LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 722 million users worldwide. It’s a great platform for connecting with professionals in your industry, building your personal brand, and growing your business. One effective way to leverage LinkedIn for business development is by sending outreach messages to connect with potential clients or partners. However, cold outreaching on LinkedIn can feel daunting. How do you craft an effective outreach message that will get opened and generate responses?
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through the proven best practices for sending successful LinkedIn outreach emails in 2023.
Should you send outreach emails on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn outreach can be a powerful strategy for:
- Reaching your ideal clients
- Establishing your authority and credibility
- Generating leads for your business
- Building relationships with potential partners
- Raising awareness for your brand
However, blindly mass messaging people on LinkedIn rarely works. Too often, these outreach emails look spammy and end up in the trash folder.
The key is to craft personalized messages that add value for the recipient. When done right, LinkedIn outreach can become an invaluable business development channel.
According to LinkedIn, response rates for InMail messages are around 20-25% on average. With some optimization and persistence, you can push your response rates even higher.
So in short – yes, sending customized outreach is worth your time. Let’s look at how to do it right.
Step 1: Research your prospects
Personalization is key for LinkedIn outreach success. So before reaching out, invest time researching your prospects on LinkedIn.
Look for indicators that they may be a good fit, such as:
- Job title and responsibilities
- Company, industry, location
- Groups and associations
- Content shared and published
- Skills, interests and volunteering
- Education and background
This intel will allow you to tailor your messaging and show that you’ve done your homework. Some quick ways to research prospects on LinkedIn:
- Visit their LinkedIn profile – Study their work experience, education, volunteering, skills, etc. What strengths or pain points can you identify based on their background?
- Look at their activity feed – What content are they reading, sharing, reacting to? This reveals their interests and priorities.
- Check out their connections – Do you have any shared connections who can make a warm introduction for you? Look for colleagues that have switched companies and can make referrals.
- Join their groups – Participate in the same niche groups and associations to build common ground.
- Follow their company – Get insights into initiatives and priorities at their organization that you can reference.
Invest 15-30 minutes researching a prospect’s profile before reaching out. This small time investment pays off in higher response rates.
Step 2: Craft a personalized message
With your prospect research complete, it’s time to craft your outreach email.
Here are 7 tips for writing effective LinkedIn outreach messages:
1. Customize the subject line
Avoid spammy sounding subject lines like “Quick Question!” or “Business Opportunity”.
Instead, include the prospect’s name and company to instantly personalize your outreach:
- Hi [Name], quick question about [Company]
- Connecting with [Name] at [Company]
You can also reference any common ground – a shared group, mutual connection, or conference you both attended. The more relevant and specific your subject line, the better.
2. Start with a warm personalized greeting
Address them by name and mention what caught your attention on their profile:
- Hi [first name], I noticed on your LinkedIn profile that you [interesting detail].
- Hello [first name], I was excited to see that you [relevant experience or mutual connection].
This immediate personalization grabs their attention right away.
3. Establish common ground and context
Quickly explain who you are, and highlight any common connections, groups, or interests you share:
- We’re both members of [group] and I saw that you [relevant post].
- Like you, I have a background in [field]. I was reading your insights on [shared interest] and wanted to connect.
Show that you share similar goals or challenges to establish rapport. Immediately highlighting your commonalities gets the relationship off on the right foot.
4. Explain why you’re reaching out
Articulate the specific reason you want to connect, like:
- I’m reaching out because I thought your experience with [relevant skill] could provide some helpful guidance for [project you’re working on].
- I wanted to connect because I’m working on [initiative] and thought starting a discussion with you could be mutually beneficial.
Being upfront about your reasons for connecting builds trust and gives helpful context.
5. Make it about them, not you
Prospects tune out generic salesy pitches about your product or company.
Instead, keep the focus on their needs and how you can add value:
- Based on your [role] at [company], I thought you might be interested in [useful info].
- I noticed [pain point] is a priority for your team right now. We’ve helped companies like yours with [solution] and I’m happy to provide some ideas if helpful.
Craft your messaging around understanding their challenges and goals. Demonstrate how you can provide unique value.
6. Include a specific call-to-action
Don’t leave things open-ended. Give them a clear next step to keep the conversation moving forward:
- Would you have 15 minutes next week to jump on a quick call to discuss?
- I’d love to send over a few relevant [content pieces, case studies, demos] for you to review and get your feedback.
Having an action item gives them something specific to respond to.
7. Thank them and sign off warmly
Wrap up your outreach on a grateful, enthusiastic note:
- Thanks so much for your time, I look forward to connecting!
- Really appreciate you considering this, have a wonderful rest of your week!
A warm sign-off leaves a positive impression and motivates them to respond.
Step 3: Make your LinkedIn profile outreach-ready
Before sending your first outreach message, optimize your own LinkedIn presence. Prospects will check out your profile before responding.
Make sure your profile is outreach-ready by:
- Having a professional headshot
- Using a customized background photo
- Crafting an informative headline and summary
- Highlighting your top skills, awards, and recommendations
- Including rich media like SlideShare presentations
- Being active – sharing, commenting, posting regularly
A complete, engaging profile builds your credibility and gives prospects confidence to connect.
