How to Use LinkedIn Connections for Email Marketing in 2025

Social media marketing is like busking on a busy, noisy city street. A lot of people might be around, but most of them aren’t there to listen to you. Email marketing is different. It’s like being invited to a radio station where everyone is intent on lending you their ears.

Now, consider this: out of the 5.52 billion Internet users worldwide, 63.8% are active on social media. While these platforms have an incredibly wide reach, it can still be difficult to break through the noise and engage with your audience. The solution lies in email, a direct and distraction-free communication preferred by most professionals. By integrating  LinkedIn’s professional connections with email marketing, you can build meaningful interactions that resonate with your audience.

Read on for effective strategies to enhance your email marketing efforts in Australia using LinkedIn this 2025.

Is Email Marketing still “in”?

Email marketing, according to HubSpot, is “the process of targeting your audience and customers through email. It helps you boost conversions and revenue by providing subscribers and customers with valuable information to help achieve their goals.”

This strategy underpins digital communication. While social media feeds overflow with content and new trends like gamification and influencer marketing, email stands out as the most reliable channel for meaningful business connections. It offers control, stability, and affordability, putting you in charge of your messaging while keeping costs manageable. As a matter of fact, 87% of marketers choose email marketing as a channel to promote their content. It is used by approximately 81 percent of businesses to market their content, trailing only a few steps behind social media.

With 4 billion daily email users favoring weekly updates and automation tools simplifying campaigns, email remains a top strategy for high ROI and building real customer connections.

The power of a LinkedIn connection

The success of your email campaigns depends on who receives them, that’s why it’s crucial to build a list of engaged recipients who won’t ignore your messages. LinkedIn is the perfect place to start with.LinkedIn is a professional website with a good reputation for searching for jobs and recruiting people from different backgrounds. With over 1 billion members worldwide, it’s undeniably powerful tool for B2B businesses to connect with like-minded professionals, expand networks, build relationships, and expand email lists.

Related: Why Keeping Customer Relationships for Your Business is Essential

10 ways to use LinkedIn contacts for email marketing

Since the main goal of LinkedIn is to connect professionals, it’s important to regularly grow this network and generate a more sizeable list of contacts. These connections are invaluable for expanding your email marketing efforts. Here are 10 effective ways to use your LinkedIn contacts for email marketing:

1. Build your email list
   Let’s be honest—when you meet someone new, you probably look them up online. The same goes for LinkedIn. When you send a connection request, your prospect will likely check your profile to learn more about you.
   Your LinkedIn profile acts as your business card, so ensure it accurately represents your brand. Keep it polished, use a custom cover image, and maintain a professional look. Regularly connect with new contacts, but avoid overdoing it to prevent LinkedIn from suspending your activity.
2. Use LinkedIn to find the right target audiences and leads
   An ideal email marketing strategy starts with choosing high-quality leads carefully and creating tailored messages for them. LinkedIn is the most suitable platform to identify these individuals and companies.
   Targeting the right audience leads to higher email open and response rates, as recipients are more likely to find value in your message. Here are some tips for identifying favorable LinkedIn demographics:
   • Industry-relevant hashtags – these make the posts relevant to your line of work and who created, liked, and left a comment visible.
   • Competitors – you can steal your competitors’ customers through automated LinkedIn outreach.
   • Professional groups – LinkedIn houses people who gather to talk about the latest trends and issues and ask for assistance, product/service reviews, and recommendations. It’s a great opportunity for you to join in.
   • Relevant public figures –  Profiles of individuals with a huge following and connections act somewhat like an agora where the audience serves as a wide pool of possible connections you can pick from.
     
