LinkedIn is a social media for professionals, and it’s classified as the number #1 choice for lead generation. This is because it now counts more than 900 million LinkedIn users. Moreover, 4 out of 5 of these members drive some business decisions. So no wonder that marketing, recruiting and sales teams make LinkedIn outreach part of their daily work routine.

LinkedIn outreach is a vast topic, and there are many misconceptions and good tips on how to do it. That is why we decided to create a detailed LinkedIn outreach guide that uncovers the following:


Let's do this meme

What is LinkedInoutreach?

LinkedIn outreach is a process of sending connection requests and messages to your potential clients via LinkedIn. It’s the best way to expand your network, get in touch, warm up, and build positive relationships with your leads.


The main benefits of Linkedin outreach

It’s not just about the ability to send a connection request, InMails, or other LinkedIn messages, but what you will accomplish with them. Here are the benefits you can expect if you use LinkedIn and every aspect of it in the outreach process.


1. Reach high-quality B2B leads with ease.

LinkedIn has over 900 million professionals from every industry in the world. So it's no wonder this audience has twice the buying power of the average web audience (LinkedIn). Therefore, sales teams can rest assured that with the right filters and top LinkedIn lead generation strategies, they can find the most qualified business-to-business leads for their business. 


2. Increased reply rate.

LinkedIn is, first and foremost, a social media platform where you can find various information about your leads. That said, the secret to LinkedIn outreach is personalization and genuine conversation. That said, by looking at your lead's profile, you can search for any information to personalize your message. Whatever you find, be it a mutual connection or a post they shared, you can reference that in your outreach message and thus increase your acceptance and reply rate.


3. Target B2B leads with more precision.

Marketers no longer need to struggle to find professionals on Instagram or Facebook. Instead, they can find and reach out to their potential leads easier with targeting and retargeting options via LinkedIn ads. Moreover, they can generate greater awareness for their product or service. LinkedIn marketer can also easily contact their target audience via sponsored InMail ads and experience 2x more conversions


4. Find ideal employees.

One of the best perks of LinkedIn is that recruiters can publish job posts for free. However, they can also find the best employee for their business by tapping into a larger pool of talent and headhunting the ideal candidates directly.  


5. Break the wall and reach out to recruiters.

By using job posting websites, you can’t get a hold of recruiters. However, LinkedIn allows you to find, send a connection request and reach out to the hiring managers in your ideal company. This way, you can explain why you are perfect for the job or get feedback on your application, all of which you cannot do on other platforms. 


LinkedIn vs email outreach - Which one is better?

Both LinkedIn and email channels are used extensively for outreach. However, there is a "slight" advantage to LinkedIn. 

The thing is, the social media nature of LinkedIn allows more genuine communication between its users. On the other hand, cold email outreach is distant and often perceived as spammy since, among other things, you cannot always see and find out more about the person behind the cold message. 

And the end result can be measured shown in numbers.

For example, according to the official LinkedIn learning courses, InMails have an average response rate of 18 to 25%. On the contrary, cold emails have only a 3% average response rate, and this happens for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, LinkedIn outreach is more transparent since potential leads can see your LinkedIn profile, work history, bio, or posts. In other words, what they are all about. 

Secondly, LinkedIn sends a couple of alerts and reminders when the prospect receives a message. In addition, if the leads have a LinkedIn app installed, they will also receive a notification on their phone. What's more, if you send a follow-up message, LinkedIn will send the same amount of alerts, making it harder for your prospect to forget to reply or ignore. 

Lastly, if you use LinkedIn, you can find your ICP and people who work in it in the blink of an eye. This way, you can easily reach out to your potential customers without navigating multiple platforms. 

However, with LinkedIn's power, we must recognize email as the outreach channel simply because some users prefer email communication or are inactive on LinkedIn

That said, it's best to use both LinkedIn and email outreach for optimal results. So, we will discuss it in the LinkedIn outreach rules section below.


Image of Free Trial CTA banner with Skylead's smart sequence that demonstrates multichannel outreach using LinkedIn automation and email steps with if/else conditions


LinkedIn outreach methods

LinkedIn offers multiple ways you can use to reach out to your potential customers.


Connection requests

The first outreach action in line is a LinkedIn connection request. You can send a connection request to your 2nd and 3rd degree connections along with your first message. 

This cold message comes with a restriction of 300 characters, so try to keep your personalized message short and sweet. For example, you can reference a mutual connection or that you’d like to discuss the event they attended and wish to connect.


Direct messages

Once the lead accepts your invite, they become your 1st degree connection, and you can send them a direct message. This message acts as both chat and email since it’s delivered straight to your lead’s inbox along with the notification. In addition, direct messages can be 8,000 characters long or somewhere between 1142 and 2000 words.


InMail messages

If your lead ignores your connection or leaves it pending for a long time, you can always send LinkedIn InMail. These InMail messages are structured as emails and can have up to 200 characters of the subject line and a body of up to 1900 characters. However, keep in mind that shorter InMails get a better response rate.


Image of InMail statistics, Response rate vs length of an InMail

As mentioned before, LinkedIn InMail gets far better results than emails. Especially if you write a message that will generate a high response rate. If you are not sure how to write such messages, here are a couple of LinkedIn InMail templates to get inspired. 

You can send InMails to your 2nd and 3rd degree connections. However, depending on your subscription plan, you will have different amounts of Inmail credits per month. For example, a LinkedIn premium subscription grants you 15 paid InMail credits. On the other hand, the Sales Navigator account offers 50 paid InMails per month. If you pay a Recruiter subscription, you will have 30 paid InMail credits a month. 

Apart from paid ones, you can also send 800 free InMails per month. The trick is to find people with their LinkedIn profile set to Open. The easiest way to find people with an open profile is by going to your 2nd or 3rd-degree connection’s premium profile. Then click the Message button. If you see the text Free message at the bottom, that person has an open profile.


Image that demonstrates how to see if you're sending free InMail

View profile and follow features

And if your outreach falls behind, you can always stop by your lead’s LinkedIn profile to view or follow them. The leads will receive a notification of whichever action you perform. In other words, it will almost always remind them of your message and give them a nudge to respond to you.


LinkedIn outreach in 6 easy steps


1. Define ICP and buyer persona

The first step to finding qualified prospects & leads is creating an Ideal Customer Profile and Buyer Persona.

These documents represent the aspects of your perfect leads and the company they work in.  They are the basis for quality lead generation and usually contain specifications such as: 

ICP and Buyer Persona are best created based on your current customer data, such as who:

In addition, try to keep these documents actionable. In other words, create the specifications so you can use them either for


2. Find leads using LinkedIn search & creating lists

The next step is finding prospects that match your ICP and Buyer Persona.  

If you use LinkedIn Sales Navigator or Recruiter for lead generation, you are probably familiar with various advanced search filters. Simply use these filters and import all specifications from your ICP or Buyer Persona documents. Then, save the search URL, or create a list of prospects for the next step.


Sales Navigator masterclass banner with the quote from the Professionals movie.


If you don’t have a LinkedIn Sales Navigator account, no worries. You can still use basic filters to find your ideal leads. Or you can use some of these top LinkedIn lead generation strategies.


3. LinkedIn outreach automation: Setup your campaign 

In today’s day and age, we use various tools to help us in our mundane tasks. Therefore, it’s natural for sales, marketing, and recruiting specialists to do the same. 

One of those solutions is the LinkedIn automation tool. These tools help you streamline time-consuming outreach tasks, so no wonder they become a must-have for many experts.

To set up your LinkedIn outreach campaign, let’s take our outreach automation tool, Skylead, as an example. 

First, go to your Skylead account dashboard and click Create a new campaign.


Image of how to create LinkedIn outreach campaign, step 1

Next, choose the source of your leads. Then, paste LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Recruiter, or basic search URL. Or you can import your CSV file.

Lastly, choose the connection degree you wish to reach out to and click Next.


Image of how to create LinkedIn outreach campaign, step 2, choosing the lead source

Now here is where you define the operative part of your campaign. Choose which options you want and set up the start and end date of your campaign.


Image of how to create your LinkedIn outreach campaign, step 3, campaign settings

4. Create an outreach sequence

Moving on. We’ve come to the Smart Sequence builder.

By creating the Smart Sequence, you actually create an action path that Skylead will follow to outreach your leads. In addition, what makes the sequence unique is the if/else condition, such as If connected. Thanks to these conditions, you can create countless scenarios, and Skylead will perform the scenario corresponding to the lead’s behavior.

That said, to create your coherent outreach sequence, simply drag and drop different actions and conditions. Here is an example. 


Image of how to create LinkedIn outreach campaign step 4, smart outreach sequence

5. Craft your LinkedIn outreach message

LinkedIn outreach is all about how you craft your messages. So, here is a nifty hack for you. In general, every message, be it a connection request, InMail, or email, should contain one of the following: 

And aim for the following structure:


Image of CTA banner 2 for Skylead salesbook - ready-to-use outreach template that can be applied to our LinkedIn automation and cold email software


6. Nurture & engage

Once the lead responds, it’s your job to engage and nurture them to conversion. People skills play a significant role here, so here are a couple of pro tips that will help you:

  1. Be empathetic so you can understand their problem and how they feel about it.
  2. Don’t pitch first. Instead, ask them about their specific problem and customize your pitch.
  3. Be confident.
  4. Listen actively.
  5. Read between the lines.
  6. Understand body language and voice tones when you jump on a meeting.
  7. Be an expert at what your company does.

Top 8 LinkedIn outreach strategies


Less is more

When you write your outreach messages, it’s crucial to understand that people’s attention span is, on average, 8.25 seconds (The Treetop Therapy). That said, longer sentences and texts that cause TLDR are a no-go. So our first LinkedIn outreach strategy is approaching your leads with fewer words

Try being straightforward with your LinkedIn messages and avoid fillers such as:

And so on. 


Personalize

This is the essential LinkedIn outreach strategy. By writing personalized messages, we connect on a deeper level with the people and remove any generic communication. This is a perfect base for social selling and securing the path for better response and acceptance rates.

You can personalize your LinkedIn outreach messages with their first name or job title. However, there are more detailed ways to do it, and we will mention them below. 


Send free resource

Avoid pitching in your first message. Instead, start your conversation by asking about the lead’s workflow and pain points. Then send them a free resource that helps them solve the problem they mentioned.

If you start your sales outreach this way, you will have more significant success, as you do not appear intrusive. In return, you get the necessary information to tailor your pitch accordingly.


Leverage your connections

The more you have in common with your target audience, the more honest and reliable you appear. That said, how you seem to be can make or break your LinkedIn outreach.
One of the ways to bring similarity to your LinkedIn messages is by leveraging your mutual connections. For example, people are more open to accepting your invitation if you refer someone they know. Here is an example:

Hey {{firstName}}, {{mutualConnectionName}} sent me your profile as they think you are the right person to help me out in my research about {{Topic}}. So let’s connect and talk if you’re up for it.


Leverage LinkedIn Groups

Another way to discover leads for LinkedIn outreach is by leveraging groups. Even though they are not that active anymore, you can still use them to find and reach out to people who are still in these LinkedIn groups.

Find the LinkedIn group your leads are most likely a part of, and click Show all to see all members.

Image of how to find members of LinkedIn groups for the outreach

In addition, you can reference a LinkedIn group post in your outreach and ask them about their opinion about it.


Turn events attendees into your leads

LinkedIn lead generation lets you get creative with finding your most qualified leads. One of those creative ways is reaching out to event attendees.

You can find LinkedIn events that focus on the exact problem your company solves with a product or a service. This way, you can target people who are already warmed up for your outreach message.

To get to event attendees, search for the events and click the Attend button. 


Image of how to find members of LinkedIn events for the outreach

After you've attended, you can check for the list of LinkedIn users who attend this event by clicking Attendees. 


Image of how to find list of event attendees for LinkedIn outreach

You can then go through the list and create leads in your CRM. Or, you can grab this LinkedIn search, paste it into Skylead and prepare a LinkedIn outreach campaign.

A true hack for LinkedIn outreach here is that you can write personalized messages such as this one:

Hey {{firstName}},

I’ve noticed that you attended {{eventName}}. What did you think about {{eventTakeaway}}? Let’s connect on this.


Contact companies that are hiring

Companies currently hiring or experiencing some change are more likely to be willing to test new products. In other words, these companies emit some buying signals.

Here’s how to find them for the LinkedIn outreach.

If you have a Sales Navigator, finding these companies is a piece of cake. Simply go to Account filters, and under Spotlights, select Job Opportunities.  


Image of how to use job opportunities filter in Sales Navigator to find people for outreach

LinkedIn Sales Navigator will then list company names. You can also narrow your search by selecting other filters, such as Company size or Technology used. This advanced search will help you find your ICP with the buying signal.

If you are a free or Premium LinkedIn user, you can find these companies by navigating to the LinkedIn search field. Type in the job title, select Jobs and use other filters to narrow your search. Then, go through company names and mark them down in your CRM to find key decision-makers later on.


Image of how to find companies that are currently hiring on LinkedIn for the outreach

You can then reach out to the decision-makers in these companies by sending them a connection request such as this one:

Hey {{firstName}},

I noticed you are looking for a new {{Occupation}} in your company. Do you plan to change the workflow as well? If so, I have an idea that can help you improve your team's productivity and would like to connect with you.


Engage with people who reacted to a post

You don’t have to reach out only to the leads you found via LinkedIn search. If you find time, scroll through your feed or notifications and check reactions to posts. Then, whenever you see your potential lead engaging, take that opportunity to start the conversation. After all, this is one of the most natural ways to start building relationships with your network and leads.


7 LinkedIn outreach rules you need to consider


1. Have an optimized profile before you start

Before using your LinkedIn account for cold outreach, you need to sort out your LinkedIn profile and optimize it. In other words, setting up your profile includes:

If you do it thoroughly, people will be more prone to accept your connection request or respond to your InMail message.


Set up your LinkedIn profile compete guide banner with text: Earn the LinkedIn all-star status


2. Use safe automation tools

If you use some kind of LinkedIn automation tool, you should know that there are 3 different kinds:

Chrome extensions are the least safe tool to use since they inject the code into the LinkedIn platform. This action sends LinkedIn an instant alert, and you risk getting your LinkedIn account restricted.

Desktop apps and web browsers are a bit safer. However, they don’t have a dedicated IP or the option to mimic human-like behavior. Moreover, you must have your PC turned on to keep your campaigns running. 

Unlike other solutions, cloud-based LinkedIn automation tools are safer, as they do not inject the code into the LinkedIn platform. Moreover, you get a dedicated IP address that shields your activity, and they mimic human-like behavior making it impossible for LinkedIn to detect.

That said, choose carefully which LinkedIn automation tool you will use. For example, to keep your account safe and secure, we at Skylead have 3-layered protection for your LinkedIn account:


3. Think multichannel

Did you know that companies with omnichannel engagement strategies retain 89% of customers (invesp)? Then, don’t just stop at LinkedIn outreach; for the best results, include email outreach as well since it’s still an essential means of correspondence. 

This way, you are showing your target audience that you care and that you are expanding your reach. What’s more, you increase the chances of getting a hold of your leads who are not active on LinkedIn. Or in case your lead leaves your invite pending for a long time.


4. Don’t be too salesy 

Nowadays, LinkedIn prospecting and cold outreach can’t do anything if your approach is too salesly or spammy. In other words, don’t talk only about your company or a product. Instead, take a legitimate interest in your target audience, build the relationship first, and connect on a human level. It’s the only way without sounding too salesy and a part of the tremendous social selling. So always choose a more genuine approach to nurturing leads. 


5. Provide value

Consistently provide value in the form of educational content or throughout the meeting. The pro tip here is to do it after you’ve asked your leads about their pain points. This way, you’re ensuring you are tailoring your value according to what they precisely need and want.


6. Follow up consistently

Leads often do not respond to your message, and it’s not always because they are not interested. Maybe they forgot or were busy at that time. 

Suppose your prospect doesn’t respond to your LinkedIn outreach message or email. Send them a follow-up one. After all, if you do, you will increase your chances of receiving a response by 25% (invesp). So why waste it?

To help put your follow–up message together, check out our templates to send follow up emails after no response and get inspired.


7. Revoke old requests

One of the main rules people doing LinkedIn outreach stick by is canceling their LinkedIn invites

There is a common fear that LinkedIn won’t allow you to send new requests if you accumulate unanswered ones. Unfortunately, the fear is legitimate, as quite a few people have experienced this restriction. 

If the lead doesn’t answer the LinkedIn connection request or follow-ups in months, chances are they are not interested anyways. So be sure to lean up your LinkedIn invites regularly.


5 Best LinkedIn outreach templates [Our best picks]


Linkedin outreach message templates for sales

Sales outreach is about the initial impressions, so your first message should contain at least two of the points we mentioned in the last step of LinkedIn outreach. That said, here are a couple of templates that demonstrate those exact points.

Templates

Hey {{firstName}},

I came across your LinkedIn profile and was so inspired by your background in {{industry}} and your passion for {{workAreaOfInterest}}. I’d like to connect and exchange ideas in both areas.


LinkedIn connection request example

LinkedIn outreach connection request message example 1

Bonus points if you can reference mutual connection. And if you feel like being humorous, you can spice up your invite with an industry-related joke, such as this one:

How many {{leadPositionTitle}} does it take to screw in a light bulb? None – they’ve automated it. 🙂 Just kidding, {{firstName}}.

But if you really wish to automate almost every part of your {{leadSectorName}} workflow, let’s chat. I’d like to show you something that would make your life easier. Let’s connect.



LinkedIn connection request example

Image of LinkedIn outreach message example, connection request 2

However, if all fall short and your lead doesn’t accept your invite, you can always send a LinkedIn InMail such as this one:

Subject line: There is a key to solving {{painPoint}}

InMail message:

Hey {{firstName}},

My name is {{yourName}}, and I tried reaching out and connecting via LinkedIn invite. It appears that we didn’t get the chance to connect.

I was very much impressed with your LinkedIn profile. So, I believe your experience and dedication to {{workAreaOfInterest}} make you the perfect person to introduce you to our groundbreaking {{toolSpecification}} tool {{yourSoftwareName}}.

Our tool is created by {{leadPositionTitle}} for {{leadPositionTitle}} and it helps you:

1# {{Benefit }}

2# {{Benefit}}

3# {{Benefit}}

4# {{Benefit}}

I'd love to offer a personalized demo, so you can see hands-on how it works. Let me know if you're up for it, and we'll schedule a 15-minute call asap.

Best, {{yourName}}


InMail example

Image of LinkedIn outreach message example 3, InMail

LinkedIn outreach message templates for recruiters

For example, let’s say you wish to reach out to your perfect candidate for the job in your company. Your LinkedIn connection request can sound like this:

Hey {{firstName}},

My name is {{yourName}}, and we’re currently seeking a {{Occupation}}, and I truly believe that this role offers you a platform to leverage your skills and make a significant impact at our company. I’d be happy to share more details about the role and benefits we offer.


LinkedIn connection request example

Image of LinkedIn outreach message example 4, connection request

If, however, your ideal candidate doesn’t reply, use InMail format to land straight in their inbox.

Subject line: Exciting job opportunity at {{yourCompanyName}}

InMail message:

Hey {{firstName}},

I understand that you may not be actively seeking new opportunities at this time. Still, I truly believe that this role provides you with a platform to leverage your {{Occupation}} skills and make a significant impact at {{yourCompanyName}}.

{{yourCompanyName}} is a {{shortDescription}}, where we take care of our employees and offer the very best, including:

1# {{Benefit 1}}

2# {{Benefit 2}}

3#{{Benefit 3}}

If this opportunity piques your interest, I would be happy to share more details about the role over the call. So let me know, and we can schedule an initial meeting at your earliest convenience.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Warm regards, {{yourName}}


InMail example

Image of LinkedIn outreach message example 5, InMail

LinkedIn outreach message template for job search

We’ve all been there at one point - reaching out to companies and trying to get ahold of recruiters. Thankfully, you don’t need to search for their email addresses, as LinkedIn allows you to contact a recruiter from your ideal company directly. However, if you really wish to catch their attention, use this connection message template.

Templates

Hello {{firstName}},

I have been following {{companyName}} and I’m impressed by your values, and dedication to innovation. As a skilled {{Occupation}} and enthusiast for {{companyIndustry}} I believe your company could benefit from my background. Let’s meet each other and talk about it.


LinkedIn connection request example

Image of LinkedIn outreach message example 6, connection request

Moreover, if you have a LinkedIn Premium account, even better. You could send them an InMail that looks like this:

Subject line: Proactive and passionate {{Occupation}} ready to make a difference at {{companyName}}

InMail message:

Hey {{firstName}},

My name is {{yourName}}, and I am a skilled {{Occupation}} with extensive experience in {{companyIndustry}}. I have been following {{companyName}} for some time now, and I am incredibly impressed by your {{Achievement}}, values, and dedication to innovation.

