LinkedIn is the go-to platform for sales and recruiting professionals. With over 810 million members, it‘s home to the world‘s largest professional network. This makes it a goldmine for finding and connecting with relevant prospects.
However, sifting through profiles manually on LinkedIn is incredibly time consuming. This is where LinkedIn Sales Navigator comes into play.
What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a paid subscription tool from LinkedIn designed to help sales and recruiting teams more efficiently identify, research and engage prospects on LinkedIn.
Key features include:
- Advanced search filters to find prospects by criteria like company, job title, location etc.
- Lead recommendations algorithmically suggested based on target criteria
- Teammate search collaboration to strategize within your company
- Profile previews with essential prospect data readily available
- Saved lead lists and reminders for follow up
- Relationship maps to uncover connections in common
- Activity alerts when prospects make changes or mentions
As per LinkedIn, members using Sales Navigator successfully connect with up to 33% more prospects. It‘s become hugely popular with outbound sales and recruiting teams for LinkedIn lead generation.
However, Sales Navigator still has limits in how much prospect data it surfaces upfront in profile views. Often you need to click through to fully access info like skills, interests, education etc.
This is where web scraping comes in…
Scraping LinkedIn with Sales Navigator
Web scraping (or data scraping) means systematically extracting data from websites using automated software tools called scrapers.
When paired with Sales Navigator, web scrapers allow you to harvest select prospect data points from LinkedIn profiles at scale.
Some key types of LinkedIn profile data that can be scraped include:
- Email addresses
- Job titles/departments
- Companies
- Locations
- Profile summaries
- Skills
- Interests
- Education history
- Work experience details
- LinkedIn URLs
- Birthdays
- And more…
This scraped data can then be exported and leveraged for sales & recruiting activities like:
- Lead enrichment – augmented prospect data and contact details for outreach
- list segmentation – separate best prospects based on scraped criteria
- personalized messaging – integrate custom fields into email and messaging
- sales intelligence – uncover trends to refine prospecting strategy
- ad targeting – build custom audiences for LinkedIn ads
- CRM population – populate CRMs like Salesforce with enriched data
- recruiting – source candidates based on skills and experience
So web scrapers supercharge the prospect data available through Sales Navigator for precision targeting and outreach.
But there are right and wrong ways to go about LinkedIn scraping…
Why Proxies Are Essential for LinkedIn Scraping
LinkedIn‘s terms prohibit scraping their platform and using automation like bots and scrapers. So they have systems in place to detect and stop suspicious activity like:
- Automated sign in attempts
- Irregular browsing patterns
- Repeated page requests
- Unusual traffic spikes
Get flagged for scraping LinkedIn, and they will quickly shut down your account. This means you lose access and all your network connections.
To avoid tripping LinkedIn‘s detection algorithms while scraping, proxy services are essential.
What are Proxies?
Proxies act as intermediaries that scraper bots connect through instead of accessing sites directly.
When a proxy is used, the scraper connects to the proxy server, which then relays the scrape requests through its own IP address to LinkedIn.
So instead of your scrapers‘ IPs directly hitting LinkedIn (which would look suspicious), requests come through varied residential proxy IPs that mimic real user traffic.
This allows scrapers to fly under the radar and avoid having accounts shut down due to scraping activity.
Specialized tools like Bright Data, Oxylabs, and GeoSurf provide millions of residential proxies specifically optimized for sites like LinkedIn to best mask scraper bots.
Bottom line – never scrape Sales Navigator without proxies! Now let‘s look at the top scraping tools available.
5 Best Sales Navigator Scrapers
Here are the top 5 web scraping solutions used with LinkedIn Sales Navigator in 2024 based on features, support, and reliability:
1. Phantombuster 👻
Overview: Phantombuster is a dedicated social media scraping tool with Sales Navigator capabilities. Offers browser extensions for easy setup.
Key Features:
- Intuitive browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox
- 500 profile scrapes per tool run
- Email, title, company, location, connections, interests etc
- Customizable scraping fields
- Outputs to CSV, Excel, JSON
- Schedule recurring scrapes
- Python API also available
Ease of Use
Phantombuster prioritizes ease of use with browser extensions for point & click setup through their web app. No coding needed.
Pricing
Plans from $25/month for individuals. Enterprise pricing available.
Support & Reliability
Good email, chat and phone support. Users report excellent reliability in scraping Sales Navigator data.
Ideal For
Perfect for sales teams who want dead simple setup and use of a LinkedIn scraper without any coding.
Limitations
Capped at 500 profile scrapes per execution. Requires manual exporting of data out of the platform.
👉Get Started with Phantombuster
2. ScraperAPI 🤖
Overview: ScraperAPI is a developer-focused scraping API that can integrate LinkedIn data into your apps.
Key Features:
- API access for code integration
- 1 million profile scrapes
- Pre-built recipe for Sales Navigator
- Company, title, location and more
- Manipulate data programmatically
- 30 million IPs for reliable scraping
- Affordable starting at $39/month
Ease of Use
Easy to implement for developers by calling API endpoints from Python, NodeJS, PHP etc.
Pricing
Free trial. Paid plans starting at $39/month. Enterprise pricing available.
Support & Reliability
Good docs and support via live chat and email. Excellent uptime.
