Switched from cold emailing to LinkedIn DMs and my response rate tripled in 2 weeks

I was sending out 50 cold emails a day for my consulting gig in Austin and getting maybe 2 replies total. Then I started sending personalized DMs on LinkedIn to the same kind of people, referencing something specific from their profile, and got 6 responses in just the first week. Has anyone else seen a bigger payoff from one channel over the other in sales or outreach?

3 comments

3 Comments

tara_patel1mo ago

Same exact thing happened to me with my business! LinkedIn DMs feel way more personal and people actually respond when you mention something real from their profile.

taylor.sean1mo ago

Yeah, it's wild how much difference a little personal touch makes. I remember sending a cold email to someone once and it got zero response until I mentioned I saw they went to the same small college as my cousin. Then they wrote back in ten minutes. People just want to know you actually looked at their stuff instead of blasting out a template.

the_miles1mo ago

Not sure it's always that serious though @taylor.sean. Sometimes a generic email works fine if your offer is strong enough on its own. Maybe people just overthink the whole personalization thing when timing and luck matter just as much.