Effective LinkedIn Connection Messages Templates to Grow Your Network

LinkedIn is the preferred professional networking website for lead generation. LinkedIn allows you to add as many as 30,000 connections to your network.  Since nearly everybody wants to expand their network, your recipient will get approached by different LinkedIn users like business owners, employees, recruiters, etc. You need to have compelling content to catch the attention of your prospects on Linkedin. When you make use of any LinkedIn outreach Automation Platform such as LeadConnect, you can make the most of the platform. However, before you begin, you might want to work on optimizing your profile. To begin, submit a professional profile photo and a suitable banner image. Add all required details such as job title, your current company name, description, education, experience, and projects.

How to Write Effective LinkedIn Connection Messages?

Most professionals on LinkedIn receive many LinkedIn requests. They’ll probably ignore or delete most cold connection requests they receive, or even worse, categorize the sender as spam.  You can add a little note with your messages, to introduce yourself and explain why you wish to connect with them.  The content of your entire email starting from the subject line, the main email body, and even the CTA becomes quite important. It could be for any reason like business development or even job search. Hence, you must be quite careful since you will probably get only a few seconds to catch their attention. Here are a few points to keep in mind before you begin creating your message templates so that you appear a genuine person:

Do proper research

When you decide to connect with people via LinkedIn, you must do thorough research to find any common points. It will be helpful for you to establish a common ground and seem like a real person. Otherwise, your prospect is more likely to delete or ignore it.  Sending LinkedIn connection request messages without any prior research can come across as impersonal and generic. It is important to establish a common ground or shared interest to make your request more compelling and relevant to the recipient. By demonstrating that you have taken the time to understand their background or interests, you are more likely to pique their interest and increase the chances of acceptance. This can be achieved through various means such as mentioning shared connections, common industry or career interests, relevant articles or posts they have shared, or any other information publicly available about them. Doing thorough research also helps you tailor your message to the specific needs or preferences of your leads on LinkedIn. That will likely resonate more with them and boost your acceptance rate.

Begin with honest praise

Be sure to include something nice in your LinkedIn message such as what you truly liked about them, a shared interest or topic, their recent accomplishment or contribution, and their expertise in a specific field or interest. Everybody enjoys compliments and doing so is a great way to begin your message on a positive note. It shows you are genuinely interested in connecting with them.

Send personalized LinkedIn connection requests

When you address anybody by their first name, they will automatically be ready to at least read your message. You can make it more personal by finding some common points and highlighting them. Avoid sending any generic messages because it indicates you didn’t even make any effort. Addressing people by their first name adds a personal touch that grabs their attention. This increases the probability that they will at least read the message you sent and help you achieve your KPIs. Try to locate areas of agreement with the person you’re speaking to and highlight them.  This could involve shared interests, experiences, or connections. It demonstrates that you attempted to connect with them. Sending generic and impersonal communications, on the other hand, suggests a lack of effort on your side, which may dissuade the receiver from connecting with your message.

Be courteous and professional

When you communicate with anyone on LinkedIn, remember to be courteous and professional as LinkedIn is primarily a professional networking website. Additionally, keep in mind that not everyone you ask to connect on LinkedIn will accept or give a favorable response. It is critical to remember that when contacting someone on LinkedIn, you must maintain a respectful and professional tone throughout your conversations. As LinkedIn is largely a professional networking tool, it is necessary to portray yourself and communicate appropriately.

Since everyone has different priorities, not everyone may have the time or desire to read each message they get. It’s crucial to avoid taking something like this personally or becoming discouraged. Keep in mind that expanding your network through networking is a process that takes time and effort.  Be patient and respectful, even if someone doesn’t respond or declines your request. Don’t let this deter you from continuing to reach out by sending multiple follow-up messages if necessary and connecting with professionals who align with your goals and interests.

Use humor or a joke

Everybody loves a good joke. You can add a bit of humor to your messages to grab attention. Since you are unknown to your sender, you must be careful to not be offensive, rude, or in bad taste. Otherwise, this tactic can backfire and instead cause more harm than good. It will instead only show you in a bad and unprofessional light. Remember, humor should always be used in moderation and tailored according to the person you are trying to connect with.

Focus on building relationships

Yes, you are using LinkedIn as a means to grow your business. But don’t jump to sell your product or service right at the beginning. Nobody would like to receive overtly sales-oriented messages. When you have just started to send your cold connection request, first focus on creating relationships that will automatically lead to more sales after you have been successful at creating a certain level of trust. LinkedIn is a powerful platform for business networking and growth. Instead of immediately pushing your products or services, focus on building genuine relationships with others. Networking on LinkedIn involves building trust and rapport with your connections, which can eventually lead to increased sales opportunities.

Start by engaging with posts and articles relevant to your industry. Comment thoughtfully and provide valuable insights to create conversations. Share content that showcases your expertise and interests, and always respond to comments on your posts. This will help you establish yourself as a knowledgeable and reliable professional. Additionally, make an effort to connect with individuals who align with your target audience or industry. You can also personalize your request on LinkedIn by mentioning shared interests or acquaintances, and by thanking them for accepting your request.