Ideal For
Perfect if you want to integrate LinkedIn scraping into your own apps and scripts programmatically.
Limitations
Requires some developer skills. Out of the box automation capabilities more limited.
3. Bright Data Web Scraper 🕵️
Overview: Bright Data manages a pool of 40,000+ residential proxies and web scraping tools.
Key Features:
- Point & click visual web scraper
- Scrape profiles, companies, groups, posts
- 40,000+ proxies to avoid detection
- Rotate proxies automatically
- Up to 3 million profile scrapes/month
- Starting at $500/month
- 14-day free trial
Ease of Use
Intuitive visual interface to set up LinkedIn scrapes without any coding needed.
Pricing
14-day free trial. Paid plans from $500/month.
Support & Reliability
24/7 live chat and email support. Reliable scraping via proxies.
Ideal For
Bright Data shines for high volume LinkedIn scraping thanks to its robust proxy network.
Limitations
No automation built-in. Requires more manual filtering of data.
4. Oxylabs Web Scraper 🧪
Overview: Oxylabs provides 40+ million residential proxies and an easy-to-use Chrome extension scraper.
Key Features:
- User-friendly Chrome extension
- 40+ million global proxies
- Built-in LinkedIn scrapers
- Filters for automation
- Scrape skills, interests, company etc
- Starting at $50/month
- 14-day free trial
Ease of Use
Oxylabs scraper has intuitive browser extension and web interface requiring no coding.
Pricing
From $50/month. 14-day free trial. Enterprise plans available.
Support & Reliability
Responsive email and live chat support. Reliable results.
Ideal For
Great choice if you want built-in automation for filtering scraped LinkedIn data.
Limitations
Lacks full customization of fields scraped. Usage limits apply.
5. Meet Alfred 👨💻
Overview: Meet Alfred provides managed scraping solutions optimized for sites like LinkedIn.
Key Features:
- Custom scrapers for LinkedIn data
- Scrape profiles, companies, groups
- Rotating residential proxies
- Automation workflows
- Starting at $99/month
- 14-day free trial
Ease of Use
Intuitive interface to configure LinkedIn scrapers without coding.
Pricing
From $99/month after a 14-day free trial. Enterprise pricing available.
Support & Reliability
Solid email support during business hours. Reliable results.
Ideal For
Great managed solution if you want a turnkey LinkedIn scraper with automation built-in.
Limitations
Smaller provider, so more limited tools versus competitors.
| Scraper | Starting Price | Proxies | Strengths | Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phantombuster | $25/month | Bring your own | Super easy setup & use | 500 profile cap per run |
| ScraperAPI | $39/month | Included | API access & automation | Coding skills required |
| Bright Data | $500/month | 40,000+ included | High volume scraping | More hands-on filtering |
| Oxylabs | $50/month | 40+ million included | Built-in automation | Less customization capability |
| Meet Alfred | $99/month | Included | Managed scraping service | Smaller toolset |
Choosing the Right Sales Navigator Scraper
With the major tools compared, here are the key factors to weigh when choosing your LinkedIn scraper:
Volume – The number of profiles you need to scrape. Pricing varies.
Technical skills – Opt for browser extensions or API access based on your ability.
Budget – Tools range from $39 to $500+ per month.
Support – Look for responsive customer service.
Use case – Manual vs. automated data exports.
Think through these elements in relation to your specific needs to select the best fit.
Getting the Most From LinkedIn Scraped Data
Once you‘ve selected the right scraper tool, here are tips for using scraped LinkedIn data effectively:
- Enrich CRM records – Load profiles into your CRM and add scraped fields like interests and skills for personalization.
- Prioritize outreach – Score and segment scraped leads to focus on most relevant prospects.
- Personalize at scale – Use scraped data like title and company to customize outreach emails.
- Trigger automation – Set up workflows to trigger actions for scraped leads.
- Create lookalike audiences – Use interests and skills to find more prospects like your ideal customers.
- Export for ads – Build target audiences for LinkedIn ads using scraped profile data.
Using scraped prospect information intelligently allows you to break through the Sales Navigator limitations and maximize your LinkedIn results.
Scraping LinkedIn Ethically
It‘s essential to keep ethics and compliance in mind when scraping any site including LinkedIn:
- Don‘t over-scrape – Use reasonable request volumes to avoid detection. Refrain from scraping private data.
- Rotate proxies – Proxies like Oxylabs and Bright Data will mask your scraper tool.
- Respect opt-outs – Delete prospects from your database who request it.
- Use data responsibly – Only collect and retain prospect info needed for your specific business purposes.
- Comply with regulations – Understand requirements like GPDR when handling EU citizen data.
Scraping with principles creates a win-win where you gain helpful business insights without friction.
Summary
Pairing a robust web scraper with LinkedIn Sales Navigator provides a powerful one-two punch for supercharged prospecting.
The top scraper tools make it easy to extract additional prospect data from LinkedIn en masse without coding. Detailed prospect records can then be activated across sales & recruiting workflows.
Just be sure to choose a scraper tailored to your use case, volume needs and budget. And always make ethical data harvesting a priority to build business value while avoiding issues.
With the right approach, a world of LinkedIn prospects and possibilities open up through web scraping. Give one of the top Sales Navigator scraper tools profiled above a try today!
