avatarNick Nolan

Summary

The article provides advice on how to craft effective cold direct messages (DMs) that are more likely to receive a response by focusing on being nice, keeping messages short, and asking simple questions.

Abstract

The author of the article shares insights based on personal experience with receiving and sending cold DMs, particularly on LinkedIn. They emphasize the importance of personalized, concise, and considerate communication. The key recommendations include avoiding aggressive sales tactics, complimenting the recipient, and engaging them with a brief message that includes a simple question to encourage a response. The article suggests that by following these guidelines, one can improve the chances of a successful interaction through cold outreach.

Opinions

  • The author believes that personalized messages are crucial and that automated messages are ineffective and impersonal.
  • They express that focusing on a person's potential shortcomings or 'pain points' in a cold DM is off-putting and not conducive to building trust.
  • The author advises against long-winded messages, comparing them to a one-sided conversation that is unlikely to engage the recipient.
  • They suggest that starting with a compliment can create a positive first impression and make the recipient more receptive to further communication.
  • The article criticizes self-centered messages that fail to invite a dialogue, instead recommending that one should ask a question to prompt a response and show genuine interest in the recipient.
  • The author emphasizes that the goal of a cold DM should be to start a conversation, not to deliver a sales pitch immediately.
Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash

Here’s How to Get Your Cold DM’s Read and Responded To

I’ve received hundreds of DMs. The ones I’ve answered are all similar.

Last year I was super active on LinkedIn. I posted as much as I could, and it helped me grow my business and connect with some great people. I still think LinkedIn is a great place to grow any type of business or side hustle.

Gary Vee has told you for years that you need to be on LinkedIn because there’s still some organic reach there.

It’s gotten busier since 2020 and 2021, but there’s still plenty of opportunities.

I’m haven’t been too active on LinkedIn because I’m busy with a million other projects, and it would be more of a distraction than a help.

If you’ve ever been on LinkedIn, or any other social media platform, you know that you get bombarded with direct messages. These people want to sell you their product or service. It’s popular on LinkedIn to send an automated message after connecting with someone.

Honestly, I think that’s a terrible idea. If you want to sell me something, take 15 seconds and write a personalized message yourself. Better yet, read a few of my posts and get to know me before reaching out.

Anyways, I’d get 20–30 messages every month. Most of them went unanswered. I know, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to take the time to tell you that I’m not going to buy what you’re selling.

I know the feeling. When I did door-to-door sales, I’d see people in their houses and they’d refuse to answer the door. Being ignored is no fun, but people are busy.

I’ve sent my fair share of cold emails and cold direct messages on social media, and 99% of them went unanswered.

There were a few messages that I did respond to, and sent some that got a good response. If cold outreach is part of your marketing plan, I have some advice that could help you.

No matter what, cold outreach requires a lot of refining, and you’ll need to send a lot of messages. Doing these 3 things will increase the chances of your messages being read and responded to.

Be nice

I know there’s a lot of copywriting advice that tells you to focus on the pain points. There’s a time and place for that, but I don’t think that place is in a cold message.

I get messages like this:

“Are you struggling to get clients??” “Do you suck at financial planning?” “Are you tired of failing Facebook ads?” “How’s your business going? Has the pandemic destroyed you yet??”

Hold on. You’re basically saying, “Hi Nick, you suck huh?”

That’s not the type of greeting that I want. Maybe I am struggling to get clients, but we’re not there yet. I have no idea who you are, and you’re already putting me down.

Stop it.

Try being nice. Smile. Get to know me a bit before making your claims that I suck at everything.

It’s true — I’m not great at everything. But I’m not going to ever share that with you until we’ve built some trust.

Your direct message is different than an impersonal ad. I’m definitely more comfortable telling an ad that I’m struggling to get clients than some random guy in my inbox. We’re not there yet.

Instead of a pain point, try giving the person a compliment.

“Hey Nick, I loved your post about xyz the other day!” “Hey, it looks like you’re doing great with …”

I would much rather start off our conversation talking about something I’m doing good at than something I’m failing at.

Keep it short

If you send me a 250-word message, there’s no way I’m going to read it.

That’s not how anyone has a conversation. Imagine walking up to a stranger and saying more than 50 words. They’ll think you’re self-centered and incapable of listening.

No one wants to talk to people like that.

At most, send people two sentences. Two nice sentences. That’s how you open up a conversation. You’ll have plenty of time down the road to get into more details.

Here’s a message I got last month on LinkedIn, from someone I’ve never talked to.

Do you ever feel that you might actually be killing an ad campaign that is profitable? Or worse, you may have raised the budget on less profitable campaigns?

How do you know the difference?

So, I was running a combination of Facebook, Instagram, and Google ads, and was convinced there were multiple touch points in the customer’s journey.

But actually, I was just blindly guessing where sales were coming from.

So I started using ***** and I could instantly see where a customer came from. They arrived on my site from an organic article, came back the next day from a Facebook ad… and finally they converted thanks to one of my Google shopping ads. I didn’t have to guess anymore.

If you’re having the same kind of sales attribution problems, then definitely check out *****. It is a game changer.

No way I’m reading all of that crap.

We just met — listen to my entire life story! No thanks. Save it for a phone call, after you let me introduce myself.

Ask one simple question

So, your two-sentence message can be this simple:

  1. Start by saying something nice.
  2. Ask one simple question.

With a cold message, your first goal is to get people to respond. If you can get an actual conversation started, your chances of them actually listening to you and considering your pitch is much better.

People love talking about themselves. In the above message, it was “I, me, my.” They asked a question at the start, but couldn’t wait for my reply before telling me all about themselves.

You can’t be selfish. I don’t really care about you, and neither does anyone else.

I want you to ask me a question. That’s how normal conversations work. You ask me a question. I answer. Then I might ask you a question, or you ask a follow-up question.

That seems like basic communication, but most people don’t do it when sending messages. Here’s an example:

“Hey Nick, I saw your post about SEO on Wednesday. What type of businesses are you helping?”

You’re being friendly. You’ll learn more about me and my business. And I’ll respond because I can tell you about my favorite topic: me. Everyone loves to talk about themself and what they’re doing.

You need to make your message about the other person, not about yourself.

After I respond you can start telling me about your business and the services you provide. If we’ve never met, I don’t want to hear all about your experiences with Facebook ads.

  • Be nice
  • Be quick
  • Be curious

If you can do those three things, there’s a much better chance of your prospects answering you.

Cold Emails
Social Media Marketing
Social Media
Marketing Strategies
Marketing
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