As someone really passionate about {{companyIndustry}}, I believe my background and skill set make me an ideal candidate to contribute to your team’s ongoing success.

I have achieved {{specificAccomplishmentOrResult}}, which has led me to {{quantifiable outcome}}. In addition, my expertise in {{specificSkill}} has allowed me to make a significant impact on my team’s performance and overall business growth.

I am excited about the prospect of bringing my skills and enthusiasm to {{companyName}}. I have attached my resume for your review and would be grateful for the opportunity to speak with you about how I could contribute to your team.

If there are any open positions or upcoming opportunities that align with my background, I would appreciate your consideration.

Thank you for taking the time to read my message, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best, {{yourName}}


InMail example

Image of LinkedIn outreach message example 7, InMail

LinkedIn outreach stats

1. Users who have 70+ SSI have 45% more opportunities and are 51% more likely to hit sales targets. Moreover, it will grant you 20% more reach. (Tribal impact)

2. LinkedIn is 277% more effective for lead generation, far more than platforms like Facebook and Twitter. (HubSpot)

3. 92% of potential clients are willing to engage with an industry thought leader, making the thought leadership LinkedIn lead generation strategy very effective (CH Consulting Group). 

4. Marketing managers experience up to 2 times higher conversion rates on LinkedIn. (LinkedIn)

5. Sending a personalized InMail will increase your response rate by up to 30%. (LinkedIn)

6. Lead conversion rates on LinkedIn are 3x higher than other ad platforms. (LinkedIn)

7. Audiences exposed to brand and acquisition messages on LinkedIn are 6x more likely to convert. (LinkedIn)


Frequently asked questions about Linkedin outreach

Those were some fascinating stats, ha? 🙂 Before we conclude this blog, let’s answer some frequently asked questions about the topics we didn’t get the chance to mention above.


Is prospecting on LinkedIn worth it?

Yes. LinkedIn prospecting helps you find your ICP and Buyer Persona with filtering options such as company size or industry. Moreover, the lead’s LinkedIn profile usually contains publicly available contact information, such as phone numbers or email addresses, that you can use to contact your leads outside LinkedIn.


What is the success rate of LinkedIn outreach?

LinkedIn outreach success rate depends on your goal and personalization level, but it’s usually high overall. For example, one of our sales team’s campaigns has the following result: out of 2782 connections sent, they experienced a 33% acceptance rate and 17% response. In some cases, the results go even higher.


Image of outreach success rate result on LinkedIn

What is a respectable number of LinkedIn connections?

You can have up to 30,000 connections, but the respected number depends on what you want to achieve. For example, for salespeople and recruiters, it’s essential to connect with as many people as possible to expand their network, thus reaching people outside of it and getting more leads.


Is it better to have followers or connections on LinkedIn?

Followers and connections are equally important, so it depends on your goals. For example, if you are a LinkedIn marketer and wish to focus on sharing content, gaining followers might be better for you. However, salespeople benefit better from the connections, as building relationships is the basis for successful selling.


Ready for LinkedIn outreach?

That’s a wrap-up for LinkedIn lead generation! This has been a wild ride.

Naturally, you can’t memorize everything from this article. Therefore, make sure to bookmark it, so you can return to it and remind yourself about best practices for LinkedIn lead generation.

Just remember to follow these 6 steps to start your outreach campaign:

If you need more inspiration on how to write your messages, feel free to use templates we have listed in this blog and throughout other blogs.

And don’t forget about the golden LinkedIn outreach strategies and rules we’ve mentioned in this article. You’ll experience a surge of qualified leads if you truly follow them.

Happy outreaching!


LinkedIn outreach success gif

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If LinkedIn prospecting, lead generation, and even marketing automation are a part of your job, you’ve probably heard of Dux-Soup. This tool helps you to find and engage with your target audience in real-time and on autopilot.

However, there is a lot of discussion about whether Dux-Soup is safe to use for your LinkedIn account, how effective it is, or if there is any better alternative. So, to resolve any mysteries revolving Dux-Soup, in this article, we cover everything you need to know, including:

Let’s dive into it.


Dux-Soup or alternatives?

LinkedIn automation software, Dux-Soup, helps sales teams, recruiter specialists, and outbound marketers find LinkedIn prospects, reach them on autopilot, and close deals. In other words, it optimizes outreach workflow by streamlining some of the time-consuming tasks on LinkedIn. 

These tasks include: 

Dux-Soup also offers drip outreach campaigns that allow you to send messages and follow-ups in a simple sequence. In addition, you can add up to 12 messages in the campaign and set delays between them. However, these features are only available for Turbo plan subscribers.


Dux-Soup drip campaign image

Moreover, Dux-Soup is able to find email addresses of your 2nd and 3rd-degree connections. However, you will need to buy additional Dux-Soup points to do so. Prices of these points range from $11.91 for 100 emails, to $135.44 for 2000 emails.

For all those who wonder how it works, this LinkedIn automation software is a chrome extension. To clarify, you need to create your account and install a chrome extension to use it. Moreover, you need to keep your PC and browser on to run successfully.

If you use any CRM, like Pipedrive or Hubspot, you can integrate it via Zapier. If you need help with integration, you can always contact the Dux-Soup support team.

Lastly, Dux-Soup is considered one of the simplest LinkedIn lead generation software, as it doesn’t offer many prospecting and outreach features. So it’s suitable for small businesses that are just getting started and freelancers who are beginners.


Chrome extension disadvantages

Being a chrome extension, Dux-Soup does come with some severe drawbacks

Firstly, chrome extensions are unsafe since they automatically inject the code into LinkedIn. This code injection would’ve been fine if this social media platform didn’t like its users to use any LinkedIn automation. Thus, by injecting the code into this social media platform, LinkedIn can register if you’re using automation software. Furthermore, you risk getting your LinkedIn profile restricted.

Moreover, this LinkedIn automation tool doesn’t offer a dedicated IP to shield your activity

Secondly, chrome extensions cannot work unless your PC or laptop is on. This means you cannot set the software to run in the background, turn off your computer and forget about it for the day. 

Apart from these disadvantages, chrome extensions don’t offer an advanced reporting system or integrated inbox, nor do they mimic human-like behavior.

Due to the previously-mentioned limitations, you might find worth in exploring cloud-based LinkedIn automation tools. In other words, a cloud-based solution provides a dedicated IP address, doesn’t inject any code, and mimics human-like behavior. What’s more, with this type of automation, you can manage multiple accounts, have an integrated inbox, and, most importantly, it works even when your PC is turned off. What’s better than that? 🙂


Dux-Soup pricing

Dux-Soup offers 3 pricing plans and sub-plans, depending on team size and available features.


Individual Pricing Plan

IndividualMain featuresPrice per seat / month (ex. VAT)
FreeVisit profiles only;Search by tags;$0
Pro Dux- Scan & visits profiles;- Send connection requests;- Sends follow-up messages;- Sends direct LinkedIn messages & InMails;- Auto endorse;- Auto profile tagging;- Data export/import;$11.25
Turbo Dux- Scan & visits profiles;- Send connection requests;- Sends follow-up messages;- Sends direct LinkedIn messages and InMails;- Auto endorse;- Unlimited drip campaigns;- Integrations;- Reports;- Auto profile tagging;- Data export/import;$41.25

Dux-Soup charges Individual pricing plans monthly or yearly, as per your choosing. In addition, if you’re looking to use the free version, you’ll soon notice that you cannot do much with it. So, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid version if you wish to use this software for real outreach. 


Team pricing plan

TeamMain featuresPrice per seat / annually (ex. VAT)
Pro Edition- Scan & visits profiles;- Send connection requests;- Sends follow-up messages;- Sends direct LinkedIn messages & InMails;- Auto endorse;- Auto profile tagging;- Data export/import;
- Dux-Soup VIP customer support;
$135
Turbo Edition- Scan & visits profiles;- Send connection requests;- Sends follow-up messages;- Sends direct LinkedIn messages and InMails;- Auto endorse;- Unlimited drip campaigns;- Integrations;- Reports;- Auto profile tagging;- Data export/import;
- Dux-Soup VIP customer support;
$495

To clarify, Team plans are only charged annually and use a tiered pricing model. For example, choosing between 1-10 seats will cost you $135 per seat. If, however, you select a seat number between 11 and 20, you’ll pay $121.50 per seat, etc.


Agency pricing plan

AgencyMain featuresPrice per month total (ex. VAT)
Pro- Scan & visits profiles;- Send connection requests;- Sends follow-up messages;- Sends direct LinkedIn messages & InMails;- Auto endorse;- Auto profile tagging;- Data export/import;
- Dux-Soup VIP customer support;
$337.50
Turbo- Scan & visits profiles;- Send connection requests;- Sends follow-up messages;- Sends direct LinkedIn messages and InMails;- Auto endorse;- Unlimited drip campaigns;- Integrations;- Reports;- Auto profile tagging;- Data export/import;
- Dux-Soup VIP customer support;
$412.50

Pro and Turbo Agency sub plans have 10 and 30 prepaid accounts, respectively. You can always add more seats, which will be charged additionally. However, if you do not use some seats, you cannot refund them.


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7 best Dux-Soup alternatives

Dux-Soup is a beginner-friendly LinkedIn automation tool with very limited features. However, if you wish to really step up your outreach game and protect your LinkedIn profile, we suggest trying out one of the following Dux-Soup alternatives.


Skylead

That’s us - Hello! It’s nice to meet you 🙂

Skylead is a LinkedIn Automation & Cold Email Software that helps sales teams, recruiters, and alike streamline tedious outreach tasks. It even serves as marketing automation, helping individuals with backlink outreach and network expansion.

It’s not like we’re praising Skylead for no reason, but it really is the best alternative to Dux-Soup on the market. Let us explain.

Firstly, Skylead is a cloud-based solution. It means it doesn’t inject any code into LinkedIn, so this social media can’t notice the automation. Most importantly, your LinkedIn profile gets threefold security: 

In addition, with Skylead, you get to manage multiple accounts. Moreover, you get an integrated Smart Inbox to see all your correspondence with the lead from any platform.

Skylead integrates with LinkedIn Premium, Sales Navigator, Recruiter, and Recruiter Lite. Therefore, anyone can use it to close deals - from sales teams, recruiters, marketers of any small businesses, agencies, and even freelancers. That said, you can create outreach campaigns based on 6 sources:

Lastly, while we’re still on the integration train, you’d be happy to know that Skylead can integrate with any other app via API, Zapier, or Integromat. You can even integrate it with your favorite CRM, like Pipedrive or HubSpot.

Sounds amazing, right? We’re just getting started. 😀 

Let’s cover other amazing features of Skylead.


Change your LinkedIn outreach game with Smart Sequences

Unlike Dux-Soup's simple outreach campaigns, Skylead offers Smart Sequences - a ground-breaking algorithm that performs actions according to your lead's behavior. In other words, Smart Sequences gather all outreach activities in one place and execute them depending on your leads’ actions

The true benefit of this unique algorithm is that it optimizes your workflow by streamlining all time-consuming tasks in real-time. Skylead then continues executing further actions depending on your lead's behavior, thanks to If/Else conditions.

Image of a smart sequence feature from a Dux-Soup alternative, Skylead

In addition, Dux-Soup limits your drip campaign to a maximum of 12 messages. However, with Skylead, you can send an unlimited amount of LinkedIn messages, InMails, and emails and perform other actions in a sequence. 

Whatsmore, you also get advanced analytics and reporting for each step and action in a sequence. To be precise, you can analyze:

Moreover, with Skylead, you can A/B test each part of the messages and see which one works best for you. 


Increase conversion rates with email outreach

Dux-Soup specializes in LinkedIn outreach alone. However, we all know that email is an essential means of communication. So, the best sales approach is to multichannel your outreach. That’s why Skylead introduced an Email Outreach, allowing you to expand your reach to leads who aren’t active on LinkedIn. With this functionality you will increase response rate and the conversion rate, as well.


Decrease a bounce rate with email discovery & verification feature

Dux-Soup offers an email finder feature. However, there is no say if these emails are verified. Thus, the validity of these emails might be compromised, and you can end up with a high bounce rate and damaged domain. 

With Skylead, you can find and verify leads' business emails with any connection type from the chosen lead source. In addition, Skylead can find and verify an unlimited number of emails, whereas, with Dux-Soup, you can only find 2000.

Lastly, unlike Dux-Soup, Skylead doesn’t charge extra for Email Discovery & Verification features. In other words, you can find and verify as many emails as you’d like at no additional cost.


Increase your response rate with hyper-personalized images & GIFs

Did you know that you can increase the response rate and the acceptance rate by simply incorporating a personalized image or GIF? Yes, it’s true. This feature demonstrates the alternative sales approach and shows that you’re a human, not just another salesperson. 

That’s why Skylead offers Native Images & GIFs Hyper-Personalization feature, so you can stand out in the crowd and need not pay for this feature to other platforms to do so. 


Image of Dux-Soup alternative software, Skylead with image & GIF hyper-personalization feature

Connect with your leads faster by sending 500+ invites a week

With Skylead, you can send 500+ invitations per week and thus avoid LinkedIn’s limits. This way, you can reach leads faster than with any tool on the market.  Most importantly, you’ll also achieve your sales quota by closing more deals per month. 


Image of CTA banner 2 for watching Skylead - LinkedIn automation and cold email software demo


Pricing

Skylead is an All-In-One tool that costs $100 per seat a month. However, unlike other LinkedIn outreach tools on the market, and from this list, Skylead doesn’t limit the number of features you can use. 

In addition, we offer different video and article tutorials, as well as sequence and message templates to get inspired.

Lastly, Skylead has a very dedicated customer support team that is ready to help anyone with the questions they might have. 


Zopto


Image of Dux-Soup alternative software Zopto dashboard

Next in line for the best alternative to Dux-Soup is Zopto. This tool is another cloud-based Dux-Soup alternative sales teams use for LinkedIn prospecting and lead generation. 

Firstly, Zopto supports LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Recruiter, or Premium accounts. Moreover, being a cloud-based solution, it offers integrated inbox and integrations with Hubspot, Pipedrive, or other CRMs via Zapier or API.

Secondly, feature-wise, Zopto has an email discovery functionality, named Email Enrichment. However, unlike Dux-Soup, it can verify them. Sadly, Zopto limits how many leads you can enrich with the email, depending on the pricing plan, whereas Skylead doesn’t. 

What differs between Zopto and Skylead is that with Zopto, you can create and schedule LinkedIn posts and like Tweets on autopilot. 

However, Zopto doesn’t have Smart Sequences like Skylead, which is a significant disadvantage. Instead, it offers a simple 4-step drip campaign with no conditions available. 

Zopto offers 3 monthly-subscription-based plans. 

As you can see, Zopto estimates their pretty basic lead generation tool at the highest price on the market. So if you're considering Dux-Soup alternatives, you should analyze this and other tools' cost VS features ratio to make the right decision.


WeConnect


Image of Dux-Soup alternative WeConnect; campaign dashboard

WeConnect is another cloud-based LinkedIn automation tool that can be used with either LinkedIn Premium, Sales Navigator, or Recruiter Lite accounts (it doesn’t support Recruiter accounts).

Firstly, WeConnect offers an integrated inbox where you can see all your messages. In addition, you can integrate WeConnect with any tool using API or Zapier and streamline your workflow to the fullest. 

As for other exciting features, WeConnect offers A/B message testing like Zopto and Skylead. 

Sadly, WeConnect, an Expandi alternative, doesn’t offer advanced features like Post Engagement Campaigns, Image & GIF personalization, or Smart Sequences. Even if they claim they have Smart Sequences, they do not since this sequence doesn’t have conditions, as Skylead does. Instead, they offer a simple drip campaign with a different action, including:

Lastly, the significant disadvantage of WeConnect is that you cannot use a multichannel outreach. In other words, it doesn’t offer Email Discovery & Verification and Email Automation features.

If you need some basic LinkedIn outreach campaign, such as from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Recruiter Lite search, or CSV, then WeConnect could work for you for $49 per user/month.


Image of Free Trial CTA banner with Skylead's smart sequence that demonstrates multichannel outreach using LinkedIn automation and email steps with if/else conditions


Lead Connect


Image of Lead Connect, a Dux-Soup alternative; sequence feature

Another Dux-Soup alternative is Lead Connect - a chrome extension you can use with LinkedIn Premium or Sales Navigator accounts. 

Even though it’s not a cloud solution, you can use it to create a campaign via CSV file. In addition, Lead Connect offers a drip campaign with a few features and steps available: 

If you don’t know what to write in a message, Lead Connect has got your back. They offer various templates to get inspired. However, you should know that the number of templates available depends on your chosen pricing plan. 

Lead Connect has integration with Hubspot, or you can connect it with any other CRM via Zapier. Moreover, it’s integrated with other email discovery tools, such as Hunter.io, so you can find your prospect’s emails. Sadly, you’d need to pay an additional cost for it. 

Unfortunately, Lead Connect doesn’t have Smart Sequences, Image & GIF Personalization, nor does it support Recruiter. 

Price-wise, this tool offers 4 plans depending on the number of invites and messages you can send and templates you can use per day: 


Linked Helper 2


Dux-Soup alternative, Linked Helper 2, LinkedIn automation software

As opposed to Dux-Soup, Linked Helper 2 is a desktop-based tool. In other words, it’s a bit safer since it doesn’t inject code into LinkedIn. However, this kind of software still doesn’t offer a dedicated IP address, nor can you manage multiple accounts. Furthermore, you need to keep a PC on to work. 

With Linked Helper 2, you can create Recruiter search campaigns. In addition, all contacts are kept in Linked Helper’s CRM, and you can search them by tags and add notes. 

Sadly, Linked Helper 2 doesn’t offer a list of advanced cold outreach features other tools have, such as:

Linked Helper 2 is affordable, and you can get some basic lead generation features for $15 a month. Needless to say that they limit this plan based on invites and messages you can send a day. 

If you wish to get rid of this limit, you can opt-in for a $45 subscription with unlimited basic features. 


Meet Alfred


Dux Soup alternative LinkedIn automation software, MeetAlfred dashboard

Another cloud-based LinkedIn outreach tool that salespeople use for lead generation is Meet Alfred. What separates Meet Alfred from other tools is that it mainly automates social media activities such as scheduling Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn posts.  

Even though they point out Email Outreach as their second main feature, it's worth noting that it is incomplete. To clarify, with Meet Alfred, you can only send emails to your 1st-degree connections. This means that if the prospects don't accept your LinkedIn invitation, you won't be able to reach them via email. So, you can't use multichannel to its fullest potential.

In addition, like other tools mentioned above, you can connect Meet Alfred with other software via Zapier's webhooks.

Unlike Skylead, Meet Alfred doesn't have Smart Sequences but offers a simple drip campaign with more steps available than Zopto. Other disadvantages include a lack of email discovery and verification features. In addition, it doesn't have native Image & GIF personalization. However, since they are integrated with Hyperise, you can pay an additional monthly amount for this feature. 

Price-wise, Mee tAlfred offers the following plans:


Salesflow


Image of Dux-Soup alternative software, Salesflow, campaign builder

A cloud-based solution, Salesflow, is a tool that isn’t compatible with Recruiter, unlike other solutions from our list. So you can create the campaigns only from Sales Navigator or LinkedIn search results.

You can also import a CSV file with the customer’s info and create a campaign sequence based on that source. Speaking of campaign sequences, like Zopto, Salesflow doesn’t offer Smart Sequences. However, you can send as many LinkedIn messages as possible, whereas Zopto limits you to a 4-step campaign sequence. Moreover, they offer some message templates should you need any inspiration. 

When connection requests, with Salesflow, you can send 400 invites per month.


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In addition, Salesflow doesn’t have an Email Outreach feature, nor does it have Email Discovery & Verification. So, you cannot use multichannel outreach to the fullest. 

Lastly, it provides CRM. However, if you don’t find it adequate, you can always integrate it with other tools via Zapier.

SalesFlow users can opt-in for one of the 3 pricing plans, depending on the number of users and features available: 


How to cancel Dux-Soup?

If you wish to try out any of the LinkedIn automation tools listed above, you need to cancel your Dux-Soup subscription first and link your LinkedIn account to other software.

Here’s a short tutorial on how to do it.

To cancel your subscription, you need to access your Dux-Soup dashboard. Simply click the Dux-Soup extension at the top of your browser, and click the Dux-Dash button. 


Image of how to cancel Dux Soup step 1

Then, from your dashboard go to Manage Account & Subscription.


Image of how to cancel Dux-Soup step 2

Then click the Dux-Soup subscription button. 


Image of how to cancel Dux-Soup step 3

Lastly, click the Cancel Subscription button. Yes- it’s that easy.


Image of how to cancel Dux-Soup step 4

Final thoughts and feature comparison

As mentioned, Dux-Soup has a so-called feature starters pack for LinkedIn lead generation, outreach, and prospecting. However, if you wish to step up your game, it might be time to move on to the next LinkedIn automation tool on the market. 

