Perfecting Your LinkedIn Cold Messages: Proven Tactics for Higher Engagement and Shorter Sales Cycles

Whenever it comes to scaling your cold messaging, the challenges are quite a handful when it comes to scaling through LinkedIn.

Most of the incoming cold messages might be seen as spam by the recipients. Yet, you still have to send enough of those to get a satisfying reply rate; be catchy to get attention but not cringy, and offer value in the right portion so you get conversions (‘cause that’s why we are all here, right).

There’s also a constant battle with LinkedIn limits, change of algorithm, visibility, and what not.  

Simply put, for your team to reach targets your options are to either spend more to grow your sales team or risk personalization and Linkedin jail for sneaky automation. Or are they?

You see, you can actually have the best of both worlds: automated messaging campaigns that save you time AND are personalized enough to sound human, without additional hiring. 

All you need is a couple of tools and a handful of templates.

Don’t believe me? Just give me a few minutes of your time. I’ll cover some cold message examples our clients used alongside HeyReach and other tools to increase their replies and conversions without increasing their total costs.

Before that, though, let’s set the record straight…

The main challenges of scaling LinkedIn outreach 

Using LinkedIn for your cold outreach for sales in B2B SaaS is, hands down, the best way to go about it if your target audience is present. If you’re in the construction industry, for example, you’re still better with cold calling probably.

But there are definitely some challenges you need to overcome when it comes to scaling your efforts, especially when done manually.

Limited personalization at scale

Targets in sales are getting crazier every year. Even if you spend your whole work day personalizing a message template and sending it to leads, it’s gonna be pretty hard to reach those targets and get a good first impression at the same time.

When you include follow-ups and tracking responses, together with filling in your sales CRM to have an overview of your productivity metrics - at one point you’ve just going to opt for a generic template that you send to every lead. In most cases, you won’t target any pain point of your potential customer, and these direct messages will get you flagged for spam, you’ll be ignored, or even blocked.

Manual labor costs

Let’s say that you really want to do everything manually, and team targets are increasing. The next logical step would be to hire more SDRs to be able to deliver, right?

Well, if you’re in the US, that’ll cost you $80k on average per rep. Then there’s also the amount of time you’ll spend in hiring, onboarding, and training new hires, plus managing the extra workload until the team can handle all of it.

There’s a very fine line between what’s actually worth it and what's not, especially when you’re scaling your startup. 

Slow response time = missed leads

Our CRO, Ilija, constantly repeats:  “In sales, speed either kills or saves the deal”. The same goes when it comes to outreach. 

And let’s face it. When you’re handling outreach manually, it’s easy to miss a hot lead just because you didn’t reply fast enough. 

By the time you follow up, they’ve already gone with a competitor who responded quicker.

Higher conversion costs

When everything’s done manually, there are bound to be some mistakes. From prospecting, and qualifying leads, to outreach – slow responses or human errors can lead to a lower conversion rate, and in the end, a higher conversion cost.

The more time you’ll have to spend on an outreach sequence out, the more it’ll cost to actually turn a lead into a customer. And if your messaging isn’t dialed in, you’re burning through leads without getting enough conversions to justify the effort.

If LinkedIn has so many challenges, why not simply go for something more traditional, like cold email outreach?

But why LinkedIn and not cold email outreach?

Well, don’t get me wrong. Cold email works. But it comes with its own set of challenges. 

Engagement plays a huge role in cold emails. So, if they’re not getting opened or are just being deleted, you won’t stand a chance in actually showing up to your leads’ inboxes. 

Plus, once you account for deliverability issues, spam filters, and the sheer volume of emails people receive daily, it becomes harder to stand out.

Sure, LinkedIn has its issues, don’t get me wrong. 

But, there, you’re reaching a pool of potential clients inside of a professional network, where people go every day to work, business and job opportunities. 

People can see your LinkedIn profile, job title, company you’re working with and know that they’re chatting with a person. Who knows, they may even acknowledge a common ground on interest, shared connection, industry, school that you two went. Depending on how well you’ve done your homework before reaching out. 😉

There’s a social element that makes your outreach more organic. Plus, with the right approach, you can leverage LinkedIn’s algorithm to keep your profile visible to more potential leads.

