Debate: Did switching from cold email outreach to LinkedIn DMs boost your response rate?

I used to spam cold emails to 50 local contractors every Monday morning for a year in Edmonton. My open rate was maybe 10% and I got maybe 1 reply per batch. Then six months ago I switched to sending personal LinkedIn messages to just 10 people a day, mentioning their recent projects or posts. My reply rate jumped to about 4 out of 10 now. Has anyone else seen a big shift like this, or do you still swear by email for B2B networking?

3 comments

3 Comments

rowanharris28d ago

Totally agree with @mary_martin22. Cold email felt like shouting into a void, but LinkedIn DMs actually let you pick up on something real. I used to spend hours writing email templates, now I just scroll their feed for 10 minutes, find one project they posted about, and mention it in a quick sentence. It's way less work and my reply rate is about the same as hers, usually 3 or 4 out of 10. The people I message actually remember me when we talk later because I brought up something they did.

mary_martin2228d ago

Oh my gosh, yes! I was doing the same thing with cold emails to local business owners and it was just crickets... barely any replies at all. When I switched to LinkedIn DMs and actually commented on something they posted or a project they finished, it felt like night and day. Now I get maybe 3 or 4 replies out of 10 messages, and a couple of those turn into real conversations or even meetings. It is way more personal and people actually remember you when you take a minute to look at what they are up to.

finleym4323d ago

Wait, so you're telling me spending hours writing cold email templates was NOT the smartest use of my time? Shocking. @rowanharris mentioned scrolling feeds for 10 minutes, and honestly that feels like cheating compared to the 3 hours I used to waste perfecting subject lines that nobody read. My experience with LinkedIn DMs has been similar - I get maybe 3 replies out of 10 now, which is still better than the 1 out of 50 emails I used to get. Take this with a grain of salt because I'm in a pretty niche industry, but yeah, cold email feels like throwing darts blindfolded while LinkedIn DMs at least lets you aim a little.