When LinkedIn messages go unanswered, the cause is never simple and can depend on several factors. But one thing is clear: it is frustrating and wastes time.
Before I discuss actionable strategies for improving your messaging, I’ll share the background variables of messaging.
Factors that Affect Whether People Respond
The first thing to understand is that not everyone is going to respond. If you think this, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. Here are the elements that will impact your response rate:
1. Existing Relationship
Whether people respond or not will depend on your existing relationship. This is all very obvious, but if they know you well, they’ll respond. If they don’t know you at all, whether they respond (or accept a connection request) will depend on a number of factors. Your job is to build that relationship.
2. Recipients Perceptions
If someone doesn’t know you that well, or at all, they will make snap decisions based on the information they have about you. When you send messages on LinkedIn, the recipient will see your name, profile picture, profile headline and the message itself. Your name is the only one you can change short term. Some people will click on your profile, so how this is set up will be a factor for those ‘doing research’.
3. Relevance
The contents of your message are a major determinant of whether someone will respond or not, or even whether they disconnect! Messages should be relevant for the recipient. Targeting who to send them to and being specific based on the information you know about someone are important, and will determine whether someone sees your message as insightful and valuable or irrelevant.
4. Your Approach
What you say in your message and the feeling the recipient has on reading your message is vital to whether someone responds, or not. Do you use corporate/marketing language, or are you more conversational? Are your messages ‘one-size-fits-all’ or personalised for the particular individual and/or situation? Are your messages about the recipient, or about you? What you say and how you say it matters. Get this wrong and your response rate will be poor.
5. Timing
Not everyone is ready to buy from you right now. Statistically, on average at any one time:
3% Ready to purchase
7% Open to buying, but not looking
30% Not thinking about it (indifferent)
30% Think they aren’t interested
30% Know they aren’t interested
This means that 3% will talk to you if you get the other elements spot on, and another 7% may enter into a conversation. So, a total of 10% of your total audience will be receptive to your message. For the others, it will just pass them by.
6. Preferred Channel
LinkedIn has 310 million active users per week out of a membership of 1.1 billion. So, there’s a large percentage of its user base that is not sitting around waiting for your message on LinkedIn and may stumble across it for weeks or months later. Some people prefer receiving LinkedIn messages, whereas others prefer email or even phone. You need to consider alternative options to start that conversation.
Actionable strategies to improve response rates
Now that I have set out the elements that will impact your response rate, the next step is what to do about them to turn the stats in your favour. Here are, and insights and stats to help you understand what’s going on.
1. Existing Relationship & Building Relationships
LinkedIn is a relationship-building platform that offers three ways to interact with other members: content, commenting, and messaging.
With your content, you can attract your ideal clients. If they like it, they may comment on it or like it; the majority don’t and lurk. However, you have full visibility for each member who is active on the platform by creating posts, commenting on others, or even reacting (likes, etc.).
By engaging based on their activities, you have the opportunity to become visible in their world, and no one likes anything better when others show interest in them. Adding thoughtful comments or reactions to your ideal client’s posts is a way to help build the relationship. Sending them messages with valuable and insightful content will do the same. Relationships are built over time, should not be rushed and should go at the pace of your ideal client. People don’t like to be pushed or sold too.
💡 The more familiar and warmer the relationship, the more likely someone will be to respond. Prospects are 3x more likely to reply if they recognise your name from a prior engagement.
2. Recipients Perceptions & Profile Optimisation
How someone perceives you is vital. If you work in a professional environment, don’t have a picture of you at the pub looking the worse for wear. Work on your headline so that when an ideal client reads your message, they have an idea whether you will be useful to them. Don’t let the impression you make, let you down.
💡 Optimise your profile before you start reaching out to ideal clients. Make sure your photo, headline and the rest of your LinkedIn profile are ready to receive visitors. Set up your landing page.