Thus, here is the table with full feature comparison to help you choose the best alternative.


Image of comparison table among Dux-Soup alternatives; feature comparison

And remember, it’s about your business needs. So, take time to analyze the features, check for limitations, and integrations, calculate the price VS features ratio and inspect LinkedIn profile compatibility. Only then will you be able to find the right tool for your cold outreach that will help you with your outreach conversion rate.

Enjoy the research! 


You've got this; GIF

If you have any questions about Skylead, feel free to contact our support team via chat. They’ll be more than happy to meet you and help. Or simply dive right in and try Skylead yourself by starting a 7-day Free Trial.


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The topic of how to cancel a LinkedIn invitation is rarely discussed, simply because people tend to leave invites pending for… Well, forever.

However, everyone should monitor their pending invites, especially if you are in sales or a recruiting business, as the integrity of your LinkedIn profile can get damaged. Yes, it’s that serious.

So to keep your integrity intact and help you reduce the number of pending invites in the first place, in this article, we’ll cover:


Why should you cancel your pending invitations?

You should cancel LinkedIn invite because of 3 reasons:

Let’s clarify these statements.

Firstly, and most importantly, if you do not cancel your LinkedIn invite for a long time, you risk piling them up. It would be fine if LinkedIn didn’t have an eye out for suspicious activities. And, yes, LinkedIn does consider this suspicious. 

In other words, if you do not withdraw your pending invites after a month or two and leave them piling up, LinkedIn can restrict your account. Moreover, you won’t be able to send any other connections until you clean out your pending invite list. 

Secondly, if the connection doesn’t accept the invite for a while, the chances are they either are not interested, or they aren’t within your business industry

To clarify. The quality of your network on LinkedIn plays a significant role in experiencing benefits while using this platform. So, one of the things that will boost your career is taking the effort and making a strategy to connect only with people related to you and your business, and cancel LinkedIn invites sent to those who are not.

Lastly, a word on the street is that if you have too many pending requests, LinkedIn won’t allow you to send new ones. Some people say they reached a whopping 3000 pending invites before LinkedIn restricted them from sending more invites. LinkedIn didn’t publish the precise number of how many pending requests you can have officially. However, to avoid this scenario some people experienced in the past, be sure to clean your list regularly.


What you need to know before proceeding to cancel LinkedIn invite?

Before you withdraw any of your LinkedIn invites, you should know a couple of things first.


You can’t cancel LinkedIn invites in bulk.

If you wish to cancel LinkedIn invites in bulk, you cannot do so within LinkedIn itself. However, keep on reading as we will explain how you can do it in bulk using a certain tool 😉 .


About the notification your pending connections receive.

If you send a LinkedIn connection request to a person, they will see the notification as soon as they log into their account. However, in case you cancel LinkedIn invite before the user sees it, they wouldn’t even know that you’ve sent it.

In addition, canceling an invite will stop the recipient from receiving further LinkedIn notifications or emails to remind them of the request.


When can you cancel your LinkedIn invite?

You can cancel LinkedIn invite you’ve sent accidentally or that you regret sending, as long as the LinkedIn member hasn’t accepted your invitation.

In case the LinkedIn user accepts your connection request, there is always an option to remove them from your connections.


If you withdraw your request, you will have a tiny restriction.

After you cancel your invite, you won’t be able to resend it to the same recipient for up to 3 weeks.


How to cancel LinkedIn invite in 5 simple steps?

In case you’ve sent the requests you wish to withdraw or are pending too long, here’s how you can do it.


Cancel LinkedIn invite via desktop

First, go to Linkedin, and click on My Network in the header bar.


Image of 1st step of how to cancel LinkedIn invite on desktop

Once you do, you will see the list of invites other people sent you. Hit See all # in the top right corner. 


Image of how to cancel LinkedIn invite step 2

If you don't have any invites you need to approve on this page, the section will look slightly different. In this case, just click the Manage button.


Image of how to cancel LinkedIn invite step 1.2. in case you don't have invites you receive pending

Here, you can see all the invites people sent you. To find the ones you sent out, go to the Sent tab and click the Withdraw button to cancel the LinkedIn invite.


Image of how to cancel LinkedIn invite step 3

Lastly, LinkedIn will double-check if you wish to withdraw your invite with the notification. Continue the cancellation process, and you will be done.


Image of how to cancel LinkedIn invite step 4

Canceling invites via Android 

You can withdraw invitations using your android phone too, and the process is not that different than the one using your PC. 

First, go to your Network page, and click the Invitations button.


Image of how to cancel LinkedIn invite via android step 1

Next, click the Sent tab, and withdraw the invites you wish.


Image of how to cancel LinkedIn invite on android steps 2 and 3

How to cancel LinkedIn invite on iOS

The process is somewhat different on iOS devices. So if, for example, you have an Apple phone, here is how you can cancel LinkedIn invite.

First, go to Notifications at the bottom of the screen. Then, click the Invitations button at the top. After the pop-up opens up, click View invitations you sent.


Image of how to cancel LinkedIn invite on IOS, steps 1, 2, 3 and 4

From there, choose the LinkedIn invites to withdraw and cancel them one by one.


Image of how to cancel LinkedIn invite step 5

Let Skylead do the withdrawal for you

Canceling LinkedIn invites, one by one, can work if you have just a few pending. However, what should sales managers or recruiters do when they have thousands of invites pending? Should they all cancel the thousands of invites manually? No.

Remember when we said you could not cancel LinkedIn invites in bulk on LinkedIn? The point still stands - you cannot withdraw them all at once… Within the LinkedIn platform, that is.

However, you can use an automation tool for LinkedIn and Email outreach, such as Skylead, to do it for you.

In other words, you can use our LinkedIn outreach tool and set how many pending connections you wish to have before Skylead starts removing them automatically to keep your account safe and healthy. 


Image of how to cancel LinkedIn invite using Skylead

Image of CTA banner 1 for watching Skylead - LinkedIn automation and cold email software demo


Why your LinkedIn invitations aren’t getting accepted

Speaking of connecting on LinkedIn, the best case practice is to connect with people related to you, your position, and your business industry. Naturally, if you are a salesperson or a recruiter using LinkedIn for lead generation, you’d go with your target group.

In the end, no matter who you wish to connect to and why, the goal is the same – to get the right message across and be accepted. However, there are numerous reasons why your LinkedIn invitations aren’t getting accepted or stay pending for a long time. So, to help you increase your acceptance rate, let’s first cover the possible reasons why this metric is not high at the moment.


Image of reasons why LinkedIn invites are getting declined

1. Incomplete LinkedIn profile

Sending invitations actively to users without previously setting up your profile is a huge mistake.

There are many profiles on LinkedIn that look like this, and you don’t want yours to be one of them. 


Image of bad example of LinkedIn profile

Start from yourself - would you accept an invite from this kind of profile? No, you wouldn’t. 

If you have no photo, no description of any kind, and no experience details, no one on LinkedIn will take you seriously. Why would they want to connect with you without knowing who you are, right?

So if you send a request to someone with a profile like the one above, go back and cancel LinkedIn invite yourself. Then focus on setting up your LinkedIn profile first.


Set up your LinkedIn profile compete guide banner with text: Earn the LinkedIn all-star status


2. Someone is really not interested in accepting the invite

One reason may be that the user does not wish to connect with you and just prolongs declining your invite. I know - it’s like ripping off the band aid, but it had to be said. 


3. Outreaching unknown people without context or common connections

This depends on the person, but some LinkedIn users don’t accept unfamiliar people. To clarify, those people sometimes see nothing they have in common with you, which makes them skeptical.

In this case, it’s good to have or reference a mutual connection, so they do not ignore your request.


4. Sending generic message requests 

This mistake is the one that most LinkedIn users make. They think that writing something generic like “Hey, I’d like to connect with you” is enough to have their request accepted. Yeah, right!


A-boom meme

These requests may be accepted in some cases, but not by a person who gets a lot of invites daily. Such people tend to get tons of messages that resemble yours and mostly ignore them. So, why would they make an exception for you?

What’s more, with this kind of message or no message at all, there is a chance the recipient can click the Ignore button and then the I don’t know this person option. With too many “I don’t know this person clicked“, you risk getting your account restricted by LinkedIn.


5. First touch selling 

The chances of successfully selling something via the LinkedIn invitation request are close to zero. 

You have probably received tons of invitation messages where someone is trying to sell insurance to you.

It is not the way sales work. Nowadays, it’s all about social selling.

In your invitation message, you should explain why you want to connect with the user you’re outreaching, but not by trying to sell something. First, focus on personalizing, building normal human connections, and providing value before they buy anything you’re selling.


Image of CTA banner 2 for Skylead salesbook - ready-to-use outreach template that can be applied to our LinkedIn automation and cold email software


How to create engaging LinkedIn invites and boost acceptance rate

We cannot stress this enough. Before you even start creating and sending out your invitations, you need to optimize your LinkedIn profile first.

Almost every LinkedIn user will check your profile before they decide whether they should accept or ignore your invitation. That’s why it’s in your interest to give them a strong reason to accept your invitation, get value from you, and create a relationship.

After you’ve taken care of your profile, you’re ready to start inviting other users to connect. Here is our advice on how to do it more efficiently.


Prepare the ground for an invitation

It’s easy to connect with your colleagues or someone you know because those people know you personally.

However, even if you don’t know someone, you can try to remove that obstacle by becoming more familiar with that person. In other words, it’s good to start engaging with the posts of those potential connections. 

Start liking their posts, create meaningful comments, and try to make a connection with them before sending an invite. 

This will pave the way for you to build a relationship, and those users will start to perceive you as someone who is a valuable connection. Consequently, you won’t get in a position to cancel a LinkedIn invite that has been pending for a long time.


Personalize your invite messages

Before sending an invitation, make your messages as personalized as you can. It is a must if you want to improve your acceptance rate.

Sending personalized messages helps you leave a good first impression. Also: 

play an important role in creating a strong relationship between you two.

Start by answering how you came across their profile and what made you want to connect. Don’t worry - the time you invest in LinkedIn prospecting your potential connection always pays off here.

Since you’re limited to 300 characters, you can use it to be more direct and honest. 

Discover 20 ready-to-use connection invite templates with up to 78% acceptance rate.

Mention common interests

Adding many LinkedIn users who aren’t from your niche can decrease the quality of your LinkedIn feed and make it full of irrelevant content. That’s why connecting with someone that you share interests with is a great approach.

Mentioning the shared interests in your invite will show those users that you’ve invested some time into getting to know about them and their work. Moreover, you can mention the topic you wish to discuss with them. A message with these two elements will skyrocket your acceptance rate for sure. So, you won’t have to be in a position to cancel LinkedIn invite that has been pending for a long time. 😉

For example, start your message by commenting on your mutual job position, an event you both attended, or a post you both liked a while back. 


Involve a little humor 

It’s essential to have a professional tone of voice when you write your connection invite. However, “professional” doesn’t mean not having some sense of humor. You can always add a subtle joke here and there to make your invite stand out.

Moreover, using humor in your outreach is a nice pattern interrupt and has an immediate effect. Here is our example.


How to cancel LinkedIn invite that is pending - incorporating humor in LinkedIn invite so it's not pending but accepted
Check out our list of 35 position-related jokes ready to use in your outreach. 

At the end of the day

We hope this article helped you understand why your requests have been pending for a long time and learn the tricks to improve the acceptance rate. 

Remember: you must keep track of the request you sent and clear the list on time. This is just so you don’t land on the LinkedIn radar for suspicious activity and get restricted.

If you invest time in your connection message and LinkedIn profile, you won’t ever need to be in a situation where you have to cancel a LinkedIn invite. However, if you do, you can always use Skylead to automate your LinkedIn outreach process and make adjustments so it removes your pending request along the way.

Using Skylead makes it easy to get tons of new connections, personalize all your messages based on the interests of the people you want to connect with, and it only takes a few minutes to automate many of your LinkedIn lead generation processes.

Skylead does all the sales tasks for you while shortening the time you originally needed to make connections on LinkedIn. Try out Skylead, and let’s skyrocket your business together.


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Here are 13 proven LinkedIn InMail examples for 13 different LinkedIn scenarios to get you inspired and help you save the necessary time to compose compelling messages that get responses. 

LinkedIn InMails are for many platform members a mystery, therefore underused and often wasted. That’s quite a shame, taking into account that, according to the official LinkedIn learning courses, InMails have an average response rate of between 18 to 25% compared to cold emails’ 3% average response rate. 

For this reason, we’ve dedicated an entire resource to a detailed explanation of what LinkedIn InMails are, how many InMail credits each subscription plan has, how to check the status of your InMails, how to know whether you’re sending a free or paid LinkedIn InMail, and much more. 

After you know this extremely useful LinkedIn feature to its finest details, check out our guidelines for writing a LinkedIn InMail that is likely to get a response and get inspired by the LinkedIn InMail examples shared below. 

Some of the templates were directly used by our Sales Team in their outreach efforts, and some were directly inspired by our other teams’ examples used for LinkedIn lead generation, recruitment, and content promotion.

For more InMail examples, detailed outreach strategy, and sales templates for every step of the multichannel approach, check out our Sales E-Book: Sales Templates That Leveled Up Skylead. It is available for free download.


Image of CTA banner 2 for Skylead salesbook - ready-to-use outreach template that can be applied to our LinkedIn automation and cold email software


What makes a good LinkedIn InMail?






LinkedIn InMail template #1: Reach out to a potential collaborator


InMail example with variables 

Subject line: Are you still providing {{service/product}} services?

InMail message: 

Hey {{firstName}},

I am currently in need of a {{occupation}} in the {{industry}} industry. After doing some research, I came across your profile. I decided to reach out to you, due to {{reason}}. 

Do you still provide {{service}} services?

If yes, I would love to discuss it further with you. 

Thank you in advance! 

Kind regards,

{{yourName}}

{{yourCompany}}

{{contact}}


LinkedIn InMail real-life example 

Subject line: Are you still providing copywriting services?

InMail message:

Hey Jenny, I am currently in need of a copywriter in the SaaS industry.

After doing some research, I came across your profile. I decided to reach out to you, due to your vast experience in lead generation-related topics and your university degree in software engineering.

Do you still provide copywriting services? If yes, I would love to discuss it further with you.

Kind regards,

Edward Jones

LeadUp Technologies

edward.jones@leaduptech.com


This InMail template works because: 


LinkedIn InMail template #2 Invite your lead to an event 


InMail example with variables 

Subject line: Join us for {{event}}

InMail message: 

Hello {{firstName}},

{{CompanyName}} is organizing the {{event}} event in {{location}} on {{date}}. Our goal is {{goal}}. 

Since you work as {{occupation}}, I thought it would be interesting for you to check it out. Some of the main topics that will be covered are:

If it sounds interesting, here are more details on the link - {{link}}. 

In case you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me.

Best regards, 

{{Name}} 

{{Title}} at {{Company}}

{{Contact}}


LinkedIn InMail real-life example

Subject line: Join us for Best Digital Practices for 2023

InMail message:

Hello John,

TMS Advertising is organizing the Best Digital Practices for 2022 event in the Marriott Hotel on December 5, 2022. Our goal is to gather digital marketing professionals and discuss innovative digital practices and predictions for 2023.

Since you work as a Digital Marketer, I thought it would be interesting for you to check it out. Some of the main topics that will be covered are:

- 2022 tendencies expected to die out in 2023.

- Top challenges of 2022 digital marketers, and how to solve them in 2022.

- New types of influencers and how to approach them.

If it sounds interesting, here are more details on the link - http://www.bestpracticesevent2023.com.

In case you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Best regards,

Jennifer Collins

Head of Growth at TMS Advertising

jencol@tmsadvertising.com


This InMail template works because: 


LinkedIn InMail template #3 Offer your service/product to a decision-maker 


InMail example with variables 

Subject line: Need help with {{problem}}?

InMail message

Hello {{firstName}},

We are currently helping {{companyType}} companies to {{service/product}}. I see that you are {{occupation}} at {{currentCompany}}, so I thought you might see the value in it. 

{{product/service}} can provide the following for your business:

However, our {{product/service}} is not limited to this!

I would love to have a chance to jump on a quick call and discuss each challenge you meet at your workplace that our {{product/service}} could help solve. 

Have a great day. 

Best,

{{yourName}}

{{occupation}}


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LinkedIn InMail real-life example

Subject line: Need help with intent data?

InMail message:

Hello Steven,

We are currently helping SaaS companies to understand their audience and know exactly whom to target.

I see that you are the Head of Marketing at GetLeads, so I thought you might see the value in it.

DataCollector can provide the following for your business.

- Accurate analytics

- Increased on-site conversion

- Targeting specific prospects with ads

However, DataCollector is not limited to this! I would love to have a chance to jump on a quick call and discuss each challenge you meet at your workplace that DataCollector could help solve.

Have a great day.

Best,

Anna-Marie Peterson

Head of Sales


This InMail template works because: 


LinkedIn InMail template #4 Content promotion 


InMail example with variables 

Subject line: To answer your question in {{group/post}} 

InMail message

Hello {{firstName}},

I saw that you asked {{question}} in {{group}} / as a comment to {{name}}’s post, and I thought that the blog that we recently posted {{blogTitle}} could help answer your question.

Either way, I see that you work in the {{industry}} industry, and the content that we publish might generally be of your interest. If so, check it out here - {{link}}. 

Let me know if you found {{blogTitle}} useful. 

Best, 

{{yourName}}


LinkedIn InMail real-life example

Subject line: To answer your question in Jane Durst’s post comment

InMail message:

Hello Susan,

I saw that you asked how to target leads attending a specific LinkedIn event as a comment to Jane Durst’s post, and I thought that the blog that we recently posted “How to target LinkedIn event attendees: A Full Guide” could help answer your question.

Either way, I see that you work in the Lead Generation industry, and the content that we publish might generally be of your interest.

If so, check it out here - www.leadgencontent.com.

Let me know if you found “How to target LinkedIn event attendees: A Full Guide” useful. Best,

Jane Johnson


This InMail template works because: 


LinkedIn InMail template #5 Reach out to a mutual connection by recommendation 


InMail example with variables 

Subject line: {{mutualConnection}} recommended I reach out

InMail message

Hi {{firstName}},

Our mutual connection, {{mutualConnection}}, and I were talking about {{topic/issue/specialty}}. I heard you are an expert on the issue. 

I might need relevant insight on {{topic/issue/specialty}} for my business and would love to schedule a meeting with you. If yes, let’s connect on LinkedIn or you can send me an email to the address in the signature section. 

Let me know what works for you. 

Best regards, 

{{yourName}}

{{contact}}


LinkedIn InMail real-life example

Subject line: Helen Goldberg recommended I reach out

InMail message:

Hi Jasmine,

Our mutual connection, Helen Goldberg, and I were talking about the difficulty and importance of building and maintaining an online presence of a business. I heard you are an expert on the issue.

I might need relevant insight on building and maintaining an online presence for my business and would love to schedule a meeting with you. If yes, let’s connect on LinkedIn or you can send me an email to the address in the signature section.

Let me know what works for you.

Best regards,

Justin Greene

justin.g@jbselectronics.com


This InMail template works because:


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LinkedIn InMail template #6 Reach out to a lead as a recruiter 


InMail example with variables 

Subject line: Loved your LinkedIn post on {{topic}}

InMail message:

Hello {{firstName}},

First of all, I loved your LinkedIn post on {{topic}}! It spurred me to reach out to you, as you seem to be the right fit for the position of {{position}} at {{company}}. I also see that you studied {{studies}} at {{university}} which I find to be a great asset to this role. 

Anyways, as you may have guessed, I am a recruiter at {{company}}. I would love to take this conversation further in case you are interested. Here’s a link to the job description - {{link}}. 

Please let me know!

Best, 

{{yourName}}

{{Contact}}


LinkedIn InMail real-life example

Subject line: Loved your LinkedIn post on paid advertising on social media

InMail message:

Hello Nicolas,

First of all, I loved your LinkedIn post on paid advertising on social media! It spurred me to reach out to you, as you seem to be the right fit for the position of digital marketer at Jeffrey & Co. I also see that you studied Marketing at the University of Cleveland which I find to be a great asset to this role.

Anyways, as you may have guessed, I am a recruiter at Jeffrey & Co.

I would love to take this conversation further in case you are interested. Here’s a link to the job description - www.jeffreyco/careers/digitalmarketer.

Please let me know if you are interested.

Best,

Nancy Nicolson

n.nicolson@jeffreyco.com


This InMail template works because: 


LinkedIn InMail template #7 Reach out to a recruiter for a specific position

InMail example with variables 

Subject line: Inquiring about the {{occupation}} job opening

InMail message:

Hello {{firstName}},

I see that you’re the recruiter in charge of the {{occupation}} position at {{company}}. 

As a {{occupation}} with over {{years}} years of experience in the {{industry}} industry, I am currently in search of {{positionType}} position in this sector. 

I am interested in applying but would like to ask you a few questions first. 

