One of the most challenging tasks for people on LinkedIn is sending out hundreds of messages or InMails to potential customers.
And not getting any response is what most LinkedIn users struggle with.
It’s one of those tasks that you really do not want to do.
But, it’s a necessity when working in B2B sales.
If you’re using LinkedIn to sell your product or services, it is crucial that you stay consistent in improving your results there.
To help you make it easier, we’ll show you the 7 best LinkedIn outreach practices that will help you get a response to your messages and ensure success.
So if you’re ready, let’s begin!
Why should you start doing LinkedIn outreach?
LinkedIn Outreach is one of the best ways to build relationships with potential customers or partners.
Even though there are regular LinkedIn messages you can use to contact your existing connections, LinkedIn InMails allow you to reach out to people who aren’t connected to you on LinkedIn.
Using InMail requires you to have a Premium LinkedIn account, it means you can send a message to someone who doesn’t even know who you are.
Still, they could be interested in what you have to say, which is why this LinkedIn feature is so powerful.
And to put more context into this, LinkedIn InMails generate a 10-25% response rate which blows away emails’ average response rate.
Why would you want to do this?
Well, there are several reasons – from getting more interviews or leads to finding new partners or customers.
But people mainly use InMails instead of regular emails because it’s much easier to get a response from someone using LinkedIn than sending them a classic email.
This is because people expect recruiters, hiring managers, and other professionals to reach out via their professional profile on LinkedIn rather than their personal ones.
So now that we understand why LinkedIn outreach can benefit us let’s see how we can use those strategies to improve replies and our business overall.
1. Research Your Prospects
Researching your prospects before contacting them will ensure that you’re only reaching out to people who are likely to respond.
So how do you find out more about your prospects?
There are a number of ways:
1. Look at their social media profiles and see what they’re talking about and sharing. This is especially important if you’re targeting specific industries or job roles (e.g., marketing managers, SEO specialists).
2. Read their websites in order to get an idea of what they’re interested in and talking about online. You might find some blog posts that relate to your content, which could be useful when building relationships with these people.
3. Go through their summary, experience, achievements, and skill section. It will help you learn more about them so you can see whether they’re the right person for you before you approach them.
4. Make sure to check their website for an email address or contact form. If there isn’t one, try looking up their social media pages, which often have contact information.
2. Personalize Your Message and Introduce Yourself
If you’re sending a message or InMail to someone who doesn’t know who you are, it’s crucial that you include some kind of introduction.
Explain who you are, how you found them, and why they should care about what you’re offering.
But using a generic message instead of personalizing each message will just make them ignore your message or mark you as spam.
To make the right introduction, make sure that your message is relevant to what they do and their interests.
For example: “I’m reaching out about XYZ,” or add in a specific question or comment related to something their company recently did or said, “I was reading an article about your new product launch.“
If they’re interested in what you have to say, they’ll probably respond.
You can even go so far as to take a quick look at their social media feed and share something they posted on Facebook or Twitter.
These small personal touches through other channels will go a long way toward getting them.
If you’re outreaching them through InMail messages, ensure your subject line is clear and concise.
For example: “{{FirstName}}: quick question!” is much better than just writing “Hi!” or “Hello!“
Note: People are much more likely to respond if they feel you’re being genuine and not just trying to sell them something without any regard for their interests or needs.
To come up with ideas, you can grab some of our proven messages or LinkedIn InMail templates and adapt them to your needs.
3. Add Value Upfront
The most important thing you can do when outreaching someone is to add value upfront.
If you can provide them with something valuable before asking for anything in return, they’ll be more likely to respond favorably when the time comes.
So here are a few ways how to achieve that:
- Don’t just ask for something. Think about what you can offer in return.
To do that, you can provide research and data that back up your offer or send over an article that relates to your content and the problem it solves.
- Share useful tips, tricks, and hacks to help your potential customers get more value from your product or service before even trying to sell anything.
If possible, include a relevant infographic or other visual content in your message — but make sure it’s appropriate first!
4. Follow Up
Following up is a great way to get in touch with someone, and they are also useful if you’ve already sent someone a message and they haven’t responded yet.
Some people check their inboxes once or twice a day, so if your message doesn’t immediately catch their attention, they may not see it until later on.
Follow-up messages are also a good way to keep your name in front of someone who doesn’t have time to respond right away.
It shows that you’re persistent and serious about what you’re doing, which is always attractive to potential employers and clients alike.
If you don’t hear back after sending the first message, follow up with another one asking if they received your previous message and if there’s anything else you can help them with.
Make sure your question is something that could be answered with a “Yes” or “No,” so they don’t have to write much back at all!
5. Add Them to Your Network
What’s the catch with adding someone to your network?
Once you’ve added someone as a connection, you can send them an InMail message.
InMail messaging is basically like emailing someone directly from LinkedIn, but it doesn’t require them to follow you back or accept your request before they see your message.
That’s why it’s easy for them to respond, which makes it a great way to start a conversation.
If you have something in common, there’s usually a reason why you haven’t connected yet.
Adding them on LinkedIn and sending them a message about something related to them specifically might catch their attention and get them interested in connecting with you.
And that is a great step into building a relationship with someone specific.
6. Build a Relationship
Your relationship with the person you’re outreaching is key.
You need a reason for them to respond to your message — whether it’s a friendship, business partnership, or something else.
There are a lot of ways to get in touch with a potential buyer.
You can send an email, call them up or even visit their office.
But the most effective way to reach out is through social media channels.
The problem is that many people are not familiar with how to use them for business purposes.
Building relationships and connecting with people on social media takes time and effort, but it’s worth it because it allows you to build relationships that lead to sales.
To help you reach your contacts from one place, LeadDelta’s inbox management system enables you to access and manage your conversations smoothly.
All you have to do is access the LeadDelta app inbox, navigate to a New Message, and here you can choose who you want to reach out to, whether someone specific or a group of people.
You can also filter your inbox based on your custom tags or different criteria, such as whether your messages are starred, read, pinned, or archived. It’s totally up to you.
After picking the connections, you want to reach out to, hit the “floppy disk” icon in the right bottom corner and then select “Choose From Templates.”
The popup window with available templates will appear, so you can choose the one that relates to your reach-out reason.
Click “Use Template,” adapt it if needed, and when you’re ready to go, just hit the “Send” button.
Note: This approach will help you better organize your time and increase productivity while using some of the proven prewritten templates that actually work.
7. Engage With Their Posts
If you want to start a conversation with someone, it’s best to avoid sending them a message right away.
Instead, wait until they’ve posted something new and then like and comment on their post, share it on your profile, or join a discussion they’re having with someone.
This will show them that you are interested in what they have to say or know more about them, and it will increase the chance for them to respond to your message in the future.
To Wrap Up
Using the right LinkedIn outreach techniques in proper order can help you drastically increase your reply rate.
But you need to adapt them according to your strategy and the connections you’re reaching out to if you want to get the maximum benefits of it.
With the right LinkedIn tools, engaging with your prospects and connections is no longer a problem.
So choosing the one that best fits your needs is important to increase your LinkedIn outreach success.
With a LeadDelta capital manager, you’ll be more productive by viewing and organizing your network in the best way it suits your needs.
Whether you’re looking to get in touch and engage with your prospect or simply organize your personal connections, LeadDelta can help you improve your connection overview and make the most out of your network.
LeadDelta’s CRM view is fully customizable and allows you to tag your connections, hide and unhide them, apply filters, and sort your connections to easily find the contacts you need.
Download LeadDelta extension and improve your LinkedIn connections game.
