12 Best LinkedIn Tools for Growing an Audience (Tested)

Want to get better marketing results from LinkedIn?

YES? You need to do 2 things:

• Consistently publish a steady stream of high-quality content.
• Consistently engage (virtually network) with your audience.

Notice the common theme? It's CONSISTENCY.

This is true whether you're a business owner, content marketer, recruiter, networker, sales professional, or job seeker.

In this post, I'll show you 12 of the best LinkedIn tools to help you do everything from responding to messages to automating your posting schedule.

These tools will CONSISTENTLY save you time, improve your content, and explode your engagement.

Feel free to skip ahead:

• Best tool for content discovery and scheduling: Post Planner
• Best tool for AI writing: Jasper
• AI honorable mention: Claude.ai
• Best planning AI tool: ChatGPT
• Best AI for video editing: OpusClip
• Best LinkedIn CRM: LeadDelta
• Best LinkedIn tool for post design: Canva
• Best for audience research: Buzzsumo
• Best tool for LinkedIn analytics: Databox
• Best free LinkedIn tool: LinkedIn Analytics
• Best LinkedIn outreach tool: Expandi
• Best LinkedIn tool for social selling: LinkedIn Sales Navigator
• Frequently asked questions

Best tool for content discovery and scheduling: Post Planner

Looking for a LinkedIn post scheduler that'll help you streamline your content strategy?

Look no further than Post Planner!

Post Planner’s Content Streams make it a breeze to curate engaging content from around the web.

You can then schedule it, put it in a queue, and recycle it for MORE engagement in the future!

In other words, Post Planner helps you find endless post ideas that you can create/design, then schedule to publish automatically on LinkedIn (and other social platforms).

Post Planner will save you hours each week with its intuitive interface that's easy to learn and use.

Here's how it works:

Pros

• Very budget friendly
• Easy content curation saves tons of time
• Design posts without needing a separate tool
• Advanced content scheduling and planning features
• Preview what your LinkedIn posts will look like before publishing
• Compatible with all content formats, including videos and carousels
• Automate the first comment on your posts for link CTAs

Cons

• Lack of deep analytics
• No messaging features

Features

• Content discovery - Use Post Planner’s Content Streams to discover high-performing content from around the web

• Content scheduling with automatic posting - Schedule your content to post automatically to your social media networks, saving time and increasing consistency.

• PDF scheduling - Use Post Planner’s scheduling features to schedule LinkedIn Carousel posts (which require PDF formatting).
• Bulk post scheduling - Schedule multiple posts (to multiple networks) simultaneously.
• Post analytics and recycling - Determine which posts perform the best and schedule them to recycle through your calendar automatically
• AI post writer - Use Post Planner’s text suggestions to save time creating captions for your LinkedIn photo posts
• First comment scheduling - Automatically schedule the first comment on a LinkedIn post, which is ideal for sharing links without decreasing the visibility of your post.
• Content organization - Use Content Buckets to categorize your content and ensure that the right types of content post at the correct times
• Built-in photo-editing tools in the Content Studio (and in integration with Canva)
• Integrates with 10 of the most popular social networks

Reviews

Post Planner gets high reviews for its time-saving features and core functionality: quickly finding and posting great content to LinkedIn (and other social media channels).

Here’s what Loreen S. had to say about using Post Planner:

"What do you like best about Post Planner?

I've been using Post Planner for a little over two years. I'm currently managing 16 profiles, but I've managed up to 23. I find Post Planner easy to use for posting curated content - it's built right into the system! Original content is just as easy as posting to the platform itself. I can upload and post articles, images, or videos, add hashtags and links, and see the posts before they are sent out. The support when I have an issue is amazing. Within 48 hours I get a response with instructions on how to fix my issue. Finally, Post Planner was easy to implement into my workflow, and being online and mobile lets me post from anywhere. I use it daily so It's one of the tabs that open when my browser launches!

What do you dislike about Post Planner?

It's a really tiny thing - but if I'm posting to Facebook and Instagram - or anyplace and Instagram, I have to remember to make sure the image is square for Instagram requirements. Which is easy when I'm posting original content. But when I'm using the streams to post curated content - I forget and my posts won't go thru to Instagram. So I'll download the artcile image and crop it and then repost it.

What problems is Post Planner solving and how is that benefiting you?

It's only one place I have to go to post for multiple clients into multiple social accounts. AND it's the only social posting tool that allows for content curation within the tool.”