Let’s schedule a call. 

Best, 

{{yourName}}


LinkedIn InMail real-life example

Subject line: Inquiring about the Head of Sales job opening

InMail message:

Hello Tatiana,

I see you’re the recruiter in charge of the Head of Sales position at MTS Logistics.

As a Senior Sales Specialist with over 6 years of experience in the Transportation and Logistics industry, I am currently in search of a leadership position in this sector.

I am interested in applying but would like to ask you a few questions first. Let’s schedule a call.

Best,

Rosie Goldstein


This InMail template works because: 


LinkedIn InMail template #8 Reach out to a recruiter as a job seeker 


InMail example with variables 

Subject line: Inquiring about your {{department}}

InMail message:

Hello {{firstName}}

I saw that you are a recruiter at {{company}}. 

I am a {{occupation}} with over {{years}} of experience in the {{industry}} industry, currently seeking new opportunities.

I’d like to schedule a call and further discuss my qualifications, as I am very open to hearing more about {{company}} and the dynamics of your {{department}}.

Best regards, 

{{yourName}}


LinkedIn InMail real-life example

Subject line: Inquiring about your Sales and Marketing departments

InMail message:

Hello Miriam,

I saw that you are a recruiter at MTS Logistics.

I am a Lead Generation Specialist with over 10 years of experience in the Transportation and Logistics industry, currently seeking new opportunities.

I’d like to connect and chat to see if my background fits any of your openings.

I would like to schedule a call with you and further discuss my qualifications, as I am very open to hearing more about MTS Logistics and the dynamics of your Sales and Marketing departments.

Best regards,

Helen Rosenberg


This InMail template works because: 


LinkedIn InMail template #9 Invite industry professionals to join your community 


InMail example with variables  

Subject line: Invite to join {{communityName}}

InMail message:

Hello {{firstName}},

I would love to officially invite you to join {{communityName}}. It is a {{typeOfcommunity}} community aimed towards {{industry}} professionals with the goal of {{goal}}. 

We would really love it if you joined. Your vast experience as {{occupation}} spurred me to reach out.

Here is the link - {{link}}, check it out and see. 

Hope to see you there. 

Have a great day,

{{yourName}}

{{occupation}}


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LinkedIn InMail real-life example

Subject line: Invite to join Ads Growth Hacker

InMail message:

Hello Matt,

I would love to officially invite you to join Ads Growth Hacker. It is a Facebook community aimed toward advertising professionals with the goal of sharing knowledge, discussing current and past trends, and exchanging ideas on how to improve and grow your business through ads.

We would really love it if you joined. Your vast experience as an advertising manager spurred me to reach out.

Here’s the link - www.facebook.com/groups/adsgrowthhacker, check it out and see.

Hope to see you there.

Have a great day,

Michelle J. Spears

Director of Advertising


This InMail template works because: 


LinkedIn InMail template #10 Invite a guest speaker to your event 


InMail example with variables  

Subject line: Be our guest speaker

InMail message: 

Hello {{firstName}},

I would like to use this opportunity to invite you to be a guest speaker at {{nameEvent}} event. 

Due to your {{numberOfyears}} years of experience in the {{industry}} industry, we felt that your insight on {{topic}} would be an invaluable asset to the {{industry}} industry. 

Here is a link to the organizer if you would like to check it out beforehand - {{link}}. 

Please let me know if this sounds interesting to you. 

Best regards,

{{yourName}}

{{title}}

{{contact}}


LinkedIn InMail real-life example

Subject line: Be our guest speaker!

InMail message:

Hello Ellis,

I would like to use this opportunity to invite you to be a guest speaker at the 2022 Online Sales Hacks & Tendencies event.

Due to your 8 years of experience in the Sales industry, we felt that your insight on the dying trends in online sales would be an invaluable asset to the Sales industry.

Here’s a link to the organizer if you would like to check it out beforehand - www.mpadvisory.com/events/educational/online-sales-hacks-tendencies.

Please let me know if this sounds interesting to you.

Best regards,

Joshua Henricks

Head of Training and Development

joshua.h@mpadvisory.com


This InMail template works because: 


LinkedIn InMail template #11 Reach out to someone who’s using your competitor’s product or service 


InMail example with variables

Subject line: {{competitor}} alternative 

InMail message:

Hello {{firstName}}, 

The reason for my outreach is that I saw that your company {{company}} is using  {{competitor’sProduct}} to {{mainPurpose}}. 

{{yourProduct}} is {{uniqueSellingProposition}}. 

If you would like to hear more about {{yourProduct}} and how it can benefit your business, I would be happy to chat with you. 

Let me know! 

{{yourName}}

{{contact}}


LinkedIn InMail real-life example

Subject line: FunkyMonkey alternative

InMail message:

Hello Jennifer,

The reason for my outreach is that I saw that your company FunkyMonkey is using SurveyGo to collect feedback on customer satisfaction.

UpSurv is also a customer-survey tool that has the option of exporting individual and all reports as a CSV file, comparing results among different data sources, and finding data matches.

These options speed up the entire survey and data analysis process 3 times. If you would like to hear more about UpSurv and how it can benefit your business, I would be happy to chat with you.

Let me know!

James Uri

jameruri@upsurv.com


This InMail template works because: 


LinkedIn InMail template #12 Value proposition 


InMail example with variables

Subject line: Let me show you {{painPoint}}

InMail message:  

Hello {{firstName}},

I heard about the amazing job your {{company}} has done by helping {{client}} {{result}}. Good job on that! 

I wanted to reach out because {{whatYourBusinessSolves}}. 

This way, you will be able to {{valueProposition}}. 

I would like to show you my plan of {{personalizedHook}}. Let’s chat!

Best regards, 

{{your Name}} 


LinkedIn InMail real-life example

Subject line: Let me show you how you can get 3x more leads in less time

InMail message:

Hello Jimmy,

I heard about the amazing job your lead generation agency has done by helping Scavo's level up their business. Good job on that!

I wanted to reach out because our software takes care of time-consuming lead generation tasks and allows you to focus your efforts on finding quality leads and turning them into prospects for your clients.

This way, you will be able to manage more clients and make their companies grow more and faster. I would like to show you my plan of getting 3x more leads for your clients in 6h less a week.

Let’s chat!

Best regards,

Annie Matis


This InMail template works because: 


LinkedIn InMail template #13 Use InMail as the last resource 


InMail example with variables

Subject line: Did I cross the line? 

InMail message:

Hey {{firstName}},

I tried reaching you via email, so just wanted to check here one last time if I’ve crossed the line. Hopefully not. 

Maybe it's me, but I get the feeling now is not the right time to connect.

As a parting gift, I wanted to share with you templates that could help you in your outreach {{gift}}.

I won't be sending you any more messages, don't worry.

All the best,

{{yourName}}

{{title}}


LinkedIn InMail real-life example

Subject line: Did I cross the line?

InMail message:

Hey John,

I tried reaching you via email, so just wanted to check here one last time if I’ve crossed the line. Hopefully not.

Maybe it’s me, but I get the feeling now is not the right time to connect.

As a parting gift, I wanted to share a templates that could help you in your outreach: www.skylead.io/templates.

I won’t be sending you any more messages, don’t worry.

All the best,

Nick Jefferson

Head of Sales


This InMail template works because: 


Frequently asked question


How can one tailor these InMail templates for highly specialized industries or roles to ensure relevance and increase response rates?

Tailoring InMail templates for specialized industries or roles involves researching the recipient's industry trends, challenges, and language. Incorporating this insight can make your message more relevant and compelling, thus increasing response rates.


What are the metrics or indicators to measure the success of these InMail strategies beyond the reply rate?

Beyond reply rate, success metrics for InMail strategies can include conversion rates (e.g., leads to meetings or sales), long-term engagement (follow-ups or continued conversations), and the growth of your professional network within your target industry.


Are there specific follow-up strategies recommended if the initial InMail does not receive a response, considering LinkedIn's limitations on InMail credits?

For follow-up strategies without a response, you should wait a few weeks before sending a polite follow-up InMail. Highlight new information or value you can provide while being mindful of LinkedIn's limitations on InMail credits to ensure efficient use. You can also check if a lead has an open profile. In that case, you can send free InMails without spending credits once a week.


Summary

With this blog, we’ve covered the main things you need for effective and smart use of a LinkedIn InMail, together with 13 LinkedIn InMail examples with a 25% reply rate formula for 13 different LinkedIn scenarios

The above 13 LinkedIn InMail examples with a proven response rate can be used as they are or adjusted to fit your business goals. 

Furthermore, if you wish to speed up your sales processes, and put time-consuming tasks such as - finding the perfect path to your ideal leads, on autopilot, test out Skylead 7 days FREE of charge

See how Skylead can help you focus on finding the qualified leads for your business and on closing the deal, while the platform thinks of the rest. 


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According to the ManpowerGroup survey from Q3 2021, 69% of companies and talent acquisition specialists around the globe reported talent shortage. Moreover, according to Officevibe*, some top candidates have a 10-day window before landing a job.  

Now, with the short time frame and a small pool to pick highly-qualified candidates from, talent acquisition specialists are in a difficult position. If they wish to hire the best employees, that is. This is more than enough reason to roll your sleeves and research talent acquisition and how to ace it. 

So, if you wish to help your company, and find the best talent out there, then get ready for the jolly ride. We will uncover everything there is to know about talent acquisition and reveal tips to help you hire the best talent out there.


Talent Acquisition Meme

What is talent acquisition?

Talent acquisition is a process of recognizing and gathering the top employees for the company. In other words, talent acquisition means finding and nurturing the right employees according to the company’s needs.


The importance of talent acquisition has become evident to companies all over the globe, regardless the size. The reason is that talent acquisition specialists:


Image of talent acquisition benefits

And we just named a few 🙂

Recruiting and talent acquisition are often mistaken for one another. Yet, these two are the different sides of the same coin. Moreover, talent acquisition and recruiting may or may not be a part of the same sector. However, they are closely tied and cannot work without one another, which will cover in a second.


Talent acquisition VS recruitment

What is the Difference Between Recruitment and Talent Acquisition?

Talent acquisition is much more than just recruiting. It is a strategy on how a company should present itself in the labor market and become an ideal place to work in. Furthermore, the talent acquisition team is responsible for everything talent-related, including but not limited to:

As opposed to the strategy, recruiting is the sole action of filling job vacancies and short-term company hiring requirements. In other words, recruiters:


What is a talent acquisition specialist and what do they need for a job well done?

So what does the talent acquisition specialist need to have for the job? First, they need to have a psychology background and to know their way around people. Secondly, they also need to know how to nourish relationships inside and outside the company. Thirdly, they need to keep employer branding at the highest level.

Another thing someone needs to have is strategic thinking and the ability to know what the company needs or will need in the future. 

As their job is to find top talents, talent acquisition specialists need to know how to do their research. Moreover, they need to know how to track job search impulses, set candidate alerts, and find perfect candidates for the job at the right time.


Lastly, it is always handy to have a set of sales skills for interviewing top-tier candidates. To clarify, the sales skills will help you get the employee that does not necessarily wish to change their job but would be just perfect for the role.


Process of talent acquisition

Talent acquisition includes the following stages:


The process of talent acquisition, image that demonstrates actions step by step

  1. Strategy Development
  2. Establishing/Updating Talent Pipeline
  3. Lead Generation
  4. Recruiting 
  5. Interviewing 
  6. References Evaluation
  7. Candidate Selection
  8. Hiring ( and Onboarding)
  9. Succession Planning

Let’s get into the details with every one of these activities.


1. Talent acquisition strategy development

Before developing any talent acquisition strategy, one must first define: 

Once you establish the previously mentioned, you can use that information to plan your strategy carefully. 

There are two types of strategies that go hand in hand:

The strategies can be any combination of activities. From participation in the job fairs and universities to boost your employer's brand awareness and gather early talents, or referral programs and sponsoring job fairs, for example. Only, whatever you decide your strategies are, be detailed, organized and mindful of your company’s industry, needs, and the budget. 


2. Establishing talent acquisition pipeline

As talent acquisition strategy depends on talent pipelines, you need to create a mechanism to keep them full at all times. If your talent flow for every position in your company is continuous, you will always have someone to pick and choose from, should the need arise.

Otherwise, you need to discover what makes your pipeline “leaky” so you do not waste additional resources to fix the damage every time.


3. Lead generation

Once you have your strategies and talent pool in place, you need to define the online (and offline) channels you will use to find and generate your leads, aka candidates. Next, you need to write an alluring job post and an application form to start filtering out and identifying the best candidates. Lastly, distribute them across defined channels and according to your strategy. 


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4. Recruiting

If your company doesn’t have a separate recruiting sector, get ready to roll your sleeves. Recruiting is much more than just interviewing the candidates and choosing the right talent. Remember, they are also choosing you. 


So apart from standard recruiting and evaluating the applications that landed in your inbox, you need to do something extra. Firstly, establish ways to create a positive experience for your candidates. Secondly, nurture them throughout the process. Lastly, keep the relationship with those who are not currently your ideal match but someday they might be. 


5. Interviewing 

This is where your psychological background and sales skills really shine. When interviewing the candidates, talent acquisition specialist should ask a series of questions related to:

And not to forget, they need to figure out if the candidate has skills for any current or future positions. 

Interviewing is usually held between 2 to 4 instances, depending on position seniority. However, talent acquisition specialists are trying to shorten the number of instances to provide as pleasurable an experience as possible.


6. References evaluation

Talent acquisition specialists often forget to cross-reference the information their candidates provide during the interview. Reference evaluating can provide another perspective on your candidate, confirm your thoughts and opinions, or provide additional information you wouldn’t find anywhere else.


7. Candidate selection

Talent acquisition specialists and recruiters lean on many metrics and systems to make data-driven decisions and select the top candidate for the job. Some of them include candidate scoring, internal evaluating systems, and even software that can do that for them. So be sure to research these systems and choose one which works best for both you and your company.  


8. Hiring and onboarding

In some companies, talent acquisition teams also onboard new employees. Thus, apart from showing them around the office, or workflow, talent acquisition specialists are responsible for establishing new relationships. That said, incorporating efficient Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) can greatly facilitate talent acquisition specialists in streamlining the onboarding process, ensuring new hires are integrated smoothly into the company's ecosystem.


9. Succession planning

The last activity that talent acquisition specialists need to do is succession planning. a process of identifying and finding substitute candidates for the leadership roles within the company in case something unexpected should happen or in case of retirement. 

Succession planning is beneficial due to several reasons. Firstly, the company is always ready for any unexpected events. Secondly, it encourages employee development within the organization. Lastly, succession planning allows filling the roles quickly without losing much of the workflow.


15 Tips and best-case practices to improve talent acquisition activities


1. Minimum requirements

When creating a job description, it’s best to define the minimum and the maximum requirements someone needs to have to be qualified for the initial interview. To clarify, the reason for the minimum requirements is that you might meet someone who doesn’t have the highest experience you need, but they might have it in the future.

This means you can put them straight into your talent pool and contact them at a later stage. Or perhaps the person with less experience is a perfect match according to other company parameters (e.g. cultural, behavioral), as opposed to the one with the maximum requirements.


2. Collaborate with other sectors

Every sector and job position within the company has its specialties and expressions different from what the talent acquisition team uses. It’s okay not to know them all, as long as you keep collaborating with the rest of the company during the previously mentioned process for individual positions. 


3. Write job post that is alluring

With each vacancy comes a special job description. So, be aware of what kind of talent you wish to draw to your company and write job posts to appeal to them. Spice it up with some benefits, perks, and employer branding testimonies, and you’ll be good to go for initial lead generation.


4. Remote or hybrid workspace

To stay competitive in the labor market, you must keep up with the trends. And one of the most popular trends now is precisely Remote or Hybrid workspace. Be mindful of this, and if your company doesn’t offer a fully remote position, at least offer a hybrid position, so you don’t lose top talents over this. 


5. Where to build a pipeline?

Different talent acquisition teams use different platforms to help them build their talent pipeline and keep track of the candidates. That said, the most widely used is LinkedIn Recruiter or Recruiter Lite, which allows you to get candidates inside the pipeline with just one click and to the appropriate pipeline stage.


Image of Pipeline in Recruiter Lite

6. Include your co-workers in the process

It’s nifty to discover alternative ways to find and generate your candidates. However, remember that you, as a talent acquisition specialist, are not alone in your company. Thus, think about creating a referral program for your employees. 

Your co-workers are the next best thing to know what kind of personnel your company needs, and if you set proper awards, you are more likely to find the right candidates quicker. After all, there is a “Six degrees of separation*” theory stating that any person can be connected to any other person in the world through six intermediaries at most.


7. Don’t rush  

Finding the right employee is not an easy task, especially if we talk about C-suite positions. Thus, take your time and do not rush any activity. If you are thorough and dedicate time to each part of the talent acquisition process, you will save resources in the future.

For example, most talent acquisition specialists use LinkedIn Recruiter, and the one thing they never rush is filtering the right candidates for the job. Thus, take advantage of every LinkedIn Recruiter filter and take your time zeroing in on the candidates you will reach out to. 


8. Research your candidates 

If, for example, you use LinkedIn to find candidates, you should consider the following advice.

Firstly, to laser-target your candidates, be sure to specify your search as much as possible. In other words, use filters to import the most relevant skills needed for the role. 

Secondly, when looking at LinkedIn profiles, observe the diversity of interests a person has. The information you find will contribute to your company and imply what you need to do to achieve employee satisfaction. 

Thirdly, if you are searching for the people to fill in higher-up roles, be sure to analyze the skills they possess that served them in the previous positions that can be usable for the one you are reaching out to. 

Lastly, if, for example, you're searching for a team leader for your programming team, you might consider how the team could contribute to the team leader’s development.


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9. Streamline a part of your talent acquisition process

If you headhunt using LinkedIn Recruiter, then you must’ve experienced how tiresome it is to reach out to every person on the list manually. Luckily, you don’t have to. You can streamline your outreach process by getting a solution to do it for you and thus save so much time.

Take Skylead, for example. You can create an outreach campaign quickly and easily. Firstly, take your LinkedIn Recruiter pipeline or talent pool URL with all the candidates you found by prospecting on LinkedIn.


Image of creating talent acquisition outreach campaign

Then, go to Skylead and paste it into the respective field. Be sure to name your campaign, and select the type of campaign.


Image of setting up talent acquisition outreach campaign in Skylead

Next, create your Smart Sequence steps and your messages. To clarify, Smart Sequences are Skylead’s groundbreaking algorithms. They allow you to use multichannel outreach and personalization at scale.


Smart Sequence Example for talent acquisition outreach

And you are done!It is that simple.

Skylead can also help you schedule your interviews from the Smart Inbox, so there is no need to navigate between the platforms.


10. Personalize your messages

Nobody likes getting generic emails, nor will your ideal candidates for the top-level job. Thus, to provide the best experience for your candidates, make sure to personalize your outreach according to their resume or LinkedIn profile. For example, include their name, position, or the skills that stood out to you the most.


11. Don’t forget to proofread 

Typos, wrong names, and grammatical errors in your email can come across as unprofessional and can put your company in a bad light. So, to avoid this, edit, proofread your messages, and double-check contact information for any mistakes before sending.


12. Timing is everything

Good timing is a desired virtue for talent acquisition specialists to have. Timing to recognize and outreach candidates at just the right time according to their job search impulses

However, there is one other timing equally if not more important than that - responding to your candidates on time. If you wait too long, especially if you hire management roles, you risk losing your candidate’s interest and someone else taking them over.


13. Choose your questions carefully

Sometimes the candidates won’t be as direct as you would like them to be. So, to get the information, you need to get creative during the conversation. The best-case approach here is to ask so-called probing questions to specify their response. In other words, you can ask them a series of questions like:

- Tell me, how did you manage a group of people to achieve the best productivity throughout the day?

- What objectives did you set for the group?

- How did you motivate them?

- What was the most difficult part of this task?

In addition, take note of what the candidate asks you in return, how they prioritize their interest for the role, and what they are curious about the company (benefits, conditions, market share, organization culture, etc.).


14. How should talent acquisition team choose the best candidate?

Selecting the right candidate for the job can be a hard decision for a talent acquisition specialist. If you are lucky, you can pinpoint the person you wish for your organization. However, what to do if you have two or more top talents in your hand? 

Hire them all 🙂 

Jokes aside, here is what you can do to ease your decision. 

The first thing you need to pay attention to is authenticity and synchronicity between the candidate's personal preferences and the information you get from the interview. In other words, analyze verbal and non-verbal communication, and the thought process and write your observation down.

The other thing you can also do is to walk the candidates through questions about personal preferences of informal, trivial topics and get to the main questions later. Using this method, the candidate could reveal themselves through potential incoherence. 

Once you have all data in place, choose the candidate with the smallest amount of discrepancy and highest compatibility. 


15. Honesty is the best talent acquisition strategy

Somehow in the business world, we always come back to honesty, and talent acquisition is no exception. I mean, have you heard about Microsoft’s promise to disclose salary ranges in January 2023?

