How to Use Octopus LinkedIn

Octopus CRM is a powerful tool for automating your LinkedIn outreach, but figuring out how to use it without feeling overwhelmed or sounding like a robot can stop you before you even start. This guide will walk you through setting up your first campaigns, building an effective outreach funnel, and using the tool in a way that truly builds connections. We'll cover everything from importing your first list of prospects to writing messages that actually get replies, all while keeping your LinkedIn account safe.

Understanding Octopus CRM: Your LinkedIn Automation Sidekick

In short, Octopus CRM is a Chrome extension that automates repetitive tasks on LinkedIn. Think of all the time you spend manually viewing profiles, sending connection requests, and following up. Octopus takes over these tedious jobs, letting you run sophisticated lead generation campaigns in the background while you focus on other work. It's not a standalone platform, it works directly on top of your existing LinkedIn or Sales Navigator interface.

But why is it so effective? Here’s a simple breakdown of the benefits:

• Saves You a Massive Amount of Time: Manually sending 50 personalized connection requests a day can take hours. With Octopus, you can set it up once and let it run, freeing you up to focus on conversations with interested prospects rather than the initial outreach.
• Builds Layered Outreach Funnels: Octopus isn’t just about sending one-off messages. You can create a sequence of actions - like a profile view, a skill endorsement, a connection request, and then a series of follow-up messages - that nurtures a prospect from cold to warm automatically.
• Keeps Your Account Safe (When Used Correctly): Unlike shady bots that can get you banned, Octopus is designed with LinkedIn's limits in mind. It uses randomized delays and has built-in safety features to mimic human behavior, which significantly reduces the risk to your account. We'll cover these safety measures in detail later.
• Personalizes Outreach at Scale: The tool uses variables like {firstName}, {lastName}, and {companyName} to make your automated messages feel personal, striking a balance between mass outreach and one-to-one communication.

Getting Started: Your First 10 Minutes with Octopus

Setting up Octopus is surprisingly straightforward. If you have a LinkedIn account and Google Chrome, you're pretty much ready to go. Here’s how to get everything up and running.

Step 1: Installing the Chrome Extension

First, head over to the Google Chrome Web Store. Search for "Octopus CRM for LinkedIn" and click "Add to Chrome." Once it's installed, you’ll see a small purple Octopus icon appear in your browser's toolbar. That's your gateway to the tool.

Step 2: Connecting Your LinkedIn Account

There's really no separate connection process. Just make sure you're logged into your LinkedIn account in your Chrome browser. When you click the Octopus icon, it will automatically connect to your account and open the Octopus dashboard in a new tab. You're now ready to start building your first campaign.

Step 3: Understanding the Octopus Dashboard

When you open the Octopus dashboard, you'll see several key sections on the left-hand menu. Don't worry about mastering all of them right away. For now, here’s a quick overview of the most important parts:

• Campaigns: This is where you organize your prospects. You can create different campaigns for different target audiences, for example, "Marketing VPs - US" or "HR Directors - UK."
• My Network: This is an easy way to interact with your first-degree connections already on LinkedIn.
• Funnel: This is the heart of Octopus. It's where you'll build the sequence of automated actions for each of your campaigns.
• Dashboard: A high-level view of your stats, including how many connection requests have been sent, your acceptance rate, and messages sent across all of your campaigns.

Let's move on to the fun part: creating an automated outreach campaign from scratch.

Building Your First Automated Outreach Campaign

The real power of Octopus lies in its ability to combine LinkedIn search with a multi-step automation funnel. This process allows you to find your ideal audience and then systematically engage with them over time. Let's walk through it step-by-step.

Step 1: Finding Your Targets on LinkedIn

Before you can automate anything, you need to tell Octopus who to target. The best way to do this is by creating a highly specific search on LinkedIn. You can pull profiles from a few different places:

• A standard LinkedIn search (e.g., searching for a job title like "Content Marketing Manager").
• A more powerful Sales Navigator search (the best option due to its advanced filters).
• From within a LinkedIn Group you're a member of.
• From the list of people who have engaged with a specific post.

For this example, let's say you're looking for Marketing Directors at B2B software companies. Run that search in Sales Navigator. Once you have your results page, you're ready to import them into Octopus.

Step 2: Importing Profiles into Octopus

With your LinkedIn search results on the screen, you'll now see a small Octopus panel on the right side of the page. This is how you send profiles to your campaigns.

