LinkedIn Read Receipts: Make Sure Your Messages Hit The Target
February 17 2025
Picture this: You’ve connected with someone on LinkedIn—a potential client, partner, or colleague—sent a thoughtful message, and… crickets. Now you’re left wondering: should you follow up or let it go? To be or not to be the one who sends follow up LinkedIn messages?
Spoiler: Be! Follow-ups can be a game-changer for building meaningful connections, engaging prospects, and achieving your business goals on LinkedIn. When done smartly, of course.
In this article, I’ll share some tricks on mastering LinkedIn follow-up messages and getting noticed without being too pushy. As a bonus, you’ll get ready-to-use templates to boost your follow-up efforts on the platform.
Are you on board? Let’s get started!
Key points of this post:
Sending follow-ups on LinkedIn is key to nurturing long-term professional relationships. The most obvious benefit is that it allows you to get the attention of your contact after they accept your connection request. But that’s not all there is to it.
Following up on LinkedIn helps you:
A prompt follow-up after your initial interaction makes it more likely that your prospect recalls your previous conversation, increasing the chances of getting that desired response.
Prospects are often busy, so your follow-up may serve as a gentle reminder, ensuring they don’t forget about you.
By staying in touch after a networking event, meeting, or introduction, you demonstrate commitment. A thoughtful follow-up message on LinkedIn shows you’re not interested in just a one-time interaction — you’re dedicated to building a partnership.
In sales, following up on LinkedIn helps you gain prospects’ trust, transforming them into loyal clients.
Maintaining an online presence on LinkedIn is a total must to stand out on this busy networking platform. A well-timed follow-up message on LinkedIn is a good way to stay on the prospect’s radar without wasting much time and resources.
Regular touchpoints, like personalized messages, shared insights, or thoughtful comments, make you a consistent part of your contacts’ professional network. With this strategy, you’ll always keep communication alive and remind prospects of your value.
By following up with industry insights or exciting case studies, you become a valuable resource for people’s industry knowledge. So next time they need someone with your expertise or services, you’ll be the first person they’ll think of.
Has your initial message been overlooked for some reason? A compelling follow-up is what can reignite interest. And if prospects haven’t welcomed your cold message with enough excitement, a follow-up is your chance to shine. It lets you promote your value proposition one more time and demonstrate how your solution solves challenges your recipients may face.
By planning your follow-up strategy ahead, you may get consistent interaction with prospects that will smoothly lead them down the funnel.
| 🎁 Before sending LinkedIn follow-ups, you need to master the art of personalized connection requests. Check out this FREE guide that will help you write requests that actually get accepted! |
To cut it short, effective LinkedIn follow-ups can grow your business conversions, leading to collaborations, sales, or career advancements.
Professionals seeking career opportunities can use message follow-ups to demonstrate their interest in a role. That will help them remain in the recruiter’s sight and improve their chances of getting hired. Sales reps, in turn, can use follow-ups to close more deals almost effortlessly.
| 💡 Expert tip Drive better results with multichannel outreach You can empower your sales and marketing strategy by combining email and LinkedIn in your follow-up campaigns. That’s very easy to do with Snov.io’s multichannel outreach solution. This tool allows you to create a follow-up sequence with automated emails and LinkedIn actions. By including emails in your LinkedIn follow-up campaigns, you’ve got an extra channel for cold outreach, increasing the likelihood of a response and conversion. |
Crafting an effective LinkedIn follow-up message can be tricky. However, if you find the right approach, you can strike the right balance between professionalism, timeliness, and engagement.
Turn your follow-ups into a powerful tool for building strong relationships and unlocking new opportunities with these smart tips:
It may be overwhelming to manually track and send follow-up messages, especially when juggling multiple connections. Here is when LinkedIn automation tools come in handy.
These platforms help optimize the process and gain more results with less effort. Follow-up automation not only saves time but also ensures consistency, which helps you avoid missed opportunities, even when managing many connections simultaneously.
Plus, automation tools let you quickly identify connections who haven’t replied and schedule follow-ups for them.
That matters a lot for the success of your follow up LinkedIn messages. Reach out too soon, and you may seem pushy; wait too long, and you risk being forgotten.
A good rule of thumb is to follow up 3–5 business days after your initial message so as not to overwhelm your recipient. For ongoing conversations, space out your follow-up messages by a week or two to allow room for a response.
Sometimes, a reasonable timeframe for sending follow-ups depends on the case. For instance, a LinkedIn message after a networking event should be sent within 24–48 hours to keep the conversation fresh in their minds.
When sending a follow up LinkedIn message after application, reach out 3-5 days after applying. Thus, you will show enthusiasm without seeming impatient.
