LinkedIn outreach messages: the 5 rules that doubled our meeting requests
Monday morning, I opened our tool’s dashboard like I do every Monday. And I read the number twice.
September was our best month since Horizon B2B began. Each of our clients received close to ten meeting requests on LinkedIn, on average. Double the month of August. And we did not send more messages than in August.
What changed is the LinkedIn outreach message itself. Here are the five rules we drew from rereading every message we sent since the summer. Part of it surprised me.
Where these numbers come from
Since the spring, we have been building our own tool, a piece of software we designed ourselves because nothing out there did what we wanted. It reads what we can find about the person and their company: their profile, their page, their website, what they publish. Then it prepares a message with AI.
Then someone on the team rereads every message and sends it by hand, one at a time. Nothing goes out on its own.
What I had not planned for is everything the tool teaches us. Because it keeps track of every message and every reply, we can finally see what gets a response and what falls flat. So we sat down with the team and reread every message sent since the summer.
An honest note: these are our campaigns, not a scientific study. But the gaps are clear enough to change how we write.
Rule 1: open with something the person published
We always write to the right people, that is the baseline. But between two messages sent to the same kind of decision-maker, the one that opens with a post, an interview or an award the person shared gets almost twice as many replies as the one that starts from their website.
People reply when they can see you read them. Anyone could have opened a website. A post means you took the time.
Rule 2: one sentence about their work beats a paragraph about ours
Our best messages say one true thing about the person’s reality. For example: “Profiles that combine these two areas of expertise are rare.” And we stop there.
The natural reflex is to follow up with what we do, for whom, for how many years. That is exactly where the reader checks out. One sentence about us is enough, and it comes after.
Rule 3: five or six sentences, no more
Every extra sentence costs us replies. Five or six sentences is the right format. After that, it drops with every line.
A business leader reads your message on their phone, between two meetings. If the point is not visible without scrolling, they put it off. And later never comes.
Rule 4: same title, small companies reply three times more
The president of a ten-person company reads their own messages, often the same day. In a 500-person company, the message gets lost.
That does not mean ignoring large companies. It means adjusting your expectations, and not concluding a message is bad because a large company did not answer.
Rule 5: the simplest invitation works best
A fifteen-minute virtual coffee, to learn how the person goes about it on their side. Not to sell.
As soon as the invitation looks like a demo or an offer, replies drop. People accept a conversation. They turn down a sales call in disguise.
What gets replies, and what falls flat
| Element | What falls flat | What gets replies |
|---|---|---|
| The opening | Their website | Something the person published |
| The subject | Us, for a paragraph | Them, in one true sentence |
| The length | One more paragraph “just in case” | Five or six sentences |
| The target | A 500-person company | A ten-person company, same title |
| The ask | A demo or an offer | A fifteen-minute virtual coffee |
An example message that follows the five rules
Here is a message the way we write it, with a fictional name. It opens with what the person published, says one true thing about her situation, fits in six sentences and ends with the simplest invitation.
Hi Geneviève, how are you?
Your last three posts are about product marketing, and none about Pixaria.
When the audience follows the person rather than the company, the visibility leaves with her.
I’d love to talk about it for 10 to 15 minutes, because this is exactly what I spend my days on: helping B2B leaders turn LinkedIn into a real channel for meetings. I’m curious how you handle it on your end.
Would you be open to a virtual coffee?
The greeting is fixed. The second sentence is the fact, and its source is clear: her posts. The third is the stake that fact implies for her. The next paragraph is the only one about us, and it says why we are writing. The last line asks for a virtual coffee, nothing more.
What it did for one client
We applied these five rules for a client who recruits executives. In August, almost nobody replied to her. In September, she tripled her replies, without changing anything but her messages.
Same target, same sending rhythm. Only the messages changed.
What I take from it
People reply when they feel you took the time to read them. The tool and the AI help us prepare, but attention is what gets a reply, and it shows in the first three lines.
I have been doing this job for eight years and I still find things that surprise me. That is why I love it so much.
The check to run before you send
Read your message again and ask yourself four questions:
- Does my first sentence start from something the person published, and say where I saw it?
- Do I say one true thing about their work before talking about mine?
- Does the message fit in five or six sentences?
- Am I asking for a fifteen-minute conversation, and nothing else?
If any answer is no, the message is not ready.
Frequently asked questions about LinkedIn outreach messages
How long should a LinkedIn outreach message be?
Five or six sentences. In our campaigns, every extra sentence lowers the number of replies. The point has to be readable without scrolling, on a phone.
How should a LinkedIn outreach message start?
With something the person published: a post, an interview, an award they shared. For us, those messages get almost twice as many replies as the ones that start from the company’s website.
Should I introduce my company in a first LinkedIn message?
One sentence, no more, and after talking about the person. Our best messages say one true thing about the recipient’s reality before saying what we do.
What should I ask for at the end of a LinkedIn outreach message?
A fifteen-minute virtual coffee, to learn how the person goes about it on their side. Not a demo, not an offer. The simplest invitation is the one that gets the most replies.
Can AI write a LinkedIn outreach message?
It can prepare it. Our tool reads the person’s profile, page, website and posts, then proposes a message. Someone on the team rereads it and sends it by hand. What gets a reply is the attention paid to the person, and it shows in the first three lines.
If you already write to people on LinkedIn, reread your last ten messages against these five rules. And if you would rather have us write and send for you, that is what our personalized LinkedIn outreach service does. To talk it through, let’s grab a virtual coffee.
Let’s talk about what LinkedIn could actually do for you.
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