How to Use LinkedIn for Your Cold Outreach Strategy

Step 1 – Sales Navigator

What exactly is LinkedIn Sales Navigator? It is a paid solution within the platform that is designed precisely for what LinkedIn is meant for: networking. 

With the free version of the platform, you can only connect with a limited number of people per day. While you can find some information about people, it’s only about your direct contacts and with certain profile limitations. 

With the paid version, you can not only connect with anyone but also search for specific people/titles in specific companies that are relevant to you. You can also organize them into lists by different titles, companies, regions, etc. (more on that later). This is the perfect start to using LinkedIn for your cold outreach.

Step 2 – Segment Your Lists

To ensure you are reaching the right people with the right message, you should create multiple lists in your Navigator dashboard. Determine the people to whom you can send the same email, and then create a prospect list for a specific filter.

Whatever you decide, make sure that the statement “I know how difficult [pain point] is” or something similar applies to the entire list.

Searching for Leads 

One way to set up your segments is to search for leads you want to contact from each company, but by a specific region or title. 

For example, one of your lists could include all CEOs in companies with more than 250 employees. This would be one message and one sequence. Another example of a lead list could be all HR managers of non-profit organizations in the United States. 

Account-Based Marketer Search

Another way to set up your segments is to search for a specific list of companies with any title. This way, you can store your segments in more detail and contact them with a specific goal.

For example: All sales representatives from the Big 4 companies. 

Step 3 – Extracting the Information

With tools like Phantombuster or Captain Data, you can collect information from your leads’ profiles and transfer it to your automation platform. Often, an experienced data technician is required to store and organize the found emails.

You can also segment and extract your list directly from LaGrowthMachine. The tool works with your Sales Navigator and extracts your lists directly into your platform! This tool is made for LinkedIn cold emailing!

Step 4 – Enriching Your Lead Information 

To ensure you can create the best possible and most personalized message, you need as much information as possible about your leads. Try to ensure that the data you collect includes information such as the prospect’s name, company, and title, as well as their email address.

With LaGrowthMachine’s templates (learn more about recruiting automation here), you can set up your leads to be easily extracted and then enriched. This includes displaying the profile – which the customer can see – and then entering data such as email, name, job title, etc. into the system.

Now that you have the finished profiles (more on LinkedIn Advanced Search), you need to decide how you want to contact them. You have 3 basic options:

• Contact them on LinkedIn
• Find their email addresses (more on this below)
• Import the leads into LaGrowthMachine, and let the magic happen 😉

Generate All Possible Email Addresses for a Person

Email addresses are not generated randomly. In most cases, email addresses are built according to one of the following formats, where “f” stands for the first name and “l” for the last name:

• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• …

Using LinkedIn (more on LinkedIn alternatives) for your cold outreach is a much simpler tool. While theoretically, you could try each of these possibilities manually (!), we have a few better solutions.

Test These Permutations

Either test these by having your technical team run a test, using LaGrowthMachine’s system which does this automatically, or by sending each version yourself via email. 

Assuming you don’t feel like doing the latter, here are a few tips on how your technical team could do it:

Email servers are archaic. They communicate incredibly slowly. When you click “Send” in your inbox, the servers communicate with each other to send and accept (or not) the message. 

The catch is that many of them will simply say they accept the message, but they won’t actually forward it to the recipient. You won’t know anything about it. With LaGrowthMachine’s technology, you can ensure that your email is not only sent but that the servers don’t block it!

To check if an email is valid, tools perform steps 1 to 4, but never step 5 (sending the email).

That’s basically it :). Simple, right?

To test all the permutations mentioned above, tools that help you find emails will generate the permutations and test them one by one to give you the one that the recipient’s server has validated.

However, it should be noted that some servers are configured to always respond “Yes” to the question “Do you accept?”. We call these “Catchall.” These email addresses cannot be verified with 100% certainty.

If you send many emails to catchall addresses, you might end up sending many emails to addresses that don’t exist at all. Be mindful of what and how you send, so your work doesn’t go to waste.

The good news: LaGrowthMachine’s platform detects if this is the case and checks it first instead of sending it!

You have now found email addresses thanks to LinkedIn, let’s start writing your cold outreach emails (more on LinkedIn Automated Messaging).

Create Your Sequence 

Now that you know what you want, you can create a sequence. In it, you will specify exactly how many messages you will send, where (especially if there are multiple channels), and how often.

We recommend sending no more than one message per day, depending on the product or service. To create this plan, you should consider the following:

• Think carefully about who you are sending the message to.
  Are they CEOs who are very busy? Are they IT professionals who are constantly checking their emails?
• Consider how long your sales cycle is. If you are selling enterprise solutions, it often takes much longer to talk about it. Send a message every 2 or 3 days, give it some more time.
• Determine how many messages you want to contact the customer with. Is it worth sending 5 emails in total, or do you want to send only 3? Remember that your emails will no longer get through if they are flagged as spam by the recipient’s servers (e.g., Gmail or Outlook).

Once you have this plan in place, you can start writing your emails!

Write Your Introductory Message

Now that you have a goal and a set of emails you want to create, and you know who you are sending them to, you can draft your first email. This should be an introductory email that talks about you and/or your company. You should also state why you are contacting this specific person.

For example, if you are writing to a mid-level executive, you should get straight to the point but remain personal. Yes, this might be a bit of a challenge, but a poorly written introductory email will completely doom your future emails, so be extra careful here.

Then, tell them exactly what you want them to do. Do you want them to click a link to schedule a call? Should they sign up for a webinar? Whatever it is, make it the only thing you ask of them in this email. Keep it simple.

Think About Follow-up Emails 

In the remaining emails, you should elaborate on how you can help the customer. How will their life improve if they connect with you? What exactly will it take?

You can try to address the customer’s objections in these follow-up emails, create a mystery or intrigue, or simply be so friendly that the customer really wants to talk to you. Whichever style you choose, stick to it and plan them in the order you want to be reached.

Here is an example of how to structure your email (always with a compelling subject line):

• Introduction to you and your company with a link to your website.
• Detailed email on how the customer’s life will improve if they talk to you, with a link to schedule a call.
• Email with features, benefits, and data about the product.
• Final email – possibly with a limited-time offer.

Make sure each email has a simple message and a clear call to action (schedule a meeting, demo the product, etc.). Now you can send them!