Pricing

Post Planner offers 4 different plans to meet anyone’s growing social media needs (prices below are for annual plans, but monthly plans are available for a slightly higher rate):

• The free plan allows you to manage 1 social account with 3 daily posts and up to 15 scheduled posts.
  
• Starter plan is $7/mo and allows you to manage 3 accounts with 12 daily posts each and up to 150 scheduled posts.
• Growth plan is $37/mo and allows you to manage 12 accounts with 18 daily posts each and up to 1000 scheduled posts.
• Business plan is $57/mo and allows you to manage 25 accounts with 24 daily posts each and up to 5000 scheduled posts.

Best tool for AI writing: Jasper

Have you ever wished someone else would write your LinkedIn content for you?

Well, that day may finally be here.

Jasper is a tool that uses artificial intelligence to help you write your LinkedIn (and other) content. This can save you a lot of time.

Before I discuss this tool and our other AI tools on this list, let me offer a disclaimer: You should NEVER trust an AI tool to write a complete article or post.

Even though AI technology has come a long way, it still should be fact-checked and edited. You can use Jasper to help you create a rough draft or outline, then go through and ensure it’s up to snuff.

Pros

• Save time writing
• Use AI to develop multiple outlines based on a key phrase.
• Jasper is applicable in various scenarios, including your blog, social media, and copywriting.

Cons

• Not the cheapest tool
• It doesn’t do anything you CAN’T do without it — it’s essentially only a time saver.

Features

• Apps for different uses - Jasper uses different purpose-built “apps” like a LinkedIn post generator to help you maximize the effectiveness of your prompts and save more time generating posts.
• AI-powered branding - Bases outputs on your current branding to maintain a consistent tone and voice across LinkedIn content.
• Hashtag & keyword optimization - Enhances post reach by suggesting high-quality LinkedIn keywords.

• Trained on marketing content - This AI is trained exclusively on marketing best practices.
• Multilingual content creation - Enables users to post in multiple languages, expanding their audience.
• SEO-friendly writing - Optimizes LinkedIn articles for better visibility in LinkedIn’s algorithm.
• Long-form to short-form conversion - Summarizes lengthy content into LinkedIn-friendly formats.
• Image creation - Jasper can also generate images for users on the Pro-level plans.

Reviews

Jasper gets excellent reviews, with many people mentioning how much it improves the productivity of their writing process. The most frequent positive comments relate to saving time and generating high-quality content.

The most common negative comments relate to the price and the learning curve compared to other AI tools.

Here’s what Jawad E. has to say about using Jasper:

"What do you like best about Jasper?

Most people will think of the immediate cost-savings of using an AI tool versus a full-time employee, and this is great - but increased efficiency is the best thing!

What do you dislike about Jasper?

There is a pretty steep learning curve when it comes to getting the most out of AI. Learning how to set up the best prompts will generate the best results.

What problems is Jasper solving and how is that benefiting you?

To produce well-written content, you must do A LOT of research, even if the topic being written is familiar. Jasper does all the heavy lifting for you by aggregating and analyzing massive swathes of data it's collected on the subject and all (relatively speaking) in the blink of an eye!”

Pricing

Jasper offers 3 pricing levels (prices below are for annual plans, but monthly plans are available for a higher rate):

• Creator is $39/month and allows 1 brand voice.
• Pro is $59/month per seat, allowing up to 5 seats. It also gives access to image generation.
• Business is customizable, and its pricing is available upon contacting the Jasper sales team.

AI honorable mention: Claude.ai

Claude is a newer AI writing tool that many users are saying is the best for writing content for social media, blogs, and website content.

I didn’t list it as our top pick for writing your LinkedIn posts simply because Jasper has more features tailored specifically for marketing. However, if you do a lot of writing for other platforms like a website, Claude could be an excellent (and much cheaper) alternative to Jasper.

Many Claude users can get away with using the free version, but you can also upgrade to the Pro or Team version for more usage and access to some expanded features.

Best planning AI tool: ChatGPT

Almost everyone has heard of ChatGPT, and many have incorporated it into their workflows.

But does generative AI have a place in helping social media managers market their business on LinkedIn?

Yes! For example, consider these uses of ChatGPT for LinkedIn marketing:

• Upload your product details to ChatGPT and have it generate a list of ideas for LinkedIn posts about your specific product. (The Projects feature works best for this).
• Ask ChatGPT to create a 10-post (or any number of posts) sequence for your upcoming LinkedIn marketing campaign.
• Have ChatGPT generate several caption options for your posts. Then, you can select and edit the one you like best.