3. The right timing matters
   Savvy marketers send their marketing campaigns on the most suitable daytime and the best-performing day of the week. LinkedIn’s InMail depends more on connecting with active LinkedIn members than delivering messages at the right time of the week or day.
4. Connect with people in meaningful ways
   Connecting on LinkedIn is more than just adding someone to your network—it’s about mutual value. People accept connections expecting something beneficial, not just another sales pitch.
   Remember, your leads are people too. Build rapport by warming up to them with personalized emails, LinkedIn InMail messages, or sharing anecdotes, comments, or jokes that link to helpful resources.
   Most importantly, create valuable LinkedIn content that resonates with your audience and fosters a positive connection with your brand.
5. Create a Personalized Copy
   Generic messages fail to capture attention and often lead to low response rates. Personalizing your messages is the key to stand out and improve engagement.
   Here are some ideas you can apply:
   • Address a specific contact.
   • Mention a relevant LinkedIn Group.
   • Reference a LinkedIn Group post (theirs or someone else’s).
   • Highlight a shared organization, experience, or interest.
   • Elicit an emotional connection.
     Keeping a conversational tone makes the message more individualized, so push for a free-streaming message that sounds like it came from a real person.
6. Keep your subject line crisp and clear
   Your email’s headline works like a guarantee that clarifies what your recipient will see the moment he clicks it open. It also explains the email copy, so you have to write it clearly and compellingly to get your reader’s attention.
   Subject lines that are exciting, personalized, and containing 80 characters or less have higher open rates than regular ones.
   • Personalization is the key –  The usual “Hey, (recipient’s name)!” won’t cut it. Capture your recipient’s interest by tackling a pain point, mutual contact, shared interest, or competition. 
   • One-liners – Since you have limited characters to use, it’d be better to keep your subject line short and straightforward. 
   • Seamless transitions – Always remember to connect your entire message to the subject line. Including details that aren’t related to the content or subject is annoying and disappointing.
   • Pique your audience’s curiosity – When you’ve tried all these tactics but still end up failing, go ahead and write something intriguing. Avoid being outrageous or offensive. Rather, focus on being interesting.
7. Give your prospects a clear and compelling reason to respond
   As a marketer, you have two main goals: To connect with your LinkedIn members and start a conversation. You have to do your best to collect the responses of your recipients to achieve these goals. 
   They can provide their answers by responding with a referral or opinion.
8. Create your company’s profile
   Generate and update your company’s LinkedIn profile. Also, try creating engaging content about your product and uploading it on a daily basis. The most recent developments and expansion taking place in the sector must be posted too.
9. Make it simple, concise, and clear
   Most professionals check messages on mobile devices, so keep your messages brief—ideally between 50 and 125 words. Short, clear messages respect your prospect’s time. Engage your connections by writing your messages in straightforward and simple terms.
10. Engage the group with compelling content
    Engaging and interactive email content has become more popular in past few years. These emails increase interactions, boost customer engagements, and upgrade customer experience.
    Some interesting elements of interactive emails include surveys, polls, user-generated content, call-to-action buttons, interactive images, and product carousels.

Adding LinkedIn connections to your email marketing list: A step-by-step guide

There are several ways that LinkedIn users can look for potential leads in their contacts: interest lists, lookalike audiences, and groups. These options allow you to filter searches by industry, company size, and location.

You can add LinkedIn connections to your email marketing list in three steps:

1. Post an update on your homepage to share with your connections.
2. Send a message to inform your connections.
3. Make an announcement in your group to collect email addresses.

If these steps seem general, here’s a more detailed guide on exporting your LinkedIn contacts:

Step 1: Log in to your LinkedIn account. Click the “Me” icon and select Settings and Privacy on the drop-down list.

Step 2: On the left side, click on the Data Privacy tab, and select “Get a copy of your data”

Step 3: Next, go to the second option from the list. It says, “Want something in particular? Select the data files you’re most interested in.” Click “Connections” and press the “Request archive” button

Step 4: LinkedIn will send the file to your registered email.

Step 5: Click the “Download archive” button when ready to download the file. This action will send you a CSV file that contains your Linked contacts’ information.

In the file, you’ll receive this information:

• First name
• Last name
• Company
• Position
• Connection dates

While these steps will give you valuable information about your contacts, you will not have access to the email addresses of all the contacts you have exported.

Struggling to access email addresses for your LinkedIn prospects?
Our expert team can provide you with a verified contact list, complete with email addresses, tailored to your target audience on LinkedIn. Start reaching the right people today!

On an end note…

Every business should optimize using LinkedIn contacts in their email marketing strategies. Combining these two tools lets you efficiently and cost-effectively generate high-quality contacts for stronger leads and improved conversion rates.

Marketers should create engaging, personalized messages that avoid spam folders to make the most of these tools.

Outsourcing to a trusted lead generation provider like Callbox can help build a strong brand presence in the Australian market.

With the help of B2B experts, you can access a rich database of LinkedIn contacts to enhance targeting and boost email marketing results. Callbox, Australia’s leading B2B provider since 2004, streamlines lead generation with our expertise in multi-touch, multi-channel approaches. We help businesses reach, acquire, and nurture prospects, converting them into clients.

Simplify your B2B efforts, expand your reach, and capture more high-value leads this 2025 by partnering with us. Call us now!