multi-level communication channels, meaning that a loss of quality is inevitable.
• Damage to the entire industry: Unfortunately, these untargeted and therefore often completely misguided mass mailings, which often contain offers with dumping prices, damage the entire industry.
  As IT outsourcing providers, we often experience this ourselves because potential customers with whom we come into contact have had bad experiences, for example with the above-mentioned mass mailings or with quality problems caused by unprofessional IT outsourcing.
• Ineffectiveness: Let’s be honest: there would be no mass mailings if there wasn’t a certain success rate.
  For example, you can read about one response for every 200 emails.
  Nevertheless, the success rate of mass mailings is generally low.
  Most recipients ignore such messages or even react negatively, which further minimizes the chance of a subsequent successful business relationship.
  You could also say: Win one out of 200 contacts and possibly burn the rest.
• Reputational risks: Companies that rely on mass mailings risk their reputation.
  LinkedIn users who repeatedly receive unsolicited and irrelevant offers tend to perceive these companies as intrusive and dubious and may even report them.
  Even if a point of contact is then made in another – and actually more promising – way, for example through a recommendation from another customer, the negative experience will be present and may deter the potential customer from contacting the service provider.

To succeed in the world of digital marketing and networking, we believe companies need to think beyond the short-term tactics of LinkedIn bombing.
Here are some more effective strategies:

• Authentic networking: Building genuine relationships on LinkedIn takes time and commitment, but leads to more sustainable business relationships and the opportunity for eye-to-eye exchanges.
  By taking the time to understand the interests and needs of potential contacts, you can send tailored and relevant messages that show genuine interest and appreciation.
  From our point of view, the focus should not be placed “full force” on converting a specific person as a customer, even “simple” networking can bring about multi-layered successes, e.g. future cooperation or recommendations, which would certainly not occur without authentic networking.
• Content marketing with added value: Instead of bombarding potential customers with promotional emails, our experience has shown that investing in high-quality content that offers real added value brings significantly more success.
  Informative blog posts, case studies and whitepapers shared on LinkedIn position a company as an industry expert and attract natural interest.
• High-quality work: This strategy is the oldest and simplest: if you do your work well and leave a satisfied customer, you have the highest chance of being recommended or can even afford to actively ask the customer to do so, both through personal recommendations and through inspiring testimonials on your own website or appealing reviews on various portals.

So?

The LinkedIn bombing culture is a symptomatic example of short-term thinking in the digital business world.
While the pressure to deliver results quickly may be great, our experience also shows that sustainable success requires a strategy based on quality, authenticity and real added value.
Companies that take these principles to heart will not only protect their reputation on LinkedIn and beyond, but also build long-term and fruitful business relationships.