How to Cold Message on LinkedIn: Tips and Tricks You Need to Know
Are you tired of searching for jobs without luck or looking for customers and not getting conversions? You may want to learn how to cold message on LinkedIn.
The platform makes it easy to send connection requests. But sending a good, thorough message can set you apart from others. Then, you may land your dream client or dream job.
Read on for some tips to help write and send your first cold message on LinkedIn.
Join LinkedIn Premium Benefits
One of the best things you can do when deciding how to cold message on LinkedIn is to get a premium account. You can pay monthly or annually, and you can get extra features. If you upgrade to Premium Career, you’ll get to send five InMail messages per month.
While you can send messages without a premium account, you can only do so when you also send a connection request. That means you won’t be able to send another message to follow up with a potential lead.
LinkedIn also limits messages on the free account to 300 characters. In some cases, that’s enough to get your point across, but you may want a bit of extra space. Then, you can further explain why someone should connect with you or hire you.
Having a LinkedIn Premium account can also make you look more trustworthy. While other things factor into it, some users have seen a higher response rate when they used the premium plan compared to a free account.
Buy InMail Credits on YOUR LINKEDIN ACCOUNT
If you upgrade to a Premium account, you can buy more InMail credits. That way, you’ll get to cold message more than five people each month.
After you pay for your premium membership, you’ll have the option to buy 100 credits for $10. If you want to message people more regularly, this can be an excellent investment. You can use all of the credits in a month, or you can spread them out.
Think about how often you want to spend time messaging people. Then, you’ll be able to buy enough InMail credits to support your cold messaging strategy.
If you aren’t sure how many credits you’ll use, start small. Your InMail credits don’t expire, so if you don’t send as many cold messages as you thought, you can use them later.
Do Your Research USING PEOPLE’S LINKEDIN PROFILE
When you come upon someone you want to message, it’s tempting to write and send a message immediately. However, you should take a bit of time to research the person. Learn where they work, how long they’ve been there, and what their job title is.
Consider what interests the person has outside of work. Look at their posts, photos, and other profile elements. Track all of these details in a spreadsheet or customer relationship management (CRM) software.
You can also search for the person on other social networks to learn more about them personally. That way, you’ll be able to find a few things you can connect with them on when you send a LinkedIn cold message.
Find the Decision-Maker OF A COMPANY USING LINKEDIN SEARCH
If you want to connect with a company, you should research the decision-maker. When it comes to getting a job, the person you’ll want to message is probably the hiring manager or perhaps the human resources director.
On the other hand, if you want to sell a product or service, you may need to connect with someone else. Think about who might be able to buy something from you. If the business is small, you can connect with the CEO or someone else in an executive role.
When wanting to message larger companies, you might contact a manager. Figuring out who is most likely able to buy from you will make your overall sales process quicker. You can get straight to messaging the person who can decide to purchase from you or hire you.
Think About How YOUR LINKEDIN POTENTIAL CONNECT Relate to You
Another one of the best tips for how to cold message on LinkedIn is to find some sort of relationship or shared trait or experience. Maybe the person you want to message works in your dream industry or a city where you want to live.
Perhaps you plan to message someone who went to the same college or university as you. Knowing details like that can help you craft a better cold message. Not only will you be able to connect based on their profile, but you can share your experience in a specific city or school.
Even if you’ve never met someone, you should be able to find something in common. That can make your initial message easier for you to write. The recipient may enjoy the message more as well.
Consider Your Goals BEFORE MESSAGING ON LINKEDIN
You should also think about why you want to message a particular person. The cold message you write to get a job probably won’t be the same as one you write to sell a product or service. If you’re looking for a professional mentor, the messages you send will be different from selling.
When you message someone to get a job, you want to highlight yourself. On the other hand, if you decide to message someone to sell a product or service, you want to focus on why the person should buy from your business.
If you aren’t sure why you want to message a specific person, consider the reason. You shouldn’t send messages just to send messages. Each one you send should have some sort of goal, and that can guide you as you write your cold message.
Look for Mutual LINKEDIN Connections
Next, look at the prospect’s profile to see if you have any mutual connections on LinkedIn. If so, consider who those people are. Then, you can start with one of your mutual connections and ask them to introduce you to your lead.