When it comes to a follow up LinkedIn message after no response, give it 5-7 days before sending. Let your recipient have enough time to respond without feeling pressured. If there’s still no response, wait at least a week before subsequent messages to avoid being overly persistent.
Regarding days and times, in my experience, midweek—Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday—tends to be the most effective for engagement. During this period, inboxes are less cluttered than at the beginning or end of the workweek, so your message is more likely to get noticed.
I recommend mid-morning between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. and late afternoons from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Morning follow-ups are more likely to be noticed as professionals start their workday. Meanwhile, afternoon messages catch them during quieter periods when they’re wrapping up tasks and are more receptive to new conversations.
Long follow-up messages can be overwhelming to prospects whose inboxes are always busy. To stand out in a sea of notifications and updates, clarity and brevity matter.
Just stick to the essentials: remind the recipient who you are and reference your previous interaction. Then, clearly state your purpose—whether it’s to reconnect, share an update, or request a meeting. Try to keep your message under 150 words to make it easy to read and impactful.
Example:
Hi Andrew,
My name is Grace Turner. We met at the “NETWORKING 2.0” conference and had a conversation about new challenges for sales teams in 2025.
I am very impressed by your perspective and would like to continue our conversations and share my thoughts regarding sales team workflow optimization.
Are you available next week so we can schedule a brief call?
Looking forward to your response!
LinkedIn Read Receipts: Make Sure Your Messages Hit The Target
February 17 2025
I recommend avoiding generic follow-up messages on LinkedIn because they are often overlooked and can hardly catch the recipient’s interest. With a personalized approach, however, you can show that you value the connection and understand your prospect’s context.
In your follow-up message, reference something specific. For example, you can mention a recent LinkedIn post or details from a previous conversation. Adding this information helps capture recipients’ attention and demonstrate your genuine interest in a prospect. This, in turn, increases your chances of getting a response.
| 💡 Expert tip Snov.io provides powerful personalization variables that let you tailor your messaging at scale without losing the personal touch.
All these features let you automate your LinkedIn outreach while still delivering personalized and engaging follow-up messages. |
A truly compelling follow-up message should go beyond just asking for a response—it should offer clear value to the recipient. Instead of focusing solely on your goals, highlight how you can contribute to the recipient’s needs.
Describe how your expertise aligns with your prospect’s business objectives. For instance, when sending a follow-up message after a networking event, demonstrate the possible benefits of your partnership or solution.
Strengthen your follow-up messaging by providing content that resonates with the recipient: a relevant article, insightful report, or industry news. Such an approach will not only showcase your expertise but also position you as a trusted source of valuable information.
Example:
Hi Emma,
Thanks for connecting!
I came across this article today: [link]. It offers a unique perspective on sustainable business growth that reminded me of our conversation at the GreenTech Summit about integrating eco-friendly solutions into business strategies.
What do you think about this solution? I’d love to hear your take!
Best regards,
Paul
As your follow-up message represents both you and your brand, you should keep the right balance between warmth and professionalism to establish credibility. Keep your language clear, respectful, and tailored to a business context. Avoid overly casual expressions, slang, or emojis unless your relationship with the recipient is mainly informal.
At the same time, you should not sound too formal and strict; instead, make your tone warm and conversational. I recommend refraining from heavy jargon or too complex technical terms that may confuse your recipient.
And, of course, proofreading is a must. Don’t forget to review your message before you click ‘Send’ to ensure it is free from typos, grammar mistakes, or awkward phrasing.
Example:
Hi Will,
I really appreciated the opportunity to connect and discuss your team’s approach to streamlining project workflows.
After our conversation, I came across a recent case study on workflow optimization that aligns with some of the challenges you mentioned. I thought it might be helpful, so I’m sharing it here: [link].
If it resonates with you, I’d love to schedule a brief call to explore how we can build on these ideas together. Let me know what time works best for you.
Best regards,
Alex
Without a clear call to action, a follow-up message can leave the recipient unsure of how to respond. Whether you aim to schedule a meeting, request feedback, or continue the conversation, you should clarify the next step. Your CTA should guide the recipient toward a specific action and be relevant to the context of your follow-up message.
Be direct but polite: instead of vague phrases like “Let me know your thoughts,” try something actionable, such as “Would you be open to a demo this week?”
In addition, make sure that your CTA is easy to understand and accessible for the recipient to follow. This will increase the likelihood of a timely response and keep the conversation moving forward.
How do you know your follow-up strategy on LinkedIn is effective? That’s right, you should consistently analyze how your messages perform.
Track such key metrics as open and response rates to identify what’s working and what’s not. For instance, you can assess whether certain CTAs, timing, message style, or levels of personalization generate more replies. If they do, you’ll lean them into your follow-up strategy. If not, it’s time for adjustments!
