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This week’s post and podcast explore LinkedIn Messenger campaigns and why they should be a core part of your ongoing business development efforts, not just a tool you reach for when desperate for leads or trying to fill last-minute jobs. Most recruiters only message on LinkedIn when they need something, but the real magic happens when messaging becomes consistent and strategic.
With LinkedIn now hosting over a billion users and growing constantly, it remains one of the best ways to connect in recruitment today. This is particularly true if you work in the professional services sector, where it stands as the premier networking platform in the Western world. Despite what cold outreach experts might tell you, LinkedIn messaging achieves much higher engagement rates than cold outreach or emails.
Think about your behaviour – when did you last check your LinkedIn messages compared to your email? While recruiters tend to be on email frequently, consider your clients and candidates. These are the people you want to connect with, and these individuals check their LinkedIn messenger more often than you might realise.
The Problem with Reactive Messaging
The difference between recruiters who use LinkedIn successfully and those who don’t often comes down to timing. Many only send messages when they’re desperate—when a job order comes in or they have no leads. This approach is purely reactive, and anything reactive is always less effective than something planned strategically.
Imagine messaging regularly instead, consistently engaging your network with helpful content, conversations, and check-ins. This proactive approach puts you top of mind with people so that you’re the first person they think of when opportunities arise.
One of our clients, Rachel, reaches out to connections, saying, “I know we connect with many people on LinkedIn, but do you fancy a quick virtual coffee? Let’s jump online and talk about where you’re going and what you’re thinking about.” Some might think this sounds cheesy, but it works brilliantly for her. It’s amazing how many people respond positively, saying, “Yeah, that’s a great idea. Why not?”
How often do you do something similar or just reach out to make connections and then do very little with all those first-degree connections you’ve built up?
Why Consistent Messaging Matters
Messenger campaigns aren’t just a quick fix—they’re a powerful, ongoing business development strategy, particularly with all the tools we now can access. You should message consistently because recruitment is about relationships, not transactional selling. Many people thought recruitment was transactional pre-COVID, but people understand it’s about building familiarity, trust, and credibility in today’s market. This takes time.
The great thing about LinkedIn is you have two key audiences: your first-degree connections and the new connections you’re reaching out to.
Your first-degree connections are your silent gold mine. These warm contacts are just a few messages away from conversion if you start to nurture them properly. When you post content on LinkedIn, these people will likely see it, particularly if you start interacting with them. As a first-degree connection, they’ll see more of your content, a bonus point most people forget.
I remember working with Mohammed, who had about 20,000 connections on LinkedIn. When we asked what he’d done with his existing connections, he said he hadn’t done much at all. The penny dropped for him; he had all these connections with people, but wasn’t leveraging them.
Reaching New Connections Strategically
Then you have new connections – the prospects, clients, and candidates you haven’t spoken to yet. Using LinkedIn to reach new connections means you can consistently expand your reach with targeted messages that create interest right from the start.
When reaching out to somebody new and they accept your connection request, remember that people will check you out. This morning, someone called Phoenix reached out to me with a cold call. He was one of the few people who followed through – when I said to send me an email, he did. But the first thing I did was check him out on LinkedIn because that’s how people operate. This is why it’s important that your profile looks good and contains content.
Best Practices For LinkedIn Outreach
Here are four key considerations when reaching out to people:
First, do not pitch your job or services straight away. Please don’t be like those financial advisors who pitch their services immediately. Don’t pitch jobs or services right away. Instead, start conversations around challenges, recent LinkedIn activity, or industry news – these approaches engage people much better.
Second, personalisation is key. If you can reference a post they made or mention a mutual connection, it shows this isn’t a generic copy-and-paste message.
Third, take advantage of all the different features LinkedIn now offers – voice notes, video messages, and other features that help you stand out in a crowded inbox and give that human touch.
Fourth, set reminders for follow-ups. Follow these people up consistently. Consistency will always beat randomness. Ensure you reach out to people regularly, using a spreadsheet or whatever tool helps you maintain that connection.
Remember, it takes 7 to 12 touchpoints – probably more now – before people engage with us.