But I’ll be honest with you. For all of this to work without you having to spend extra time and money, manual isn’t going to cut it. You’ll need the help of some automation tools. 

How to increase the scope of your cold messaging with automation tools

When you’re scaling your LinkedIn cold outreach, the key is to leverage automation tools without losing that human touch. 

The trick is to create campaigns that mimic the way you would manually reach out to a prospect. Except now, it’s happening on autopilot.

Using automation tools to simplify the entire lead generation process

Before you even think about sending a message, you need high-quality leads. And let’s be real. Sifting through LinkedIn manually is a nightmare. 

That’s where tools like Clay, RB2B, and Trigify come in.

• Clay pulls data from multiple sources, enriches profiles, and helps you build highly targeted lead lists.
  
  
• RB2B identifies and verifies detailed information about website visitors so you can turn your anonymous traffic into actionable leads.
  
  
• Trigify tracks real-time buying signals and intent data, helping you reach out to leads when they’re most likely to respond.
  

By automating the lead sourcing and enrichment process, you’re making sure you’re reaching out to the right people without spending hours on manual research (and doubling your caffeine intake).

💡To go in depth with prospecting and qualifying processes check the following guides:
1️⃣ LinkedIn Prospecting: The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need
2️⃣ Streamlining Success: Real Talk on LinkedIn Lead Qualification That Gives 20% More Conversions

Keeping a balance between automation and personalization

Here’s the thing. Automation can get your message in front of more people, but if it sounds robotic, it’s going straight to the “Ignore” pile. 

The goal is to scale conversations that feel real. That means:

• Rotating accounts of team members  in your outreach campaigns so you can reach more people
• Using smart personalization, like mentioning a lead’s recent post,  shared LinkedIn connection, event(s) you both participated in, LinkedIn group you’re both engaged in… you get the picture.
• Automating follow-ups without losing the human touch.
  

Let’s break these down on followable steps.

Setting up your LinkedIn Sender rotation 

In essence, with HeyReach’s LinkedIn sender rotation, you’ll be able to use multiple LinkedIn to reach more leads without breaking the LinkedIn limits.

You can clearly understand why this is a game-changer. You’re not limited to a set number of actions per month anymore. You’re only limited to the number of accounts you want to use.

So, how do you set everything up?

Well, we’ve made sure to keep this super simple. Essentially, all you need to do is log in with your LinkedIn accounts on the dashboard.

Here’s a quick step-by-step

1. For starters, simply log in to your HeyReach dashboard and click on LinkedIn Accounts (the second option on the left). You can see the screenshot below for reference.

‍

‍

2. Click on the “Connect Account” button on the top right (it’s got the LN logo as well; you can’t miss it). There, you can choose between logging in with your LinkedIn profile credentials alone or keeping your account connected at all times if you have enabled 2FA.

‍

3. Guess what? That’s it. As soon as you log in to your LN account and connect it with HeyReach, you’re ready to go.

‍

And that’s how simple it is to turn your LinkedIn profile into a HeyReach Sender. You’ll need to repeat steps for every teammate you want to connect, or simply send them an invitation to join.

Oh, and let’s not forget another quick step: setting your limits.

Once you have your Sender accounts ready, notice the little button to the right of the profiles that says “Configure limits”.

‍

Yes, that one. Well, as soon as you click that, you can (you guessed it) set your limits. 

What you might have noticed on the screenshot above is that there’s a hard limit in HeyReach, and you cannot go above it.

⚠️ Please note, while this is a maximum allowed, Linkedin Limits may vary  based on your Social Selling Index  and type of account ( free account limit may differ from a Linkedin Premium one which may differ of LinkedIn Recruiter, etc.).

However, you can configure your daily limits so that in combination they don’t exceed weekly or monthly ones.

For instance, you can configure the limit to be 20 connection requests a day, so you don’t exceed weekly 100 connection request limits.