Many talent acquisition specialists are true advocates for honesty, and there are major reasons for that. Firstly, it adds to the authenticity. Talent acquisition specialists often share why they work in a particular company, their motives, and what motivates them the most to be where they are. This way, candidates can see the true passion in the conversation and wish to work in that company, as well. 

Talent acquisition specialists and recruiters thus act as a live banner of the company. If the candidates do not resonate with the passion, it’s best to reveal it from the start - it will save you so much time in the future.

So, keep in mind that being honest and believing in your company is one of the best things you need to show to your candidates. Not only will you filter and acquire the best candidates, but you will also contribute to the Employer branding strategy

Lastly, your honesty and passion will be such a strong argument that negotiations and whether someone wishes to work for the company won’t even be a question anymore.


Summary

Talent acquisition and the labor market are one of the most changed segments due to technological development in the last couple of years. Apart from company Goodwill, talent acquisition sectors are the ones that represent a company directly to the outside world.

Speaking from the company’s point of view, it pretty much became a standard to have talent acquisition specialists simply because of all the benefits it comes along: from resource savings to reaching higher goals by finding a perfect match and employee satisfaction.

However, none of it comes without the talent acquisition team’s hard work and activities that involve:

  1. Strategy Development
  2. Establishing/Updating Talent Pipeline
  3. Lead Generation
  4. Recruiting 
  5. Interviewing 
  6. References Evaluation
  7. Candidate Selection
  8. Hiring ( and Onboarding)
  9. Succession Planning

And let’s not forget that our trusted talent acquisition specialists are go-to guys for everyone in the company. They are somewhat of our genie in the bottle for professional development.

Nonetheless, talent acquisition specialists can perfect their craft by following the tips and best-case practices mentioned above. Lastly, people are dynamic, so if you, as a talent acquisition specialist, help others develop their talents, don’t forget about yourself.

Wish to discover how to streamline your talent acquisition process? Check out Skylead and schedule a Demo!


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So, you just got the request to find employees, ha? And you need to find candidates that perfectly match your company culture, skills, and a billion other requirements? No worries. LinkedIn has got your back. 

As a #1 professional networking place, LinkedIn is an open book of business contacts. Moreover, it is commonly used by professionals of all caliber, including hiring managers.

However, with 810 million registered users on the market, how would you find the right employees? By using LinkedIn Recruiter Search Filters, of course. 

That is why, in this article, we are going to show you how to use LinkedIn Recruiter filters. We will even uncover a now-public hack to streamline the recruiting process. 


What is a LinkedIn Recruiter?

LinkedIn is undoubtedly one of the best ways to build your professional network and find employees. Thus, this company created a special platform for all hiring managers. That's right. LinkedIn Recruiter. 

This feature allows HRs to be more organized, post jobs, generate leads on LinkedIn and start the recruitment process. In addition, hiring managers can find the candidates through various filters. For example, skills, job titles, and education level. 

As a useful tool to have, LinkedIn Recruiter offers:

Moreover, LinkedIn Recruiter is perfect for any hiring managers of small, medium, and enterprise companies. However, not every hiring manager has the same needs and features. Thus, LinkedIn developed various subscription plans.


LinkedIn Recruiter Lite VS Recruiter Professional and Corporate

LinkedIn developed 3 different subscription plans:

There are many differences between these three, but the main ones are:


FeatureLinkedIn Recruiter LiteLinkedIn Recruiter Professional LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate
LinkedIn Network Access3rd- degree connections only3rd- degree connections, with 30 out-of-network profiles per month Access to entire network
Search Filters20+ filters available40+ filters available40+ filters available
Spotlights FiltersNoYesYes
Open To Contract Work FilterNoYesYes
Skill Assessment Filter NoYesYes
Candidate And Company InsightNoYesYes
InMail Messages Per Month30100150
Reports Jobs and InMailsJobs, InMails, Usage, PipelineJobs, InMails, Usage, Pipeline
LinkedIn Recruiter Price$140/month Must Contact LinkedIn SupportMust Contact LinkedIn Support

In this article, we will cover Recruiter Lite Search Filters. Simply because it is the most common type of subscription between recruiters.

Also, be sure to check out our analysis of the 3 LinkedIn subscriptions for recruiters here.


How to find employees using LinkedIn Recruiter search filters


Creating LinkedIn Recruiter project

Thanks to LinkedIn Recruiter’s filters, the talent acquisition is considerably simplified. Sometimes, a broad search may do the trick. However, often HRs are looking to connect with a more narrow candidate group. 

For example, this group can include individuals with certain years of experience. Thus, determining what filters to use will make the prospecting on LinkedIn for the right candidate more powerful. Stay with us till the end to find out how you can make the recruitment process even easier. 

When you first get into LinkedIn Recruiter, you would need to create a Project for your job post. Specifically, the purpose of the project is to keep your candidates, research and messages organized.

To create a project, hover your mouse over the Project tab in the header and click the Create New button.


LinkedIn Recruiter Lite, Image of how to create a project to find employees

Once you’ve filled in project details, you will be taken to the Project dashboard. Here, you can gather all the candidates you need for the job role. Lastly, to find LinkedIn Recruiter search filters, go to the Talent Pool tab of your project.


Image of LinkedIn Recruiter Lite to find employees

And you are in! Now the real fun begins. 


LinkedIn Recruiter search filters 

Once in Talent pool, you will notice that LinkedIn has 2 types of search filters. Sidebar and Advanced filters. Familiarizing yourself with these filters will get you one step closer to finding your perfect candidate. Let’s see what Recruiter Lite has in store for us. 


LinkedIn Recruiter sidebar search filters 

You can see LinkedIn recruiter “Sidebar” filters on your left side of the Talent Pool tab. These are the basic Recruiter filters. Thus, they will create a good base for specifying what you are looking for in a candidate. 


Job titles

This filter searches the job titles users add to their profile in the Experience section. Start by choosing the time when the candidate had this job, from the drop-down menu.

For example, let's say you are trying to find employees for a Sales Rep job posting. 


Image of Job Titles filter in LinkedIn Recruiter Lite

Now, you just need to type in the position name. What’s interesting about the Job titles is that LinkedIn allows Boolean Search. To clarify, Boolean Search means using mathematical operators in some filters to broaden or limit your search on LinkedIn. In addition, mathematical operators used on LinkedIn are:

Here is an example of what a job title boolean search should look like:

(Software Engineer) OR (.NET Developer) NOT (JavaScript Developer) NOT (Java Developer)  


Locations

The Locations filter allows you to filter candidates by geographic region. Furthermore, you have even more search features. For example, you can choose candidates who are open to relocating, or who are currently living in that location. 


LinkedIn Recruiter Lite, Image of Location filter to find employees on specific locations

Workplace types

This filter lets you find employees depending on their workplace preferences. To clarify, LinkedIn draws this information from the users’ Open To Work preferences. There are three types to search from: On-site, Remote, or Hybrid workplace. 


Image of Workplace Type filter in LinkedIn Recruiter Lite

Skills and assessments

The popular Skills and Assessments filter allows you to insert the skills needed for the job. Consequently, LinkedIn will look for the profiles with the specific skill set and list the potential candidates that match those skills. 

In addition, this filter works for the skills keywords, as well. To clarify, there is an option to let LinkedIn know you wish to see only the candidates who demonstrated the knowledge of said skills.


Image of Skills and Assessments filter in LinkedIn Recruiter, Filter to find employees

Companies

You can use the Companies filter to find employees who work in the specific companies. Furthermore, you can specify the time when they did by choosing Current, Past, Current or Past, Past not Current. The same options as in the Job Titles filter.

This filter draws the information from the company name field in the Experience section of users’ profiles. In addition, it allows Boolean Search so you can exclude or include certain companies in the search.


Image of Companies filter in LinkedIn Recruiter for recruiters to find employees

Schools

This filter allows you to choose candidates based on schools they graduated from. In other words, the school the candidates attended. You can select the school or the university name from the drop-down menu, or simply type it in.


Image of Schools filter in LinkedIn Recruiter

Year of graduation

With this filter, you can search for the candidates based on the year when they graduated. The Year Of Graduation filter pulls the data from the Education section of the user's profile. In other words, this is the end date listed for each educational institution.

Furthermore, you can select one specific year, or choose the range according to your needs.


Years of graduation filter in LinkedIn Recruiter for recruiters to use to find employees

Industries

Filter named Industries lets you search candidates based on the industry they selected on their profile. Be careful with this filter though, as LinkedIn will pick up solely the industry they listed.

In addition, it won’t count the other candidates with the same job role in different industries. Unless you insert multiple industries, that is.

For example, a Software Engineer working in Financial Services could enter Information Technology and Services as their industry. Thus, they would be excluded if you filtered only for candidates in the Financial Services industry.


Find employees by Industry filter, Image from LinkedIn Recruiter lite

Keywords

To further refine your search, you can use Keywords. You can search anything that might be mentioned on users’ profiles. This filter also allows you to use Boolean Search. In addition, it serves as the perfect filter for any criteria that aren’t mentioned in other filters.


Image of Keyword filter in LinkedIn recruiter, how recruiters can find employees

Find employees using LinkedIn Recruiter custom filters

In addition to previously mentioned search filters, there is an option to create custom filters. In other words, this option allows you to combine sidebar filters that are most frequently used. 


Image of Custom filters in LinkedIn Recruiter Lite, find employees faster

Furthermore, you can save multiple custom filters under different names and filter combinations. You can save up to 50 custom filters. However, the option for editing saved custom filters is not available. 


LinkedIn Recruiter advanced search filters

You can find advanced search filters in Recruiter and LinkedIn Sales Navigator filters only. They offer more options for finding employees and narrows down the search.

LinkedIn Recruiter Advanced Search Filters include:

  1. Candidate Details Filters
  2. Education And Experience Filters
  3. Company Filters

1. Candidate details filters


Postal code / Zip code

This filter is an extension to the Location filter. Postal/Zip Code allows you to zero in on the candidates based on the distance from a certain town or a city. In other words, you can find employees within 40 kilometers of a town or suburbs of the cities.


LinkedIn Recruiter search filters, Image of Postal and Zip code filter to find employees

Profile languages

The Profile Languages filter allows you to filter search results based on the language used in a candidate's profile. You can include as many profile languages as you wish. LinkedIn will then show the number of candidates that match this criteria.


Image of Profile Language filter in LinkedIn Recruiter search filters to find employees

Recently joined LinkedIn

If you wish to find employees who are most likely to seek a new job opportunity, look no further than the Recently joined LinkedIn filter.

It narrows your search results to find candidates who joined LinkedIn from 1 day to 3 months ago. People that recently joined LinkedIn most likely did so to seek a new job opportunity. 


Image of Recently Joined LinkedIn filter in LinkedIn Recruiter search filters to find employees

First names and last names

If you happen to meet someone during an event and cannot recall their first or last name, LinkedIn’s got your back. Using the first and last name filter will allow you to pinpoint that person and contact them via LinkedIn.


Image of First Name LinkedIn Recruiter search filters
Image of LinkedIn Recruiter search filters to find employees by their last name

Network relationships

You can search 1st or 2nd, and 3rd-degree connections or group members using the Network Relationships filter. If you are using LinkedIn Recruiter Professional or Corporate, you will be able to see everyone else on the network. 


Image of Network relationship LinkedIn Recruiter search filters for recruiter to find employees

2. Education and experience filters


Years of experience

Use this filter if you are searching for candidates that are experienced for certain number of years. LinkedIn calculates the number of years the candidate has set on their profile. Furthermore, it enables you to set the years range or insert a specific number. 


Image of Years of Experience in LinkedIn Recruiter search filters for recruiters to find employees

Military veterans

Use the Military Veterans filter to find employees who have a background in the U.S. military. According to LinkedIn, veterans are one of the best users of LinkedIn and the #1 source for their post-service careers.


Image of Military Veterans LinkedIn Recruiter search filters to find employees online

Seniority

The Seniority filter allows you to find employees by the position level in the current company. It draws the information from the job title. Seniority level includes Entry, Senior, Owner, Director, or Volunteer. 


Image of Seniority filter in LinkedIn Recruiter search filters

3. Company filters


Current companies

The Current Companies filter allows you to find employees who currently work in the specific company. Furthermore, this filter allows you to use Boolean Search. You can also exclude companies you do not wish to see in your current search.


Image of Current Companies filter in LinkedIn Recruiter search filters to find employees

Past companies

If you wish to find employees who have experience working for certain companies in the past, the Past Companies filter is for you. This can be useful, for example, if you wish to find candidates who have experience in similar companies such as yours.


Image of Past Companies filter in LinkedIn Recruiter search filters for finding employees

Company sizes

This filter allows you to find employees who work for companies of various sizes. LinkedIn will find candidates based on the size of the current company they listed in the Experience section of the profile.


Image of Company sizes filter in LinkedIn Recruiter search filters

Job functions

A Job Function filter is basically the candidate’s area of expertise. It is determined based on all the present positions. For example, a person could have been a salesperson and later became a consultant for that company. Thus, their job function would be sales and consultant.


Image of Job Functions filter in LinkedIn Recruiter search filters

Excluding the LinkedIn Recruiter Search filters

LinkedIn allows you to exclude some filters from the search. For example, if you do not wish to see sales skills when finding employees, you can easily exclude them by clicking the crossed circle button next to the skills name. In addition, you can do the same with location, companies, schools, industries, past companies, current companies, and job titles filters.


Image of how to exclude certain items from filters in LinkedIn Recruiter search filters

Additional hacks to find employees using LinkedIn Recruiter


#1 Recommended matches

LinkedIn created a nice feature called “Recommended Matches”. It will give you access to a list of candidate recommendations based on your search activity within a project. In addition, it will provide 25 searches daily to try and find your ideal employee. 

To see the recommended matches, go to the bottom of the pipeline page. You can also click the Recommended Matches tab next to Talent Pool.


Image of how to see recommended matches in LinkedIn Recruiter, best way to find employees

Once you are there, you can save each recommended candidate to your project by clicking the Save To Pipeline button. 


Image of how to Save a candidate to pipeline in LinkedIn Recruiter, best way to find employee

#2 Expand your network

For example, let' say you are using Recruiter Lite. And you need access to the full network that Corporate version offers. However, you do not wish to pay that kind of money. Thus, the nifty trick here is to expand your network as much as you can. You can get a lot closer to your candidates that were previously outside of your network. Furthermore, Out Of The Network alert won’t be a problem anymore.


Image of Out of Network candidate profile in LinkedIn Recruiter Lite

#3 Use LinkedIn InMails

InMail messages are free or paid direct messages on LinkedIn that you can send to members outside of your network. In other words, InMails are LinkedIn’s version of email to contact your 2nd or 3rd-degree connection. 

In addition, statistics show that getting a response from a 2nd or 3rd-degree connection is 3x more likely if you send InMail rather than email message. Thus, InMails are a great trick to find employees and reach out to them. That is, if they do not accept your invitation to connect to begin with. You can check out our 13 InMail examples.


You found perfect candidates - Now what?

Well, now you need to reach out to your candidates. However, imagine you found 300 perfectly good candidates using LinkedIn Recruiter search filters, and you need to outreach them manually. It would be quite a tedious task, wouldn’t you agree? 

If only there were a way to do this fast, so you could focus on more important tasks.


Oh The Drama GIF

As a matter of fact, there is. It is called a sales engagement tool for recruiters. Take Skylead, for example. This sales engagement tool gives the hiring managers the right features to outreach their candidates on autopilot.


Skylead campaign creation

Firstly, to create a campaign in Skylead, you need to determine the candidate's source, aka where Skylead will pull the candidates from to reach them out. To clarify, Skylead supports both Recruiter and Recruiter Lite subscriptions, thus you can select candidates source from LinkedIn Recruiter or Recruiter Lite:

For example, we will choose the first option. Start with copying the URL link of your LinkedIn Recruiter or Recruiter Lite search.


Image of LinkedIn Recruiter lite search URL

Secondly, it is important to check and confirm the Network Degree connection type. To clarify, you need to do this both in Skylead campaign creator and in LinkedIn Recruiter manually. How? By using the Network Relationships filter. Here is how you should do it within LinkedIn Recruiter.


Image of Network Relationship filter that needs to be checked for Skylead campaign

Lastly, select the type of campaign, and insert the campaign name. In addition, be sure to check the Network Connection option in Skylead, as well. To insert target candidates, paste the URL link of your search into the Campaign URL field.


How to find employees, Image of Skylead outreach campaign using LinkedIn Recruiter Lite

Next, go ahead and create your Smart Sequence steps and your messages. To clarify, Smart Sequences are Skylead's groundbreaking algorithms. They allow you to use multichannel outreach and personalization to their maximum potential. 

With Smart sequences, you can create and execute different scenarios to interact with your candidates based on their behavior. In addition, you can add as many steps as you wish so the algorithm can ultimately do all the work for you.


Image of Skylead smart sequence for the outreach to find employees

And you are done! Your messages and connection requests will be sent out.

Skylead will help you schedule a call from all-in-one Smart Inbox. In addition, it will also let other candidates know you successfully found employees at the end of the recruiting process. To check out how Skylead works in detail, click here.


Image of CTA banner 2 for watching Skylead - LinkedIn automation and cold email software demo


In conclusion

Finding the right employees for your organization is not an easy task. You need to take the candidates’ experience, knowledge, and much more into account.

Luckily, finding candidates is easier since LinkedIn created cost-effective Recruiter Lite. And let's not forget its various filters to play with and combine. 

Yes, there is a big difference between Standard Recruiter And Recruiter Lite. For example, the LinkedIn Recruiter levels of access to the network or the number of InMail messages available. However, the overall Recruiter Lite experience is not that bad, if we talk about the search filters option. So, here is a shortlist of LinkedIn Recruiter search filters available for every subscription type. 


LinkedIn Recruiter Sidebar Search Filters:
- Custom Filters
- Job Titles
- Location
- Workplace Types
- Skills And Assessments
- Companies
- Schools
- Year Of Graduation
- Industries
- Keywords
LinkedIn Recruiter Advanced Search Filters:
- Postal/Zip Code
- Profile Languages
- Recently Joined LinkedIn
- First And Last Name Filters
- Network Relationships
- Years of Experience
- Military Veterans
- Seniority 
- Current Companies
- Company Sizes
- Job Functions

Furthermore, finding employees can be more simplified by using a sales engagement platform, such as Skylead. You can create the outreach campaign in just minutes, and let Skylead do the work for you. All this while you focus on the interviews. 


High Five GIF

Wish to get to know Skylead more, use it for finding employees and outreach on autopilot? Come, say hi, and try out Skylead for free.


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One of the most commonly used LinkedIn prospecting hacks for getting qualified leads is targeting people who attend specific LinkedIn events

Why is that? 

LinkedIn events represent an excellent way to find people from the same or similar industry in one place. Usually, professionals attend webinars and other types of online networking and learning opportunities to expand THEIR knowledge and expertise. However, when it comes to using events for LinkedIn lead generation, you need to think the other way around - what does your target audience want to hear and what kind of topic would gather them in one place? 

Furthermore, by attending a LinkedIn event with your ideal leads, you have a direct insight into their concerns, needs, and room for improvement. Use this information to reach out to the attendees, further investigate their pain points, and finally, offer your product as a solution to their problems. 

Last, but not least, targeting LinkedIn event attendees turns out to bring high acceptance and response rates, all of which directly influence your conversion. Our Sales Team reports several campaigns in which they reached out to people who were at a specific LinkedIn event with the following results: 


What are LinkedIn events?

LinkedIn events help organizations and individuals deepen their relationships with the target audience through virtual gatherings around a specific topic. Although LinkedIn started rolling out the events feature in late 2018, the pandemic definitely sped up the entire process of switching from live to virtual webinars, masterclasses, and gatherings of any kind. And LinkedIn turned out to be the perfect platform for it for many reasons. 

LinkedIn events are free of charge and available to all LinkedIn users. 


Benefits of using LinkedIn events for lead generation 


How do I find a LinkedIn event?

There are two ways to find the most suitable LinkedIn event. 

Find future events

#1 Run a blank search or enter your keyword(s) into the search bar. 


Find Future LinkedIn Events Step 1

#2 Click the “Events” tab and check out all future LinkedIn events. 


Find Future LinkedIn Events Step 2

#3 The list of events looks like this on LinkedIn. Pick the one you wish to attend. 


LinkedIn Events List In The LinkedIn Search

#4 Click the “Attend” button. 

This is the only way to see the event attendees. 


How to use LinkedIn events for lead generation - step 1 attend event

LinkedIn will give you the option of adding the event reminder to your calendar.


LinkedIn Event Reminder Notification

Down below you can find information about the event, speakers, and the organizer too, so you can check them out on LinkedIn before joining.


Where To Find The About Section And Hosts, LinkedIn Events

#5 You have two options to see the attendees. 