You’ll notice that all 3 of these suggestions involve brainstorming. That’s where ChatGPT shines!

Pros

• Provides instant AI-generated responses to almost any prompt
• Can assist with content creation, image generation, brainstorming, and marketing strategies
• Capable of generating various writing styles and tones
• It can reduce the time it takes to create high-quality images and graphics
• Capable of generating images in almost any style imaginable, which can increase the variety of the images in your LinkedIn feed.

Cons

• Responses may sometimes be generic (this can often be fixed by using better prompts and Projects).
• You still have to edit everything generated by AI, which can sometimes take a while (but still much quicker than generating everything yourself!)
• Images occasionally turn out distorted or are obviously AI-generated

Features

• AI-powered text generation allows users to generate large quantities of text in seconds instead of hours.
• Integrations with various third-party tools through the ChatGPT API
• Ability to summarize and analyze data
• Able to read, edit, and offer suggestions on your existing content. You can ask specific questions like, “How can I optimize this content for SEO?” that ChatGPT can answer.
• Supports multiple languages
• ChatGPT has access to the internet, so you can use it to access knowledge that you would never otherwise discover. This makes it perfect for discovering strategies for your social media campaign.
• AI-powered image generation makes it possible to instantly generate images that used to take a professional designer days.

Pricing

Fortunately, most users can get away with using the basic version of ChatGPT, which is FREE!

If you need the latest AI model, more advanced data analysis, image or video generation, or other advanced features, you can upgrade to the $20/month or $200/month plan.

I highly recommend using the free version until you run into a situation you CAN’T do with it, then assessing which plan you should upgrade to.

Reviews

ChatGPT is the most popular AI tool on the market, and its reviews reflect that. Users frequently mention the broad range of uses, flexibility, time-savings, and ease of use as some of the significant benefits of ChatGPT.

More negative comments generally focus on the high price of the advanced plans.

Here’s what Rakshit had to say about using ChatGPT:

"What do you like best about ChatGPT?

ChatGPT has been the most helpful tool to all of us in our company. Whether it is code generations, simple queries, or data analysis, it's the best option out there. Sure, DeepSeek is out there, but as of now, ChatGPT is a much more secure option. Saying that we use it for a specific purpose would be an understatement, as it's basically a better version of Google for us. We use it on a daily for better efficiency!

What do you dislike about ChatGPT?

The pricing can be a bit too much for small businesses as they would have to pay for subscription for each member, the costs can be too much. It'd also be great if there were more integration options.

What problems is ChatGPT solving and how is that benefiting you?

Coding had been a manual task for quite some time, but with ChatGPT, it has become an automated task. We generate the codes using it, and with just a few amendments, the code is ready to be used!"

Best AI for video editing: OpusClip

One of the newest and best types of content for generating engagement on LinkedIn is Reels, which are short vertical videos optimized for mobile viewing.

Many LinkedIn users scroll through Reels to find new content related to their niche, which means it’s the perfect opportunity for you to get discovered!

Here’s the problem: making a ton of short videos can be highly time-consuming and challenging.

That’s where OpusClip comes in. It turns your long-form videos into short Reels that you can post on LinkedIn (and other networks like Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram).

For example, it can take a video interview and break it into 30 LinkedIn Reels with just a few clicks!

Pros

• Converts long videos into short, engaging Reels
• Uses AI to highlight the most engaging segments
• Saves a lot of editing time
• Affordable pricing

Cons

• AI may not always select the best highlights
• Limited customization options

Features

• AI-powered video clipping - Quickly create shareable video clips without needing advanced technical skills
• Auto-captioning, subtitles, reframing, and b-roll generation - Make your videos more accessible, engaging, and polished with just a few clicks

• Post directly to your social media from OpusClip - Save time and ensure consistency across your marketing channels
• Customizable aspect ratio - Ensure your videos are tailored to fit the specific dimensions and requirements of each social media platform
• Virality Score - The AI-generated Virality Score helps you gauge how likely a video is to go viral
• AI editing prompts - Customize your videos with natural language commands instead of complex video-editing settings.

• Team accounts - Team accounts allow multiple users to collaborate on video creation
• Supports multiple languages
• Customizable video templates - Save time and effort by using templates that align closely with your creative vision

Pricing

OpusClip offers 3 plans (prices listed are annual unless otherwise noted):

• The Starter Plan is $15/month (no annual plan available), and gives 150 credits per month (150 minutes of video processing).
• The Pro Plan is $14.50/month, and gives 3,600 credits per year (equivalent to 60 hours of video processing).
• Business plans are for those with more needs than the above can accommodate. Pricing is customized to the business’s needs and is available by contacting OpusClip.

