
Before you message someone on LinkedIn, do you look at which type of connection they are (1st, 2nd, or 3rd)?
1st connection means:
- You are directly connected with this person and can send them a message with no character limit.
- 💡 This is a great way to reach out to that person and generates a response rate of 80%+.

2nd connection means:
- You have a mutual connection with this person but have to connect with them before you message them.
- 💡 Adding a note is highly encouraged since most people just click “connect”. You get up to 300 characters to “wow” this person so make sure the message is tailored and action-oriented. The response rate is 40%.

3rd connection means:
- None of your 1st connections are connected with this person so you have zero mutual connections.
- 💡 My advice – go STRAIGHT to a cold email because the response rate here is below 5%. You could send an InMail if you pay for a premium LinkedIn account but from my experience, InMails are not effective.
- Note: If you are going to shoot for the cold email, I highly suggest using email tracking tools and email finder tools (all email tips and tricks are explained in this blog here).

𝐁𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠.