How to Get Good Results Doing Cold Outreach On LinkedIn
A couple months ago I hired a team to help me generate leads on LinkedIn. The effort was to serve two purposes:
1) find people who would agree to have a market research call with me and
2) find people who would be interested in attending my new workshop on marketing funnels.
I’ve run FB ads before, but that felt “anonymous.” Inside LinkedIn this process of outreach to a cold audience felt a little more intimate (aka scary), because I’m direct messaging people.
I have no problem walking into a room full of strangers IRL and striking up a convo with the first person I run into.
But wow, did this whole cold outreach on LinkedIn REALLY push me out of my comfort zone!
A lot of direct messaging to total strangers means A LOT of rejection.
I’m okay with the normal thanks-but-no-thanks rejection.
What really bothered me was every time someone said “hell no, you spammer!”
Ugh, I do not like getting misread like that! As a messaging specialist who seriously loves marketing, being called spammy is like my worst nightmare!
With very little nurture before the ask, it’s bound to feel spammy to some. And it’s true that I was pitching. Even though I was quite intentional with my outreach and not selling anything for money, I was selling people on the idea of spending time with me. That’s a pitch!
Early in this process my anxiety was like a vice grip on my chest.
But after having some truly great validation calls with friendly and interesting people then later running my first workshop and landing a new client, I see how cold outreach in LinkedIn can really work.
Here are my tips for DMing total strangers in LinkedIn:
Go for volume and speed using LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator for targeting your outreach. I’m impressed with how many parameters you can set inside Sales Navigator. If you’ve ever run ads in Facebook or Google, you’ll be familiar with this.
Hire someone to help you set up automation to deliver your direct messages. You don’t need to spend your time trying to figure out the techy stuff.
But–YOU write your own messages! They need to sound like you and not a robot. Write like the human you are to the human who is going to receive them.
Pace your pitch. Generally and succinctly state the reason for reaching out and ask if they’re interested in more info.
Manually respond to anything messages you get that go above and beyond a typical “sure, send me more info.”
Explain your purpose if anyone accuses you of spamming—if you want! You’re under no obligation to explain yourself, but in my experience, it can be helpful to clarify why you’re reaching out which can demonstrate how you’re not a human-disguised bot. If anything, doing so will help cement in your own mind why you’re taking this approach in the first place.
Thank those who take the time to accept your connection and write a personal response.
Be patient. As with anything building rapport and connection can take time. Make note of new connections who seem to fit a lot of your criteria for a promising prospect and decide to what degree you’ll level up that relationship.
Are you and I connected on LinkedIn yet? No? Oh my gosh let’s! You can find me here.