Click on the link below (where it says the number of attendees) or on the “Networking” section on your right. This is how you see the list of attendees and apply LinkedIn filters to narrow them down as close as possible to your Buyer Persona. 


Where To Find LinkedIn Event Attendees

Also, on your right, there is an option of directly messaging any event attendee or sending a Connection Request. This is your opportunity to engage, chat with your attendees and build a community around the event you joined or maybe even created yourself. 

However, the practice shows that it is better to engage after the event, as you will have more room for personalization and to be as specific as possible when it comes to making references to something that was said or asked at the event itself. 


How To Send A Connection Request Or Message To A LinkedIn Event Attendee

#6 Let’s say you decided to go with the list of LinkedIn attendees and you clicked one of the two above-mentioned links. 

This is how you apply any of the LinkedIn filters to your list of leads. 


Filter LinkedIn Event Attendees, LinkedIn All Filters

You can narrow them down by the following filters: 

Find a past event 

#1 If you wish to target leads from a past LinkedIn event, click here and go to your LinkedIn feed page.


Find Feed On LinkedIn Button

#2 Scroll down and check out your “Events” section on the left. 


Find Past Events On LinkedIn

#3 You’ll see the list of ALL events - future and past. 


List Of All Events On LinkedIn

The rest of the process is the same as above. 


How to reach out to LinkedIn event attendees? 

Reach out to LinkedIn event attendees:

Manually 

When we talk about reaching out to leads manually, we refer to either writing to them directly on LinkedIn or exporting their contact information one by one in a .CSV file. Then, you can import the file into a Sales Engagement Platform and make the entire outreach process faster and easier. 


Use a sales engagement platform

#1 If you decide to use a Sales Engagement Platform, you can also copy your final search results’ URL.

How To Copy LinkedIn Event Search Results Into A Sales Engagement Platform

#2 Paste the link into Skylead. 

Where To Paste LinkedIn Event Search Link Into Skylead

#3 Choose “Collect Contact Info” (optional). This way, Skylead will download all publicly available data such as your lead’s email, phone number, website, etc., depending on what your leads made public on their LinkedIn profiles.

How To Collect Contact Info In Skylead

Go ahead and make your Smart Sequence.

Smart Sequences are based on algorithms that track your lead’s behavior and act accordingly. This way, they assure the highest number of touchpoints with people you wish to reach out to. Smart Sequences work on an “if/else” principle, where if the condition for one path is not fulfilled, the algorithm searches for its alternative. 

Here’s an example of a simple Smart Sequence. 

Smart Sequence Skylead, How To Make A Sequence To Reach Out To Event Attendees

If you wish to learn more about how Smart Sequences work check out our solutions page and also get inspired by some ready-to-use Smart Sequence templates


LinkedIn templates for approaching a LinkedIn event attendee

A LinkedIn event that you organized, attended, or are planning to join or conduct can be used in so many ways in your outreach. Either way, making a reference to it is a huge plus, and people who participated will be more prone to talk to you if you mention it. 

Here are 6 situations how to use a LinkedIn event reference in your outreach. 


Scenario #1 You attended the same event as your lead 

Template 

Hello {{firstName}},

I saw that you too attended the {{eventName}} event! 

What resonated with me the most is {{somethingThatResonated}}! 

It would be awesome to connect with you! 😀

Example

Hello Mario,

I saw that you too attended the “How To Enable Trust Building Skills In Your Sales Team” event!

What resonated with me the most is their Trust Equation and the way Darrel explained it!

It would be awesome to connect with you! 😀


Scenario #2 Ask for feedback on a certain LinkedIn event as a conversation-starter 

Template

Hello {{firstName}},

I am curious to hear what resonated with you the most from the {{eventName}} event since I saw you attended it too! 

Would love to keep in touch! 

Example 

Hello Sonya,

I am curious to hear what resonated with you the most from the “How To Enable Trust Building Skills In Your Sales Team” event since I saw you attended it too!

Would love to keep in touch!


Scenario #3 You are the event organizer and want to hear feedback from people who attended it

Connection request template 

Hey {{firstName}},

I just wanted to thank you in person for attending the {{eventName}} event! It was truly a pleasure having you there. 

Let’s stay in touch! 

Connection request example 

Hey Jenny,

I just wanted to thank you in person for attending the “How To Enable Trust Building Skills In Your Sales Team” event!

It was truly a pleasure having you there.

Let’s stay in touch!

LinkedIn message #1 

Once you get accepted on LinkedIn, use personalized Images or GIFs to improve engagement. Since we started using this feature, our response rates went up by 63%. 

This is one example to get inspired by, but the more creative you get the better. 

Scenario #4 Use a LinkedIn event that has to do with your product/service and ask for feedback on your product/service 

Connection request template 

Hey {{firstName}},

I saw that you attended {{eventName}} on LinkedIn! 

Would love to hear the most useful tips you got from it! 

Let’s connect 😀 

Connection request example 

Hey Tom,

I saw that you attended “How To Enable Trust Building Skills In Your Sales Team” on LinkedIn!

Would love to hear the most useful tips you got from it!

Let’s connect 😀

LinkedIn message #1 template 

Hey {{firstName}},

Thank you for accepting my connection request! 

I am still super-curious to hear your most valuable takeaways from the {{eventName}} event. For example, I personally found {{takeawayThatStoodOut}} surprising! 

Anyways, I {{yourOccupationExplained}}. I would love to share the solution we have and hear your feedback on it too! 

LinkedIn message #1 example 

Hey Tom,

Thank you for accepting my connection request!

I am still super-curious to hear your most valuable takeaways from the “How To Enable Trust Building Skills In Your Sales Team” event. For example, I personally found the fact that they never mentioned how this process works during the onboarding period surprising!

Anyways, I help small-to-medium-sized Sales Teams optimize their schedules. I would love to share the solution we have and hear your feedback on it too!


Scenario #5 You want to network before the LinkedIn event 

Template 

Hello {{firstName}},

I saw that you also signed up for the {{eventName}} event. 

I already attended an event {{organizer’sName}} organized on {{topic}}. {{yourFeedback}}. 

Let’s keep in touch! 

Example 

Hello Angela,

I saw that you also signed up for the “How To Enable Trust Building Skills In Your Sales Team” event.

I already attended an event Darrel organized on the time-management of medium-sized Sales Teams. He was amazing!

Let’s keep in touch!


Scenario #6 Promote your LinkedIn event by targeting people who are attending an event similar to yours 

Suggestion: Use LinkedIn InMails to reach out to your leads if you don’t have any more Connection Requests available, you wish to reach out to people who are generally getting lots of requests, or who are your 3rd-degree connections. 

Also, LinkedIn InMails work well if you need more characters for your message or your lead doesn’t accept your Connection Request in a timely manner. Aside from paid InMails included in your premium LinkedIn plan, you can also take advantage of free InMails (800 for each paid LinkedIn profile) for users who set their profiles to “open to free InMails”. 

We have 13 additional InMail examples you can check out.

LinkedIn InMail template 

Subject line: {{company}} + {{yourEventName}} = {{benefit}}

Hey {{firstName}},

I saw that you attended the {{eventName}} event. Did you find it to be useful for the {{lead’sIndustry}} industry?

Hopefully yes, because I have something even more specific for you! We are organizing {{yourEventName}}, a LinkedIn event that will give you {{uniqueSellingProposition}} specifically for your industry. We would really love to have you there! 

Would you be interested in hearing more? 

LinkedIn InMail example 

Subject Line: FlyHigh + SaaSEnMasse = 20+ additional calls in 3x less time

Hey Nicolas,

I saw that you attended the “How To Enable Trust Building Skills In Your Sales Team” event. Did you find it to be useful for the SaaS industry?

Hopefully yes, because I have something even more specific for you! We are organizing “SaaS en masse”, a LinkedIn event that will give you a step-by-step guide on 5 prospecting hacks specifically for your industry. We would really love to have you there!

Would you be interested in hearing more?


Summary

In the sea of professionals using the platform, it is getting harder and harder to find qualified leads. Sales reps are trying to get as creative as possible and to think strategically about where their target audience gathers. Reaching out to people who attended specific LinkedIn events is sure one of the best places to start. 

Have in mind that you can always target a future event, a past event, or even create one of your own that will attract your potential customers. 

And if you decide to speed up annoying sales processes, and put more focus on building meaningful relationships and closing the deal, sign up for Skylead's 7-day free trial


Launch your first outreach campaign today!
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In today’s crowded Inboxes, the struggle to get a response is real. 

Whether you are reaching out via LinkedIn or email, it has never been easier to get in touch with someone. It’s just that now, standing out in the sea of messages has become an art to be mastered. 

There are many reasons why your ideal lead is not replying. However, each solution to this problem starts with catching their attention. One of the approaches that might not be as popular (yet!) with sales reps, but that showed itself pretty effective is including personalized GIFs and Images into your outreach routine. 

But before you say that personalized GIFs and Images seem unprofessional or that they exceed too much work, let me tell you that I too was skeptical in the beginning. I came across several personalized GIFs our Sales Team uses in their outreach campaigns, and thought to myself - this looks kind of weird. 

However, not until I saw their response rates that went up by 63% and experimented with some outreach campaigns of my own, did I realize the power of personalized GIFs and Images

That’s why I decided to share tips and tricks picked up by talking to sales reps that scaled up Skylead and following top industry professionals on and off LinkedIn. 

In this blog, we’ll touch upon: 


Poor targeting equals poor response rates 

Yes, we’ve gathered here to talk about how to increase your response rates by implementing personalized GIFs & Images into your outreach routine. However, there is one thing that we cannot stress enough. The absolute prerequisite to skyrocketing the number of your replies, Her Majesty - the Targeting. 

You can have the best copy in the world and be the most skilled sales rep that ever walked this Earth, but if you are talking to the wrong person, not much can be done. Yes, there is always a way to ask to be redirected to someone else, but why waste resources? Put some time into LinkedIn prospecting and coming up with a quality outreach plan (messages, channels, segmentation strategy, Images & GIFs), and then just focus on closing the deal. 

Good sales reps have a clear understanding of who they want to reach out to and they handpick leads even when using a sales engagement platform to make their lives easier (‘cause, why not? We do live in the 21st century, after all). You would be surprised how many sales reps don’t reach their quotas just because they feel lazy to put some time into quality targeting. It’s quite a shame, especially because LinkedIn offers lots of options to find different profiles for those who think strategically. 


Why personalized GIFs and images work


They’re eye-catching

GIFs, images, and even vector graphics especially if personalized, are more interesting, dynamic, and eye-catching in comparison to static text. The studies have shown that the average person sees over 5000 marketing messages per day. This number goes up when it comes to decision-makers and top-level managers. Therefore, your message has about 8 seconds to capture your lead’s attention. That’s why, when the lead opens your message, even if initially they didn’t want to reply back, receiving a personalized GIF or Image will stick their minds. Consequently, the chances of getting a response are increasing.


You show extra effort 

Some leads that receive a personalized GIF or Image respond just because they recognize the effort you put into your outreach. And we know that in sales, sometimes all you need is that one response to spiral up the conversation in the right direction. 


They don’t come off as salesy 

Instead of sending a reminder message or trying to sell straight off the bat (which is always a big no-no), going with a personalized GIF or Image seems more low-key, yet far more effective for you lead generation on LinkedIn (or off). It might even make your lead laugh a little bit! And that’s always memorable. 


What to pay attention to 


How to make a personalized GIF or image? 

There are two ways to personalize a GIF or Image - manually or through a sales engagement platform. 

I and our Sales Team use Skylead’s native Image & GIF hyper-personalization feature. However, you can do it manually with any other tool you feel comfortable with. 

As far as Images and GIFs are concerned, we simply download them from the internet or from Giphy, for instance. More creative ones take their own photos or mini videos that turn into GIFs on Ezgif (super-easy, btw) and then personalize them to fit their leads (and needs). 

If you’re using Skylead for your outreach, this is how including a personalized GIF or Image looks on LinkedIn and in an email. 


LinkedIn message

A personalized GIF or Image shows as a link with a preview. That way your lead is more likely to click on it, as people tend not to open these kinds of files otherwise. 


Email message

A personalized GIF or Image is fully embedded in the body of the email and it shows as represented below.


10 templates of personalized images & GIFs

Send a personalized Image to your lead to invite them for a zoom chat. 

Hello Amie, 

Thank you for adding me to your network! 

I saw that you’re a Head of Marketing at Edge Project. I help B2B companies generate more leads through deep personalization on LinkedIn. 

Let’s jump on a Zoom call sometime this week?


Personalized Image Call-to-Action Zoom Call Example

Example #2 Conversation starter 

Thank your lead for accepting your Connection Request. This can be an excellent conversation starter. Adding a message copy is optional, as this personalized GIF speaks for itself. 


Personalized Gif Conversation Starter Glad to Connect Example

Example #3 Humanize your pitch

People want to talk to real people not company pages anymore. This is the number one concept ​​of social selling. Yes, LinkedIn has account profiles as well, but outreach should always be done by people who work in these companies and should represent the personification of that brand. Showing your face in the outreach improves response rates.

Personalized Image Example Sales Pitch

Example #4 Overcome common sales objections in a humorous way 

One of the most common sales objections is I already have a solution. If you don’t know how to approach it, break the tension with a humorous personalized GIF or Image, and then take it from there. 


Personalized Image Overcome Sales Objections Example

Example #5 Ask for something 

Asking complete strangers to fill out a survey or give your their feedback (or anything for that matter) is a really arduous task, as they don’t owe you anything. The truth is, no one owes you anything. However, feedback and surveys help you and your business grow. Always be listening to your customers, right? Here’s a fun way to get a response.

Hello Iris, 

Thank you for attending my webinar “Content Marketing For Niche Markets”. 

Quick question - what were the most valuable lectures for you? Is there anything you found redundant for your niche in particular? 


Personalized Image Ask For Feedback Example

Example #6 Make your email invite more casual 

There are so many different professional communities and popping a link to your lead to join yours is not enough anymore. You can always lighten up your message with a personalized GIF and make your lead click on the link to at least check it out for a start. It will definitely draw attention among others who just write something like Join my community here {{link}}. 

Hello Marie, 

I saw that you are Head of Sales at FlyProject. I have this community dedicated to the sales industry that I would love you to join.

We discuss - cold outreach, growth tactics, and anything sales-related. 

Here’s the link https://www.facebook.com/groups/sales.tribe.community


Hyper Personalized GIF Join Community Example

Example #7 Make them ask you for more information

Experiment. Play with your outreach. You will only know if you try. Yes, some might say that this message should maybe give more information about the event itself. However, have in mind that nowadays everyone checks out you and your company on LinkedIn before replying to any sort of message either way. 

Hey Helen, 

Wanna join my…

Personalized Gif Event Invite Example

Example #8 Pinpoint a problem that you offer a solution to 

You can make an industry-related joke and strengthen it with a personalized GIF so that your offer doesn’t seem too salesy. 

Hey Jeremy,

What does the SEO professional see when they see twins?

Duplicated content.

Jokes aside, every business needs an SEO touch-up, and I just might be your girl! 


Personalized GIF Offer of Service Example

Example #9 Illustrate your end-goal in a non-salesy manner 

As mentioned above, GIFs and Images in outreach can be an excellent alternative to a salesy message. Or, at least, then can soften it a bit. 

Hello James, 

I don’t know if you’ve heard the news, but JKL Transportation & Logistics has a truck shipment that currently offers the highest number of destinations around the world. 

Since you expressed some concerns regarding truck shipment in David Jones’ post, I just wanted to offer help and clarification regarding some issues. I truly believe that E-jewel can benefit from it! 

Let me know what you think! 


Image personalization with logos example

Example #10 Pump up your lead’s enthusiasm

Booking a call or scheduling an appointment should not be taken for granted! Not only did you work hard for it, but it is equally important to keep your lead pumped for it as well! Replying simply with Ok, it’s a deal can be substituted with something like this. It will keep your lead excited as well and eager to hear what you have to say! 

Alright, Danny! 

It’s a date! Monday, at 3 pm. 

Let it rain meme

To sum up

Yes, the struggle to get a response is real but pretty overcomeable with the willingness to think outside the box.

‘Cause, what would you rather - work hard and book less or work smart and book more? 

The way you do your outreach directly mirrors the way you do your business. People recognize that. Putting extra effort into addressing your leads communicates that you are the person who always strives to deliver more than expected. And who wouldn’t want to work with someone like that?

Speaking of, you know who also strives to deliver more than expected? Skylead. Sign up for a 7-day free trial, and see it for yourself! 


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It’s not unusual to get an objection from anyone. It’s not unusual to go through objection handling at any time. But when you see the prospects can retract from the offer with the ring of the chime, it’s not unusual for them to say goodbye. 

How many times have you heard objections such as “That all sounds great but…”, “It’s too expensive for us…” or “I don’t have time now”? If your answer is too many, and you’ve just got overwhelmed with sadness and helplessness, as you gave up in these situations, fear not. Let’s uncover the successful path that will lead you to win these objections.

So turn Tom Jones songs up and dance away your worries as we go into the details of how you can overcome most common objections easier and win them over.


What is objection handling in sales?

To put it simply, imagine you are in a meeting with the prospect, and suddenly they express their concern about the product or situation that they are on the verge of giving up. That is an objection for you. 

Objection handling is when a salesperson responds to these concerns and elevates them, so the deal moves forward and closes. Your job, as a salesperson, is precisely overcoming objections, which can be tricky 90% of the time, and nurture them towards conversion.  

The objection can happen due to poor LinkedIn prospecting or not finding your ideal prospect by generating leads on LinkedIn. However, even if you did all the things right, objections can happen, but the reason can be about the price, lack of authority, or competitors.


Overcoming objections 101: Tips for objection handling + rebuttals examples

We will present the main objection handling reasons, their variation, and some new ones but before we do, let’s first go over a few tips on how you can handle the objections.


1. Overcoming objections with the questions

Successful sales reps respond to objections with a follow-up question. Why? Well, because objections can have their hidden meanings, so it is vital to get to their root cause straight away. If you don't clarify the deeper reason behind objections, you might address the wrong core subject. Consequently, addressing the wrong issue might create even stronger objections


Overcoming objections sales meme, Objection handling situations

Now, what question should you ask to clarify objections? In his masterclass, Chris Voss, former FBI hostage negotiator, presents us with the tactic called mirroring. He claims that repeating the last few words of your buyer's sentence should do the trick, and the other side will give away more information. You should repeat it with an upward voice tone as if you're posing a question, and it will trigger the prospect to elaborate further. 

This example alone is good for gathering more information on the situation, which you can later on spin. But to spice it up, we recommend mirroring with the follow-up question, as people can sometimes be short on words.


Example

Prospect: I am not the person in charge.

SDR: You are not the person in charge? 

PAUSE

Prospect: No, Sally is. 

SDR: Could you introduce me to her? 

OR

Prospect: I am not the person in charge.

SDR: You are not the person in charge? 

PAUSE

Prospect: No.

SDR: When you implemented a similar product, who was responsible for such a project?

Additional Hint: When clarifying objections, do not ask the questions that start with "Why". It can be considered as a threatening word that questions their objection credibility, and it will put them in the defensive mode.


2. Overcoming objections addressing the issues beforehand

One of the most effective ways to objection handling is to address core issues before the actual objection. By sewing specific objection handling into your pitch, you do not only address these issues beforehand but also demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of their challenges. Whatsmore, providing a hands-on solution enhances the connection with your prospects. 


Example

Prospect: We are a pretty small company.

SDR: As a young company, I understand what investment in new tools means. Price-wise, you need not to worry, as our product is proven to have a 140% ROI at least. I can send you case studies to support this claim. 


Image of CTA banner 1 for Skylead salesbook - ready-to-use outreach template that can be applied to our LinkedIn automation and cold email software


3. Overcoming objections by responding to the real issue

Remember the first tip, where you gather the objection information via the question? Well, this is where you use it, but first, you need to understand the process by which they convert. 

When you know and understand the process, you can get a better feel for the meaning of the potential objection. So the tip is, after following the process and understanding the info, to respond to the real issue, not your unfounded vision of it. Gather the answers you need, and use them to demonstrate the specific solution and continue with the sales deal.


Example

SDR: We have many clients in your industry. As I understand, the main issue is to target the right, narrow-niche ICP and reach them faster than do it manually. Am I right?

Prospect: Yes, but not in our case. Actually, our main concern is that we won’t be able to use multichannel outreach as we cannot gather the email addresses and connect them with LinkedIn outreach. We still need to do it manually. That is what is wasting our time. And it leaves us with little time to properly do the research about the leads and nurture them to conversion. 

SDR: I understand that time and results are often mutually sacrificed. The good news is that our product can search, validate, send out emails and link them with LinkedIn. So your multichannel outreach sequences can be up and running in a blink of an eye. There will be no more wasted time for your team - they can dedicate themselves fully to nurturing the leads to conversion. 