⚠️If you’re connecting a Sender to multiple campaigns, HeyReach will distribute your daily limits across the campaign, and within the campaign itself. HeyReach will never exceed configured limits.

All good so far? Great. Let’s get onto the start of any good cold messaging campaign: the leads.

Adding your lead list and selecting your Senders

Let’s go back to your dashboard for a quick second. See that button on the left, under the LinkedIn symbol (the third one)? The anonymous profile picture one? 

Well, that’s where you’ll upload all your lead lists. Click on it, and you should see something similar to the screenshot below (with less than 1000 lead lists, probably).

‍

1. Once you're on your “Leads” dashboard, simply click on the blue button on the top right saying “Add leads”. This is what you should be looking at right now.

2. As you can see on the sidebar, there are plenty of different ways you can import your leads on HeyReach.
   We always recommend to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator, but you can also  import via CSV, or third party of your choice.
   Once you’ve chosen import via LinkedinSales Navigator you’ll get the new window where you can import your crafted list from Navigator.

3. All that’s left for you to do is choose  the name of your list, add the URL to the designated list, and select the Senders that will be used when you start a campaign for this specific list.

Three quick steps, and you’re able to import your list just like that.

Crafting your cold outreach message sequence from scratch

A quick sum up before we dive into the step-by-step. You’ve got your leads and Senders ready, and, as the time comes to get a campaign started, there’s a bunch of different actions you can take.

Here’s an example of a quick cold messaging sequence I created:

The campaign starts off by identifying leads my Sender account is not connected to and engaging with them. A quick follow, a quick like, and then a friend request. All in 1 day intervals and, of course, all happening without you having to do anything manually.

And, then, it’s the “difficult” part. Writing a cold message that’s actually personalized. 

This is what you’ll see as soon as you add a cold message to your sequence. You can choose to send it as direct message or as LinkedIn inMail. Whatever your choice is, just don’t make it a sales pitch. 

Nadja often brags how this simple cold message got her ton of new customers when she moved to Barcelona: 

Hey {FIRST_NAME}. I just moved to {LOCATION} and am looking to connect with {POSITION} in {INDUSTRY}.

When writing your message just choose the contact information you want to use, add variables for personalization, and that’s it. HeyReach will automatically replace the placeholders with info from your leads’ profiles in the message it delivers.

I’ll cover a bunch more tips and message examples right below. But, for now, let’s keep going with the campaign

Launching and tracking the campaign

Let’s quickly go over a step-by-step on how you can launch your next campaign:

1. Click on the 5th button on the sidebar to go to your Campaigns (it’s the paper airplane symbol). This is the dashboard. 

2. Click on “Start new campaign”, and you should be presented with the screen below. Simply choose your campaign name and lead list. You also have the option to exclude certain leads if, for example, they’re already part of another campaign.

3. Once you click “Continue”, you’ll be presented with your list of Senders. Simply click “Check” on which ones you want to use for this specific campaign and configure any of their limits if you haven’t already.

4. Now’s the fun part; you get to create your Sequence. I already mentioned this right above, but, a quick recap: you can add different actions, like following the lead or liking their post, as well as sending a connection request, an inMail message, follow-ups, and so on. 

Once you click “Continue” once again, all you have to do is review that everything is correct and launch your campaign.

Congrats! 🎉 Your first HeyReach cold messaging outreach is up and running. 

Now, you’ll be able to check how it’s performing on your “Dashboard”, where you can have an overview of total number of Connections Sent, Connections Accepted, Messages Sent, Messages Replied, InMail Sent and InMail replied, which looks like this:

And you can also follow the performance of every action inside of the Sequence

But we’re not done just yet…

Running your outreach with the unified inbox

So, your campaign is live, and replies are starting to roll in. Your inbox is overflowed, some of the team members get sick, or head that OOO.

Now what?

With HeyReach’s Unified Inbox, you can:

• See all conversations in one place—across multiple LinkedIn accounts.
• Track responses and reply instantly.
• Assign conversations to different team members if needed.
• Takeover conversations from team members that are OOO.

Why is this a game-changer?

