LinkedIn Invitation Message: How To Make the Most of It?

Sending an invitation message on LinkedIn is for some useless, for others indispensable… 🤔. Check out our best practices and case study!

PART 1 [Best practices] How to write a LinkedIn invitation message?

Before sending your LinkedIn invitation message, all the boxes in this checklist must be checked. These are the essential prerequisites for your acquisition strategy:

• ✅ I know my persona on LinkedIn: I know who I want to address.
• ✅ I know what I want to offer: what is my offer and especially what is its added value for the person I am targeting.
• ✅ I have a tool that allows me to automate the sending of my LinkedIn messages, and make sure you know how to send them. (otherwise, use Waalaxy, it’s free).

Then you must be original. You can’t always use the same message templates or copy/paste from the internet. Then use the A.I.D.A method:

Should you always personalize your LinkedIn messages?

Yes and no. 💥 Of course you should personalize your prospecting. If you send a generic message to your audience, all your prospects will see that you are using a robot.

Plus, automation tools are becoming more and more prevalent on the net, so users are aware of these practices. Your best weapon is therefore to segment and automate, but intelligently! If you personalize each of the messages sent by hand, you will waste a lot of time and your prospecting action will not be profitable.

• Have between 100 and 500 leads per campaign.
• Make sure the campaigns are ultra well segmented. See here how. 👀👀
• Do A/B testing of messages to see which ones work best for your audience.

Example of a LinkedIn invitation message that works!

• ✅ The shortest teaser messages are the best,
• ❌ Don’t try to sell right away, (avoid promotional content).
• ✅ Create a connection without rushing the prospect.
• ✅ Show your interest in your future client.

Hello {{firstname}}, I am interested in what {{company}} is doing and would love to follow you on your journey. I will also be looking out for any articles or posts you share. 👀 Can we get connected? See you all soon, Signature.

How do you get new leads through LinkedIn?

You can send your message to prospects, but you can also use other ways!

LinkedIn is a real gold mine for BtoB prospecting. You can imagine, that we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of qualified profiles, who are on the network to develop their connection, network, read content and find new tools. It’s perfect for you! The best way to get leads is to get the most out of this platform, in 3 ways:

• ✅ Optimizing your LinkedIn profile as much as possible.
• ✅ Creating a content strategy based on personal branding.
• ✅ Using automation and database enrichment tool sender to recontact your leads in a multi-channel version.

How to contact a LinkedIn user by email?

Don’t want to stop at just sending LinkedIn messages? You’re right. The cross channel or multichannel allows you to multiply your contact points with your target by sending them cross messages.

Sending an email to your prospect is a great strategy.

If you want to find the email of your LinkedIn prospects, it’s totally possible, thanks to the Mail Finder. (An option at Waalaxy, but also at some competitors). Here are some examples of sequences, all automated by the tool:

• LinkedIn Text Message + Email address finder + Email Message.

See Waalaxy pricing + free option. 👀

Why should you send an email campaign?

Emailing is the best way to convert leads into clients, just above your LinkedIn strategy.

Send an email marketing to the right audience and you will see your conversion rate building up.

There is two different kinds of email sending: Newsletters and Cold emailing.

Here, we mostly talk about sending an email to somebody that didn’t subscribe for it: it’s called cold email. 

Sending this email is a way to touch your audience with another channel and double (if it’s not more) your chances to get an answer. To do so, you need to have the right technic :

• When you send it?
• How to build the email body?
• How to create an email subject line that converts?
• How to make sure your audience can read your message?

To answer those questions, we have a free webinar that we can share with you. 🤗

Here is the link. 🎁

Can I find my prospect’s phone number?

Yes, you can, 50% of the time, people have a mobile phone number linked to their profile.

Waalaxy can also find their contact, which allows you to contact them via SMS messages or directly by calling them.

🚨 In B2b, being willing to send an SMS is not always a very appreciated method. Make sure you know how to create a good impression.

Sending a message on LinkedIn and then sending emails are already very good, mostly if your target is a very busy person (CEO’s, directors..).

How do I thank a LinkedIn invitee?

You’ve just been accepted for an invitation on LinkedIn and want to send a message after the invitation to start the conversation? The most important thing for you in these cases is to:

• ✅ Keep in touch,
• ✅ Quickly show your added value for the future customer.

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Here’s an example:

Hello {{firstname}}. I wanted to thank you for adding me to your network.

I see that you have an interest and expertise in (a relevant field), and I would love to exchange tips with you. Do you know what’s new in our industry? 😁

If you want more examples, here’s an article full of templates. 👀

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PART 2 [Case Study] Going the extra mile on LinkedIn teasers

In this article, we take stock. Should you contact your prospects with or without a LinkedIn invitation note? Here’s something you should enjoy if you want to prospect effectively and find customers through marketing automation. We’ve compared different acceptance rates and offer you an exclusive BtoB study of over 10,000 invitation requests.