4. Overcoming objections by offering help to the decision making

Another tactic to objection handling is to weave them into questions that help the prospect make better decisions. Finding the bulls-eye question helps us discover the right personal and business motivation for prospects to use your product or service. That is a mouthful. Let’s show it through an example:

Prospect: I do not have time for this. We have a lot of work in sales as-is.

SDR: That’s fair. But wouldn’t it be better to invest little time in learning the sales engagement tool to do all the outreach activities for you, so later on, you have more time to dedicate yourself to more pressing matters such as closing the deals?  


5. Overcoming objections by selling the result

Nobody wishes to waste time talking about the process, especially not the decision-makers, as they are more interested in the result. So if you add a concrete value, preferably demonstrated by an exact metric, your product or service will be regarded as of higher value to a prospect. 


Sales meme, Objection handling situation and how to overcome it

Example

Prospect: What do we have from using it?

SDR: As a software with more than 10K users and with many clients such as yourself, we have proven track to boost sales results up to 80% in your industry. I'd love to share a case study. It would be wonderful to speak with you about your sales process and see how we can help you, as well.


6. Overcoming objections by knowing your prospect’s industry

Knowing your prospects’ industry inside and out will help you position yourself better in your prospects’ eyes. Learn about their business, product or service, and even competitors. The knowledge you gather will ease objection handling and give you insights into what your prospects are looking for in the areas you can provide value to. 


Top 10 objection handling situations

It’s important to note that it’s not possible to cover every scenario and concern, as there is no one-size-fits-all path to objection handling. However, you should prepare a solid response to the most common sales objections and go on from there to refine your reply as much as possible and grow leads until conversion. 

In addition, don’t forget to take notes of new objections you've never heard before as they appear, and try to figure out the solution to them as well. 

Let’s help you out with the most common objections we noticed.


#1 Objection handling: I already have a solution...

This is the most common objection, and it refers to using your direct or indirect competitor. The main key here is to find the one which unlocks the prospect pain point in the experience of using other solutions. Your response may vary depending on the finishing line of the prospect's sentence, so let’s see all the variations.


Rebuttals examples

Scenario A

Prospect: I already have a solution, and I am happy. 

SDR: That is great. Before I go, can you tell me one thing they can do better? 

Hint: Tease out why they think the solution is good for them, and gather the pain point based on which you can book a meeting. If their feature is really better, leverage the one your product has, and think it’s better for the prospect business. 


Scenario B

Prospect: I already have a solution… *Pauses* 

SDR: And how is your experience so far? 

Hint: Tease pain point to continue the conversion. Pausing may imply that they are not satisfied with something, and it is your job to figure out what.


Scenario C

Prospect: I already have a solution because the owner is my friend.  

SDR: That’s fair. Relationships are important to nurture. But with all due respect, mam/sir, isn’t providing your team with the solution with {feature with pain point} more important than relationships?

Hint: The key here is to help them make a decision which is better for their team regarding the actual business. 


Scenario D

Prospect: I already have a solution, but {Feature} is not that great

SDR:  What do you mean?

Hint: This is the best answer you can get, as they immediately pointed out the pain point. Ask for clarification and offer the exact value your product has as opposed to the solution they are already using. 

From Becc Holland’s experience, CEO and Founder at Flip the Script, sometimes in your cold outreach, you will talk to people who are not decision-makers. That is fine since they can become the link between you and the decision-maker, so it is important to make a good connection with them. 


Sales meme, Objection handling situation I am not the right person

Another scenario that happens often is that they are the decision-makers but do not wish to bother them. So either way, you need to be careful with this one. 


Rebuttals examples

Becc says that there are a couple of scenarios here at play. Let’s take a look at them all.


Scenario A

Prospect: I am not the right person and don’t know who is. 

As an SDR, make sure to listen or read carefully if they are indeed the right person or not.

If they are but say they aren’t just to chase you away, structure your objection handling response like this:

SDR: Can I level with you? Lately, I’ve been hearing that a lot, and I get the feeling that it’s you saying go away annoying sales rep. Is that right?

Prospect: Actually, yes.

SDR: I completely understand. You know what? If you give me 30 seconds of your time to demonstrate why our service can be the best fit for you, and if you do not like it, I promise I will leave you alone? Sounds fair? 

Hint: After you ask for consent to pitch and they give it to you, give them a unique selling point and value proposition to try to close the deal or schedule a demo call. 

If they indeed aren’t the right person, structure your response like this:

SDR: No worries. I’ll do the digging and see who this person might be. Thank you for the direction. I’ll let you know if I can schedule some time with them. Wish me luck.

Hint: If you find the right person, you can reference the colleague you spoke with first, which will create a sense of familiarity in the prospect. Furthermore, if you don't succeed, you can reach back to the first person and ask for additional advice.


Scenario B

Prospect: I am not the right person. *Pauses* 

SDR: That’s okay. Any ideas about who might be the best person?

Prospect: Brandon.

SDR: Perfect, thank you! Any advice on how to approach them best?

Prospect: *Gives advice*

SDR: Thank you for the direction. I’ll let you know if I can schedule some time with them. Wish me luck.

Hint: The key here is to bind yourself to prospect A by asking for advice or direction. Then you would want to reach out to prospect B and give a referral to reference and then make it about prospect B (Ex. John sent me along your way…).

If you are unable to reach the decision-maker, reach back to person A, give them an update, be honest, admit you might have made a mistake, and ask for advice once again. The probability is that they would like to make it right and reach the decision-maker themselves.


Image of CTA banner 2 for watching Skylead - LinkedIn automation and cold email software demo


#3 I don’t have time

As one of the earliest and most common objections in cold calling or emailing, your job is to prove you are worth their time.

Using short sentences and showing you respect their time, tease the exact value to their pain point. You will catch their attention by teasing the experience of similar people, and then ask for a short time to pitch or aim to schedule a call for another time soon. 


Rebuttals examples


Scenario A

Prospect: I don’t have the time.

SDR: I completely understand. It must be pretty difficult to keep up with {Pain Point assignments}. I'd be happy to schedule a meeting and call you back. To be brief, let me just ask you a quick question: If I could show you a product/service that can achieve {Narrow Personalized Pain Point Value}, would it be worth it to take just 5 minutes to see how it could work for you?

Hint: With this question, you are providing the value and solution straightaway and showing you are respecting their time. They may or may not have the time right now, but you teased enough to schedule a call another time and soon. Ask them again if they have that 5 minutes right now, or if they do not, when you should schedule a short call.


Scenario B

Prospect: I don’t have the time.

SDR: I completely understand you have more pressing matters. A couple of people I talked to in the past said the same, but after our short conversation, they were glad they took the time. If you give 30 seconds to tell you how {Product} can help you reach {Narrow Personalized Pain Point Value}, and you do not agree, I promise you we will part ways. Sounds good?

Hint: With this statement, you get the chance to pitch right away, so try to be as brief as possible, and finish asking for another call.


#4 Budget is little tight at the moment

Price objections are the good type of sales objections you can hear, as the price comments show that the prospect thought of buying your product or service. It usually needs a little nudge value-wise.


Rebuttals examples

Prospect: We currently don’t have a budget for it.

SDR: Let's say money was not an issue. Would our product/service help solve your problem? Is price the only thing that is keeping you from signing?

Hint: If they say yes, you have the opportunity to offer a discount code for them to start with to ease the closing process. If not, investigate further to acquire the real reason, then leverage it to remove it with personalized value


Sales meme, objection situation I do not have the tame

#5 You are more expensive than competitors

Similar to the previous one, this objection has the money issue involved, but they are leveraging it over you with spicy competitor comments. Try to stay calm as this is 90% of the time solvable by showing how they can win with your product as opposed to losing with the cheaper alternative.


Rebuttal example

Prospect: You are more expensive than competitors. We do not have that budget.

SDR: Wouldn’t you rather have a solution with a bit higher price today, which will soon lead you to better ROI, than have a cheap solution that isn’t really solving anything for you?

Hint: The moment you start justifying the price, you drop to the bargaining level, where your cheaper competitor already is. So rather than addressing the price issue alone, link the price to the higher value your product offers. If they still do not understand, then they probably are not your ICP.


#6 I need to check with the boss or my boss doesn’t like this product but I do

You will often find out that the person you are pitching to does not have the authority to make final decisions. And after the pitching process at that. That is okay, and you should not change your attitude towards this person, particularly because they might be the ones who will use the product. 


Objection situation I need to check with the boss sales meme with rebuttals examples

Rebuttals Examples


Scenario A

Prospect: I need to check with my boss. 

SDR: No worries, I understand. I would like to aid you in the process. Could you introduce me to him? We can have a call together.

Hint: Don’t allow anyone else to deliver your sales pitch to the final decision-maker. Instead, aim to schedule a call with them to provide value. Be careful not to make the person not in charge feel inferior, instead offer them help and support in the pitching process. If, however, they do not wish to schedule a call, offer to send the necessary information.


Scenario B

Prospect: My boss doesn’t like this product, but I do. 

SDR: I’m glad you like the product, but I’m sad that your boss doesn’t share that thought. Maybe we can schedule a demo, so I can introduce him to how {Company Name} can {narrow personalized pain point value with metric}?

Hint: Provide the exact metric of the value your product offers so that the person can use that as alluring leverage to schedule a call with their boss.


#7 Reach out to me next month/year

Sometimes the prospects are so busy with their launches and other pressing matters that they do not have the time to think about other solutions. After all, we were all in this situation, right? 

So the key here is to make yourself a priority before the given date. Make sure to present your solution as they need it as urgently as possible, and that their business won’t function the same in regards to profit without it.


Objection situation Reach out to me next week/month/year sales meme

Rebuttal example

Prospect: Reach back in 6 weeks. We will be ready then. 

SDR: No worries. I understand it is a bad time, and I'll be glad to do so. However, I would still like to set up a five-minute call to demonstrate how we can help you {Metric Value}, so you can scale up your business as soon as possible and with ease. This way, if we are not the best fit, we don't have to worry about me chasing you in six weeks, but if it is, we'll talk more about it then. When is a good day and time for us to schedule a quick chat?

Hint: Reassure them that this is not a buying conversation. You just want to show them how valuable your product is and what it can do for them.


#8 Send info over the email

This objection is always present when you are cold calling or doing a demo. You would think that prospect wishes to receive all the information about your product, as they are a systematic person, but the truth is sometimes harsher for the SDR’s heart. The reason often implies that the prospect has already made up their mind about your product and that it might not be the best solution for them. By asking you to send information over the email, they hope to cut the conversation short.


Rebuttal example

Prospect: Could you please send all the info over the email? It’s easier for me to understand what you are offering.

SDR: I’d be happy to email all the information to you. I can send you our whitepaper and other educational content. But would you mind me asking just a couple of questions so I can only send you the part that you’ll find most important for your business needs? It’s just not to waste your time.

Hint: Agree to send them the information, but not before you ask them for additional short questions about their business. These questions serve as gathering more info about their pain point and start providing quick value for them to ask to schedule a call in the end.


#9 I’m not interested in your offer

How many times did you just hand up the phone and never call again the prospect who just said they weren’t interested? If your answer is too many, you need to step up your game. To do this, you would first need to ask yourself how they are not interested in something you’ve never actually presented.

The truth is that this objection usually means that they are busy. You should turn this core reason to your advantage, so restructure your introduction to focus on the expertise.


Overcoming objections sales meme, Objection handling situation I am not interested in your offer

Rebuttal example

Prospect: Thanks, but I’m not interested in your offer.

SDR: No worries. I can hear that you are busy. I just wanted to mention that I wouldn’t want to waste your time. What I want to tell you quickly is how we can help you grow, just as we helped {Other Companies in the Industry}. Would you like to hear how they managed to {Personalized pain point value with metric} while using our product?

Hint: Focus on prolonging the conversation as much as possible, just enough to demonstrate expertise using the pain point. This way, your prospect can see that you have relevant experience to back you up and that you know your worth. Objection handling win!


#10 Pitching back

As a pretty new strategy on the block, particularly in the B2B streets, pitching back to your pitch became somewhat of a new trend. This is a special situation where other B2B companies pitch you back, usually on demo calls. Translation? They are not interested in your product or service - they are just using the chance to show you their own.

There is nothing wrong with presenting your solution, but there is a problem when they only agree to the call to pitch you back. This is now a mind game, so be prepared. 


Rebuttal example

Prospect: Your product sounds interesting, but did you happen to know that the {Product} can do {Value}.

SDR: Yes, that indeed. Say what, would you be willing to try out {Product}, and we will try {Their Product}, and at the end of the Free Trial, we can discuss the experiences with our teams together in a meeting and go from there. Fair?

Hint: Proposing a collaboration will definitely surprise them, and there is a chance that their decision-maker will see firsthand the value you offer.


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Summary

Objection handling is no easy feat. It can come off as somewhat of a straightforward rejection but keep in mind that not all is as it seems and that some objections have their undercover meanings to which you can act on. 

Remember that these tricks are your sidekicks during the objection handling process:

And previously mentioned scenarios are your heroes. As long as you are familiar with common objections and prepared to answer either one from the list, you should be good to figure out the hidden meanings behind objections when you hear them, how to handle them, or simply who you need to just let go.


Sales meme objection handling situations with rebuttals examples

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Humans are complex beings: We love, we care, we have jobs, hobbies, and the community we belong to. But when it comes to cold outreach and personalization, we suddenly forget everything we are and start thinking of ourselves as an automation machine offering a chocolate bar. 

Maybe at the beginning of time, it was like that, alas in recent years, sales outreach is not about pushing a product in someone’s face to buy. Not anymore. The classic consumerism approach is long out of the picture. Nowadays, Sales is about personalization, providing a solution to someone’s problem and actually solving it, especially if we talk about B2B businesses.

That is why we need to remember who we are as humans first and know how to personalize our approach before we conduct the cold outreach itself. 


Grumpy cat GIF

But before we share how to personalize your cold outreach for LinkedIn lead generation, let’s check if you are structuring your message correctly, whether you are using email or LinkedIn InMails and messages.


Cold Outreach Basics: How To Write An Email Or LinkedIn Message For Your Prospects

As we mentioned before, personalization is a big deal in cold outreach. It provides your prospect with the sense of caring and that you really wish to remove particular pain points. Let’s discover how to write email or LinkedIn messages that get results and determine where personalization is possible.


How To Structure An Email Or a Message

There are three main parts of any message you would want to follow:

  1. Hook
  2. Body
  3. Call to Action

While writing the hook for the cold outreach, you are still stating who you are and the reason why you are sending an email in the first place. Here you would need to add what about the prospect made you send the initial message

Your hook can be created to invoke different actions and interests in leads. For example: one of the goals could be to wove your company throughout their personal thoughts and feelings. In this case whatever psychographics reason for outreach you pick, you need to relate it to your company, what it does, and how it solves the problem concerning value.


The body should emphasize what your company offers in terms of value and features. Keep in mind that the body is the least valuable for the prospect to read. They will first read who you are and what you want from them and then skip to the end of the message. If that lines up with them, they will read the body itself. Length-wise, it should not be longer than your Hook. 

Call to Action aka CTA is the one-time request from the prospect to do the desired action, such as book a call or sign up for an event. This line should be the shortest, as opposed to others, and as direct as possible.

Your message length may vary depending on the channel of communication and character limit, but these are the main guidelines you should follow.


Personalization in Cold Outreach: Introducing Variables 

If you are using Sales engagement tools, you’ve probably come across variables that help you create personalized outreach messages for your prospects. 

If you are not using any tool mentioned above, placeholders or variables allow snippet information in your email or LinkedIn message to populate, making your emails resonate with the recipient. To put it simply, placeholders are parts of your messages that are customizable by certain personal aspects of the prospect, while the rest of your email can be uniform for all.

These placeholders, whether you are using a sales engagement tool or inserting them manually, differ in execution but can come in handy either way.

Example:

Let’s say you are using Skylead, a sales engagement tool to generate leads more effectively and personalize your cold outreach. As Skylead creates campaigns based on:

It picks up the variables from the LinkedIn search results, so you do not need to search these manually (apart from the CSV file, in which case you need to make sure to include the leads' LinkedIn URL). The basic variables Skylead picks up, and you get to use in a message are the following:


Skylead’s email interface with variables

Thus making part of your email message look something like this:

Hi {{firstName}},

The reason for my outreach is that I’ve noticed you’ve been working as {{occupation}} in {{currentCompany}} for {{yearsInCurrentCompany}} years. 

As I wish to learn more about being {{occupation}} and the business struggles they might experience, I would like to connect and chat with you...


Custom Variables

Now, apart from these standard variables, you can import your Custom Variables, as well. Custom Variables are the placeholders that you can create, state their purpose yourself, and import in Skylead as an example. 

Whether in a sales engagement tool or manually inserted, Custom Variables can be:

Demographics - Variables such as age, gender, location.

Firmographics - Company name, size, performance, executive titles.

Psychographics - Classification by prospects’ opinions, values, attitude, interests.

If you wish to boost the process, you can use custom variables only in the outreach campaign created from a CSV file. Take a look at a quick guide on how to format and use custom variables for Skylead’s CSV campaign.


An example of CSV file with custom variables

Custom Variables Examples for Your Message

The main part of the personalization process is finding as detailed information as possible on the prospect and putting it in the hook part of your message to catch their attention. That is why we are going to concentrate primarily on the variables for the intro of your message.


#1 Cold Outreach Hook: Prospects’ Original Content

When you first meet the person, do you instinctively like them more if they are interested in your thoughts, opinions, and what you created? Most of us will not admit it, but the answer to this question is a big YES (subconscious level included).

That is why the first type of placeholder you need to consider is the content they created by themselves, and you can find it on their LinkedIn page or company website. It usually includes the following:


Where to find lead's original content to make variables and templates in cold outreach

For the introduction, you need to tease out the need out of that content to hook them into what you do as a value. Choose the type of creation and put what you can offer through the content

Example email using prospects’ original content as variable:

Hey {{firstName}},

The reason I’m reaching out is that I’ve read your recent article {{ArticleName}} where you emphasized {{TheirPoint}}. One sentence that really resonated with me was {{TheirSentenceWithPainPoint}}

What if I told you that {{PainPoint}} is easily overcome by {{ProvideLightValue}}. So I was wondering, have you ever come across {{YourCompanyProduct}}?

Real-life example:


Email template message for cold outreach, how to attract leads using their content

#2 Cold Outreach Hook: Content That Prospect Engaged With

This type of content implies any post, article, or video they liked or shared on LinkedIn but didn’t create themselves. Or you can use a webinar or event they attended. Although not as strong as the previous hook, the content they engaged with still shows your genuine interest and will provide you with an opportunity to relate it to your company. 

Example LinkedIn message using content that prospect engaged with:

Hey {{firstName}},

I’ve noticed that you attended {{WebinarOrEventName}}.

What did you think about {{PainPoint}}? I was wondering how does {{currentCompany}} deal with such an issue?

Real-life example:


LinkedIn message template for cold outreach using content leads engaged with

#3 Cold Outreach Hook: Using Prospects’ Self-Attributed Traits

Prospects' self-attributed traits are short sentences you will find on their LinkedIn profile, and they usually show what they are talking about themselves. The prospects view LinkedIn as a place where they can talk about their accomplishments, things they are skilled at, and what they like to do in the business world. You can easily find this information on their LinkedIn amongst:


Set up your LinkedIn profile compete guide banner with text: Earn the LinkedIn all-star status


Here, they will communicate to the world what is important to them, therefore you can hook what your product/service does to this information. 

Example LinkedIn message using self-attributed traits:

Hi {{firstName}}

I really liked your profile line about the {{HeadlineWithPainPoint}}. What I really liked was the sentence {{HeadlineWithPainPoint}}. What if you could make sure that {{PainPoint}} can be easily overcome?

Real-life example:


LinkedIn message template using self-attributed traits found on LinkedIn leads

#4 Cold Outreach Hook: Prospects’ Background Information

If you cannot find any of the previously mentioned hooks, you need to dig a little bit deeper, as a private investigator would. Find schools they attended, hobbies, and personal interests. Again, the rule is that you have to link it back to your company.

Template Email message using background information:

Hi {{firstName}}

I noticed you enjoy occasional {{Hobby}}. You know what they say: {{QuoteAboutHobby}}

Hiking is pretty much like {{department}}. What if I told you that {{Department}} process can be {{AtributesFromQuote}}

That said, have you ever come across {{YourCompanyProduct}}?

Real-life example:


Email LinkedIn cold outreach message template using leads background information, collage, hobby

Pause - Outreach Variables effectiveness check-up

The reason why the mentioned hooks are so strong is that they all include psychographic variables. Psychographic traits are something that someone believes in, has an attitude for, or something that hits them more to the core. That is why they trigger the largest response rate as they are closer to the heart.


Psychographic variables and placeholders meaning in cold outreach

And continue…


#5 Cold Outreach Hook: Company Information

Unlike psychographic variables, the following personalization placeholders are classified as firmographics. They include information such as:

These variables are the least effective on the list. Nonetheless, if you say only one thing about their company specifically, they will feel more special as they know you are talking ONLY to them. 

