5 LinkedIn Outreach Strategies You Should Know (Part 1)
Wondering why others get numerous job invitations but you don’t? Wondering why you got fewer demo calls and replies than others? Probably you are doing it wrong. In this article, we will be covering the LinkedIn cold outreach strategy for you to get more responses. Strike before you lose the opportunity!
Part 1: Outreach Preparation
Lesson 1: Do not use cliché templates
Most people use a cliché template to reach out and that does not stand out to the recipients. By copying and pasting the template with a slight amendment regarding the first name and industry, it will not get you anywhere – no replies at all. But what’s worse? The reply rate is one of the criteria that LinkedIn uses to determine whether the account is a spam. Thus, if your outreach messages are always ignored by others, so do connection requests, LinkedIn might suspend your account as a spam.
Lesson 2: Personalized outreach messages
So now we know engagement is the key to success and not to be suspended. To draw attention, personalized outreach messages would be the most powerful thing (of course not the template that everyone uses and only requires to change the name and industry).
The reason why cliché templates always fail is that they were not catchy and interesting enough for the recipients. Additionally, it is apparent that the senders did not give much thought to the message.
Lesson 2.1: Start with recent activities or hobbies
To fix this, try to start a message more personalized, like including their recent activities or their hobbies. For example:
“Hello (first name)
I saw you have been working on (a project) / I saw you are also a fan of (a common connection) about (a topic).
I love it too. Maybe we can exchange thoughts. Let’s connect.
(Your name)”
Statistically, this kind of leads is more compelling for the recipients to reply. The fact that you started with their interests will intrigue them more than using templates.
So before writing messages, you will have to do research about that person. The easiest way would be browsing their posts and their interests (what they have liked on LinkedIn). In-depth research will not just help you shape your messages better, but also allow you to connect with them better. It would be easier for you to locate common grounds and the more common grounds you have with your audience, the better. It assures you that you targeted the right person (It will be explained later that why is the right targeting important).
Use a clear template with call to action, write your messages that the recipient will know what to do next. “Let’s connect” and “exchange thoughts” are the direction you can go for.
Lesson 2.2: It is not about you but them
If you are outreaching to someone, maybe you are interested in a job opportunity or you think that the connection would be beneficial to you. Then people tend to talk about themselves to show off. It would be a big mistake as showing off yourself will not motivate others to connect with you. However, if the message is about them, the more details you include, the more engaged they will be.
Lesson 2.3: Not just unique but funny
Even you did some intensive background research and wrote up a message to others, but if it looks like an essay, no one will reply. So, the message not only has to be unique but also funny. Jokes, GIFs, and images are the tools that you are looking for. GIFs are eye-catching and attention will be drawn. But remember, use a relevant GIF, if it is irrelevant, people will think that it is a spam.
Lesson 2.4: Create your own personalized GIFs and images
If you could not find the right GIFs or images, why don’t create some on your own? It sounds like it is a lot of work, but rest assure, you will only have to do it once. Then you can reuse it with different messages on it.
For GIFs, a 600×750 size ratio would be recommended. Take a live photo with an iPhone, then convert it into a GIF using the Lively app or GIF Maker, depending on which system are you using. Or you can also capture a video and convert it into a GIF using video editors, such as EzGIF or OnlineVideoConvertor. Then add the personalized texts using Canva. This way you can change the texts easily and generate as many GIFs as you want. Additionally, you can add different shapes, logos, websites, or even QR codes. But remember, the message is about them, not you. So do not add too much personal information on it.
For images, an 850×466 size ratio would be recommended. Send it to your friends first to test it out if the ratio fits on the phone before sending it out to your targets.
Lesson 3: Target your audiences well
As mentioned, a low response rate may lead to the suspension of your account, so the thing we need to avoid is bad targeting. If you target someone wrongly, neither will you get what you want (a job opportunity or whatsoever) nor will you get a response.
However, engagement is not the only criteria that LinkedIn is looking at. Others, such as your activity or your outreach message frequency, will also be taken into account. Sending hundreds of connection requests is not going to work if your targeting is not precise, and you will have to bear the risk that being recognized as a spam. It is not a number game, to make sure every request you sent is worthy, the correct targeting is the key.
To make the audiences are well-targeted, you can start with a post of an influencer that is related to your field. Those who engaged with the post are probably relevant, then you can start going through the list and connect the ones you are interested in.
You will have to be cautious with your LinkedIn cold outreach strategies. First, start with a small amount of connection requests, and make sure the engagement is fair or high enough (at least people are accepting it instead of ghosting you). Then, slowly increase the amount that you are sending. Note that even if you started with 10 connection requests per day but no one is accepting them, it could be considered as a spam. The strategy is to balance between the quality and the quantity of the requests.
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LinkedIn, as the most powerful tool for professional networking, provides tons of opportunities. If you do things correctly, you may get a better offer or you may increase your sales.
After all five lessons, it would be too much for you to handle, yet AppUnion provides a solution for all of these – LinkedIn Engagement Automation. You can target your audience and expand your network using advanced filtering. Searching by the LinkedIn community, job titles, industries, regions, or even salaries, it can make sure your targeting is on the right track. The automation can do tasks like sending connect requests and scheduling unlimited personalized messages. You can schedule messages to your 1st connections easily and additionally set up an automated process for follow-up messages. Remember the time delays we emphasized, you may be too busy to keep track, but no worries AppUnion will do it for you.
While everyone is sending out the same and tedious message templates, sending highly personalized messages with eye-catching GIFs will be your advantage. These 5 strategies are not the things that you would like to miss out on. With the right outreach strategies, your LinkedIn profile will stand out and leave all your competitors in the dust. All you have to do is to sit back and wait for demo calls.
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