1. In the panel, click the dropdown menu and select "+ Add new" to create a campaign. Let's call it "Marketing Directors - B2B Software."
2. Next, you'll tell Octopus how many profiles to import. It's best to keep this under 1,000 to keep your campaigns manageable. Let's start with 100.
3. Click the "Send to Octopus CRM" button. The tool will then work in the background, grabbing the profiles from your search results and pulling them into your new campaign in the Octopus dashboard.

Once it's done, head back to your Octopus dashboard, click on your "Marketing Directors - B2B Software" campaign, and you should see the 100 profiles you just imported waiting for their first action.

Step 3: Creating Your "Funnel" (The Automation Sequence)

This is where you design your outreach strategy. In the "Funnel" section of your campaign, you define the series of automated actions that Octopus will execute for you. A simple and effective funnel for new connections looks like this:

1. Send Connection Request
2. Send "Follow Up Message 1" (once they accept)
3. Send "Follow Up Message 2" (a few days later)

To set this up, find your campaign and click on the orange "Funnel" builder tab.

Action 1: Send a Connection Request

This is your first impression. Your goal here is to be brief, genuine, and give them a reason to accept. Click on the gray "Connect" button in your funnel. Toggle the switch to "ON," and you'll see a text box to write your message. Here's a solid template:

Hi {firstName}, I came across your profile and was really impressed with your work at {companyName}. I'm also in the B2B tech space and would love to connect with other marketing leaders.

Notice the use of {firstName} and {companyName}. These personalization tags are what make the outreach feel custom.

Action 2: Send Follow-Up Message 1

Once someone accepts your connection request, they automatically move to the next stage in your funnel. Now it's time to follow up. Don't go straight for a sales pitch! Your goal here is to start a conversation and provide value. Click on the gray "Message" button directly after your "Connect" action.

Toggle it "ON," set a delay of 1 Day (this gives them time to BREATHE after connecting), and write your first message. Example:

Thanks for connecting, {firstName}! I'm always curious to learn how other leaders are thinking about [specific industry challenge]. For example, we've been seeing a lot of teams struggle with content attribution. Is that something on your radar at {companyName}?

This message works because it’s not asking them to book a demo. It’s asking a question related to their professional world, making it much more likely to get a reply.

Action 3: Send Follow-Up Message 2

If they don't respond to the first message, a gentle nudge is appropriate. Add another "Message" action, but this time set a delay of 3-4 Days. Here’s a soft follow-up:

Just wanted to quickly follow up, {firstName}. We recently published an article on how to solve that content attribution challenge. No pitch, just thought you might find it useful: [Link to Blog Post]. Hope your week is going well!

This provides value without pressure. After you've built out your funnel sequence, simply launch the campaign and Octopus will start working through your list.

Best Practices to Avoid Getting Your Account Flagged

Automation tools are powerful, but with great power comes responsibility. Never just "set it and forget it." To stay on LinkedIn's good side and get the best results, follow these simple rules.

Keep It Human

Your goal is to start conversations, not to spam inboxes. Before launching a campaign, ask yourself: 'Does this message sound like something a real person would write?' If it sounds like a pushy sales script, start over. Reference common interests, shared groups, or recent industry news if you can get that information.

Respect LinkedIn's Limits

Don't get too aggressive right away. If you suddenly go from sending 5 connection requests a week to 100 a day, LinkedIn will notice. Start slow. Send about 20-30 connection requests per day for the first week, then gradually increase. Octopus has settings that let you control your daily limits and will automatically add randomized delays between actions to make your activity look natural.

Monitor Your Invitation Acceptance Rate

A good connection acceptance rate is anything over 30%. If your rate is lower than that, it's a sign that either your targeting is off or your connection message isn't compelling enough. LinkedIn can place temporary restrictions on accounts with very low acceptance rates, so it’s useful to regularly withdraw pending invitations that are more than a few weeks old.

Final Thoughts

Octopus CRM helps you automate your initial outreach on LinkedIn, building targeted funnels that turn cold contacts into warm leads. By personalizing your messages, respecting platform limits, and focusing on providing value over making a quick sale, you can leverage it to grow your professional network consistently and effectively.

Once those connections are made, the conversation moves beyond just DMs. To turn those new relationships into real business opportunities, you have to build your brand with high-quality, consistent content on LinkedIn and other platforms. While working with clients, we noticed a big gap: their outreach was getting more efficient, but their content workflows were still a tangled mess. We built Postbase to solve this by making social media planning, scheduling, and analytics just as streamlined. It gives you a clean, visual calendar to manage all your platforms in one place - no more jumping between apps or struggling with tools built for a different era of social media.