Using this kind of information, you would like to be as detailed you can but briefer in character length.

Template Email message using background information:

Hi {{firstName}}

I noticed your company grew {{CompanyStatistics}} in the last year. Congrats!

I understand that as {{occupation}} you must have even more tasks when it comes to {{PainPointProcess}}.

What if I told you that your life as {{occupation}} can be easier so your {{CompanyStatisticsBoosted}}

I was wondering, have you ever heard of {{YourCompanyProduct}}?

Real-life example:


Firmographic variables example for personalization in cold outreach template

Image of CTA banner 1 for watching Skylead - LinkedIn automation and cold email software demo


#6 Cold Outreach Hook: Personalized Intro

If you find that previous variables might be a little more in-depth than you are willing to go, you can help yourself with the previously mentioned concept ideas, but use one variable only. To put it simply, you can use a personalized intro that changes depending on the prospect, while the rest of your email or the LinkedIn message stays the same for everyone.

Template email message using personalized intro:

Hey {{firstName}},

{{PersonalizedIntro}}.

That said, I was curious if you are using a solution for your cold outreach?

I would love to show you a solution that can combine Email and LinkedIn with a hyper-personalized approach that will help you book 30+ additional meetings per month and keep your pipeline full.

Real-life example:


Email message cold outreach template using personalized introduction

Bonus: Short Variables

As additional placeholder ideas that you can use for personalization, take a look at other custom variables that we singled out.


Top The Cold Outreach Up a Notch With Other Type Of Personalization

The one thing people do not use more often but should integrate into their cold outreach is personalized GIFs and Images. Trust us - you will get a far better response rate.

A buying experience personalized to the prospects’ profile image, apart from custom variables, is perfect for cutting through the noise of other emails and reaching out. 

For example, Skylead, as a sales engagement tool, likes to get personal, offering native GIFs and images personalization with prospects profile image or company logo. Of course, you can do this manually as well, but the point stays the same: additional and creative personalization will get you far in establishing the relationship with the lead. 


Hyper-personalize with Images and GIFs personalization in cold outreach

Summary

To sum up, here are all custom variables ideas that have been used throughout the text:  

Placeholder descriptionVariable name
Authored content chosen{{WebinarName}}, {{ArticleName}}
What stood out for you in particular content{{StoodOutSentence}}
Day when you saw the authored content{{ContentSeenDate}}
Attended webinars or events{{WebinarOrEventName}}
LinkedIn headline or profile about section with pain point{{HeadlineWithPainPoint}}
Prospects’ Interests in the Hook part of the email{{Hobby}}, {{QuoteAboutHobby}}
Company department for which you created the product/service{{Process}}
Firmographic statistics that is highly specific about somebody’s company{{CompanyStatistics}} 
Using the colleague’s name in the Hook part of the email{{TeamMemberName}}
Custom sales pitch according to the industry for the body of the email{{SalesPitchAccordingToTheIndustry}}
For the Hook part of the message{{BirthdayDate}}
The entire introduction created for the individual lead, while other parts stay the same{{PersonalizedIntro}}

LinkedIn prospecting and outreach is a necessity. Done correctly, you will improve conversion, customer relationship, retention, sales figures and KPIs.

The key to success lies in personalizing your outreach and building a relationship with your leads. Remember, they are humans too. 

So start creating a targeted cold outreach strategy and show your leads that you’ve actually done the research, and that you are genuinely interested to help. Empathy is everything. 

If you wish to boost and hyper-personalize your cold outreach, check out how Skylead works, come, say hi and try it out free for 7 days. 


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When doing Lead Generation on LinkedIn or generally networking, a genuine back-and-forth conversation works more to your advantage. 

Not only do you show interest in other users and their businesses, but you also find out so much about their needs and preferences. Furthermore, even if you don’t close the deal immediately, you understand better how your target audience perceives you, your brand, and generally the entire industry. 

One of the ways to “examine your market” that, if done properly, can be quite engaging is conducting a LinkedIn Survey. Namely, LinkedIn Polls seem to be the new trend that is taking over our LinkedIn feeds. 

Not only. This type of content seems to be LinkedIn’s favorite. Therefore, it can push it to reach even ten times more users than you have in connections. Of course, on the condition that it is engaging enough and that the algorithm recognizes it as important to your audience. Long story short, if you make it interesting and valuable enough to your leads, they will reward you with visibility and extensive reach. 

In this blog, you will learn: 


How to make a LinkedIn Poll? 

Go to your LinkedIn home page. Click on “Start a Post”. 


Image of how to create a LinkedIn poll step 1

Then, click on the graphics icon. 


Image of how to create LinkedIn poll step 2

Type in the question. Offer a minimum of two and a maximum of four answers. Set up the timeframe. It can last for a day, three days, a week, or a maximum of three weeks. 


How to create LinkedIn poll, Image of step 3, adding options

After you’ve done setting up the LinkedIn poll, the “Done” button takes you to create an accompanying LinkedIn post. 

Make a brief appealing introduction to your survey or give an extra explanation, if necessary. This is optional. If you wish, you can post the Poll as it is.  


How to create LinkedIn poll, Image of step 4, Creating catchy copy

In the bottom right corner, there is the option of allowing comments or customizing who can post on your Survey. 


How to create LinkedIn poll, Image of privacy option and hashtag, step 5

Click on “Anyone”. Then, choose one of the following options. 


Image of how to create LinkedIn poll, who can comment on your post option, step 6

All set. Now sit back and wait. 


What to ask in a LinkedIn survey that benefits lead generation? 

First of all, define well what you want to explore through your LinkedIn Poll. Just like A/B testing, examine one aspect at a time. Give precise answers in a multiple-choice form for more accurate results. Then, if you want to investigate further a certain option, conduct another Poll. 

Here are several ideas on what to focus on if you want LinkedIn Surveys to benefit your business. 


1. Gain knowledge on the market expectations

If you are launching a new product or service or trying to improve the existing one, create a poll to understand what your audience expects from you and the industry in general.

It helps you place your product on the market scale, realize what your customers need, or even pinpoint a unique selling point that you didn't know about. 

Effectively listening to your audience is essential for your business. The biggest mistake is not talking to your customers enough and assuming that you know what they need. You would be surprised how much you don't. 


2. Build interest in an upcoming product or service 

Let’s say you are launching a new Sales Automation platform. Carry out a LinkedIn survey to see how much time your clients spend targeting and reaching out to leads manually. This is your hook. 

Maybe this information is not relevant to you, as you already know the answer, but it makes people aware of how convenient it is to use Sales Automation. Consequentially, once you launch the product and use the obtained data in your product description or an intro, many of the LinkedIn poll participants will be interested in what you have to say. 

Point out the problem. Build excitement. Offer a solution. 


3. Get feedback on your product or service

Nowadays, people are more likely to answer a LinkedIn poll than to fill out a survey. 

Let's be honest. The last time you sent out a survey, what was your response rate? When people receive a survey request, they don’t know what to expect and how much time it will take them to complete it. That’s why they rather stay out of it. 

On the other hand, when users see a LinkedIn poll, it takes a second to pick an answer. It almost goes by default for some. Additionally, the higher the engagement the bigger the exposure on other users' feeds. This alone instantly boosts your products' online presence. You are getting instant visibility.


How to scrape data from a LinkedIn Poll?

The information gained from the LinkedIn Poll doesn’t need to be limited to the “winning answer”. This type of content is quite a Lead Generation gold mine. 

After you’ve tallied all of the votes, you can use any data collection tool to gather the information from all the poll participants. 

For example, the tool Data Miner is a free web extension and in this blog, we are showing you how to use it to serve your needs best.


Step #1 Open the LinkedIn Poll you would like to scrape  

The LinkedIn Poll must be finished for you to scrape data. Click on “{number} votes”


LinkedIn poll, Image showing number of voters

In this case, since users opted for one of three answers, we have three groups of leads: the ones that said "always", "never", and "it depends". Open the ones that replied with "always". Then, scroll all the way down so that Data Miner can pick up all of them. 


Image showing leads of LinkedIn Poll

Step #2 Open Data Miner

Turn on the Data Miner. Since we will use Skylead for outreach, all we need is their LinkedIn profile URLs. That’s why we move forward and choose the “Make your own recipe” option. 


Image explaining how to create URL in Data Miner

Choose the type of recipe. In this case, we go for “List/Search Page: multiple rows”. 


Image explaining how to create URL in Data Miner step 2

Go to the “4 Rows” tab. Follow the instructions. Select any of the users as "Row #1", and the one below him or her as "Row #2". As long as you have scrolled all the way down, as mentioned at the beginning, Data Miner will scrape everyone from that group of leads. 

In the case of the LinkedIn poll, it is better to scrape one answer at a time, so that you can later use it and personalize it in Skylead. 


Image explaining how to create URL in Data Miner step 3

After we selected the rows, let’s move to tab #5 “Columns”. 


Image explaining how to create URL in Data Miner step 4

Name the column “profileUrl” written exactly like this - lowercase and attached. 

Click on “Easy Column Finder”.


Image explaining how to create URL in Data Miner step 5

Choose “URL”. Then, select the entire box just like you did at the beginning and click C. Lastly, once the Data Miner found the profile URL, confirm. 

Go ahead and save this recipe as a template for future LinkedIn poll scraping. 

We named it “LinkedIn Poll Scraper” and saved it for future use. 


Image explaining how to create URL in Data Miner step 6

After this step, click “Scrape in Data Miner”. 

This is how your scraped LinkedIn profile URLs look like. 


Image explaining how to create URL in Data Miner step 7

Download the results in a CSV file.


Image explaining how to create URL in Data Miner step 8

You’ve made it. 

In this case, we are repeating the same process from the beginning till the end for the remaining two answers. We want to use their votes to personalize outreach accordingly. 


Skylead: How to personalize outreach based on a LinkedIn Poll? 

There are several ways to make outreach campaigns aimed at users who participated in a LinkedIn poll work. 

We’ll show you one of them. 


Step #1: Prepare for the Skylead outreach campaign? 

First, you scraped all the participants and downloaded the data. Copy-paste them in one CSV file. Then, highlight the last link of each group so you know when to change the content of the message. In this case, we divided them into those who replied with “Always”, “Never”, and “It depends”. 

Lastly, we added a column “Personalization” which, once uploaded, becomes a variable in Skylead. The content of the column varies based on the participant’s answer in the LinkedIn poll. 



Links of users who answered “Always”
I saw that you participated in my poll. I am also always personalizing Invites to Connect! In my opinion, this is a key practice for improving your acceptance and response rates.


Links of users who answered “Never”
I saw that you voted in my poll. I find it so interesting that you are never personalizing your Invites to Connect! Do you still manage to expand your network or generate leads at the desired pace?

Links of users who answered “It depends”
Thank you very much for participating in my poll. I saw that sometimes you personalize your Invites to Connect, and sometimes you don’t. I am curious to know how you make that decision!

This is how it looks in practice. 


Image showing how to prepare CSV file with personalized intro for campaign in Skylead

Step #2 Make your Skylead outreach campaign faster and more effective

Give a name to your campaign and import your CSV file. 


Image of Skylead campaign creator, Campaign setting to target leads from LinkedIn poll

Click “Next” and go all the way to the “Create Smart Sequence” section. 

We will make a really simple Smart Sequence just for the sake of showing how to use a LinkedIn poll for personalization that won’t go unnoticed. 


Image of Skylead smart sequence, Campaign creation, targeting leads from LinkedIn Poll

In this case, users receive the following messages: 

Group #1

Hello Adam (varies),

I saw that you participated in my poll. I am also always personalizing Invites to Connect! In my opinion, this is a key practice for improving your acceptance and response rates.

Anyways, I would love to connect! 

Group #2

Hello Ivy (varies), 

I saw that you voted in my poll. I find it so interesting that you are never personalizing your Invites to Connect! Do you still manage to expand your network or generate leads at the desired pace?

Anyways, I would love to connect!

Group #3

Hello Steve (varies), 

Thank you very much for participating in my poll. I saw that sometimes you personalize your Invites to Connect, and sometimes you don’t. I am curious to know how you make that decision!

Anyways, I would love to connect! 


Summary

LinkedIn Poll is the new content on the rise. 

Therefore, use it wisely. It will not only serve the instant market research, but online promotion, opportunity for prospecting on LinkedIn and lead generation as well. 

Finally, if you are new here and want to know more about how Skylead can make your sales (and life) easier, talk to out wonderful Customer Support Team. They will answer all of your questions and show you how to start 7-day free trial. Test it out for yourself and decide. No strings attached! 


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Whether you want to network, find your perfect client, do cold outreach, showcase your expertise, or educate other users about your product, LinkedIn is a place to be. 

The platform offers so many possibilities not only when it comes to reaching pretty much anyone on the planet (crazy, isn’t it?) but also in terms of different communication channels - from direct messages to InMails, posts, polls, emails, etc. 

Get on LinkedIn, and the (business) world is your oyster. 

But what about the time? Yes, there are only so many hours at our disposal and so many things that need to be done. Luckily, the development of automation and AI-powered solutions took some strain off us and helped us focus on more “important” things. 

Take AI lead generation tools, for example. Sales reps that use them to automate lead generation and prospecting on LinkedIn have more time to focus on building meaningful relationships and closing deals, instead of getting stuck in certain repetitive actions.

The same goes for LinkedIn itself. If you automate these 3 things, you’ll reach more customers in less time and increase your company’s value.


Sales Navigator 

Sales Navigator is LinkedIn’s paid sales solution. It is designed to help its users do their outreach more effectively and land better deals.

Not only.  

Sales Navigator gives you some advanced options that can improve the quality of both your targeting and outreach efforts. 


Access to out-of-network connections

One of the biggest benefits of LinkedIn Sales Navigator, especially nowadays with the newest LinkedIn restrictions and limits, is the opportunity to extend your sales reach outside your network. 

Namely, you can only view a limited number of profiles outside your network. Sales Navigator lets you “unlock” that information for up to 25 profiles a month. This way you can better understand your leads and make more meaningful connections. 

Furthermore, the LinkedIn Sales Navigator account gives you 20 InMails each month. This way you can reach out to your 3rd-degree connections and establish significant business relationships. Additionally, InMails are credit-based. That is, if the user replies to your LinkedIn InMail, the one you sent first will not be counted towards your monthly limit. 


Sales Navigator gives you the chance of ultimate targeting!

With 24 filters only for “Lead Search” at your disposal, you can narrow down your audience until you achieve the very best results. Imagine how well you can refine your search and pick quality leads that will almost for sure be interested in what you have to offer. 


Sales Navigator filters image

However, before you go ahead and start searching for that perfect customer of yours, learn how to use Sales Navigator filters

It would be a shame not to take it to your full advantage just because you haven’t done your research. 


Lead recommendation 

The “Lead Recommendations” feature suggests relevant leads based on your sales preferences, search history, profile views, and past saved leads. AI-powered techniques make this happen due to the pre-collected and labeled data.

The more you use Sales Navigator, the more it will use the data to do the valuable targeting for you. 

Therefore, it saves you a step in the sales process. 


Powerful sales insights

As you search for prospects, save leads, and make connections, Sales Navigator will keep you posted on updates in your network such as: 

This way you will always stay up with the latest industry tendencies.


CRM integration 

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management Software. 

A CRM gathers customer data and interactions across all channels in one place. Managing centralized data helps businesses improve customer experience, satisfaction, retention, and service. 

Briefly, a CRM will help you understand your leads’ needs, segment your audience, and therefore, know how to target them better. 

That being said, Sales Navigator integrates with the following major Customer Relationship Management Software: 


Hootsuite 

Hootsuite is a social media management platform where you can do everything from creating quality content and scheduling posts to managing team members and measuring ROI.

It gives you the option of: 

Social media presence is crucial for any type of business. Nowadays, when companies and their employees have multiple accounts on multiple social media platforms, it is getting harder to post quality content and to plan a good strategy without using an automation tool. 

At the end of the day, trying Hootsuite out doesn’t cost you anything. 

Literally.

It is the only social media management platform that allows you a 30-day free trial. 

Check it out! 


Skylead

Surprisingly, cold emailing and/or reaching out on LinkedIn turned out to be some of the most effective ways of generating leads on LinkedIn

However, this works only if you have targeted your audience well, if you came up with a highly elaborated strategy, and have strong copies of the messages you will be sending. 

This is where Skylead comes into the picture. It is an Automation Tool, Scraping Tool, and an Email Finder, all in one software. 

Check out Skylead’s solution for an all-embracing outreach. 


LinkedIn outreach 

To perform LinkedIn outreach, you connect with your leads and message them. 

Or you can use paid or free InMail options depending on whether you have a LinkedIn basic or paid account. 


LinkedIn, Image of sending free or paid email through Skylead, sales engagement platform

As you may see, Skylead gives you the option of hyper-personalizing Invites to Connect, LinkedIn messages, and InMails, and fully automating this process. 

It supports both LinkedIn Basic and Premium Accounts, but it is better to upgrade it to the extent of your possibilities. 

LinkedIn Premium Account, in comparison to LinkedIn Basic Account, can perform more in terms of features, such as having the option of an Unlimited Profile Search and sending a certain number of LinkedIn InMails. You can also view and engage with a much greater number of profiles with a Premium account.

Sales Navigator is more advanced as far as filters are concerned in comparison to a LinkedIn profile. 


Email outreach 

Skylead personalizes Email Outreach and combines it with LinkedIn features.

Email Outreach implies personal emails, emails imported through a CSV file, and business emails discovered and verified through Skylead’s Email Discovery & Verification Feature.

Here is an example of a campaign that combines LinkedIn outreach with business emails. 


LinkedIn tips, Image of example campaign with smart sequence combining LinkedIn outreach and business emails

As you may see from the picture, Skylead uses multiple channels to reach out to your leads. 


Email discovery & verification feature 

Thanks to its Email Discovery & Verification feature (see above), Skylead manages to collect the data, “compose” all the possible business email options, and verify them even without you being connected with the lead on LinkedIn. 

This is how your leads list will look like on Skylead. 


Image showing leads list in Skylead, Sales engagement tool

Image & GIF hyper-personalization tool 

With Skylead’s Image & GIF Hyper-personalization tool, you can offer products and services in a less conventional way, make fun job opportunity announcements, wish your clients happy holidays, or schedule a casual meeting. 


LinkedIn tips, Image showing image and GIF hyper-personalization option in Skylead

This option is available for LinkedIn Messages, Emails, and InMails.


LinkedIn tips, Image showing image and GIF hyper-personalization option in Skylead

As you may see, there are options to:

Add me: import your LinkedIn profile picture;

Add lead: import your lead’s LinkedIn profile picture;

Choose custom logo: import a logo from your computer;

Add lead’s logo: import your lead’s current company’s LinkedIn profile picture;

Add text: text is perfectly personalized by using all Skylead’s available tags. Additionally, in case you import your leads through a CSV file, each column of your CSV file becomes a tag as well. 


Smart sequences 

Skylead is the only Sales Engagement Tool that offers multichannel outreach through Smart Sequences. That is, it combines LinkedIn messages, Emails, and InMails, with other LinkedIn features such as Invite to Connect, View, Follow, thanks to the “if/then (condition)” step. 

The “if/then (condition)” step allows multiple scenarios in your outreach. Briefly, it ensures that you will reach out to your leads one way or another - whether by connecting on LinkedIn, sending an email, or simply following them on LinkedIn as a subtle reminder of you trying to connect. 

For example, let’s say you make the flow in the following manner: Invite to Connect - LinkedIn Message -  (follow-up) LinkedIn Message. 


LinkedIn tips, Image of smart sequence in Skylead combining invite to connect and LinkedIn message steps

In case the prospect doesn’t accept your Connection Request, the rest of the sequence goes down the drain. 

With Smart Sequences, the same flow would be put in the following manner - “If Connection Request Accepted” then “Send Message”, “If Connection Request Not Accepted” then - a whole bunch of other options, such as “View Profile” - “Email Discovery & Verification” - “If has verified email” then “Send Email”, etc. 


Image of Skylead's smart sequence with multichannel outreach; Linkedin, Email Discovery and Verification and email outreach combination

As you may see, your Smart Sequence will not just stop but will proceed with other available/possible paths to your lead. 


Integrated inbox 

Whether your leads’ responses come from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, or Emails, Skylead has an Integrated Inbox. Its role is to put all of these together in a neat and organized way. You know where your prospects answered from at any moment thanks to the chat’s well-defined icons. It’s your choice where you want to continue the communication – in the Integrated or directly in the channel’s Inbox.


Summary 

Automation is there to help you scale your business while ensuring consistency in customer experience and opportunity costs. 

That is to say that with the right automation tool you will be saving and making money while watching your company grow. 

To learn more about how Skylead can help you make the most of your LinkedIn experience, schedule a demo call with our team representative. 

We look forward to opening a world of outreach possibilities for you! 


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