By constantly analyzing and optimizing your messaging, you can increase engagement, strengthen connections, and maximize the impact of your LinkedIn outreach efforts.
| 💡 Expert tip The best recommendation is to track how your LinkedIn conversations perform with the help of LinkedIn analytics tools. For example, Snov.io provides comprehensive analytics, allowing you to track each step of your follow-up strategy and find ways to improve. The intuitive interface lets you easily create custom reports to keep an eye on the metrics most important to your purpose. The best part is that Snov.io monitors your Social Selling Index (SSI) to help you define a safe limit for actions based on your account’s reputation. Automated LinkedIn actions can boost your SSI, allowing you to enhance your account’s performance over time. |
Now that you know the essential tips for following up on LinkedIn, let me give you one more boost to get started. Below are LinkedIn follow-up message templates that you can use for various scenarios—from job applications and networking events to client outreach and no-response cases.
Sending a friendly follow-up message after connecting helps build a genuine relationship from the start. Besides, it’s a chance to open doors for new collaboration opportunities.
Template:
| Hi [Name], Thank you for connecting! I’m excited to be a part of your network. I’ve noticed [mention specific skills, expertise, or experience from their profile], and I’d love to learn more about your experience in [industry/topic]. Let’s set up a quick chat to exchange ideas about how our connection can benefit us mutually. Best regards, [Your Name] |
By reaching out after applying for a job, you can demonstrate your initiative and interest. Besides, your follow-up message will remind recruiters of your candidacy and keep your application on their radar.
Template:
| Hi [Name], I’ve recently applied for the position of [Position] at [Company] and wanted to express my enthusiasm for the opportunity. I admire what [Company] is doing in [specific industry/project] and believe my background in [relevant experience] aligns well with your team’s goals. If you need any additional information, I’d be happy to provide it. Thank you for your time. Best regards, [Your Name] |
By sending a LinkedIn follow-up message after a job interview, you can express gratitude and interest in the role. It is also an excellent opportunity to gently highlight your key skills one more time and strengthen your candidacy.
Template:
| Hi [Name], Thank you for taking the time to meet with me for the [Position] role. I really enjoyed learning more about [Company] and how your team approaches [specific challenge]. Our conversation reaffirmed my excitement about the opportunity to contribute with my experience in [specific skill]. Please let me know if there are any next steps I can assist with. Looking forward to hearing from you! Best, [Your Name] |
Following up within 1-2 days after a networking event, while your conversation is fresh in memory, increases your chances of success. It’s your opportunity to provide more details about your solution or the benefits of your potential partnership.
| Hi [Name], It was a pleasure to meet you at [Event name]! I enjoyed our conversation about [main topic]. Your insights into [specific topic related to the main] impressed me greatly. I’d love to explore ways we could collaborate. How about scheduling a follow-up call to share insights moving forward? Looking forward to keeping the conversation going! Best, [Your Name] |
Keeping in touch with clients through follow-up messaging helps build rapport and strong long-term business relationships. It also lets you keep your customers engaged and shows that you’re invested in their success.
Template #1:
| Hi [Name], I just wanted to check in and see how [Project/Service] is going. If you have any feedback or need further support, I’m here to help. Thank you again for your trust. I look forward to continuing to support your success. Best regards, [Your Name] |
Template #2:
| Hi [Name], I hope this message finds you well! I just wanted to check in and ensure that [Product/Solution provided] is meeting your expectations. If there’s anything else I can assist you with or any feedback you’d like to share, feel free to get in touch. Thanks for your trust! Best regards, [Your Name] |
A gentle reminder after no response may improve the situation and reignite the conversation. Just avoid being too pushy or salesy—your follow-up message should convey respect to your recipient and their time.
Template:
| Hi [Name], I hope you’re doing well! I am following up on my previous message regarding [specific topic]. I know how busy things can get, so I just wanted to see if you had a chance to review it or if there’s a better time for us to connect. Looking forward to hearing from you whenever it’s convenient! Best, [Your Name] |
Have you ever received a really awkward follow-up message on LinkedIn? Feel free to share it in the comments below the post. 👇
LinkedIn follow-ups are a powerful way to move conversations forward, turning connections into actionable outcomes that contribute to personal or business growth.
In this post, I shared handy tips and examples to help you master the art of writing LinkedIn follow-ups. So now, I’m sure you’re ready to create a strong follow-up strategy on your own!
Just remember: you can always automate your efforts with reliable automation tools like Snov.io. We’ve already helped hundreds of users to win more deals and grow their business. We’re here to turn your prospects into loyal customers as well!
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