Your LinkedIn connection request has been accepted – so, what do you do now to turn ‘connection’ into ‘opportunity’?
Often, your new connection will accept your connection without responding – and if you leave it that way, you will never develop them into a prospect.
That’s why, once they have connected, you need a follow-up engagement message, to develop the relationship into a conversation.
This message should reaffirm why you’re contacting them and give them a reason to start a dialogue – you need to answer the ‘so, what’s in it for me’ question!
They are often wary of unsolicited communications, so you need to show that there will be some benefit to them to allow the conversation to begin.
In this article, we’ve outlined how to write this follow-up message effectively. This will give you the best chance of converting a new contact into a prospect, and hopefully into business.
Be personalised & polite
Your prospect wants to know that you are the kind of person they want to speak to.
Having a personalised and polite message is crucial to achieving this. A personalised, polite message shows that you care – and increases your chance of a response.
Ways to do this include:
- Start your message with their name (e.g. Dear Lisa)
- Thank them for connecting with you
- Describe them as a ‘specialist’ or ‘expert’
- Mention their industry
- Ask for their advice on something
- Phrase your enquiry as an invite, not a demand
- Finish your message with ‘Kind Regards’
If your connection message does this, it will be polite and personalised – and your prospect is more likely to accept!
Whatever industry your new connection works in, just make sure your message is polite and personalised to what they do
Mention mutual points of interest
Another way of personalising your follow-up message is by talking about mutual points of interest between you and your prospect.
This could be:
- Mutual connections you have
- Major news in their industry
- Business conditions (e.g. if in a recession)
- Worldwide news (e.g. Covid19)
Your prospect may not know who you are – so striking up an instant point of similarity is a great way of establishing rapport.
When talking about mutual connections you have, you could do any (or all) of the following:
- State how many mutual connections you have
- Name one shared connection you know very well
- Say that a mutual connection has recommended them (if that’s true!)
By building points of interest, your prospect is more likely to want to talk to you.
Invite them to call
Your prospect needs to know that you are real, personable and happy to talk. A great way of proving this is by opening up the possibility of a call.
In your follow-up message, invite your prospect to discuss mutual interests further via any of the following:
- Phone call
- Zoom call
- Skype call
- Microsoft Teams call
Stick with one of these communication platforms – proposing something too obscure might make them think that you’re out-of-date!
Taking your conversation onto a call ASAP helps you to:
- Develop a strong relationship with your prospect
- Have a lengthier conversation
- Fully explore mutual points of collaboration
- Show that you are proactive
- Keep yourself top of your prospect’s mind
By setting up a call with your prospect, you increase your chances of converting them into a lead.
Inviting your new connection to call shows that you are personable, and helps to build rapport
Your fantastic message
If you combine the above elements together, you have a fantastic connection message for LinkedIn lead generation.
We’ve written a sample message, appropriate to the current situation, combining these features below:
Dear NAME,
Thank you for connecting with me. I hope that you and your family are well and safe – we have been fortunate on my end so far. I also hope that you are managing well in the current lockdown situation.
NAME OF MUTUAL CONNECTION recommended your services to me. I would love to know more about you and your INDUSTRY business, and perhaps how we can work together.
If this works for you, is there a good time to ‘meet’? I would be delighted to set up a video call (Zoom) or have a phone call.
Kind regards
Nicola
Just remember to make it personalised, but not too long – short and sweet does the trick!
If you want a specialist marketing company to setup your LinkedIn lead generation campaign, including…
- Identifying who you should be connecting with
- Putting your data into a database
- Writing a killer connection & follow-up message
- Sending your connection messages for you
- Updating progress on the database as we go along
… then please give us a call on 0203 026 6697 or email sales@brollymarketing.co.uk.