Imagine running outreach across 5 different LinkedIn accounts. Normally, you’d have to log in and out of each profile just to keep up.

This is the final piece of the puzzle. Now, you’re not just automating outreach—you’re scaling actual conversations.

And that’s how you take your LinkedIn cold messaging to the next level.

By now, you’d expect me to write a call to action for HeyReach, right? Well, that’s not going to happen just yet.

Instead, I’ve got something for you. 

We’ll look into a bunch of different real-life examples of our customers using HeyReach for their cold messaging campaigns, including their templates (personalized messages, follow-up messages, etc) and results (response rate, conversions, etc).

‍

Before that, check out all our tips and tricks after sending over 5,000,000 LinkedIn DMs.

The best LinkedIn cold message templates – Real-life examples that nailed the first message and the follow-ups

Before we dive deep into these, I want to give my two cents. 

I always go for a very simple formula, whether it’s an inMail message or a first contact after connecting:

[Observation]
[Question]

That’s it. 2 sentences, all about the other person. That’s how you get a conversation going.

And, of course, another personal favorite that’s actually almost always led to a response is:

“Hi [name], just wanted to say hi and that it's great to connect with you :)
(optional) [Question]”

The simpler a message is, the more likely it is for you to get a response. Hell, we’ve got consistent results when our follow-up is a simple waving emoji 👋

But, of course, I’ll let the numbers and our Outbound Outliers do the talking now.

1. GTM Motion

Messages:

Hey [FIRST NAME] :), I saw on your website that you work in [INDUSTRY]. Since you likely work regularly with [ICP], I’ve put together a short guide on how you can improve conversions with sales AI agents.<br><br>If you’re interested, just send me a 👍, and I’ll be happy to share it with you. Tim

‍

If no response:

Hey [FIRST NAME],
Don’t worry, I won’t spam you further 😅. I’m just sending you these two guides that can help you convert more [ICP]. How to create Sales Agents: [LINK 1] Sales triggers: [LINK 2].If you want we can set up a call and I can show you a personalized demo of the AI Sales Agent.

Done by: Tim Scheuer, Co-Founder @ Prospera AI

Results: 

• Messages sent: 184
• Reply rate: 45%
• Meetings booked: 5

Why it worked: The campaign's success was due to hyper-relevant, hyper-targeted messaging that added value up front. Tim used personalized insights from LinkedIn profiles and company websites to craft messages tailored to each lead’s industry and ideal customer profile, leading with helpful resources before asking for a call or sale.

2. Lead Magnet Outreach Strategy

Messages:

1. Hi [NAME], I hate to be that guy, but I have this crazy [LEAD MAGNET NAME] . Can I send it over? Simply reply "yes" and I will rush it to you.
2. [NAME], my bad, I couldn't hold back... Here's the [LEAD MAGNET TYPE]. Hope you enjoy.
3. [NAME], seen it? ^^
4. [NAME], if you liked the last guide, you would love this one:

Done by: Tim Yakubson, Founder @ B2B Boosted

Results: 

• Total leads: 1051 
• Acceptance rate: 45%
• Reply rate: 26%

Why it worked: Tim's strategy involved leveraging lead magnets that solve niche problems for a specific persona. This approach, combined with targeted LinkedIn outreach and multiple follow-up messages, ensured high engagement. The strategy creates trust and positions Tim as a valuable resource, leading to a strong reply rate and qualified leads.

3. LinkedIn Outreach for Event Promotion

Messages:

Hey [NAME] - Paris-based, right?
We're organizing an invite-only SaaS marketing invite [DATE].
It's free to attend but we can only accept 10-12 SaaS marketing leaders. I thought you might be interested in joining.
Here's more info: [LINK].

‍

[NAME] - did you have a chance to take a look? We'll gather to share the good, bad, and ugly of SaaS marketing, exchange playbooks, campaigns, strategies & tactics which are working right now...Discuss hot topics and trends in SaaS marketing, enjoy some light food and drinks in a beautiful space - paid by Skale. Interested in joining?