Reviews

OpusClip gets excellent reviews, with many customers mentioning the time savings, ease of use, and team features.

Negative comments generally state that they felt OpusClip had trouble picking out the best clips for viral videos or with auto reframing for moving subjects.

Here’s what Don M. had to say about using OpusClip to create short videos for his social media:

"What do you like best about OpusClip?

Been using OpusClip as a Pro user for about two months. This is an incredible timesaver! I typically upload a 12-15 video daily and out pop 10-15 clips ranging from 30 seconds to two minutes (using the auto settings), Each is branded with colors and a logo of my choosing.

The whole process is so easy — even editing takes very little time. I just download and post away. (I haven't used the posting tools built in.)

What do you dislike about OpusClip?

Two things are annoying. First, I've tried using OpusClips for videos with a moving speaker and it just doesn't work. I can split frames and position the speaker, but that's tedious andOpus is supposed to do this automatically.

Second, editied captions don't always sync with the video. Sometimes words will show up in captions that aren't in the audio; other times the audio still plays when I deleted words from the captions. Probably 85-90% accuracy in this area.

What problems is OpusClip solving and how is that benefiting you?

If it weren't for OpusClip, I wouldn't be creating short-form video content at all."

Best LinkedIn CRM: LeadDelta

As LinkedIn has grown and developed, it has become more than just a networking platform. Many businesses now use LinkedIn to interact with their leads, prospects, and customers.

If you’re looking for a customer relationship management (CRM) tool for LinkedIn, LeadDelta should be near the top of your list.

LeadDelta isn’t just a place to manage your customer relationships — you can manage your entire LinkedIn network from one dashboard.

I personally use LeadDelta to help manage my manual outreach to leads and keep tabs on my favorite accounts.

Pros

• Bulk actions without needing to open LinkedIn
• Use templates to make outreach more efficient
• Robust tools to help you manage contacts and relationships more efficiently
• Use a Chrome Extension to manage contacts directly from LinkedIn
• Does not use automation that can get you banned

Cons

• LeadDelta shines most with contact management but not with helping you improve your LinkedIn content, so I recommend pairing it with content tools like Post Planner

Features

• Contact manager - Manage all your LinkedIn contacts from one place, including bulk follow/unfollow, advanced filtering, and direct messaging

• Smart Inbox - Pin, star, tag, and filter messages for easier management
• Bulk messaging - Send personalized messages to multiple connections at once without looking spammy

• Connection filtering - Find relevant contacts based on industry, activity, or location
• LinkedIn sidebar - Perform actions on a connection while using LinkedIn instead of bouncing back and forth between LeadDelta and LinkedIn.

• Notes, tasks, and reminders - Store key details about LinkedIn connections for more effective follow-ups
• Export contact data - Back up and analyze your LinkedIn network

Reviews

Some of the most frequent positive comments discuss the messaging system and the ability to sort connections into easy-to-manage groups. Some negative reviews mention various missing features that users would like to see. However, even the reviews with negative comments typically highly recommend LeadDelta.

Here’s what Ranjit G. has to say about using LeadDelta for LinkedIn:

"What do you like best about LeadDelta?

Ok firstly, I am a complete newbie to tools like this, and am a non-tech founder and so some of this is scary to me but ...

LeadDelta is a great tool for managing your LinkedIn connections and messages. I have been using it for a few days and I am very impressed by its features and benefit.

One of the best things about LeadDelta is its customer support.

I had a minor issue with the installation (which was my fault, not theirs), and they helped me resolve it quickly and efficiently. They were very friendly and professional and super fast!

Another thing I love about LeadDelta is its onboarding process.

They have a clear and engaging intro video that shows you how to use the tool and what it can do for you. They also have a lot of resources and tutorials to help you get the most out of it.

LeadDelta has helped me organize contacts, track conversations, and find new leads on LinkedIn. And it seems so easy to set up too.

It is a powerful and easy-to-use tool that I highly recommend to anyone who wants to grow their network and business.

What do you dislike about LeadDelta?

Nothing so far and learning the scale of Lead Delta which seems huge!

What problems is LeadDelta solving and how is that benefiting you?

I have 16,000 connections and ... well ... Linkedin really is not the best to manage your contacts

I almost felt sick everytime I needed to reach out to someone and could not find them

Lead Delta, is definitely going to help me engage and track conversations and followups.”