Pro Tip: Check your LinkedIn profile’s completeness with the LinkedIn Profile Checkup tool.
Step 4: Connect through common ground
One of the most effective LinkedIn outreach approaches is to connect around shared experiences like:
- Industry – Comment on a post showcasing your industry expertise
- Alumni – Reach out to fellow alumni from your university
- Location – Bond over being based in the same city or region
- Associations – Connect via professional groups and associations
- Interests – Discuss hobbies or passions outside of work
- Content – Share insights on an article they posted
Look for opportunities to break the ice around common ground. This sparks an instant connection that gets conversations started.
Step 5: Expand your network intelligently
LinkedIn limits how many connection requests you can send each week, especially for free accounts.
Make the most of your outreach efforts by selectively expanding your network, not blindly connecting with everyone.
Focus on quality over quantity by prioritizing outreach to:
- Warm leads – 2nd and 3rd degree connections are much more likely to accept your request.
- Relevant titles – Target key roles like founders, directors, managers.
- Your ICP – Connect with professionals at companies that are a good fit for your offerings.
- Engaged users – Active, regular LinkedIn users check notifications and respond.
Pick your prospects strategically based on fit and engagement. Avoid spamming every connection request possible.
Step 6: Post engaging content consistently
Establish yourself as an industry thought leader by consistently sharing valuable content. Publishing posts, articles, and multimedia allows prospects to learn about your expertise organically.
Useful types of content to post on your LinkedIn feed include:
- Industry news and trend analysis
- Data reports and original research
- Expert tips, strategies, and advice
- Stories showcasing client success
- Behind-the-scenes content about your company culture
- Relevant articles and perspectives from other industry sources
- Live videos discussing key topics
Post a mix of content formats – publish written posts, share articles, upload images, and post videos. Varying your content keeps your feed dynamic and engaging.
Aim to publish on LinkedIn at least 1-2 times per week. This showcases your thought leadership and keeps you top of mind with connections.
Step 7: Automate your outreach cadence
Conducting manual prospect research and crafting personalized outreach is extremely time consuming.
You can scale your LinkedIn outreach efforts using automation tools that streamline the process. Useful features include:
- Lead enrichment – Automatically append contact details like email and phone numbers to prospect records.
- Personalized messaging – Use mail merge fields to customize outreach at scale.
- Cadence templates – Create sequences of messages to send as follow-ups.
- Engagement tracking – See open rates, clicks, and replies to your messages.
Automation enables you to reach 10x more prospects with relevant, individualized messaging and follow-ups.
Popular LinkedIn automation tools include Mailshake, Dux-Soup, and PersistIQ. Many CRMs also have LinkedIn integrations.
Automation supercharges your outreach while maintaining the personalized touch.
Step 8: Expand to other channels beyond LinkedIn
While LinkedIn can be highly effective for lead generation, relying solely on one channel also has limitations.
Expanding your outreach strategies across multiple digital channels gives you more touchpoints to engage prospects:
- Email – Send cold emails or sequence nurture campaigns to your prospect list.
- Website – Offer content upgrades and resources in exchange for contact details.
- Retargeting Ads – Remind prospects about you as they browse online.
- Facebook – Join relevant groups and run highly targeted ads.
- Twitter – Share content and interact by liking, commenting and retweeting.
Omni-channel outreach improves your chances of connecting with prospects wherever they are active online. Integrate your efforts into a cohesive workflow.
Channel | Outreach Tactics |
---|---|
Send InMail messages, share/comment on posts, join groups | |
Send cold emails, nurture prospects with useful content | |
Website | Offer gated content in exchange for contact info |
Retargeting Ads | Remarket to visitors who have shown interest |
Join relevant groups, run LinkedIn lead gen ads | |
Share valuable content, interact via likes/retweets |
Step 9: Track and optimize your results
It’s critical to monitor the metrics and KPIs that indicate LinkedIn outreach success:
- Open rates – Benchmark 25-50%
- Click-through rates – Aim for 5-10%
- Reply rates – Target 10-30%
- Meetings booked – Track number of discovery calls/demos scheduled
- MQLs generated – Number of new marketing qualified leads
- Cost per lead – Monitor how much you spend to generate each lead
Continuously optimize your outreach approach based on data:
- A/B test different email subject lines
- Experiment with messaging angles
- Double down on tactics that convert
- Fix areas underperforming KPI benchmarks
Data-driven refinement will steadily improve the ROI from your LinkedIn outreach.
Conclusion
LinkedIn outreach is one of the most valuable business development strategies for 2023.
With these best practices in mind, you can craft customized messages that cut through the noise. Show prospects you “get” their pain points and goals on a personal level.
Focus on high-quality prospects, not high quantity outreach. Monitor data diligently to optimize your approach.
Done right, LinkedIn outreach puts you in front of your ideal clients and partners. Create meaningful engagement that converts prospects into customers.
The world’s largest professional network is full of opportunities. Now you have a proven playbook to make the most of it.