Done by: Stan Stojanovic, Founder @ frontBrick

Results: 

• Total messages: 243
• Accepted connections: 45
• Replies: 12
• Event sign-ups: 26 (Amsterdam), 12 (Paris)

Why it worked: Stan’s strategy revolved around targeted LinkedIn outreach, personalized connection requests, and leveraging scarcity with limited event spots. Including an instant registration link within connection requests and follow-up messages allowed prospects to sign up effortlessly. The approach combined simplicity, relevance, and urgency to boost engagement and lead generation for the events.

4. B2B LinkedIn Outreach

Messages:

Hi [NAME],
‍
Thanks for the like on my latest LinkedIn post. Made me have a quick look at your website. If I understood correctly, you’re targeting companies that are trying to improve their digital transformation process? You could identify them by analyzing job openings for “digital transformation” roles or looking at companies recently adopting new tech stacks via BuildWith. Many B2B companies are still building lists like that manually with Apollo and Sales Navigator and then upload CSVs into the HubSpot Sequencer. AI could build your lists, enrich data and then write a personalized email based on that - fully on autopilot

Would you be open to see how that works?
Gilbert

Done by: Gilbert Kralinger, COO @ Enablement.ch

Results: 

• Total messages: 136 
• Replies: 12
• Positive replies: 10
• Conversion rate: 8%

Why it worked: Gilbert's strategy focused on laser-targeted outreach with personalized messaging, using intelligent automation and data-driven insights. He used tools like Sales Navigator, Ocean.io, and Clay for lead qualification, ensuring messages reached the right prospects at optimal times. This personalized, multi-channel approach resulted in higher engagement and a significantly better conversion rate.

5. LinkedIn Lead Generation

Messages:

1. Hey {FIRST_NAME}, I'm just curious, are you aware of {TRENDING TOPIC}?</blockquote>

2. :)

3. I'd guess you're not into {TRENDING TOPIC} at all. Wouldn't you like to {BENEFITS OF YOUR SOLUTION} or avoid {PAIN RELATED TO NOT HAVING YOUR SOLUTION}?

Done by: David Emanuel, Co-Founder @ AutomateRevOps

Results: 

• Total messages sent: 36
• Replies: 12
• Meetings booked: 12
• Reply rate: 32%

Why it worked: David’s strategy utilized a relationship-first approach, qualifying LinkedIn connections through tools like Clay. The outreach involved personalized engagement, such as liking a post before sending the first message. Follow-ups were gentle but persistent, with a focus on building rapport rather than just pushing a sale. This approach created a strong connection, leading to a high conversion rate from replies to booked meetings.

6. Outbound Workflow for Ecommerce

Messages:

1. (Industry focus)

Hey {FIRST_NAME}! Big fan of {COMPANY} and just wanted to connect. Let me know if I can ever be helpful to you - we do a lot in the {Industry_Category} space.

2. (Event-based)

Hey {FIRST_NAME}! Big fan of {COMPANY} and just wanted to connect. Let me know if I can ever be helpful to you - {Event_Invite}.

3. (Collaboration)

Hey {FIRST_NAME}! Big fan of {COMPANY} and just wanted to connect. Was thinking I could maybe write a post about you guys for my audience, would love to collaborate. Let me know if you're interested!
Oh - almost forgot, let me know if want to see a sample digital experience. We've built out rebate, sweepstakes and production education experiences for lots of CPG brands, more than happy to show you.

Done by: Gunner Park, RevOps & Growth @ Brij

Results: 

• Messages sent: 90
• Connections accepted: 42
• Positive replies: 25
• Reply rate: 60%

Why it worked: Gunner’s multichannel approach combined LinkedIn and email outreach with deep personalization using tools like Trigify, Clay, and Smartlead. By segmenting leads, leveraging growth signals, and using conversation starters based on engagement, Gunner achieved highly personalized and effective outreach. The combination of strategic outreach and targeted messaging led to an impressive reply rate.