If the first mutual connection says no, look at other mutual friends. Then, you can, hopefully, find someone who is willing to introduce you. They can start a group chat with you and the person you want to connect with, and they can help sell you or your services.
You can also look for mutual connections and message the lead yourself. If you do that, you’ll be able to bring up your mutual colleagues as a way to get to know each other. Someone may trust you a bit more if you point out that you know the same person.
Make YOUR LINKEDIN MESSAGE Short and Easy
Even when you use InMail and don’t have a limit of 300 characters, you should still keep messages short. People don’t have time to sit and read paragraphs upon paragraphs. LinkedIn Messages are also more similar to instant messaging than email.
Whether you use InMail or the free message you get with a connection, don’t write too much. You should write just enough to introduce yourself and start a relationship with your lead. If they respond, you can give more details.
The first message you send needs to get right to the point. That way, the recipient can understand why you’re messaging them. A short message also makes it easy for them to read in between meetings or other tasks they have to do at work.
Don’t Focus Too Much on Yourself
In your short message, you want to share a bit about yourself. However, you also want to spend plenty of time focusing on the other person. Whoever receives your message will probably wonder what’s in it for them.
If all you talk about is how great you are or what your business does, you may not get a response. Meanwhile, if you share how you or your business can help the person, they might be more interested in sending a message back.
Use what you learned when you researched potential prospects. Then, you can share details that may only apply to a few people to help build a more genuine connection. You will be able to make the recipient feel special, which can help improve their impression of you.
Customize Your LINKEDIN Message
As you sit down to write your cold message, avoid using a template or copying and pasting the same message to send to everyone. Look back at someone’s profile and any notes you took when researching them.
That way, you can write something more personal that the recipient can connect with. Maybe you both went to the same college, so you touch on that. Or perhaps you learned that someone just got a promotion, and you share your congratulations.
Customizing your message also allows you to use the recipient’s name. Seeing or hearing your name can make you feel good. If you use “sir” or “madam” to address people, that doesn’t help make a good connection.
Keep the Tone OF YOUR Linkedin MESSAGE Professional
LinkedIn is a professional platform, so you should use the same tone. Once you get to know someone, you may be able to use more casual language. However, you want to make a better first impression, so avoid using slang and similar phrases.
While LinkedIn messages aren’t as professional as email, they’re more professional than messages on other social networks. Consider who you’re sending a message to and what words or phrases they may use.
You can look at someone’s profile to see how they phrase things in their posts. Then, you’ll have a better idea of how to write your message. If your wording is a bit informal, use a thesaurus to find similar words that may work better.
End YOUR linkedin MESSAGE With a Question
When deciding how to cold message on LinkedIn, leave room for a question or some other call to action (CTA). A question is particularly useful for a cold message because it encourages the recipient to respond back with their answer
Personalize the question based on the recipient and why you’re messaging them. For example, if you’re looking for a job, you may ask about upcoming openings or a job fair. However, you might ask a potential mentor for a tip to find your next position
If you don’t include a question, it can be easy for someone to ignore your message. While you don’t want to ask anything controversial, including some sort of question is perfect. You may get a response back, so you can continue the conversation.
Don’t Sell WITH YOUR FIRST MESSAGE on linkedin
When you first cold message someone, you may have the temptation to sell immediately. You may get some replies from people who need what you have to sell. However, selling in your first message can be off-putting to others.
Instead, focus on building a relationship with your sales lead. You can even ask what they’re struggling with in regards to what you have to offer. For example, if you provide accounting services, you can ask if someone is happy with their current accounting software.
Then, you can determine if they may need your services to manage their books. When you’re ready to sell, you’ll have even more details than you can find with your own research. That can make pitching your services easier, and you may land more sales.
With each person you message, you’ll have to use their responses to gauge the best time to sell yourself or your services. Consider their responses to help figure out when you should start to sell.
Add Value IN YOUR LINKEDIN MESSAGE
Instead of selling in your cold message, find a way to add value. If you’re a social media expert, you might make a small suggestion to improve someone’s LinkedIn profile. Of course, you need to be careful not to come off as rude or judgmental.
However, you can include small tips that help show you know what you’re talking about. Maybe you learned about a problem they have from their profile. You can share a solution to that problem when you send your cold message.
Adding value in your first message may help the recipient. If they implement your suggestion and see results, they might message you back and ask for more. Then, you can provide even more value to showcase your skills and expertise.