3. Relevance, Segmentation & Tailoring
So how do you make messages relevant for the recipient?
The first step is to ensure you have done your targeting. No matter how good your message is, don’t send messages to people who are unlikely to be interested in what you have to offer. Poor targeting is the number one problem I see on LinkedIn. People skip past this task quickly and wonder why their response rate is so low. Don’t fill the top of your funnel with people who are not targeted—it’s a total waste of resources.
The contents of your message should be based on what information you know about an individual and making that message relevant and specific to this information. For example, if someone has created a bit of content where they are sharing a potential problem you can help with, your outreach message should be specifically about that piece of content. This will make it relevant to them and when you add your insights and experience into the mix, bingo, they will very likely respond. This is personalised for their situation and your message is seen as valuable and helpful. Always lead with insights and value rather than ‘pitching’.
💡 Sales Navigator is designed for targeting the right people, segmenting ideal clients into buckets for outreach, and for organisation.
4. Your Approach: Be Human & Focus on Helping
What you actually say in your message is the most important element for whether someone will respond or not. Too many people get this so wrong.
From pitching to corporate chat and from cut-and-paste messages to complete irrelevancy. The recipient of your message will only be interested if it’s of interest to them and delivered in as part of a normal human conversation. Your goal is for them to feel like they want to keep talking to you.
You may be the best person on the planet to help them, but if you get the message wrong, both they and you will miss out on the opportunity to work together.
Be specific in your message, not generic. Be friendly, not stiff. Keep your messages as short as possible. Show empathy and stand out without being awkward.
Record and analyse your response rate. If it is low, something is wrong. The first place to look is your message (although other elements can affect this rate). The most important point is to be human. Put yourself in the recipient’s place. Would you respond?
💡 76% of decision-makers ignore generic pitches but respond to tailored messages. Warm vs Cold outreach is x15 more effective. Combine the two, and you have a winning formula.
5. Timing & Choosing Who to Focus on
Timing is everything in life, and when we know very little about someone, it’s potluck whether they are in the ‘buying zone’ or not. As I mentioned earlier, only 10% of your total targeted audience will read your message, let alone respond.
However, you can increase your chances of a positive response by gathering sales intelligence about your ideal clients. This will help you identify whether they are interested in what you offer and, more importantly, whether they are interested right now.
Reaching out with the right approach and, based on this information, swings the stats in your favour of a positive result and a warm response. Someone should feel compelled to respond because they have a need that you are well placed to solve.
💡 Send your most important messages midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) between 9 and 10 AM. These messages receive 27% higher open rates than at other times of the week.
6. Preferred Channels & Other Options
If sending LinkedIn messages fails over time, try switching your method. So what are the alternatives?
Try sending a voice note or video message. These messaging methods are underutilised, so they may make you stand out from the crowd. I appreciate these methods are not for everyone.
Some people prefer receiving messages through email rather than LinkedIn messages; for others, it’s the opposite. When doing this, reference your LinkedIn interaction in the subject line and message, so the recipient does not see this as cold.
💡 Voice notes boost response rates by 40%.
7. Know When to Move On
If you have been trying with a contact for 2–3 follow-ups, pause your outreach and revisit them quarterly with fresh insights. If they were a warm prospect, something has clearly become a bigger priority for now. Timely nudges keep you top-of-mind without overwhelming them.
💡 The number of touchpoints before a sale varies between 1 and 50, depending on the prospect’s buying stage.
In Summary
LinkedIn is a relationship-building platform, so first and foremost, enter messaging with the intent to build relationships and genuinely look to help.
Poor message response rates are a clear signal that you’re not getting something right. This can be the message itself or other elements around the message. Treat every non-response as feedback, individually and collectively.
By blending sales intelligence with a solid messaging approach, you will find enough people who need and want your help. Not everyone will respond, but that’s okay, as not everyone is ready right now. Stay organised and patient, and you’ll generate plenty of warm conversations to fill your pipeline.