Is it a good idea to send messages as soon as the invitation is sent? That’s what we’ll see now 😉

Our case study about the invitation message on LinkedIn

The accounts used

For this case study, we used 4 different LinkedIn accounts to make our invitation requests:

• One account with a high degree of seniority.
• Two accounts with a lower degree of seniority, but with a more prestigious title (CEO/COO).
• Finally, one account with a lesser degree of seniority and a classic title (Business Developer).

Targeted personas

We targeted 4 types of profiles, the only sorting is done on the recipients was on the title of the prospects:

• The “CEO” (2500).
• The “Business Developer” (2500).
• The “Sales” (2500).
• The “Digital Marketer” (2500).

The prospects came from all over the world and the notes were sent exclusively in English.

Method and objectives

In this study, we sought to determine the importance of the type of note sent on the acceptance rate. We assumed that the content of the note had little influence on the acceptance rate. We classified the different notes sent into 5 categories:

• Empty note (no note is sent with the invitation).
• Sending a non-personalized note:

“Hello, I would like to join your network.“.

• A personalized note:

“Hello {{firstname}}, I would like to join your network.“.

• Sending a full note without a link:

“Hi {{firstname}}, I’m wondering if you’re generating Leads via LinkedIn. If this is the case, I would be interested in joining your network and having a chat about it. Have a great day!”.

• Sending a complete note with the link:

“Hi {{firstname}}, I’m wondering if you ever thought of promoting your brand or generating leads through LinkedIn. We’ve created a tool that automates this process without risk. If you’re curious, you will find more information on our website: https://www.prospectin.link/gw/bt-1 Have a great day!

The personas, as well as the application submissions, were distributed equally among the different accounts and with the different notes. Each note was therefore sent 500 times with the 4 accounts, in the same proportions to each persona.

What was the result of the LinkedIn invitation message test?

We send text messages to a precise audience to verify the study.

The figures on the acceptance rate

Out of 2000 sendings for each note, the results are as follows:

• Empty note: 38%.
• Unpersonalized note: 36%.
• Personalized: 33%.
• Complete note without link: 32%.
• Complete with link: 26%.

So, LinkedIn invitation note or not?

The most obvious conclusion is that if your goal is to maximize your acceptance rate to grow your network, you were better off not sending a note with your invitation request. The second conclusion is that there seems to be no significant difference between sending a personalized note with the first name or not.

So send a message with the proximity you want to have with your prospect base. The third conclusion is that sending a link to your website in the add note lowers your acceptance rate significantly compared to sending a similar message without a link. It is more considered as spam and commercial prospecting on the part of the recipient (a bit like B2B direct mail in general with a lower and lower click-through rate).

Fourth and last conclusion: Sending a note or not and the content of it greatly influences the acceptance rate of the connection request (46% difference between the acceptance rate of sending a connection request without a note and sending a complete note with a link to a website).

You should therefore take these criteria into account if you want to attract new customers, maximize your return on investment and retain them.

The limits of our study

It is important to point out the limitations of this study. Indeed, this study only deals with the acceptance rate and therefore completely ignores the transformation rate.

In case you are looking to prospect on LinkedIn, this is not negligible. You will certainly have a lower acceptance rate by using a note presenting your product or service compared to an invitation request without a note, but the people who accepted you will be more inclined to listen to your proposal. Moreover, these figures were observed under specific conditions thanks to our Waalaxy tool (a real help for B2B prospecting).

It is possible that the same personas targeted with different LinkedIn accounts could have produced different results. The same is true for personas. If we had targeted a different type of profile with our accounts, we might have had different results. In addition, follow the complete guide on prospecting for your business here!

Feel free to let us know if you get different results than we do when you use the LinkedIn invitation message! 😊

Faq and article conclusion

How do I see pending LinkedIn invitations?

To this question, there are two answers: ❌ If you are not using an automation tool. Then you have to manually go to the person’s profile and look at the status of the invitation.

✅ If you are using Waalaxy: “List” tab; “List X”; “Did not respond” filter.

How do I cancel a LinkedIn connection invitation request?

❌ If you are not using an automation tool. Then you need to manually go to the person’s profile and delete the invitation request.

✅ If you use Waalaxy: people who have not responded after a certain time (you choose the duration), then they automatically exit the message sequence.

Ok, it’s time for sending your message!

You don’t have to do anything. ❤ And there you have it, you know all about the LinkedIn invitation message! It’s up to you now. 😜