LinkedIn is the king of B2B marketing; the numbers speak for themselves. 94% of B2B buyers use the platform to distribute their content, and 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn. Therefore, it is time for you to master LinkedIn messages, especially InMail. 48% of B2B decision makers won’t even respond to your InMail if it’s not personalized to them. So here are the top 10 LinkedIn message tips to get your InMail read and get you more sales.
Top 10 LinkedIn messages tips
Follow the below LinkedIn message tips to get the most out of LinkedIn messages, be it building relationships or closing more sales deals:
- Have a clear goal in mind
- Hook your audience with a catchy headline
- Introduce Yourself
- Keep the email short and crisp
- Warm up your prospects
- Personalize your message based on their profile
- Mention some mutual connection
- Have a clear call to action
- Send your InMail at the right time
- Following up
Let’s deep dive into each in more detail,
Have a clear goal in mind
The ultimate goal of your InMail is to start a conversation with your prospect. You should never aim to close the deal with one InMail. Your message should open a dialogue between you and your prospect to discuss your offerings. Think about how receptive you are when you get a sales email out of nowhere pitching a product you never heard of. The aim should be to find the right prospect interested in your product/service and adapt your pitch to fit their needs to increase your chances of success.
Hook your audience with a catchy headline
A strong subject line can make the difference between a prospect opening your message or ignoring it. InMail messages can have up to 200 characters in the subject line. However, this is an upper limit and not a goal to aim for. Based on statistics, 33% of email recipients decide whether or not to open an email based on the subject line alone. Therefore, the subject line needs to be catchy and to the point.
Introduce Yourself
When promoting your business, you must start by introducing yourself to the other party. According to B2B marketers, 46% of the social traffic they receive on their website comes from LinkedIn. Thus, make sure to add a proper introduction to close more deals. You should include your name, title, and a one-liner about your company.
Keep your email short and crisp
Time is precious, and no one wants to waste time reading a 10-paragraph message from a random person on LinkedIn. Keep your message personalized and let them know why you sent a message to them. Use the word ‘because’ since it states the reason for doing something and has caused a 55% increase in conversion rate.
Warm your prospects
Though personalized messages sent on time can boost your success, increasing your chances further is better. Therefore, lay the seeds for a relationship before you contact your prospects. You can warm your prospects by liking/commenting on their posts. Your goal here is to build trust and credibility, so ensure you’ve added some thoughtful insights before reaching out.
Personalize messages based on their profile
The message that stands out these days are the ones that use excessive personalization. Make sure you reference unique details from your prospect’s LinkedIn profile if you want to stand out and get a high response rate. You can mention anything, such as their achievements, any event(s) you both attended, or shared interests you both have. If you use any of these, you will catch your prospect’s attention and possibly intrigue them to open your message.
Mention some mutual connection
LinkedIn is a website where you can find many mutual connections. If you’re interested in talking to someone, ask your mutual connection if they mind being named. Most probably, your mutual connection will be fine with it. Having the name helps you break the ice and gives you a chance to discuss something when everything else fails. It also adds credibility to you since your mutual connection has vouched for you.
Have a clear call to action
Just like you need to have a clear goal, you should work toward a specific action. Make sure your prospect understands what action you’d like them to take. That action could be as simple as follows:
- Visit your site
- Agree to a call
- Sign up for a newsletter
- Download a piece of content
Send your InMail at the right time
Unlike other social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn users tend to stick to the platform in more regulated time slots. That’s because LinkedIn is more of a professional business tool. It pays to send it during peak hours to maximize your chances of getting a response. The peak usage times are generally around midday and from 5-6 PM.
Following up
After sending InMails to potential prospects, one still needs to stay connected. The ideal way is to have a follow-up process. Most B2B marketers stop following up with their prospects after three attempts. However, according to LinkedIn statistics, it takes five follow-up messages for a marketer to receive a response. Thus, regularly follow up with your prospect with enough spacing between messages.
What is the difference between an InMail message and a LinkedIn message?
InMail is a premium service that allows you to send a direct message to people without sending a connection request to 2nd and 3rd-degree connections. InMail is only available to its premium members. Whereas the regular LinkedIn message available with a free version allows you to send messages only to your connections, i.e., 1st-degree connections.
Key Takeaways
LinkedIn messages are still underutilized; hopefully, it hasn’t reached a saturation point. Now is the time to take advantage of these message tips to get more response rates. Crafting an InMail that gets a response takes practice, but after a while, you’ll get 8x better response rates than cold emails.