Pricing

LeadDelta offers 4 plans. Each plan offers more features than the last, such as the LinkedIn sidebar, details about your last contact with a connection, team features, etc. (prices listed are on the annual plan):

• Starter is $11.67/user/month and includes the basic connection management features of LeadDelta.
• Pro is $24.17/user/month and adds features such as the sidebar and the last time you messaged a connection.
• Business is $82.50/user/month and includes team features.
• Enterprise has custom pricing and includes large-business features such as extra users, a dedicated customer service team, and custom integrations.

Best LinkedIn tool for post design: Canva

LinkedIn says adding images to LinkedIn page posts results in a 2x higher engagement rate.

That means you NEED to find a way to add high-quality images to your LinkedIn posts.

Canva is the go-to online graphic design app for millions of Linkedin users due to its ease of use and high-quality tools.

With Canva, you can quickly design custom graphics using a combination of templates and your own creativity.

Pros

• A great free plan with enough functionality to get you started
• Extremely easy to use — even for those with no design experience
• A range of features that allow you to create stunning images quickly
• Ready-made designs and templates
• Educational content for easy learning
• Free use of the pro version for non-profits and educational organizations
• You can use Canva for all your content needs — it's not just for LinkedIn

Cons

• You still need an eye for design if you customize anything (even though Canva makes it as easy as possible).
• Many of the best designs are reserved for pro members
• There are no branding features on the free account

Features

• A drag-and-drop editor means even those with zero graphic design experience can create amazing images and graphics for their LinkedIn page.

• Image editing tools for when you want to customize your images to your liking
• Stock photos and elements
• Brand customization allows you to streamline image creation while ensuring everything remains on-brand.
• Team features allow multiple members of your team to work on the same images.
• Magic Studio is Canva’s AI-powered design tool that can generate copy and edit your photos in record time.
• Millions of templates (both free and paid) reduce the work involved in creating and executing a high-quality image.

Reviews

Canva gets outstanding reviews, with many praising its ease of use, flexibility, and time savings.

The most common critical comment is that Canva’s customization is somewhat limited compared to a tool like Photoshop. Canva is incredibly easy to use, but sacrifices some of the more advanced editing tools to accomplish it.

Here’s what Rigel M. has to say about using Canva:

"What do you like best about Canva?

I'm not a graphic designer but the work I make as a social media analyst is creating content pieces for the social media accounts of the company I work for.

Canva make my work easier thanks to templates, specially when I'm not inspired, I just have to navigate the templates section and find something special that will help me start. Creating reels on Canva is also one of the things I like the most because you can use all the video resources available to create beautiful things.

For sure I can say that implement Canva on a daily basis on my work was easy and really productive.

What do you dislike about Canva?

When you use templates, videos or other graphic elements Canva's algorithm suggest you the same stuff you have already seen a thousand times and it gets really difficult to find new resources.

What problems is Canva solving and how is that benefiting you?

I can create quality content in a more easier and faster way than using traditional software thanks to all the resources Canva offer as the stock photos and videos, all the giphs you can use, etc.”

Pricing

Canva offers 4 plans (they offer annual and monthly plans):

• The free plan offers access to more than 1 million professionally-designed templates!
• Pro is $120/year (for one person) and gives access to more templates, more than 100 million photos, videos, and graphics, and other business-focused features.
• Teams is $100/year/person (minimum of 3 people) and gives access to the team features mentioned above.
• Enterprise allows a user to manage multiple teams and brands and gives access to other large-business features. Pricing is available by contacting the Canva team.

Best for audience research: Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo is a tool that allows users to research every aspect of their content plan to make it as high-impact as possible.

It’s also valuable for competitor research, social listening, and identifying influencers to partner with you.

In other words, it’s a complete system for researching your content, then taking that research and using it to improve your social media content plan.

Pros

• Access Buzzsumo’s library of more than 8 billion articles
• Quickly identify what LinkedIn content has worked best with audiences similar to yours
• Analyze historical data to help you identify content trends
• Find influencers to promote your brand
• Social listening features help you learn what people are saying about your brand

Cons

• Quite expensive (might be cost-restrictive for smaller businesses)
• No content scheduling features, meaning you’ll have to pay more money to add an additional tool to your repertoire
• The cheapest plan doesn’t include some key features

Features

• Trending content research - Find viral LinkedIn content to help you create owned content that will resonate with your audience.

• Content idea generator - Use proven content ideas from a database of evergreen and trending content ideas.
• Trend analysis - Provides insights into the most successful trending LinkedIn posts.
• Content analyzer - Analyze content from around the web to help you understand what content resonates with your audience.