7. Send Personalized Videos on LinkedIn

Messages:

Hi [FIRST NAME],
Thank you for the connection. Looking forward to staying in touch.
Mensur
‍

Hi [FIRST NAME],
I was thinking of writing a long message, but I thought it would be more personal to reach out with a small video.
[VIDEO URL],
Regards,
Mensur

Done by: Mensur Zahirovic, CEO @ Weezly

Results: 

• Messages sent: 100
• Video views: 50%
• Meetings booked: 23

Why it worked: The strategy used personalized videos combined with the HeyReach and Weezly integration to engage leads in a more personal way. By automating video creation and including booking links, Mensur significantly improved engagement, with a 50% view rate and a high meeting conversion from video outreach.

8. Identify High-Value Website Visitors & Contact Them Automatically

Messages:

Subject line: [FIRST NAME] Visited [YOUR COMPANY NAME]
Hi [FIRST NAME],
Saw you on the website.So you probably already know how [USE CASE]. [VISITORS]. You know where to find us, but would you like me to send you the link to sign up for free? Just reply with "yes".
P.S. If you have any questions about the platform, feel free to ask here.
Regards,
YOUR NAME]

Done by: Taylor Haren, Sales Automation Systems

Results: 

• Total messages sent: 1,332
• Replies: 43
• Positive replies: 30

Why it worked: The strategy involved using RB2B and Clay to identify and automatically contact high-value website visitors. By tracking website behaviors and enriching lead data, the system effectively qualified leads, enabling highly targeted outreach. Personalized messages and automated workflows significantly improved the chances of engaging the right prospects at the right time.

9. $2.5M+ in Qualified Pipeline Using LinkedIn Outbound

Messages:

Hey {FIRST_NAME} - I’ll be in NYC 1st week of Oct and wanted to reach out to a few CS leaders to see if you’d be open to coffee. I founded [MY COMPANY] after leading teams at [SOCIAL PROOF]. [MY COMPANY] brings together AI + People to help high-growth companies scale [WHAT]. Any interest in that?

Circling back on this. You’ve been leading CS teams for quite some time so I’d love your feedback on what we’re doing right now at [MY COMPANY]. As an [SOCIAL PROOF], I saw the quality of Customer Support across hundreds of organizations continue to get worse. We’re here to solve that problem and we’re truly bringing together [WHAT]. Are you around the 1st week of Oct?

Done by: Luke Bivens, Founder @ QC Growth

Results:

• Connection requests: 359
• Conversations started: 49
• Meetings booked: 17

Why it worked: Luke's strategy focused on personalized connection requests and follow-ups, leading with value and relevance. The outreach was highly tailored, making use of simple yet effective messaging and automatic profile visits to stay top-of-mind. This approach resulted in engaging key decision-makers from major companies and securing high-quality meetings.

10. How to Find Active LinkedIn Prospects

Messages:

Hey {FIRST_NAME}, I tried to email you but my email enricher couldn't find your address. I noticed you are offering lead gen services too, what do you do when the email is missing and you don't want to burn the sales list?
If LinkedIn automation were: as scalable as email; no pay-per-seat; safe and don't get OOO.; no Ddeliverability problems. You can start immediately (no warm-up).
Would give it a try?

Done by: Michael Saruggia, Owner @ The Clay Operator

Results: 

• Total messages sent: 66
• Accepted connections: 21
• Positive replies: 5
• Reply rate: 50%

Why it worked: Michael's strategy involved using Clay to identify LinkedIn users with over 500 connections, ensuring they were active networkers. Combining LinkedIn outreach with a multichannel approach and personalized messaging led to more responses. The use of customized messaging based on engagement resulted in a significant increase in replies.

Scale your LinkedIn cold outreach with HeyReach

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt when it comes to cold messaging, it’s that it’s a matter of balance. A balance between sending hyper-personalized messages and automating the entire process.

One costs time, and the other makes you sound like a bot. That’s why you need to find the right balance so that you can reach out to a big chunk of your target audience without losing the human touch in the process. 

Of course, finding the right outreach strategy is also going to be difficult. But there’s a little something we can do about that.

If you’re not sure how to get started, schedule a 1-on-1 strategic call, and we’ll guide you through creating the perfect outreach strategy for you.

‍