Put Yourself in Their Shoes
Before you send your message, put yourself in the shoes of the recipient. Consider how you’d feel if you received a similar message in your LinkedIn inbox. Even if you don’t have much in common with someone, no one wants to receive a bad message.
If you think it sounds somewhat rude or informal, change the tone. Maybe you realized that you wrote too much about yourself, so you edited that section. Then, you swapped it out for more details on how you can help the recipient.
Ask a friend or colleague to read your message draft. They may find more small errors or issues with it, so you can know to make changes before you send the message. Even if you think a message looks good, it doesn’t hurt to ask for a second opinion.
Proofread Your linkedin Message
The last thing you should do before sending a cold message is to proofread the text. If you ask someone else for their opinion on the context, ask them to proofread it as well. Then, you can make sure you don’t have any spelling or grammatical errors.
You can also review the recipient’s profile to confirm you spelled their name correctly. When sending multiple messages at once, you can make sure you’re sending the right message to the right person.
An excellent tip is to write the message one day and wait a day to proofread it with a fresh eye. Then, you’ll be able to send it knowing that you wrote the best message you could. You don’t want to stress over small errors, so you’ll eventually need to send the message.
Keep Track of Your LINKEDIN Leads
An essential step in how to cold message on LinkedIn is to keep track of your leads. If you set up a spreadsheet to research leads, you can use the same document. Otherwise, you may need to create a document or spreadsheet.
Create columns to track the names of your leads and when you sent them a message. You can also keep track of mutual connections and if you sent the new person a connection request along with your cold message.
Tracking your leads can help you remember when you’ve contacted someone. That way, you’ll know who you need to contact next and when you should follow up with people. You can also track who did or didn’t respond to the initial message and the follow-up.
Follow Up ON YOUR linkedin MESSAGE
If you don’t get a response from someone within a couple of days, you should send a follow-up message. Generally, you should wait two or three days, or perhaps more if you sent a message on Friday or over the weekend.
Waiting a couple of days gives the recipient time to check their messages. You can write a follow-up message asking if the person saw your initial message. Sometimes, people see your messages but get too busy to respond.
After a couple of days, they may have more messages in their inbox. Your message may not be at the top anymore, so sending another can bump you to the top. If they don’t respond after that, you can move on to other leads.
Experiment and Analyze WITH YOUR MESSAGES
With each new cold message you send, experiment with different things. Maybe in one message, you mention a shared college. In the next message, you focus more on a shared hobby you have with someone.
Over time, you can track how different messages do and which get responses. If you notice a trend in the messages that do or don’t get replies, you can take that into account. Maybe people resonate with shared personal interests, so you include more of those.
Noting what does or doesn’t work can help you write better messages in the future. Then, you may be able to increase the response rate. It will take some trial and error, but you have to start somewhere.
Work It Into Your Schedule
If you know you want to cold message a lot of people, you’ll need to make time for that each day or week. That way, you will be able to research potential leads and craft good, personal messages to help get more responses.
When you send your first few cold messages, track your time. Figure out how long it takes to research people and write a message. Then, you can use that to calculate how much time it will take you to send a specific number of messages each week.
If possible, schedule most of your time to send messages in the middle of the week. On Mondays, people may be busy with emails that came in over the weekend. Meanwhile, on Fridays, people might be ready for the weekend, so they might not check LinkedIn messages as much.
Update Your LINKEDIN Profile
Another tip that can help make cold messaging on LinkedIn more successful is to update your LinkedIn profile. While this won’t help you with the messaging part, it can help you stand out and look more professional when people read your messages.
Some recipients will click on your profile to learn more about you and what you do. If your profile has an old picture and has your old job title, that may not look good. Be sure to update your name, photo, job title, and other details.
Then, when someone clicks on your profile, you can give a good impression. Even if you write the perfect cold message, an outdated profile can ruin it. You may not get as many replies from the people who look at your profile after reading your message.
Do You Know How to Cold Message on LinkedIn?
Knowing how to cold message on LinkedIn can help in many ways. You can start relationships with potential employers, mentors, or customers. However, you have to send a cold message the right way.
Then, you can make yourself look more professional, and you can get more responses. Be sure to think about these tips when writing your next LinkedIn cold message.