The 10 rules for cold outreach on LinkedIn

1. Don't attach a note

Send a blank connection request first. Your acceptance rate will increase significantly.

2. Pitch right away

Don't trick people into a conversation. It won't land well. Be honest and pitch right away.

3. Target interested people

Don't select your prospects purely based on job title. Find people who like and/or comment content in your niche. They are interested and active. You can use IbexAI to do this at scale.

4. Be extremely short

Your message has to read as if it was sent from your phone while waiting for the elevator. Short, no formatting, no line breaks.

5. Lead with a question

Start with a question that qualifies your ICP. E.g.: "Are you currently practising law?" This triggers a (positive) response.

6. Mention the value

Tell people what's in it for them. E.g.: "It saves realtors 4h each week on average."

7. End with a soft CTA

Don't ask for something high-effort. Make it easy for your prospect. Simply ask: "Are you interested?"

8. Send a 2nd message

Don't stop after the first message didn't get a reaction. Send a 2nd one with a sligthly different angle. Same product but different benefit.

9. Send a 3rd message

Send a break-up message: "I'll stop following up after this. If anything changes you can reach me at {my email address}." You'd be surprised how many replies come in after this.

10. Reply asap

Once you get a reply don't wait. Your chances to convert are highest if you get to engage with your prospect immediately and start a back-and-forth chat.




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For context and why I know this topic pretty well: I ran a LinkedIn cold outreach agency and am currently growing IbexAI, an AI agent that finds high-intent leads for your product through monitoring LinkedIn engagement signals.