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Hi, Community members!

 

Smart Links is one of the latest Sales Navigator’s features that aims to offer all our users a smarter way for them to understand buyer engagement with their content. I’m sure most of you at some extent has heard of this functionality and I understand some have been using Smart Links since it was launched, but I can also relate to new users who didn’t have the chance yet to fully explore it. So, worry not! Independently of your Smart Link’s knowledge and experience, my goal with this discussion is to start a thread where you can find everything you need to know about Smart Links, ask your questions and share with us what has been working for you. 

 

What are Smart Links? 

Smart Links are a Sales Navigator’s feature that allows you to easily package and share content from within your Sales Navigator workflow, track viewing behavior, and gain insights on what your prospects and customers are most interested in.

 

How can users access Smart Links?

Smart Links are available to you from the Smart Links tab at the top of your Sales Navigator homepage. All Smart Links are mobile friendly and can be viewed by buyers on their mobile device. You can also view your previously created Smart Links, and their associated viewer activity, on the Sales Navigator mobile app. However, the ability to create Smart Links isn't currently supported on the Sales Navigator mobile app.

If you're an admin you can enable or disable Smart Links for all users on the contract from your Admin Settings page. However, there's no option to restrict access to certain users.

 

And what if a user leaves? Smart Links created by users no longer on a Sales Navigator account won't be accessible by anyone on the contract, or viewable by anyone who had previously received the Smart Link. Here are some details to keep in mind when an account is disabled:

  • If a user disables their Sales Navigator account, the shared links to their Smart Links content can't be accessed.
  • If a user then reactivates the account under the same contract, the Smart Links content will be made available.
  • If a user reactivates the account under a new contract, the Smart Links content from their old account can no longer be accessed.

 

How can users create Smart Links?

If it’s the first time you’re creating and/or updating a Smart Link, we’ll walk you though all the steps below. 

 

Creating a Smart Link through Sales Navigator

  • Log into your Sales Navigator account.
  • Click Smart Links at the top of your homepage.
  • Click  New Smart Link.
  • Enter your title and click  Add files.
    • You can add as many files as you'd like to this Smart Link by clicking  Add files again.
  • Click Create Smart Link

 

Creating a Smart Link through an InMail message

  • Compose an InMail from either your Sales Navigator Inbox, or a prospect’s profile.
  • At the bottom of the message, click Link.
  • In the Create Smart Link panel:
    • Enter a Title
    • Add files
    • When all files have been added, click Insert.

The Smart Link will automatically be added to your message and saved to the Smart Links tab.

 

Updating your Smart Links

  • Log into your Sales Navigator account.
  • Click Smart Links at the top of your homepage.
  • Hover over the Smart Link and click More.
  • From the dropdown that appears, click Modify.
  • From the Modify Smart Link page, you can:
    • Update the Title
  • Add new content
  • When modifications are complete, click Modify Smart Link.

 

Community Insider tip: don’t forget you can add up to 15 files per Smart Link. Each file within the Smart Link can be up to 200 MB in size. Occasionally, due to variations in operating systems, files smaller than 200 MB may fail during upload.

 

How can users share Smart Links?

You must have a Sales Navigator Team or Enterprise account type to access Smart Links. When it comes to receiving Smart Links, anyone can receive them as they can be shared via Sales Navigator, InMail, or email. This means that you don’t need to have a Sales Navigator License to receive, open and access a Smart Link that was shared with you. 

 

Nonetheless, if you’re sharing a Smart Link with a prospect it’s important to understand how’s their experience, in case they don’t have a Sales Navigator license. When your buyer receives your email or InMail, they'll be able to click the unique link to access your Smart Link. If they're logged into LinkedIn, they'll be prompted with a welcome screen, where they'll click Agree and View to enter. If the viewer isn't logged into LinkedIn, they will be prompted to do so, or asked to provide their first name, last name, and email address. The buyer's Smart Link view is what you see when you preview a link. All users have to self-identify before viewing the link, which means you will always know who your viewers are when you look at Smart Link analytics later. Additionally, shared Smart Links will display the author's profile image and name, even if LinkedIn privacy settings only allow certain users access to this.

 

Sharing a Smart Links through Desktop:

From the Smart Links tab, locate the Smart Link you wish to share.

Hover over the Smart Link and click Copy Link.

The link will automatically be added to your clipboard, or you can copy the URL from the box that appears.

Share the copied link via Sales Navigator, InMail, chat, or email.

 

Sharing a Smart Links through Sales Navigator App:

  • Log into the Sales Navigator app.
  • Click Link.
  • Locate the Smart Link you’d like to share, and click More.
  • Select if you’d like to:
    • Preview Smart Link
    • Copy link
    • Send in private message
    • Share via

 

How can you leverage Smart Links Analytics?

First, it’s important to understand that Smart Links analytics give you real-time information about how your recipients are engaging with your content. This means that, Smart Links authors are provided insights about viewer interactions with their Smart Links.

 

A unique link is created for the Smart Links content that can be shared by the author. By tracking this unique link and using LinkedIn cookies, LinkedIn is able to provide content authors with the following insights about viewers of their Smart Links:

  • Confirmation that a viewer clicked the link to the Smart Links content, and the number of times the viewer clicked the link.
  • The amount of time a viewer spent on the Smart Links content.
  • The date and time that the Smart Links content was accessed by the viewer.
  • If signed in to LinkedIn, basic information from the viewer's LinkedIn profile such as name, title, company, and public profile picture.
  • If not signed into LinkedIn, the name the viewer provided prior to accessing the Smart Links content, and optionally their email address, if they chose to provide it.

