How To Write A LinkedIn Cold Outreach Message That Gets Responses

LinkedIn currently boasts more than 500 million users worldwide. Therefore, needless to say, LinkedIn’s platform for messaging has taken the business world by storm in recent years. InMail’s response rate is three times higher than on average of a normal email. This means that the potential for networking is incredibly high.

However, there is nothing more important than being able to clearly and concisely communicate your message to your customers, especially when you are trying to generate new leads. Well, except for one thing: being able to communicate your message in an effective way.

Many business owners and sales professionals consider emailing and LinkedIn messaging to be the same thing and approach them the same way. They copy and paste their same cold emails into a LinkedIn message for each individual and expect to achieve the same results. 

Unfortunately, approaching two very different channels with one very narrow strategy is not an effective way to generate new leads. LinkedIn is the perfect platform for sharing content, creating connections, and closing business deals. Hence, your approach needs to be different and personalized.

LinkedIn’s Smarter Messaging is designed to help you do precisely that with ease. Here are some tips to help you design your cold outreach strategy and write a message that gets responses.

FIND COMMON GROUND

The key advantage of LinkedIn as an outreach channel is the sheer amount of relevant information you can discover about a professional. You can find about a person’s job role, work history, educational background, and interests. 

When you find a potential customer on LinkedIn the first thing you should do is scan through their profile to find some common ground between yourself and the person you are messaging and then try to connect with them. 

Whatever you find in common between yourself and the potential lead, keep that in mind when constructing your first message to them so that your first touch is targeted, personal, and relevant. Do not just copy and paste the same message to every single lead. Personalization is the key. 

KEEP IT SHORT

As with cold emails or voicemails or any other type of sales pitch, the length of your message has a significant impact on whether or not the lead will reply. Your goal in your first cold LinkedIn message should be to get the recipient to respond positively. That is it. Therefore, keep your message short and to-the-point so your recipient actually reads it in its entirety.

SAVE THE SELLING FOR LATER

In any form of cold outreach, asking for a sale in your first message is a deadly sin. If you need to beg a stranger to buy your product, it sends the message that you are not successfully drawing in customers, and your product probably is not very worthwhile.

BE CAREFUL SENDING LINKS

LinkedIn automatically expands any included embedded links into a massive thumbnail. This could potentially take up the prospect’s entire screen. This is a horrible experience for the prospect as it, again, results in the need to scroll to read your entire message. This doesn’t mean that you should never include a link in your LinkedIn messages. However, you should be intentional about doing so.

FOCUS ON PROSPECTS

One big mistake business owners make usually in their LinkedIn prospecting messages is starting every sentence with “I” and focusing on themselves rather than on the prospect. In fact, the majority of LinkedIn pitches are just that – pitches.

They are only focused on themselves and not on the prospect. By framing your message toward the prospect, you are communicating to them that your objective in reaching out is to help them and not you.

OFFER A FREE RESOURCE

One way you can be intentional about sending a link is by sending a link to a free resource. Offering a free resource is a highly effective and easy way to get your first-hand raise. Just remember that this approach is only effective if your free resource is a high-quality resource that is relevant and contains a substantial value for your prospect.

A good way to evaluate whether your resource is valuable is to put yourself in your prospect’s shoes and ask yourself whether the resource would be valuable and interesting to you.

KEEP TRACK AND FOLLOW-UP

You probably are not reaching out to only one lead at a time on LinkedIn, so it is important for you to keep track of the leads you reach out to, and follow up with them if they do not reply right away.

CONCLUSION

The trick to a successful LinkedIn cold outreach message is to show your value in as few words as possible. Try out different strategies to see what works best, and make sure to follow up quickly when you do get a response.