7 Steps When LinkedIn Messages Go Unanswered
7 Steps When LinkedIn Messages Go Unanswered
When LinkedIn messages go unanswered, the cause is never simple and can depend on several factors. But one thing is clear: it is frustrating and wastes time.
Before I discuss actionable strategies for improving your messaging, I’ll share the background variables of messaging.
Factors that Affect Whether People Respond
The first thing to understand is that not everyone is going to respond. If you think this, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. Here are the elements that will impact your response rate:
1. Existing Relationship
Whether people respond or not will depend on your existing relationship. This is all very obvious, but if they know you well, they’ll respond. If they don’t know you at all, whether they respond (or accept a connection request) will depend on a number of factors. Your job is to build that relationship.
2. Recipients Perceptions
If someone doesn’t know you that well, or at all, they will make snap decisions based on the information they have about you. When you send messages on LinkedIn, the recipient will see your name, profile picture, profile headline and the message itself. Your name is the only one you can change short term. Some people will click on your profile, so how this is set up will be a factor for those ‘doing research’.
3. Relevance
The contents of your message are a major determinant of whether someone will respond or not, or even whether they disconnect! Messages should be relevant for the recipient. Targeting who to send them to and being specific based on the information you know about someone are important, and will determine whether someone sees your message as insightful and valuable or irrelevant.
4. Your Approach
What you say in your message and the feeling the recipient has on reading your message is vital to whether someone responds, or not. Do you use corporate/marketing language, or are you more conversational? Are your messages ‘one-size-fits-all’ or personalised for the particular individual and/or situation? Are your messages about the recipient, or about you? What you say and how you say it matters. Get this wrong and your response rate will be poor.
5. Timing
Not everyone is ready to buy from you right now. Statistically, on average at any one time:
This means that 3% will talk to you if you get the other elements spot on, and another 7% may enter into a conversation. So, a total of 10% of your total audience will be receptive to your message. For the others, it will just pass them by.
6. Preferred Channel
LinkedIn has 310 million active users per week out of a membership of 1.1 billion. So, there’s a large percentage of its user base that is not sitting around waiting for your message on LinkedIn and may stumble across it for weeks or months later. Some people prefer receiving LinkedIn messages, whereas others prefer email or even phone. You need to consider alternative options to start that conversation.
Actionable strategies to improve response rates
Now that I have set out the elements that will impact your response rate, the next step is what to do about them to turn the stats in your favour. Here are, and insights and stats to help you understand what’s going on.
1. Existing Relationship & Building Relationships
LinkedIn is a relationship-building platform that offers three ways to interact with other members: content, commenting, and messaging.
With your content, you can attract your ideal clients. If they like it, they may comment on it or like it; the majority don’t and lurk. However, you have full visibility for each member who is active on the platform by creating posts, commenting on others, or even reacting (likes, etc.).
By engaging based on their activities, you have the opportunity to become visible in their world, and no one likes anything better when others show interest in them. Adding thoughtful comments or reactions to your ideal client’s posts is a way to help build the relationship. Sending them messages with valuable and insightful content will do the same. Relationships are built over time, should not be rushed and should go at the pace of your ideal client. People don’t like to be pushed or sold too.
💡 The more familiar and warmer the relationship, the more likely someone will be to respond. Prospects are 3x more likely to reply if they recognise your name from a prior engagement.
2. Recipients Perceptions & Profile Optimisation
How someone perceives you is vital. If you work in a professional environment, don’t have a picture of you at the pub looking the worse for wear. Work on your headline so that when an ideal client reads your message, they have an idea whether you will be useful to them. Don’t let the impression you make, let you down.
💡 Optimise your profile before you start reaching out to ideal clients. Make sure your photo, headline and the rest of your LinkedIn profile are ready to receive visitors. Set up your landing page.
3. Relevance, Segmentation & Tailoring
So how do you make messages relevant for the recipient?