• Keyword tool - Discover keywords that your audience is searching for along with their monthly search volume, CPC, and other data.
• Influencer identification - Find thought leaders on LinkedIn to collaborate with and expand your reach.
• Engagement monitoring - Track social mentions, blog posts, backlinks, and other metrics of online engagement with your brand.
• Google Chrome extension - Use the power of Buzzsumo while you browse the web.
• Slack integration - Get your monitoring alerts directly in Slack to streamline your routine.

Reviews

Buzzsumo gets excellent reviews, with most users mentioning how much time they can save using the tool. Negative comments typically mention the price or the UI as being the weak points of Buzzsumo.

Here’s what Sahana B. said about using Buzzsumo:

"What do you like best about BuzzSumo?

Updating blogs, and newsletters is a crucial part of marketing work. Developing good content needs a huge amount of research & time-consuming. Buzzsumo can help by providing valuable content ideas. Additionally, I will get the engagement metrics as well (engagement, likes, and shares).

It has advanced features like customizing the feed. I can analyze content, and see performance reports & backlinks also. Overall, Buzzsumo is a helpful tool for content research & marketing.

What do you dislike about BuzzSumo?

Only pricing is a challenge for small industries. Otherwise, it has lots of things to explore.

What problems is BuzzSumo solving and how is that benefiting you?

For searching trending topics BuzzSumo is very helpful. I am using it to know better the most popular search terms, and phrases and develop optimized content. It isn't easy to keep track of all upcoming news for my industry, but this tool gives alerts for any latest news in the market. Also, I used to check the engagement for a particular search term/keyword.”

Pricing

Buzzsumo, unfortunately, is expensive. There are 4 pricing plans available (listed prices are for the yearly plans):

• Content Creation is $159/month and includes 1 user and 2 alerts.
• PR & Comms is $239/month and includes 5 users and 5 alerts.
• Suite is $399/month and includes 10 users and 10 alerts.
• Enterprise is $999/month and includes 30 users and 50 alerts.

In addition to offering more users and alerts, the higher-priced plans also include more advanced tools like the Slack integration and the Chrome extension.

Best tool for LinkedIn analytics: Databox

Databox is one of the most popular data visualization and analytics software on the market.

It quickly and easily links to your LinkedIn account to pull your desired data into a beautiful analytics dashboard. You can even combine your LinkedIn data with other data sources to create custom dashboards and visualize your data more effectively.

Pros

• Easy to set up and use with drag-and-drop dashboard creation
• Powerful analytics make using LinkedIn even better for your business growth
• Link multiple data sources to the same analytics dashboard
• Great free plan
• Easy reporting for working with clients

Cons

• Very expensive if the free plan isn’t enough for you
• Some of the better features, like white-label reporting, aren’t available without spending additional money for add-ons

Features

• LinkedIn integration - Integrates with LinkedIn ads and LinkedIn company pages to help you better understand your performance.

• Customizable data dashboards - Tailored reports to highlight key LinkedIn metrics and your most essential KPIs from all your platforms.
• Multi-platform integration - Pull data from LinkedIn, Facebook, and other platforms into a single dashboard, allowing you to understand your data more completely.
• Predefined metrics - Select from Databox’s predefined metrics to help you track what truly matters.
• Automated custom reporting - Customize and schedule LinkedIn performance reports for yourself or your clients.
• Industry benchmarking - Compare your performance against other companies in your sector.

• Conversion tracking - Measures how LinkedIn traffic contributes to lead generation and sales.
• Goals and alerts - Track progress toward engagement, follower, and lead-generation goals.

Reviews

Databox gets fantastic reviews. People consistently talk about the intuitiveness of the platform and the ease of use. Negative reviews tend to mention some restrictions related to the program's overall flexibility, such as missing metrics.

Here’s what Robert R. has to say about using Databox for his business:

"What do you like best about Databox?

Databox makes it simple to interact with data in ways you never thought possible. I can easily sync it to my Google Analytics, Hubspot, Adwords, LinkedIn, and other tools to get a precise view of marketing attribution and follow the data to discover holes in strategy. I love this tool. It was easy to implement. I found myself using it weekly.

What do you dislike about Databox?

The interface has a learning curve for new users, but once you adapt to the tool, it saves you a ton of time.

What problems is Databox solving and how is that benefiting you?

It helped bring all of my data platforms into one visualization. It also solved the issue of complex tools like PowerBi being, well, complicated! Databox makes it easy.”