Tailoring Your Approach For Different Audiences
LinkedIn allows you to reach out to 400 people monthly with connection requests. You may want to use these strategically with different people, so think about breaking down how you tailor your messaging campaigns for candidates and clients.
For clients, share valuable market intelligence – salary trends, competitor hiring moves, workforce insights. Clients appreciate this type of information. Maybe invite them to participate in other ways, like panel discussions, interviews, or webinars. One of our clients does podcast interviews and contacts CFOs, which works well for him.
Provide value first. A well-placed tip or helpful resource will always build a more powerful relationship. Remember, nowadays, people have so many choices. Be the recruiter who stands out for the right reasons—the one adding value.
For candidates, share relevant job opportunities, but not always as a direct pitch. You can tell them about the types of roles you have on your website or that you have coming in the future, suggesting it would be worthwhile keeping in touch.
Send them industry insights, career tips, relevant articles, blogs from your website, or LinkedIn newsletter. Invite high-potential candidates to calls even when you don’t have a job for them. Give them some time for exploratory calls – not just job interviews. This is about nurturing long-term relationships with these individuals because they’ll appreciate it and sing your praises to other people in their network.
Staying Active Between Job Orders
You can still be active with these people even if you’re not recruiting. We all know you never know when that role comes in that you suddenly have to fill. Rather than starting from scratch, having hundreds of warm candidate connections on LinkedIn makes a difference.
I mentioned this before, but we’ve just started working with someone who began posting more than ever, and it’s made a huge difference. In just one quarter, simply by interacting with people and posting content, he went from cold outreach to having conversations about potentially three roles worth $/£120,000 in commission fees. You can see how a specific process and messenger approach like this can work on LinkedIn.
Building Long-Term Relationships
The key is consistency. If you’re getting into interactions with someone and can see they appreciate what you’re sending them, you can reach out to your warm first-degree connections every couple of weeks, 2 or 3 times a month, even. It might be slightly less for colder connections because this requires a warmer approach.
Mix up your messages. Don’t just pitch jobs or services. Send congratulations. One of our clients always sends happy birthday congratulations to people he’s connected with, and he always adds, “Remember, if you’re looking or want to drop me a message, let’s have a conversation. If you’re hiring and think I could help, message me.”
He has people who return to him purely because of this daily activity. He has it on his task list—he does his birthday connections and birthday comments every day. That makes a real difference.
Measuring Your Success
Track your success. Monitor response rates because the devil is in the data and tracking. Track how many conversations convert to phone calls and meetings. Analyse the time between initial outreach and placements or deals. This data will convince you that this approach is well worth doing.
Now, I suspect some of you have conversations about not wanting to come across as spammy. Remember, this isn’t spammy if all you’re doing is providing value rather than just pitching. Friendly, helpful, personalised messages are welcomed, not dreaded.
Some say they don’t have time, but you can use and customise different templates and ideas. Set aside time—this is part of your business development process and brings rewards and results.
Can you automate this?
Yes, there are tools you can use, and it depends on how many people you have. Honestly, this doesn’t take much time, and when you do this, you’ll see the results you can get.
Your Weekly Challenge
Here’s your challenge for this week: Reach out to your first-degree connections and send at least five personalised, value-driven messages. Dedicate 15 to 30 minutes weekly to connecting with and messaging new prospects.
Personally, I’d suggest spending more time than that. I know people will say they don’t have time, but everyone has 30 minutes a week. I’d think 30 minutes a day is a better idea because LinkedIn is where the gold lies.
Remember, LinkedIn messaging campaigns are a long game. Consistency builds trust and opportunity over time. It depends on where people are in the buying cycle. If somebody’s just resigned and you happen to be sending them a message simultaneously, that would be great. But remember, less than 7% of people are ready to act now, and the other 93% take time to nurture. That will make a huge difference if you consistently appear in somebody’s inbox.
Thanks
Denise
How We Can Help
At Superfast Recruitment, we’ve created comprehensive LinkedIn messaging campaign templates and strategies for our clients that take the guesswork out of what to say and when to say it.
Our clients see significant improvements in response rates because we help them move beyond random outreach to strategic, value-driven communication.
If you’re ready to turn your LinkedIn connections into reliable business growth, we’d love to help you develop a systematic approach that works.
