“Is LinkedIn Premium worth it?”

…This is a seemingly straightforward question I get from nearly every student and Brand Inner Circle Community member I work with.

The problem is, the answer isn’t so straightforward.

For starters, “LinkedIn Premium,” (kind of) refers to a variety of different types of upgraded LinkedIn plans.

LinkedIn Premium Plans at a Glance

 Premium Career, which helps you get hired and get ahead in your professional life.

Sales Navigator, which helps you generate leads and build your clientele.

Recruiter Lite, which helps you find and hire talent.

Premium Business, which helps you get detailed business insights and further expand your business.

LinkedIn Learning, which helps you improve your skills and learn new ones.

Now, you may rightly remark, “But only two of the plans have the word ‘Premium’ in them, Kait.” 

Correct! But, technically, if you have a Recruiter or Sales Navigator account of any kind, you also get access to “Premium Profile” features.

Except for, maybe not even really. This would depend on how you “received” your Recruiter or Sales Navigator account per this confusing note below from LinkedIn:

If all of that sounds as clear as mud, I assure you you’re not alone. But hang in there, I’m about to break it down clearly for you. 

We just cover one more wrinkle in the never-ending game of “more questions than answers,” which is simply figuring out which LinkedIn Premium account you should use. That wrinkle? Lack of price transparency.

When you examine different premium plans, you are taken to sales pages that have a stack of benefits and features and even some “quizzes” to help you find the right premium option. After wading through all of this to determine what you should use, you’ll be met with “Try free for a month!” with no upfront costs to help you decide.

Le sigh.

The whole process is designed for maximum subscription sign-ups. Now, I don’t fault LinkedIn for pushing for subscriptions. In fact, their commitment to subscriptions as the bulk of their revenue has prevented the platform from being vulnerable to the type of discourse and misinformation that comes from platforms optimizing engagement to attract ad dollars. 

More simply said, when you don’t charge your users for monthly subscriptions, you rely on advertisers for money, and advertisers want to see high engagement rates, and high engagement usually comes from divisive, inflammatory posts. (i.e., Facebook, X, etc.).

So, we should be happy LinkedIn loves subscriptions. It’s preserved the platform’s professional credibility and prevented it from turning into…well, to put it bluntly, the dumpster fire of infighting that the other platforms are.

(👆Me, every time I see people bickering in a Facebook comments section)

Alright, let’s get right down to it…

First up — the bottom line.

Here’s generally what each type of account will run you. I say generally because if you buy annually vs. month-to-month or as a company vs. an individual license, this may fluctuate by $10 here or there. But this is pretty much your monthly base:

1. Free LinkedIn Account: FREE

2. Linkedin Premium Career: $29.99 /month

3. Linkedin Premium Business: $59.99 /month

4. LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core: $99.99 /month

5. LinkedIn Sales Navigator Advanced: $159.99 /month

6. LinkedIn Sales Navigator Advanced Plus: custom

7. LinkedIn Recruiter Lite: $170 /month

8. LinkedIn Recruiter: $835 /month

9. Linkedin Learning: $19.99/month 

Coolio, now that we got that covered, let’s do Kait’s version of “what you get” for each: 

FREE: Pretty much everything you need to start out. For those of you dipping your toe into content posting and networking, you can glide on gratis for a while.

LinkedIn Premium Career: You are very active in the job market and want the bells and whistles to hasten the process. You get application insights, you get to see who's checking out your profile (like hiring managers), and you get direct messaging and LinkedIn learning courses to keep yourself upskilled.

LinkedIn Premium Business: Premium profile options, unlimited people browsing, and business insights.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator (I’m rolling up all 3 versions): Varying levels of advanced search features to locate prospects, organize them, and reach out to them with more extensive messaging capabilities, etc. It’s kind of like layering a CRM overtop LinkedIn. 

LinkedIn Recruiter (I’m rolling up both): All the premium bells and whistles + recruiter interface, applicant tracking, integrated hiring, and more extensive messaging capabilities. 

LinkedIn Learning: Pretty much a basic profile + access to LinkedIn Learning courses.

What do YOU need? 

If you’re reading this newsletter about building your personal brand on LinkedIn because you’re a consultant, coach, or subject matter expert who monetizes your brain, most likely, you’ll want LinkedIn Premium Business (I use this.)

I say most likely because if you want to be a thought leader and you work for a company and want the potential to be recruited by another company, you may want “Career.” 

If you are a thought leader or consultant who works for yourself but you want to do all the sales ninja stuff on the platform through advanced searching and messaging, you may want Sales Navigator.

But, again, by and large, if you are a consultant, coach, or thought leader who works for yourself and sells things like consulting, keynotes, programs, or knowledge products, and you want your content and personal brand to do the selling for you, LinkedIn Premium Business is where I’d suggest you go.

What do you get with Premium Business, and why do I like it?

Here’s the funny little thing with LinkedIn…they roll out awesome features so frequently, but they do it so stealthily. For example, few people know that when you have a premium profile, you can:

• Customize your “action button” on your profile to drive website traffic (I doubled my traffic after doing this)
• Drag testimonials up to your featured section to show credibility

See how this works here:

These are two valuable features I enjoy. Plus, my entire business development strategy hinges on LinkedIn, so $60 is a great ROI for me. I get more access to see how my content is performing, and I stay on top of trends.  

If you’re ready to step up your game from LinkedIn dabbler to building and scaling your brand as a known thought leader, I can’t advocate LinkedIn Premium Business enough. And no, in no way, shape, or form does LinkedIn compensate me for saying that.

If you’re ready to scale your brand and become known as your industry’s leading expert in 2024, join me for a free training on February 22nd, where I’ll cover topics like this and more.