If we want your LinkedIn messages to have a higher response rate you need to think about how a conversation works. What triggered someone to engage with you? If you talk to your prospects about your interests, chances are they won’t respond. You need to talk about their interests, keep the tone light and generate conversation. Here are a few LinkedIn messaging tips that will get you a higher response rate.
Find Topics That Interest Your Prospects
You want to establish a connection with your prospects on LinkedIn and this doesn’t just mean helping them with their business. Sudden Invitations to attend webinars and download guides aren’t effective. You need to be able to talk openly with your prospects and the first step is getting the guard down. Allowing themselves to be in a conversation rather than push you away because they see the conversation as a one-way street. So find a topic that would inspire them to have a candid conversation with you.
Check Posts To Find Interest, reference those posts and then engage with them. After you’ve talked football, the weekends ahead, holiday trips and food you can lead towards business, but still keep it conversational.
- How does that co-inside with your business?
- Did you have a lot to catchup on when you got back?
- What’s the office atmosphere like at the moment thanks to…?
There are a lot of leading questions that can give you the information and shift the tone of the conversation to business.
Don’t Write LinkedIn Messages Like Emails
It’s too formal. Social media is conversational, so keep it light. If you write like an email it will give the whole conversation a tone of formality which won’t allow you to build your connection with them. Dears and kind regards immediately put someone at arm’s length between you and them. Keep it short and conversational.
This also means not writing paragraphs of text. Most people use LinkedIn on a mobile device or on their desktop for a brief period of time. So you need to respect that most will dip in and out of conversation at times. The quicker the pace of the conversation the more drawn into the conversation the prospect will become. Looking at a paragraph of text will make your prospect consider their response. Should I read all that now and respond Or should I get back to it when I can give them more time? Chances are they will forget the message before they get back to you.
Don’t go for Quick Wins
No one likes to be pushed into a decision and with the nature of social media, it’s more than likely the decision will be abandoned altogether. If you could get out of a decision you don’t want to make right now by simply walking away with no consequence you would, and so would your prospects. So asking for immediate answers, or calls will have an adverse effect on your LinkedIn message response rate. Be patient, keep it light in tone and give people enough time to breathe before your follow-ups. But, not too much they forget about you. There is a sweet spot and it’s no longer than 3 days.
Drop Jargon and Industry Language
No one likes to feel out of the loop or dumb. If you’re talking over the heads of your prospects with abbreviations, figures and jargon they don’t know you will be left on read. It’s easier for people to say nothing than admit they don’t know what you’re talking about. If they also don’t understand you they won’t see the value in the message either. You could be offering them the chance to save thousands, but word it in a way which is so difficult to understand they won’t see the value. As with most of these tips, keeping it simple is the way forwards.
Just a brief rundown of these messaging tips, if you want a higher response rate on LinkedIn you have to keep it simple, and interesting and provide value to connect with your prospects. This will improve your LinkedIn message response rate and lead you to book a lot more discovery calls.