Pricing

Databox offers 5 plans (all listed prices are annual, but monthly is available at a bit higher rate):

• FREE plan with 3 data sources and 3 users included
• Starter plan for $47/month, which includes 3 data sources, 5 users, and unlimited dashboards
• Professional is $159/month and includes 3 data sources, unlimited users, more historical data, and other advanced tools
• Growth is $319/month and includes even more historical data, access to AI features, and other features designed for larger businesses
• Premium is $799/month and includes 100 data sources and the most advanced features Databox offers, like enterprise-level security, priority support, and 15-minute sync for 5 data sources

On all plans except the free plan, you can add additional data sources for $5.60/source/month.

Best free LinkedIn tool: LinkedIn Analytics

Have you ever wondered how your LinkedIn posts perform?

LinkedIn Analytics is the perfect free tool to get you started on analyzing your posts’ performance and your audience itself.

LinkedIn Analytics isn’t the most in-depth tool on this list, but it’s free and still provides precious data, so don’t write it off yet!

Pros

• FREE!
• Good data that'll help you understand your content’s performance
• Get a better understanding of your audience
  Easy to use

Cons

• This tool does only one thing: helps you look at LinkedIn analytics. Don’t expect it to help you do anything else.
• It’s a free tool, so uses are limited.
• It’s hard to list many cons about a tool that provides you with analytics for free.

Features

• Profile view insights - See who’s viewing your profile and how your impressions fluctuate over time.

• Follower growth tracking - Analyze how the size of your audience changes over time.
• Demographic breakdown - Identify audience industries, locations, and job titles for your content.
• Competitor analysis - Compare your engagement with similar LinkedIn profiles.
• Post performance metrics - Analyze views, reactions, and shares to optimize content strategy.

• Newsletter analytics - See how your newsletter performs and better understand your audience.

Reviews

Since LinkedIn Analytics is a free, built-in part of using a LinkedIn company profile, it doesn’t have its own reviews.

Pricing

LinkedIn Analytics is FREE, but it'll only appear if you have a LinkedIn company profile. It won’t appear on a standard LinkedIn page.

Best LinkedIn outreach tool: Expandi

Have you ever manually sent out dozens of LinkedIn messages with little to no response?

Expandi makes that a thing of the past by automating your LinkedIn outreach.
I should be clear that using automated messaging isn’t strictly allowed by LinkedIn’s prohibited software agreement, but using a high-quality tool like Expandi makes it possible by imitating human behavior.

Pros

• Save WHO KNOWS how much time on LinkedIn messaging campaigns.
• Expandi imitates human messaging behavior, meaning people are less likely to ignore you.
• You have total control over your messages, and you can personalize them as much as you want.
• Powerful outreach tools go far beyond simple message sending.

Cons

• Expensive for smaller companies
• Automating LinkedIn messages is technically against LinkedIn’s agreement, meaning your account can’t get in trouble (although this is highly unlikely with Expandi).

Features

• Generate connections - Send up to 300 connection requests per week with Expandi.
• Automated connection requests - Sends personalized invites to targeted LinkedIn users without manual effort.
• Smart message sequences - Creates personalized and fully automated LinkedIn outreach and follow-up messages.

• Find better prospects - Expandi uses advanced scraping techniques to help you identify ideal prospects for your smart message sequences.
• Campaign analytics - Monitor response rates and interactions to improve outreach strategies.
• A/B testing - Compare multiple versions of your cold outreach script to see which performs better with your audience.
• Customizable image and GIF outreach - Reach out to potential connections using personalized images and GIFs instead of plain text.

• Integrations - Combine the power of Expandi with tools like HubSpot, Salesforce, and Zapier.
• Safety and anti-detection features - Mimics human behavior to avoid triggering LinkedIn restrictions.

Reviews

Expandi gets very positive reviews, many of which mention how much time they save by automating LinkedIn outreach. Some negative reviews mention issues getting portions of the tool to work correctly, but the vast majority are positive.

Here’s Rachel’s experience using Expandi to automate LinkedIn outreach:

"What do you like best about Expandi.io?

I like that it is very easy to use. I loved that the support team is extremely efficient and reactive (and it is unusual that you proactively reach out to ensure the point is closed). I find that your procedures are well explained. The integration with the LinkedIn account is also easy and seamless. Overall, I am very happy both with the tool and the team!

What do you dislike about Expandi.io?

As already discussed with the team, I will need to be able to attach an image to follow ups. Another (nice to have) idea could be to improve Builder, so we can go from one campaign type to the next, and with manual decision points to trigger to continue or stop (just as you do: if someone answers, then the campaign pauses unless we say otherwise).

