What is LinkedIn outreach, and how does it actually work?

01 What LinkedIn outreach means in practice

Outreach is the outbound side of LinkedIn. Instead of waiting for buyers to find your posts or your website, you go to them. A founder writing to heads of sales at companies they could help is doing LinkedIn outreach. So is an SDR team working through a list of accounts every week.

It is different from posting content, which reaches whoever the feed shows it to, and from LinkedIn ads, which you pay to show. Outreach is one person writing to another, one at a time, even when a team or a service runs it at a larger scale.

02 The steps of a LinkedIn outreach campaign

Every working outreach routine, by hand or run for you, goes through the same steps.

• Build the list. Decide who you sell to, then find real people who match: role, company size, industry, location.
• Warm them up, if you can. A thoughtful comment on someone's post before you write makes your name familiar. The guide to commenting on posts shows how.
• Send the first touch. A connection request with a short note, or an InMail to someone you are not connected to.
• Follow up. A few spaced messages after they connect, each with something new. The sequence templates show what each step can say.
• Answer the replies. Fast, by a person, and aimed at a next step such as a call.
• Clean up. Withdraw invitations nobody accepted and learn from what did not land.

03 Connection requests, messages and InMail

There are three ways to reach someone, and they work differently.

A connection request is free, and once accepted you can message the person as often as makes sense. LinkedIn suggests adding a personalized message with your invitation, explaining how you know the recipient or why you would like to connect ¹.

A message goes to people you are already connected to. It is the main channel for follow-ups.

An InMail reaches people you are not connected to. LinkedIn's help page says InMail messages is a Premium account feature ², and each plan comes with a monthly number of credits. The guide to LinkedIn InMail explains how they work.

04 The limits that shape LinkedIn outreach

LinkedIn sets limits so its members are not flooded. They are the reason outreach takes planning.

One account sends about 100 connection requests per week, as the weekly invite limit page explains. LinkedIn's help page says an account may be restricted when many invitations go out in a short time, or when many are ignored, left pending or marked as spam ¹. It also says all members, Basic and Premium, are subject to invitation limits and that you cannot buy more invitations ¹.

InMail has its own cap. LinkedIn's help page lists 15 InMail credits a month for Premium Business ². So reaching more people each month is less about sending faster and more about adding channels and capacity inside those limits.

05 Ways to get LinkedIn outreach done

The steps are the same whoever does them. What changes is who spends the hours and who carries the risk.

• Do it yourself. Free, and nobody knows your buyers better. It takes hours every week and is the first thing to slip.
• Give it to an assistant. Cheaper than your time. They need training, access to your account and quick answers from you.
• Use a self-serve automation tool. It sends on a schedule, but you still build the list, write the messages and answer the replies. LinkedIn's help page says it does not allow third-party software that automates activity on its website ³.
• Hire an SDR. A dedicated person owns the routine. It costs a salary and months to ramp up.
• Hire an agency. Experienced hands, often on a retainer. Quality varies, so ask to see their messages.
• Have the outreach run for you. A done-for-you service runs every step at a set monthly volume. You give up some day-to-day control.

06 Where LinkedNav fits

LinkedNav is a done-for-you LinkedIn outreach service. You buy a monthly prospect volume, and the team builds the list, writes the sequences, runs the outreach and handles the replies. Dedicated sending infrastructure is included, and you get a weekly report on what happened.

The price is one monthly figure set by the volume you choose, on the pricing page. How it works walks through the first weeks.

07 How to choose who runs your outreach

A few questions point most teams to the right option.

• How many people do you need to reach each month? A few dozen is a job for you or an assistant. Hundreds or more needs a system and more than one account.
• Who will answer the replies? Outreach that works creates conversations. Someone has to have time for them.
• Do you want to own the routine or the result? Owning the routine means tools and people. Buying the result means a service.
• How much will a slow month cost you? If pipeline matters this quarter, pick the option that does not stall when someone is busy.

08 Who a done-for-you service fits, and who it does not

It fits a B2B team that knows who it sells to, wants a steady flow of conversations with them every month, and would rather spend its time on calls than on sending. Teams comparing an agency with a service like this can start with LinkedIn lead generation agencies.

It does not fit someone who enjoys writing every message personally and only needs a handful of new conversations a month. Doing it yourself, a little every day, will serve you better and cost nothing.

FAQ Frequently asked questions