The first step is to ensure you have done your targeting. No matter how good your message is, don’t send messages to people who are unlikely to be interested in what you have to offer. Poor targeting is the number one problem I see on LinkedIn. People skip past this task quickly and wonder why their response rate is so low. Don’t fill the top of your funnel with people who are not targeted—it’s a total waste of resources.
The contents of your message should be based on what information you know about an individual and making that message relevant and specific to this information. For example, if someone has created a bit of content where they are sharing a potential problem you can help with, your outreach message should be specifically about that piece of content. This will make it relevant to them and when you add your insights and experience into the mix, bingo, they will very likely respond. This is personalised for their situation and your message is seen as valuable and helpful. Always lead with insights and value rather than ‘pitching’.
💡 Sales Navigator is designed for targeting the right people, segmenting ideal clients into buckets for outreach, and for organisation.
4. Your Approach: Be Human & Focus on Helping
What you actually say in your message is the most important element for whether someone will respond or not. Too many people get this so wrong.
From pitching to corporate chat and from cut-and-paste messages to complete irrelevancy. The recipient of your message will only be interested if it’s of interest to them and delivered in as part of a normal human conversation. Your goal is for them to feel like they want to keep talking to you.
You may be the best person on the planet to help them, but if you get the message wrong, both they and you will miss out on the opportunity to work together.
Be specific in your message, not generic. Be friendly, not stiff. Keep your messages as short as possible. Show empathy and stand out without being awkward.
Record and analyse your response rate. If it is low, something is wrong. The first place to look is your message (although other elements can affect this rate). The most important point is to be human. Put yourself in the recipient’s place. Would you respond?
💡 76% of decision-makers ignore generic pitches but respond to tailored messages. Warm vs Cold outreach is x15 more effective. Combine the two, and you have a winning formula.
5. Timing & Choosing Who to Focus on
Timing is everything in life, and when we know very little about someone, it’s potluck whether they are in the ‘buying zone’ or not. As I mentioned earlier, only 10% of your total targeted audience will read your message, let alone respond.
However, you can increase your chances of a positive response by gathering sales intelligence about your ideal clients. This will help you identify whether they are interested in what you offer and, more importantly, whether they are interested right now.
Reaching out with the right approach and, based on this information, swings the stats in your favour of a positive result and a warm response. Someone should feel compelled to respond because they have a need that you are well placed to solve.
💡 Send your most important messages midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) between 9 and 10 AM. These messages receive 27% higher open rates than at other times of the week.
6. Preferred Channels & Other Options
If sending LinkedIn messages fails over time, try switching your method. So what are the alternatives?
Try sending a voice note or video message. These messaging methods are underutilised, so they may make you stand out from the crowd. I appreciate these methods are not for everyone.
Some people prefer receiving messages through email rather than LinkedIn messages; for others, it’s the opposite. When doing this, reference your LinkedIn interaction in the subject line and message, so the recipient does not see this as cold.
💡 Voice notes boost response rates by 40%.
7. Know When to Move On
If you have been trying with a contact for 2–3 follow-ups, pause your outreach and revisit them quarterly with fresh insights. If they were a warm prospect, something has clearly become a bigger priority for now. Timely nudges keep you top-of-mind without overwhelming them.
💡 The number of touchpoints before a sale varies between 1 and 50, depending on the prospect’s buying stage.
In Summary
LinkedIn is a relationship-building platform, so first and foremost, enter messaging with the intent to build relationships and genuinely look to help.
Poor message response rates are a clear signal that you’re not getting something right. This can be the message itself or other elements around the message. Treat every non-response as feedback, individually and collectively.
By blending sales intelligence with a solid messaging approach, you will find enough people who need and want your help. Not everyone will respond, but that’s okay, as not everyone is ready right now. Stay organised and patient, and you’ll generate plenty of warm conversations to fill your pipeline.
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