On a side note, you could work on some labels as they are sometimes confusing.

For instance the "pause campaign" could be a "click here to pause..." (as I first though the label was telling me what was active, ie the campaign is paused - and so I clicked). Going through the site labels from a customer angle to double check them might avoid questions.

Last, you could think of adding more payment means to give us options in case our credit card limit has been reached (which was my case this month).”

What problems is Expandi.io solving and how is that benefiting you?

Automation of marketing campaigns, as I would not be able to follow up with each person on the right day.”

Pricing

Expandi has a very easy pricing system. You simply pay $79/seat/month (paid annually). You can also get a customized price quote if you need more than 10 seats.

Best LinkedIn tool for social selling: LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is the ultimate tool for social selling on LinkedIn.

It is designed to help sales professionals identify leads and develop relationships with prospects and customers. It accomplishes this by personalizing lead recommendations and giving you the tools to track new leads and potential customers.

Pros

• Find personalized lead recommendations
• Integration with CRMs makes managing leads much easier
• Simple to use and incredibly beneficial for selling on LinkedIn

Cons

• Expensive, so it’s only worth it if you’re making sales on LinkedIn
• Limited to a very specific purpose, so it won’t help your entire LinkedIn strategy

Features

• Advanced lead search - Filter potential leads based on job title, company, industry, and 50+ other filters.
• Lead recommendations - Get personalized recommendations for new leads based on your current contacts and buyer interest.
• LeadIQ - Collect and summarize key information about your best leads.
• AccountIQ - Use generative AI to create account summaries that help you research and plan your strategy.
• InMail messaging - Outreach to LinkedIn users that may not already be in your lead list, helping you expand your sales net.
• Alerts - Get alerts when key factors about your leads change–such as a job change–that might make them more receptive to communication.

• Integrations - Syncs with tools like HubSpot and Salesforce for streamlined lead management.
• Relationship mapping - Use organizational charts to keep track of new leads.
• Team collaboration features - Allows sales teams to share insights and coordinate efforts.

Reviews

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is the most popular tool for social selling on LinkedIn, so there are plenty of reviews. Most positive reviews mention the ease of finding new prospects and customers through search functions and analytics tools.

Complaints typically center around small missing features or the price being too high for some people to stomach.

Here’s what Biplab D. had to say about using LinkedIn Sales Navigator:

"What do you like best about LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

1. Advanced filters like industry, company size, seniority level, etc, makes it easier to find the exact type of leads I need.

2. InMail messaging feature helps in messaging prospect with whom we are not even connected.

3. Integration with CRM like Salesforce and ZoomInfo in my case was quite easy.

4. Features like account insights and others are also very helpful to get insights about the targeting companies.

What do you dislike about LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

1. Maximum InMail messages we can use per month with LinkedIn Sales Navigator subscription is 150 per month, which is quite low.

2. Sometimes even after using advanced filter search results are not very accurate.

What problems is LinkedIn Sales Navigator solving and how is that benefiting you?

First of all, by looking at the company insights and buyer intent, I am able to prioritize my target companies to work on first. ImMail definitely helps to contact leads without connecting. Also, for some leads, I can access their contact information. Saving and managing the leads, and directly transferring them to the CRM is also very helpful.”

Pricing

LinkedIn Sales Navigator has 2 plan options (prices shown are for the annual plan):

• The Core plan is $79.99/month and includes lead discovery tools, Relationship Explorer, and 50 InMails per month
• The Advanced plan is $139.99/month and includes AccountIQ, team features, SmartLinks, and other advanced features.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best LinkedIn automation tool?

It depends on what you’re trying to automate!

For automating content discovery and scheduling, I recommend Post Planner.

For automating outreach, I recommend Expandi.

For automating your writing process, I recommend Jasper.ai or Claude.ai.

What tools does LinkedIn have?

The basic version of LinkedIn has very few tools, but you can get access to LinkedIn Analytics for free with a LinkedIn company page.

If you’re willing to pay for third-party tools, the options are almost endless! Start with the tools mentioned above and see what works for your business.

Ready to grow your LinkedIn?

Having the right LinkedIn tool can help you better manage your contacts, improve engagement on your posts, and make more sales.

If you’ve been on the hunt for a good LinkedIn tool that checks all these boxes, start with this list of 12. You won't be disappointed!

What other LinkedIn tools have you used to improve engagement? Let us know in the comments below — I'd love to hear about them!