 

Access to and use of this data is subject to the privacy policies of each author’s respective enterprise. Please note that viewers can delete their viewing data by revoking the consent that allows authors to view their activity. 

 

To locate analytics on your Smart Link:

  • Log into your Sales Navigator account.
  • Click Smart Links at the top of your homepage.
  • From the Smart Links tab, locate the Smart Link you wish to view analytics for.
  • Hover over the Smart Link and click Analytics.

 

Additionally, all Sales Navigator Admins will be able to leverage Usage Reporting since this will reflect the following Smart Links details:

  • Smart Links created: The number of Smart Links created by an individual user.
  • Smart Links viewed: The total number of views for all Smart Links created by an individual user.

 

 

Moreover, if you’re a Sales Navigator Advanced or Advanced Plus user you can enable the CRM Sync for Smart Links. This CRM writeback event should be triggered at the same time as a Smart Link email notification or home page alert. That is, one per viewing session, unless the same viewer initiated a viewing session less than 60 minutes ago.

 

Hope you find this new discussion helpful and, as always, share with us what you think of Smart Links and if you have additional ideas for Smart Links' improvement.

 

Thank you,

Nádia

This is SUCH an informative and thorough post, @Nadia Vieira​! You've laid out everything we need to know about Smart Links in such an easy-to-follow manner. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

 

One of my favorite things about Smart Links is that you get to edit it with new/updated files and be able to keep the same link, so you don't have to keep reattaching files via InMail (or email). Instead, you can simply let your viewer know the link has updated content and be able to track their activity/engagement right away.

 

Another thing I like about Smart Links is that they don't expire (unless your Sales Navigator account is disabled)! So even if you've shared a Smart Link months ago, you'd still be able to receive live notifications and insights when someone accesses it. This works great for content that aren't time-sensitive and can always be useful for your potential buyers and customers. 😊

Hello @Nadia Vieira​ ,

 

Thank you for this post.

 

I use SmartLinks extensively within my profile and completely understand their purpose and intent. I have done some compare/contrast on the numbers of post views using a SmartLink vs an open link. The data was rather skewed and indicated that there was some reluctance to opening the SmartLink. I asked a number of my closer connections what they thought about the SmartLink, and they mentioned a privacy concern regarding the preamble to opening the file. My customers work in-atmosphere and in-space aerospace, so perhaps this is more related to the industry I serve.

 

I was wondering if you had any advice on how to make someone who would be looking at the SmartLink access page to feel more at ease; to not be concerned about tracking, identity protection, etc.

 

Thank you,

Kingston

 

PS My brother was the Canadian Ambassador to Ireland for many years. I stayed at the residence there several times. Dublin is such a wonderful place to visit.

Hello, @Kingston Vickers - M​.

First, welcome to the Sales Navigator Community. 😊

 

Thank you so much for this helpful feedback and for sharing with us your Smart Links' experience. It's definitely interesting to understand that there are customers who can be reluctant into opening a Smart Link due to privacy issues. Quick follow-up question: why were they concerned about tracking and identity protection? They're not comfortable to know that you'll be able to understand how they're engaging with the content that you're sharing with them?

 

I can understand how users have the right to get to know how we're collecting their data, and that's why, upon receiving a Smart Link, the recipient is presented with a consent screen and has to consent to share engagement insights with the customer prior to viewing the Smart Link. Customers have the option of including a link to their privacy policy on this screen (their privacy policy governs the permissible uses of the data by the customer). 

 

For this especific customer, because they shared their concern with you, you can visit this Help Center article to find out what data is collected by Smart Links and, if you'd like, you can share that with your customer, so that he understands what you'll be looking at. However, when discussing this with a customer, I'd focus on the fact that by analyzing their engagement with the resources you shared, then you can prepare better for a follow-up or a future meeting, since you're more familiarised with what that potential customer might be more interested in, for example, based on the amount of times he opened a specific file. This would be my recommendation to ensure your customers feel more at ease to open a Smart Link.

 

Hope this is helpful and I'm curious to know what you think of this suggested approach.

 

Thanks,

Nádia

 

PS: I'm delighted to hear that your brother was the Canadian Ambassador to Ireland and you had the privilege to visit the incredible Dublin City. I've been living here for the last (close to) three years and I love it! 😊

Thanks Nadia,

I like the suggested approach. The next time I try to use a SmartLink, I think I will try to preempt any concerns about the SmartLink screen within the text of my post. I will see how that goes.

Take care

Kingston

Happy to help, @Kingston Vickers - M​! 😊

That's a great idea. I'd love to find out how that went and if they customer/lead was more at ease with the Smart Link presentation you shared.

Hope to see you here again!

Nádia

@New Community Members​ 

Recent Enhancements to Smart Links

As a Sales Navigator user, you can now:

  • Prevent Smart Links recipients from downloading content from your Smart Link.
  • Change titles associated with content in your Smart Links presentations.
  • Access recently added signaling reporting flow to the Smart Links viewer.
  • In addition to content like PPTs and PDFs, you can now add URLs and YouTube videos to your Smart Links presentations and share them. You can also track views on the Smart Links.

 

Hi, I am logged into Navigator, but I don't have the Smart Link option across the top...Screen ShotDo I need to turn it on somewhere?

 

TY in advance.

Lisa

Hi @Lisa S​,

 

Welcome to the Sales Navigator Community! 😊  First, can you share which Sales Navigator license you have? If you have a Professional license, then unfortunately, you would not have access to Smart Links. I'd suggest checking out our feature comparison chart to confirm what Sales Navigator features you have access to.

 

I hope this helped and let me know if you have more questions.

Thank you,

Eva C.

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