Once you’ve built a solid foundation of connections and engaged in meaningful interactions, you can begin to transition into more sales-oriented discussions. However, it’s important to approach this tactfully and with a focus on providing value. Offer solutions or insights that may benefit your connections and demonstrate your expertise in solving their specific challenges. Remember, relationship-building should remain a continuous effort on LinkedIn. Regularly engage with your connections by sharing relevant content, offering assistance, and participating in discussions. By consistently nurturing relationships, you’ll create a network of trusted connections that will be more receptive to your sales efforts in the long run.

How Do You Send Your LinkedIn Connection Requests?

You can connect with those people on LinkedIn who may share connections with someone from your existing network.

Or, just visit their LinkedIn profile and click on the “Connect” button.

Lastly, you can also connect from your search results as well:

How to Cancel Pending LinkedIn Connection Requests?

Once you log in to LinkedIn, click on the “My Network” tab at the top of your LinkedIn profile page.

You can see the number of invitations you have received and are pending to be accepted or ignored by you. Click on it to go ahead.

In case you have none pending, simply click on “Manage” and follow the procedure.

When you click on “See all ”, you can find the entire list of all your received invitations.

Click on “Sent” to view all invitations you have sent and pending action from your prospect’s end. Then click on “Withdraw” to cancel.

Once you click on “Withdraw”, you will get the following message:

Once you click on “ Withdraw”, you will not be able to resend a connection request for up to 3 weeks.

Once you have withdrawn it, you can only send messages or view their full profile till the period of 3 weeks is over.

Hence you must use this option carefully.

Template Ideas for Your LinkedIn Connection Messages

If you are looking to get more responses for your connection requests, you need to be prepared to wait as it is a time-consuming process. Sometimes, you have to follow up, maybe multiple times, before they respond. But you don’t need to worry about doing the same boring task of mailing the same messages repeatedly. But you will need to first create effective connection request templates while your tool does most of these monotonous activities.

Here are a few specific examples of several effective LinkedIn message templates that you can use:

Contact a coworker

You can start by connecting with your colleagues. You may not be familiar with everybody who works in your organization. Hence it’s best to first do some research before sending an email. You can begin by congratulating them on a recent success such as a promotion or any achievement you may be aware of.

Contact former colleagues

Start sending personalized connection requests to those people with whom you had worked earlier. Their present connections can be a great source of leads.

Reaching out to former alumni

Your alumni networks can prove to be of tremendous help, whether as a source of leads or to find the best job opportunities. Most people remember their alumni fondly. Hence you can mention something specific about it to build an emotional link. Also, you can join alumni networks or attend alumni events to develop these connections.

State a mutual connection

Reach out to connections of your connections such as the friend of a friend. If you can, it’s better to mention your mutual connection’s name while sending your messages, it makes it more personalized and authentic.

Contact members replying to your or someone else’s LinkedIn post.

When someone reacts or replies to your LinkedIn posts, you should connect with them as you aren’t a total stranger to them. So it could be easier for you to get a positive response to your connection request.

Reach out to members asking questions in a post.

When reading the comments section of blogs posted on those LinkedIn group forums that are relevant to your industry, you will find some members might have asked questions. You can start approaching these members especially if you can provide answers to their questions.

Connect with the author of a LinkedIn post or article

If somebody posts anything on LinkedIn, they can expect some people will want to connect with them. Also, it can be helpful as you can have something to start with.

Connect with community members

You will get in touch with members who are likely to have similar interests by joining a relevant community on LinkedIn. Hence, it’s a great idea to try to reach out to them with a personalized message.

Give an overview of a Collaboration Proposal.

When you wish to collaborate with somebody, mention something that can make them feel inclined to accept your connection on LinkedIn like you have benefited from following their advice or how you can provide something of value to them.

Connect with an event attendee.

When you attend any networking event, you get to interact with many people, some of whom may convert to your leads. Since you have mostly already met them in person recently, it becomes easier for the receiver to recall and accept your message on LinkedIn.

Contact members recommended by the LinkedIn algorithm.

When you see LinkedIn recommendations, it is those LinkedIn members whom the algorithm finds to be most suitable for you as per the specific skills, interests, and experience you have. Hence reaching out to them can prove to be beneficial.

Conclusion

If you want to grow your business, then you need to concentrate on your email marketing campaign. For that purpose, you should make the most of these LinkedIn connection request message templates. That could prove to be a great way to connect with your target audience and ensure your requests are accepted. Remember to personalize these templates based on your specific needs and target audience. Customizing the message can make it more effective in establishing connections on LinkedIn. After that, all you need to do is feed these templates for LinkedIn connection into LeadConnect, a LinkedIn outreach Automation Platform, that will automatically send those messages as you wish to.